Bahahahaha!! This cracked me up! Isn’t this how we all feel??? Happy Friday!!
Today I’m taking a little break from my typical “5 on Friday” post. Because over at Kelly’s Korner, everyone’s talking infertility. I’m joining in, because I’m praying someone today feels encouraged by my story.
First of all if you are struggling with infertility right now, just know that if we were meeting face to face…I’d give you a big ‘ole hug right now. I completely mean that! You can even cry on my shoulder! The truth is I might even join you!
Here’s my story….Tab and I had been married about two years when we decided we were ready to start “trying”. After about six months of that, with NOTHING happening I talked to my doctor just to make sure everything looked good. My blood work came back showing that my hormone levels were a little “off”, so she referred me to a reproductive endocrinologist. (Sidenote: It is EXTREMELY important for you to love your doctor. If you are going to someone who isn’t patient and caring with you…find a new doctor. Believe me, I wish I would have done that from the start!!)
(Ridiculous Sidenote: This is the ONLY time Tab has had hair during our 9 year of marriage.)
We started with this reproductive endocrinologist at square one. Lots of testing, lots of sonograms, lots and lots of appointments. After a couple months, he decided we should try Clomid. (I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Probably the least hard-core fertility drug out there. But…it produces lots of multiples. I was certain I was going to get pregnant with at least triplets on this drug. Didn’t happen.) Again, many sonograms and appointments later, nothing. We continued the medicine for a couple months. Then the doctor found a cyst the size of a grapefruit in one ovary. Not what you want to hear! Our options were to get on birth control for a couple months to see if it goes away or have a lapro-scopic surgery to remove the cyst. Let’s think about this….you’re giving a highly hormonal girl two options one involving BIRTH CONTROL when she’s doing everything in the world she can do to get pregnant?? Easy choice for us! So…I had a surgery and then we had to give my body a couple months rest. After the rest, I did shots in my stomach to help produce as many follicles as possible in hopes that this would be our miracle drug! The miracle drug didn’t work.
Needless to say, it was a HARD HARD time for us. It seemed like one thing after the other kept preventing the medicine from working…maybe my body produced too many follicles so the doctor didn’t think it was safe to proceed that month or maybe my husband was traveling THE DAY something HAD to happen. Something was always going wrong. In the middle of all that, it was so hard for me to remember that God was in control. All along He had the perfect timing set up for when we were going to get pregnant. It didn’t matter how much money we spent on medicine or how many appointments I went to…God was in control.
After doing the shots for a month, I had to take the next month off just to give my body time to recover. So…on my next “on” month, I began using the ovulation tests you can buy over-the-counter just to see when I would be ovulating. We were planning our first IUI and the doctor had me scheduled to come in on Saturday morning, August 2nd, 2008, for the procedure. On Friday, August 1st, I woke up and took an ovulation test only to find it was actually positive!! Which meant in the next twelve hours, I would be ovulating. I immediately called my doctor (remember I should have switched) and explained. The nurse politely told me it was no big deal and we’d take care of it at the appointment tomorrow. I was FRANTIC!!! After two more calls BEGGING to come in and one call by my hubby, we finally were told to, “have sex just in case”.
Saturday, August 2nd, bright and early we headed to our appointment for our very first IUI. (I should also add that it just happened to be my birthday!) The doctor did a sonogram to make sure everything looked good and that’s when he saw that I’d already ovulated. Another failed month down in the record books!
Or so we thought…two weeks later I took a pregnancy test just to be sure and I saw the most beautiful words ever, “Pregnant”. We were finally pregnant and all in His time. Apparently two years of “trying” was His perfect timing. 🙂
I learned SO SO much throughout that time in my life. I learned to lean on God more than ever. I learned how to pray without ceasing. I prayed and prayed and prayed for a baby. I learned that sometimes you go through trials, because then in the end God makes it even more sweeter.
On April 9, 2009, we received the biggest blessing…Miss Ebby Lee made her debut into the world. She made us parents for the very first time. And then on April 12, 2010 (you do the math), our handsome Nixon-Man quickly made us parents of two. In 2012, we added another little man, Bowen, to our family.
During this time, I also gained one of the closest friendships I have to this day. Shay and I met through our friend, Whitney. She introduced us because she knew were both dealing with infertility. We leaned on each other, encouraged each other, and prayed for each other. One day she sent me the verse, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17. It was my motto!! haha! Our sorrow seemed to seal the deal on our friendship and I’m so thankful! I love that girl (and her kiddos) and can’t imagine our lives without them in it!
I also read the book, Hannah’s Hope, by Jennifer Saake. That book REALLY helped me! If you are dealing with infertility or you know someone who is, get them this book ASAP!
Just for the record, if I had to do it all over again…I wouldn’t change a thing. God knew what he was doing. 🙂
If you’re dealing with infertility, please e-mail me your name (alittlebitofeverything83@yahoo.com) or leave me a comment, I would LOVE to be praying for you. Just remember God is in control and His timing is perfect.
If you’ve made it this far…thanks for reading!! 😉 Have a GREAT weekend!!
Follow me on Instagram. I’m “slaughteren”.
