Our Son was born on Nov. 29th, 2012. This event happened 5 years after trying to get pregnant. During those 5 years I had 2 miscarriages. The birth of our son brought an immense amount of joy but looking back the years leading up to his birth were hard and filled with a lot of different emotions. Growing up I always wanted to be a mom and never had any indication that it would be a struggle for...
Erin: Lessons learned through multiple rounds of IVF
Gut punch! Receiving the news from my Reproductive Endocrinologist that my best bet for getting pregnant was IVF was devastating to hear. After nine months of clomid or letrozole and zero evidence of ovulation, I wasn’t expecting such drastic measures would be required for success. After trying on our own for six months, we sought a consultation from the RE as my twin sister had difficulty...
Alice: Gaining the gift of empathy
I couldn’t have known. We had been married almost 3 years when we felt it was time to try to have a baby. We were living in a community where waiting that long must have meant something was wrong with us. Despite the questioning and wondering we could sense from so many around us, we knew that none of that mattered. We had an extremely long path of schooling ahead of us, but knew waiting...
Melissa D: Room for both gratitude and grief
What is hard about my experience with miscarriages and infertility is they feel like they sit in this ‘in-between’ zone. They feel ambiguous, and so it’s been hard sometimes to mourn them properly or express the feelings I need to express about them. I’ve had three miscarriages. They all happened between 6 and 10 weeks, the ‘normal’ time frame for a miscarriage. It really isn’t that long to be...
Erica L: Finding joy in miracles
I remember reading an article once about a woman who had recently lost her husband. She implored other women to stop bugging their husbands and children about their messes and annoying habits, because one day, you could yearn to have those messes and signs of life back. The other night after a hectic and stressful dinner time, I remembered that article and I stopped. ...
Sativa: God was aware of my needs
So, this may get long. I have been wanting to write this whole thing out for a very long time, but have never known what I was going to do with it if I did. There may be some that seems “off topic” but for me, its all connected. So, here is my story… I have never been one to remember my dreams, but when I was about 17, I had the same dream twice two consecutive nights that were...
Jessica D: My suffering wasn’t in vain
[This story is told through a series of journal and blog posts] 1/16/2012 I am unsure of how I need to start this post: somehow, I feel I need to write it. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. If not for you, then for myself. For my posterity. For anyone who may need to hear it. Because I guess it deals less with fertility and more with matters of life and faith. In posts past, you may...
Lydia: Worth every needle stick
(Story written in 2014) I know a lot about the baby growing in my belly, but not the gender. I know he (or she) was fertilized on September 7, 2011 at around 8:40am. The embryo was placed in cold storage a few hours later, along with three of its little embryo buddies, where it stayed until November 16, 2013. It was placed inside my ready-and-waiting uterus on November 21, 2013, where I imagine...
Laura: Blessings are sweeter for the wait
Ever since I was little I hoped for a big family someday. I was one of 3 children, which was so much fun. My siblings and I were good friends and we had a great time together. I hoped for at least the same for my own children, but I dreamed of having 6 kids someday. When my husband and I started dating I learned he was one of 5 children. When things were getting more serious for us we started...
Mollie: No longer ashamed
When my husband and I were told that we were not able to have children on our own, there were a flood of emotions that took over. Disappointment, sadness, incompetence, grief, uncertainty. Those are just a few. I remember thinking, “now, what?” I think that when we think of experiencing grief, it is when someone we love dies. At least, that’s how I always thought of it. I didn’t realize that I...
Lynelle: Learning to trust
I found out I was pregnant at the end of June 2019, about four days before we moved to a new house. I was excited but also really nervous about the pregnancy. I was sick the entirety of my first pregnancy and it definitely wasn’t the most fun experience. Everything seemed to be going well and I wasn’t nearly as sick as I was the first time around. So that made me very excited! We went in for our...
Erica: With God all things are possible
We got married a little later in life than expected. Because of this, my husband Byron and I knew we had a shortened time frame for having kids and we decided on 3-4 kids as our ideal number. After our first year of marriage, we decided to start trying. I knew that getting pregnant could take up to a year for some couples so I was prepared for that. I was pleasantly surprised when we got pregnant...
Larkin: A more compassionate and aware person
After my husband & I had been married for 3 years and moved across the country, we decided it was time to have a baby. We tried for a year, with no success. At that point, my OB gave me a few different options to pursue that might increase our chance of pregnancy. I sat in my car after the appointment as my thoughts wandered to some of my dearest friends who were caught up...
Devin: Seeing the big picture of infertility
Hi everyone! I’m Devin. I am one of the unique ones that have dealt with infertility my whole life. As an infant, I was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome. Long story short, I don’t produce eggs for reproduction. Honestly, growing up knowing this and up until I got married… I was pretty okay. It didn’t really affect me yet. I’m guessing because I was not sexually active...
Jill: Honoring my own journey
I babysat my life away as a young teenager and loved every minute of it. While attending high school I became interested in child development and worked in the high school’s in-house daycare everyday after school; eventually becoming the Home Economics Sterling Scholar for my studies in child development classes and my work at the daycare. I was an Elementary Education major in college, and a...
Rachel: Giving up control
There are few decisions I’ve made in my life where I can truly say “This was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” I have a “rare” condition called vaginismus. I say rare in quotations because there are women out there that have my problem but don’t talk about it with their physicians or families because it’s too personal, and therefore...
Randi: Miracles do exist
My story starts at the tender age of 18. I was a newlywed in college working a full time job. 8 months earlier I had been in an accident and suffered a brain injury that caused many side effects, including fainting spells and short term memory amnesia. I was still recovering from those issues when I met and fell in love with my husband. It was a whirlwind romance. We met and got married in 5...
Camber: The unexpected blessings of infertility
Unexplained infertility. Those words followed me around for more than 4 years. After an unsuccessful year of trying to get pregnant we started testing. Normal this. Normal that. Very slightly low thyroid, easily treated with low-dose medication and unlikely to be the cause of our infertility. Month after disappointing month. My infertile friends, one by one, all became pregnant. Women who...