Hi everyone,

I am posting this mainly to provide encouragement to all of you who are struggling and feeling down, because this is SUCH an emotionally (and even physically) draining process! For those of you that do not know my history, my hubby and I have been trying to conceive on our own since we married (honestly, we weren't preventing before then) in June of 2014, and we have been going to our clinic for almost 2 full years now. I had to have a bilateral salpingectomy (both fallopian tubes were swollen and blocked), had one failed stim cycle of six days, where my estrogen flatlined, then had a successful stimulation cycle (but only because they put me on the maximum hormone dosage, so I was taking 6 shots PER DAY for 15 days...ugh!), and then after our egg retrieval, my RE felt very strongly that before embryo transfer, she wanted to take out my left ovary because she found a yucky endometrioma on the left side and didn't want to have to monitor and worry about left ovary during my entire pregnancy. So for those not counting, that is three surgeries, two stim cycles (one and a half, to be fair...) and nearly two years of emotional and financial strain and downright exhaustion. And today, every day of that was worth it a million times over, when we had our first ultrasound at 6 weeks and 1 day, and there was our little peanut (who looks more like a cute little shrimp right now) with a strong little flickering heartbeat on the monitor showing off for mommy and daddy! We are already so in love with our little guy or girl, I truly can understand now what every pregnant woman that I have known has said, that they loved their little ones before they even met them! It is absolutely true! All of this to say, dreams really do come true! For all of you struggling or feeling down, or maybe just a little blue, my advice to you is to just have open, honest conversations with your partner and your doctors, and most importantly, follow your heart! Baby dust to you all, and thank you all so much for the well wishes and positive thoughts, they really do work! I can say from the bottom of my heart that I want nothing more than for each of you to have the feeling I have today!!! XOXO