Bump to Birth: The Back Story

I knew I wanted to blog about our journey with infertility and I wanted to serve as a source of hope for those who continue to struggle with its life altering effects. I wish I had been blogging in the years leading up to the conception and birth of our daughter, but alas, my blog began when she was born and I decided to fill some of my maternity leave with documenting memories for our family and friends. Since then, I've been sharing my thoughts and life events.

Many assumed that because we (finally) were able to conceive our daughter that we'd have no problem trying to get pregnant again. A lot people may still not be aware of all that we went through to conceive our precious gem. We unfortunately, and fortunately, had the same issues and challenges in trying to conceive Baby #2. You can read about our struggle here and my thoughts on various infertility hurdles here.

When we began TTC our next child, we chose a life verse to pray while we waited and throughout the remainder of our child's life. We chose a life verse for our daughter and I was led to another verse to pray for this child. Job 5:9 became my prayer as we eagerly awaited the Lord to fulfill our dreams of adding to our family. Little did we know that this verse would completely encompass everything regarding this baby. I look forward to sharing more about that with you in the days to come.


::via::

We began this second journey knowing that my lack of ovulation, lengthy cycles and skewed hormone levels would once again pose problems. We tried for a bit on our own but in tracking my cycles, it was evident that the issues were still prevalent. I began Metformin to help level things out (no, I don't have diabetes). We were hopeful that it would help achieve enough balance that I could conceive without anything further.

Months went by with no success or cycle regulation. I was put on Clomid to help me ovulate.  After several cycles of no success (and did I mention I had already lost about 20lbs to help move things along?) we were told we had one more round and, if not successful,  we'd have to try a more invasive approach. My hubby and I had long prayed about what we should do and we felt that adoption would be our next step.  We weren't comfortable with any further treatments, nor could we afford most of them since all things infertility are not covered by insurance.

October was a crazy month.  We had a lot riding on this round of meds. Of course, on the day I got my positive ovulation test I also came down with a random YI. I just knew we were out. My pH levels were out of whack and his swimmers didn't stand a chance. There was also no clear thermal shift on my chart to indicate ovulation had even occurred. I allowed myself to be sad and then moved on.

I had been feeling off and slightly nauseous the week of October 27th. I knew we were out but I had a couple of cheap test strips and thought I'd use one for kicks. On the 30th I tested and there was a VERY faint line. It was so faint that I thought I was probably just seeing things. The next day I woke up hopeful for some reason and picked up a pregnancy test on my way to work. When I got there I tested.  I could not believe my eyes! Science would say this was a very unlikely situation...but my God is bigger than any of this and He made it possible.

So, it is with great joy that I say we are currently expecting our newest miracle in July and I'll be using my Bump to Birth posts to document the milestones and memories of this pregnancy. With that being said, if you are dealing with infertility and such updates are difficult for you (because I totally understand that exact thing) please feel free to bypass posts under this heading.

I'll soon be catching up on our progress thus far. Until then, I leave you with this thought...

::via::

Linking Up