I cannot believe I am finally writing this post. We are pregnant! Thank you to everyone who has given me advice and prayed for us over the past year. I appreciate it more than you know. Baby Griffin is due July 18, 2020 and we are overwhelmed with gratefulness. I am currently 13 weeks which means I am in my second trimester. I’ll do separate post soon about my first trimester experience. I’m sharing our story from the beginning and getting pretty personal! Our story certainly took longer than I had ever thought it would and I want to share for anyone who may be trying to conceive or may be in the future.
Our journey began in September 2018 when I went to my doctor to discuss beginning to try to conceive. We had been married over 2 years and I was 29 years old at the time and we felt ready. I started taking prenatal vitamins and after our trip to Antigua in November 2018 I quit taking birth control. I was one of the “lucky” ones who got their period right away and everything seemed normal. I began using an digital Ovulation Predictor Kit from ClearBlue to track my fertile periods. I even bought a onesie from ETSY pictured above because I just “had a feeling” we would be pregnant soon and wanted to give it to my husband when we found out. Fast forward to February 2019 and my period was late. I was so excited because I thought I was possibly pregnant. I took pregnancy tests and all were negative. I was two weeks late at this point and my doctor prescribed me Provera to start my period again. I was disappointed but it had only been 3.5 months so I took it with a grain of salt and moved on.
The months went on. Everything pretty much stayed regular each month. Every cycle I confirmed ovulation during my fertile period and like clockwork my period came right on time at the end of the cycle. There were days I felt very discouraged. Especially when it felt like everyone else was getting pregnant without even trying or not trying very long at all. Statistical research shows that half of couples under the age of 35 will conceive within 6 months of trying to get pregnant. It was around this point when I was pregnant that I started to worry. At 8 months in I made an appointment with my OB. She highlighted how healthy both my husband and I were and said sometimes it just takes longer unfortunately. We talked over everything and she felt confident I would conceive within the next three cycles. Spoiler alert: I unfortunately did not concieve in the next three cycles.
I turned 30 in August and after another cycle of trying and not getting pregnant I made an appointment with a Reproductive Endocrinologist for October since they are notoriously hard to get into. I secretly hoped I would be able to get pregnant before then and cancel the appointment. Unfortunately, another cycle came and went without being pregnant. Our last Hail Mary attempt before seeing the Reproductive Endocrinologist had me hopeful. It was month 11 of trying and my period was late! I took a test and it was negative but thought maybe it was too soon to tell. We went to Fayetteville for my sister in law’s baby shower feeling hopeful. I got my period in the middle of the shower two days before our RE appointment. I cried the whole drive home. I felt so broken and felt like I had been praying the same prayer to God for a year. I was losing hope and thinking my lifelong dream of being a mom would never come true at this point. The one thing God created my body to do it was not doing.
We went to our first RE appointment and honestly I was angry. Angry that this was our reality. Angry we were having to pay to try to conceive a child of our own. Angry for every other woman in this same situation. Angry in general. The silver lining was that I was on Cycle Day 3 of cycle which meant it was perfectly timed for me to have pertinent testing done that day. (God truly had a hand in this by making my period late) We spoke about our history of trying to conceive with the doctor and then they drew blood from me to test my Follicle Stimulating Hormone and Estradiol levels. They called two days later to say both were perfectly healthy. We were asked to come in the next week for a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG for short). They take you into the radiology room and shoot dye through your Fallopian tubes and watch on a monitor to see whether they are blocked or not. This process is pretty painful for the few minutes they are doing it. I was one of the lucky ones that only bled afterward and did not cramp. If you have to have this test done I suggest bringing your husband to drive you in case you do not feel well after. My tubes were completely clear which was great but that just meant it was one more thing that we could not “easily fix” in order to become pregnant.
We came back the week after ovulation to have more levels tested plus my husband tested as well. They tested my Progesterone levels and they were above average. My husband’s results came back far above average as well. This means our diagnosis was unexplained infertility. This means that there is something wrong with either or both of you that is not one of the main things they usually test for. I had a feeling from the beginning this would be our diagnosis. I was disappointed because this meant there was no clearcut answer to “fixing” anything in order to get pregnant. By the time we got the entire testing process finished and got results back we were coming up on a year of trying. Our next step with our RE would be an IUI (Intrauterine Insemination). Since the holidays were nearing we decided to wait until January to move forward because we felt like it would be to stressful to be doing an IUI during that time period.
I really was not too hopeful about conceiving on our own but I kept tracking my cycles and using my OPKs. My period was due November 11 and it did not come but I tried not to get excited. I had just been through this exact same thing last month. As the week went on my breasts hurt extremely bad like I cannot even describe the pain. My husband and I agreed if I did not get my period my Sunday I would take a test. Taking pregnancy tests and seeing negatives just puts me in such a bad place that during this process I only took tests two other cycles other than the one I got my positive on. I woke up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night way before my alarm but felt so rested. If you know me then you know I am NOT a morning person and I love my sleep. Very strange for this to happen consecutive days for no reason. November 16th I woke up early around 6 am and my husband was out of town hunting. my parents were on their way in to help me put up all my Christmas decor. I just had this feeling I needed to take a test right away. I took a First Response test and it came up blazing positive right away. I was shaking and ran and jumped back in bed with my dogs to call my husband. I had always envisioned telling him in a super cute way (remember the onesie I bought a year ago?) but instead I blurted it out to him on the phone 7 am on a Saturday while he was in the deer stand.
I was in shock. I could not believe I finally had seen a positive pregnancy test after almost exactly a year of trying. We got to both tell our parents in person which was so special. We had our first ultrasound in December and got to see the baby and heartbeat plus got the due date! We did the Sneak Peak clinical blood test for gender and found out on Christmas Eve we are having a baby boy! We will be naming him Turner David Griffin. I am a huge Braves fan which is why we went with Turner after Turner Field where they used to play before the new stadium. I have had the name picked out since High School and I am very glad my husband agreed. (My dog is named Maddux after Greg Maddux the hall of fame pitcher for the Braves) David is also my husbands middle name and his grandpa’s first name. My husband Tyler and Turner will have the exact same initials which I think is so special!
Overall, we are just feeling so incredibly blessed to have been able to conceive naturally even if it took longer than a lot of other couples. My biggest advice to anyone going through this process currently is to be constant in Prayer and find someone you can vent to and get advice from that understands. I was so blessed to have an incredibly supportive husband, my mom who experienced secondary infertility, and girlfriends who have had their own infertility struggles. I would also like to recommend a book I read that I really think helped me spiritually which was: When God Says Wait by Elizabeth Laing Thompson. Click here for book I want to also say that we completely realize how blessed we are for this to only have taken a year. Many couples take years and some never are able to conceive naturally. We have so thankful every single day for this miracle we have been given and will not soon forget the struggles and tears and waiting it took for our story to get us to this point. Overall, I know God’s timing is perfect but when you are in the midst of the process it it is really hard to understand that. Please know that if you are still struggling to conceive you are on my heart and I am praying God answers with a miracle for you soon! Special thanks to every single person who has messaged me with positive encouragement, let me vent, or prayed for me. I will be forever grateful for your kindness!
Love,
Megan
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