National Infertility Awareness Week: My journey

This week I wrote my infertility story for a brand. They asked me to write my journey down in 500 words or less. If you are new around here is my story in a nutshell...

"I struggled with secondary infertility for two years. Secondary infertility is uncommon because you have already been able to conceive a child without fertility treatment. My husband and I got pregnant on our first try with our daughter (now 6). We had no idea that we would be diagnosed with unexplained secondary infertility years later. I'll never know if my first born was a miracle (I mean all babies are) or if something happened in my body after giving birth to her that changed it. 

Me and my first born, Blair.

Secondary Infertility is hard for many reasons but one being that people assume since you had one kid you can easily have more. They make insensitive comments and ask when you're going to have more. I finally got to the point where my response would be, "Well, we have been trying for a couple years now....". And that would shut them up real quick. The other thing that makes S.I. hard is that you can't escape being surrounded by other moms , babies, and pregnant women. Since I already had a child I was stuck going to everyone's baby showers and stood by as I watched friends get pregnant with number two and number three. It was rough. 

progesterone shots given by my best friend

After a few miscarriages and every treatment under the sun; Clomid, Letrozole, IUI, and acupuncture, we went for IVF. There are so many ways to go through IVF and after much prayer we decided against genetic testing and only attempted to fertilize 5 eggs. I'll never forget the day the doctor called and said, "Only two of your eggs fertilized and are growing at a normal rate. Since you didn't do genetic testing the chances of both of them making it is slim." I sobbed. And sobbed. Finally the Lord gently reminded me that I only asked for ONE healthy baby and He had given me TWO. At that point I decided to trust Him and His plan and to be fearless. 

egg retrieval

Well those babies grew and they grew. We passed every week with a sigh of relief (my first born was premature) and cried when we saw/heard their heartbeats. We were told that we were having twin boys and then weeks later were told that they had made a mistake and it was a boy and a GIRL! My daughter at the time had been praying for God to change one into a girl (even though I told her this was not likely)...boy were her prayers answered! We had a few hiccups along the way; my son had a cyst on his brain that the doctors said was pretty normal (but STILL) and I had to put it in the Lord's hands. I had some preeclampsia too but I always went back to what I knew to be true: The Lord was in control. He is good, He cares for me, He created these babies, He knows what is best, He is trustworthy, and He LOVES me. 

our pregnancy announcement with twins

I tell my story to encourage others going through infertility. There are SO many emotions that come with it but I want to try and give people HOPE. Having hope changes everything."

I get a lot of people asking me detailed questions about my experience with IVF. I'm happy to answer questions but "mom brain" does get the best of me so if you want more answers click the "infertility" tag. Most of my IVF posts are from November and December 2015.