Our Wonderful Surprise

After two rounds of IVF, a ton of debt and a devastating miscarriage, Jeff and I were needing a bit of a break from all of the fertility issues. We decided that we would revisit the idea of using the remaining 2 frozen embryos in January. When the new year started, I could not imagine having to go through all of it again. The shots, the drugs, the headaches, the tears and the strong possibility of failure were a bit too much for me to take on. We talked about it and decided that we would wait until June. It would give me a little more time to heal from the miscarriage and prepare for the next round. This was a huge relief for me. While I knew that time was not on my side, I was not going to rush back in to another heart-wrenching outcome.

We decided to take a mini-vacay to Austin on the first weekend of February. A friend was getting married and we thought it would be fun to attend the wedding and spend a fun weekend at a hotel in downtown Austin. We had a wonderful time. It was a much-needed break for us.

While there we were given some advice on how to get pregnant - other than the "having sex" part. Receiving advice like this is actually fun for me. I enjoy getting other people's perspective and their tips - no matter how silly they may seem. The two pieces of advice were: 1)Go to Maui - hmmm, not sure I can afford Maui and IVF - so, this one will be have to be decided with a coin toss. 2) Have Jeff walk through a very cold, deep creek and then have sex. - I was not opposed to this at all. It was February, lots of cold water around, but he wanted no part of that. oh well.

A few weeks after we got home, I realized I was "late"...sort of. After the miscarriage, my cycle went from 28 days to 26 days...so, technically I was at 28 days without my monthly visitor. I figured I was getting back to normal but that obsessive test-taker in me started nagging at me. I looked through my cabinet and had no pregnancy tests. I took that as a sign to let it go and save myself the let-down. I went on with my day. Later that day, I was in a different cabinet looking for some lotion and noticed in the back of that cabinet was a pregnancy test. Not sure when I put it there, but it was one of the "pricey" ones and not my dollar store go-to brand. So, I took that as another sign and quickly went to the bathroom.

I learned a long time ago not to watch the sticks do their thing. I walk off and come back several minutes later. When I came back, I fully expected my pricey pregnancy test to say "Not Pregnant" but it did not say that. I stared at it...blinked my eyes a few times, shook it up a little bit and stared at it more. "PREGNANT" was staring back at me.

I was pregnant.
HOLY COW
PREGNANT!!!!
Without drugs, shots, headaches, tears, debt, Maui, a cold creek....

What an amazing gift from God!

My next step was to show Jeff the test. He responded to it with:
 "How did you get it to do that?"

Thrilled does not even begin to explain this feeling! What a miracle.