The Origin of the Lucky Underwear

I received a few e-mail questions about my "lucky underwear" yesterday, so I figured an explanation would be in order! I'm not a superstitious person - just silly!


I am something of a college basketball fan - I have interest in the overall system, but am most interested in our local college team. We're in the Big XII conference (although not anywhere near the top), so games are pretty well-attended. I had season tickets for a few years - I haven't gone the last two years due to IVF/FET stuff, but made almost every game before that. They often have a competition during a time-out in the second half where two teams of two do what's called the "Build-A-Burger Race." Each member of the team will dress up in a hamburger bun costume. The first person goes and gets the "hamburger patty," then lies down on the floor with it on top of them. The second person then goes and does a relay back and forth to retrieve the plastic lettuce, tomato, bacon, and cheese or something, placing each on top of their partner. After they bring back the last item, they flop down on top of the burger they've just created (including their partner down on the floor) - first team to accomplish this wins. They usually have students participate in this while class is in session, but they let the crowd submit their names for it over Christmas break. Since I'm a huge nerd, I decided to submit my name... and my partner and I got called. And we won, which is cool, since I am fairly (read: "incredibly") competitive. What was the prize, you ask? No prize other than the satisfaction of a race well-run, and the lifelong knowledge that I'd embarrased myself in front of between 5,000 and 10,000 people.

Well, I decided arbitrarily that day that our victorious burger-building was due to the underwear I was wearing that day, and that they would hold a special place of honor. (I'm guessing I chose the underwear out of all of the items I was wearing because I have a ton of underwear. Like, ridiculous numbers.) Hence, the "lucky underwear." It was almost entirely a joke, but it seemed like a fun one between my husband and I.

I then actually kind of started integrating them into special days, for some reason. I wore them during the egg retrieval, and we ended up getting 31 eggs (I overstimulated and had to freeze the embryos, but in theory that means that they worked too well). I wore them when we had Maddie's embryo transfer, and it was successful - as were her ultrasounds to which I wore them. Same thing with Baby Jota's transfer, the cerclage (knock on wood), and the ultrasound yesterday. Now I guess my question is... if it isn't broken, why fix it? :)