TTC

TTC Timeline:

Feb 2011 - Got married (I was 29, husband 27)
January 2012 - our sweet little girl arrived!
September 2013 - began TTC
December 2014 - diagnosted with unexplained secondary infertility
Febraruy 2015 - IUI #1 BFN
March 2015 - IUI #2 BFN
April 2015 - IUI #3 BFP resulted in early loss
July 2015 - IUI #4 BFN
August 2015 - IUI #5 BFN
September 2015 - IUI #6 BFN
October 2015 - no treatments, weren't even in the same state when I usually ovulate - BFP!!!

More details:

I got pregnant after two months of TTC, three months after we got married.  I had a joyful, problem-free pregnancy, commencing in a long day of labor that resulted in an emergency C-section on January 20, 2012.  I couldn't have cared any less about what type of delivery I had because, in the end, I got to hold the most perfect little girl in the world.  That was the best day of my life.

The Lord used my daughter to change me in some pretty amazing ways.  You can read more about my testimony here.

In September 2013, we decided to try for precious baby #2.  When it hadn't happened by Christmas that year, I was starting to get upset that it wasn't happening as quickly as the first time.  By the end of April 2014, I was in a pretty big funk.  I was losing hope and I was losing joy.  And people were starting to notice.  I couldn't shake my fear and disappointment and confusion and sadness.  I tried harder. I prayed more, but nothing was "working".

A couple of my friends had done a Daniel Fast in March and had some pretty amazing breakthroughs, so I prayed about it and felt the Lord move me to do a 21 day fast.  During that fast, I found my hope and my joy again and haven't looked back.  I heard His voice tell me that it will be a while before I get pregnant again, so just enjoy your little family of three.  So I did!

We took a few months off from actively TTC.  It was nice to not be thinking about it so much.  In September 2014, the one year mark, we discussed seeking some help and decided that I would see my OB/GYN in October (my annual), but not start any treatment (if recommended) until after the holidays.  We would continue actively TTC on our own.  My OB ended up ordering a few basic tests.  All came back normal, so he referred us to a specialist.

I saw the Specialist in January 2015 and he ordered a few more tests which all came back normal and he diagnosed us with unexplained secondary infertility.  Unexplained Infertility makes up for something like 20% of couples TTC.  Unexplained secondary infertility is actually pretty rare.  He said that we have a 5-6% chance of conceiving on our own and a 10-12% chance of conceiving via IUI.  I'll admit that, for a few hours, these statistics stung.  I shed a few tears.  Then, the Holy Spirit reminded me that with God, the only statistic is 100%.

My insurance covers unlimited IUIs, so we decided that we would go ahead and pursue that option. We did three consecutive IUIs, in February, March, and April of 2015.  I got pregnant with the 3rd IUI which was a chemical pregnancy.  Since I was getting negative pregnancy tests after my period was due, I knew that either something strange was going on with my cycle or that I was having a slow progressing pregnancy (not viable), so even when I found out that I was actually pregnant, I knew something was probably wrong.  BUT I was still rejoicing.  And I'm not just saying that.  I did grieve a bit for what almost was, but I was mostly so relieved and excited that I had finally gotten pregnant!  Thank you JESUS!

After that, we had three more unsuccessful IUIs. After that, my doctor had some theories on what might be wrong. You can read about that here.

THEN, we had a little surprise which you can read about here!