The President-Elect probably hadn't left Grant Park before the first slang terms started popping up in the Urban Dictionary. Even the Huffington Post grasped onto a concept that came into play that night--the baby boom predicted for August 2009--Obama Babies.

Of course, you can't actually conceive without ovulation regardless of how much sex you have post-election coverage, but social scientists have often charted baby booms nine months after major events.

In addition to the celebratory posts about parents sharing the election with their children and the Twitterati gleefully announcing their plans to create an Obama Baby came a few softer voices in the blogosphere without children who asked the question: where do we place our joy?

Pamela Jeanne at Coming2Terms stated: "While intellectually I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments, those expressions also chafe some. It's one thing to know deep down that infertility robs us of many life defining experiences, it's another to be reminded (repeatedly) that a whole host of experiences will never get passed along."

There's a Baby at the End of This, Right? used the election to mark the passing of time: "We started trying to have a baby after the 2004 election, because what's better to take your mind off repeat failure than making a baby? You've seen how well that went on both accounts. I think my body didn't want to make a baby until things changed."

Life from Here marked the occasion by relating it to her own path to parenthood:

You may think I’m referring to the new era I hope will be ushered in with a new president — one who is intelligent and embraces critical thinking, who listens and makes well reasoned decisions, who displays grace under pressure, and inspires new hope for a better future. And I am. But I am also referring to the end of another era — our struggle to conceive — and the new hope of parenthood through adoption.

Big change has a way of becoming a wave, swelling over everyone and making them either change their lives in drastic ways as well or mourn the stagnation occurring in areas of their life. While E.A. Hanks mentions in her article that the Decemberists "called out to the audience 'How many babies were made last night!? There are going to be some Obama Babies! Who knows, you might even have one in you right now!'" it can be extremely painful to know that you stand outside that possibility.

Beyond the less realistic option of having a baby on demand in this economy (an Obama boom to match the Routan Boom?) is the constant reminders of people sharing the election excitement with their children. Prior to election night, an Obama baby was simply a toddler displaying his parent's voting record via YouTube videos. Very real parents were sharing this very exciting moment with very real children while infertile men and women lacked this receptacle to place all of the knowledge, emotions, and history that swelled up around them.

And while this may not receive the titillating coverage of an Obama Baby, I urge you not to allow the thoughts of these women and men to get misplaced amongst the cute Urbanisms. It's not just about the future generations, but about the right-here-right-now generation. It's not just about teaching children or sharing this moment with toddlers, but sharing it with one another as adults.

It's also about getting the Decemberists a quick lesson in conception and how long it takes for fertilization and implantation to occur.

Melissa is the author of the infertility and pregnancy loss blog, Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters. She keeps a categorized blogroll of more than 1500 infertility blogs and writes the daily Lost and Found and Connections Abound, a news source for the infertility blogosphere. Her infertility book, Navigating the Land of If, is forthcoming from Seal Press in Spring 2009. She is also an editor at Bridges, the awareness consortium, and the keeper of the IComLeavWe list (International Comment Leaving Week) which is currently open for the month of November. Join along--don't you love comments?