Of plans and pigs, part 1

After Saturday’s negative, Mr. Warrior and I talked about what we would do next. We decided that he would look into doing a sperm analysis. Chances are there are no major issues with his sperm in terms of his number and motility or else they wouldn’t have let us go ahead with the IUI, but we might as well do all the testing since we may decide to do IVF next and we’ll need SA results before trying that. In the meantime, I can focus on my finishing up my experiments. When I was trying to get pregnant before and during this Clomid cycle last month, I know I made decisions to do certain experiments and not others because of the exposure to chemicals, etc. I actually don’t work with anything lethal or even extremely toxic, but for my piece of mind I just put off certain experiments. I want to know that I did everything possible to give my body the best chance of success. Unfortunately, one effect of doing work that way is that it is likely delaying my graduation. So, if we take a break for a couple of months, then at least I can really put in a huge effort to finish my experiments. It felt good to have a plan (doesn’t it always?) even though it meant waiting. But, at least it wasn’t the open kind of waiting the 2ww tend to be and I would know whatever signals my body was giving me, they are not of the pregnancy kind.

Later that day, we went to the zoo. It was great to be outside and I love, love the zoo. We always have an annual pass and we hadn’t been using it very often the last couple of years. Even all the families with their babies and toddlers of all sizes and the pregnant women were bearable. There were quite a few baby animals around the zoo and it seems each time I go to the zoo, I see something different. The best time we had on this trip was watching the warty pigs. It was just after dusk so the light was starting to go pretty fast. As we were walking past the warty pig exhibit, a piglet darted across the enclosure. The rest of the piglets (there were 4 total) were busy eating their dinner. It caught our attention because it was scooting so fast and yet so soundlessly. So, we stopped to watch. Piglet 1 started wrestling with piglet 2. They were bumping heads and just looked like they were goofing off and having a good ole time. Meanwhile, Mama pig was trying to eat her dinner and ignored them. Piglet 2 (or maybe it was 1, who could tell anymore?) decided the best thing to do was to hide under mom. But, Mama just kept moving away from them in an annoyed kind of way. All this playing around underneath mom seemed to remind the piglets of nursing and so they attempted to nurse. Now, Mama was really annoyed! She would have none of it and tried to shake them off. Now, these piglets were about half the size of mom so it seemed like Mama was ready for them to be weaned and may have even already started. All this commotion, though, caught the attention of piglet 3 and soon there were 3 piglets trying to nurse and one frustrated Mama pig. The last (and perhaps not the brightest?) piglet soon realized what the other 3 were up to and soon all the piglets were trying to nurse with Mama becoming increasingly aggravated.

Now, all these shenanigans were happening in relative silence up to this point and I guess just like all mothers who become exasperated with their kids, Mama started yelling (squealing) at her kids. Still, they would not give up and the ganging up on mom seemed to start to wear her down. But, Mama had one more trick up her sleeve. She started heading toward the front of the enclosure, close to where we were standing. There is a curved drop right before the wall, so they weren’t visible once they got to the wall. Every once in awhile, we would hear a squeal and one of the piglets would fly back up to the main enclosure. Soon, everything got a quiet, again. I started looking around and noticed all four piglets to the right side of the wall. On the bottom of the enclosure there was a long pool of water, kind of like the water that collects near the curb on the street near the gutter. They were all happily drinking from this water. Mama, it seems, finally got through to them that if they were thirsty, there were other, more acceptable sources of refreshment for them to have.

As we were leaving, Mr. Warrior noticed a large figure in the back of the enclosure. As we peered closer, we realized this large pig was sitting there all along. Papa pig, apparently, didn’t feel any need to interfere or help and kept quiet during the weaning lesson.

As we left the warty pigs, we couldn’t help but wonder how many times the piglets and Mama pig have gone through the shenanigans we saw and how many more Mama would have to endure before the piglets get the idea that Mama’s shop is closed for business.

The zoo was sure a fun excursion and distraction. I’ll have to remember that the next time I need a pick me up.