Don't fret if you're not part of the adoption/loss/infertility community because this year, our annual list has been expanded to include everyone in the blogosphere.

A woman named Lynsee just gave birth online and I didn't watch. Perhaps it is a testament to how greatly I'm affected by the stories of loss I've read, but knowing what can go wrong in birth, I didn't want to witness a live-feed of emotional anguish. Also a testament to how greatly influenced I am by my own story and those of others in the community, knowing what can go right in birth, I didn't want to witness their enormous joy knowing how out-of-reach it is for 7.3 million Americans.

The convergence of H1N1 and the upcoming movie, 2012, has brought out the eternal debate--how will life on earth end as we know it? Will it be a virus or massive flu that spreads through the population, leaving behind only a small subsection of those with immunity (because aren't there always some people with immunity--usually highly attractive people with great make-up or biceps--when these things play out in the movies)?

Every Friday for the last three and a half years, I've written a weekly roundup of the posts that stick with me after I click off the blog. I read a lot of blogs and I noticed a few months into blogging that I was finding posts that were comment-less and I was unsure if others had seen the same post and simply clicked away without commenting or if I had the sole knowledge of the post's greatness. So I started the roundup so others could see what I had noticed and hopefully, we could have more discussion on those posts.

This was a hard post to write, and I walk a fine line of trying not to offend while needing perhaps to offend in order to make my point. Hopefully you will understand that my point is not to forgo what is already being done, but instead to add. To not be satisfied on this plateau, but to step up to the next one.

Getting beyond the fact that I usually start twitching when someone sends me something from the New York Times, all the more violently when the byline comes from Stephanie Saul who insists that it's a good idea to use the wrong terminology when discussing fertility treatments, I couldn't help but read the series of articles about multiple births and fertility treatments.

To see ourselves like those who love us do: Some of us achieve this, and some of us struggle. Sometimes it's our physical appearance that doesn't stack up, we believe, to being lovable. And sometimes it's a perceived failure deeper within. In her post "You're So Pretty" Ivana Kidd of The Phantom Line confronts her struggle in the midst of grief painted twice--the death of her mother and a miscarriage.

I have been uncharacteristically quiet about the Anita Tedaldi's story. Josh sent me the article a few days ago and I got almost to the bottom before closing it and saying, "I can't touch this one." Which wasn't the case with the Savages' wrong embryo transfer or the Alex Kuczynski surrogacy article.

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley recently adopted a daughter from Korea, a 10-month-old girl who they named Naleigh.

AlphaMom recently had a question on the Advice Smackdown about giving pregnancy announcements to those who are infertile or have lost a child. Amalah's response is sound and circumspect, explaining how to give information while keeping in mind the listener. It's advice that could apply to a whole host of situations.

If you were a Martian who landed on earth lately and you read the mainstream media, and even to a large degree the blogosphere, you might think that here on earth all women who blog are all "mommy bloggers." Martian-you might also come to believe that mommy bloggers are unethical blots on humanity.

This week has been on my calendar for five years. It seems fitting that the convergence of so many number 9s should also bring with it the merging of the twins' actual age and their adjusted age. Prematurity brings with it not only a whole host of issues--both physical for the child and emotional for the parents--but it brings about two ways of examining age. Neonatologists and pediatricians use both the actual age (the date of birth) and the adjusted age (how old they would be if they had been born near their due date) to examine milestones and chart growth.