After trying for nearly a decade—we got pregnant! Naturally. Somehow!
If this is the first time you’re reading about our infertility journey, I recommend you start at this 2018 blog post! You can find all my infertility-related blog posts here or browse my Infertility Instagram Story Highlights here, my IVF Instagram Story Highlights, my IVF Abroad Instagram Story Highlights, and my blog post: Pros and Cons to a Procreation Vacation (IVF Abroad).
Soooo… Mike and I are pregnant.
🤯🤰🏻
Naturally.
Somehow.
After nearly a decade trying to conceive, with an Unexplained Infertility diagnosis, three failed IUI procedures, one failed IVF procedure, one failed adoption, one endometriosis surgery, and countless other failed efforts to get pregnant, we are somehow pregnant.
After truly coming to terms with the fact that we would likely never have human kids of our own (we have our fur kids of course), after getting to a place where we felt we could truly be happy without kids, we are somehow pregnant.
My period was late but it’s been late before. I prefaced telling Mike with, “I’ll probably get my period as soon as take a pregnancy test” (because that has happened to us numerous times before). But unlike so many times before, the two lines crossed on the screen. Pregnant. It was a 99.9% accurate test. But we were in shock and disbelief (we still are).
Statistically it takes most couples less than a year to conceive naturally. It took us almost 10 years. We didn’t think we could ever conceive naturally. We truly don’t know how this happened.
But here we are. Here we go.
Mike gets to be a dad. I get to be a mom. Our kid will get to grow up with our fur kids, Thor Loki, Olive and Artie, after all (with just a bit of an age gap lol).
The last blog update I shared about our infertility said we had truly come to terms with kids not being in our lives and that we were truly fine—happy even—with that conclusion, and if our frozen embryo IVF in Barbados didn’t work this fall, we would be okay. We meant it.
But this miracle baby (I’m self-describing it as such lol) is coming Spring 2023.
And we are so excited and so hopeful.
We are also wondering what it will mean to raise a child in a world facing regular climate crises, misinformation wars, economic collapse, a rise in hateful racists, and mass extinction. Not to be a bummer—these are all realities that need to be considered when you’re thinking about the future, and a future with a child.
But we are hopeful. Mike even said, maybe our kid will help solve some of these world issues. (We’ve already started imagining what this child will do, or be, lol but no pressure, if you’re reading this one day, kid).
Coming soon: Babymoon in Barbados
Mike and I already had our Barbados flights booked for our next (and what would have been last) IVF procedure for later this year, and we’ve decided we will still go!
It will be a nice little pre-baby vacation / babymoon (though I am resolved to still travel with baby once baby arrives lol).
Mike actually thinks the failed IVF procedure did something (cleared something up?) to help us conceive naturally—or at least was able to show my body, oh look you can (briefly) carry an embryo. I have since found studies that show our “miracle” isn’t as uncommon as you’d think—as many couples do report conceiving naturally after a failed IVF procedure as well (we’re just not sure why).
To support the “miracle” angle, I will share that truly—I think we only had sex once the month we conceived. Mike now jokes it only took him one time—over nearly a decade lol.
In past blog posts I’ve shared how conceiving a baby naturally seems impossible because once you get into your infertility journey and start doing different body tracking and medical interventions, it’s just wild how short the window is, and how specific so many things have to be, for all the baby pieces to actually come together to conceive, and I still believe it’s incredible (a miracle, truly) that anyone gets pregnant at all.
So for that to happen to us after all of this time, is really shocking for us.
But we are thrilled. Our families and friends are thrilled. It’s a very exciting time.
Thanks for following along…
If you’ve been following our pregnancy journey over these many years, if you’ve sent kind words, if your heart broke with ours over and over as we tried but failed so many times, if you shared our story to help comfort those in your life dealing with infertility, or to educate those in your life about infertility—I’ve said it before but I want to say it again, thank you for your kindness, thank you for keeping us in your thoughts, thank you for helping spread awareness about and eliminate stigma around infertility.
If you are dealing with infertility yourself, I understand this news may not make you feel good.
I know news of others’ pregnancies generally never made us feel very good over the years we tried to conceive. We get it. Truly, we get it. I am encouraging people to mute or unfollow me if pregnancy posts are too much, I’ve certainly done it.
As I have said from the start and still wish so deeply, I hope anyone who wants to have a kid can have a kid. I hope it happens for you, I hope it happens for them.
I honestly cannot believe it’s happening for us.
I don’t know if our pregnancy will be an easy one—when the path to it was so difficult.
(So far, it’s been pretty smooth—fingers crossed it stays that way).
But we are so curious, excited, hopeful for the days ahead.
And we are so looking forward to this next chapter! Finally.
If you’d like to read more about our infertility journey, I’ve blogged it throughout the years:
Until the next update!
10 Comments
I’m so happy for you! I started following your journey at BFC because we were there at the same time. My ivf failed as well and a couple months later I got naturally pregnant too! I’m still in shock as well as we had been trying for 5 years.
I am over the moon for this update! Your story resonates with me as our journey was long and with so much heartache too. So excited to follow along. Congratulations and enjoy the journey.
It truly is a miracle baby! Couldn’t be more thrilled and happy for you two! Maybe all that Arby’s? Ha ha
Unbelievably happy for you and Mike! Congrats! Enjoy the wild ride of parenthood 😊. And enjoy the Barbados vacation.
Life is full of twists and turns! And this news is the most beautiful twist in your story. Congratulations times a million Linda and Mike! As you may know, it also took a decade for us to conceive. We were in a state of happy shock for a very long time. So happy it’s happened for you too! 🤍
I’ve been following your journey since you first shared about your struggles and can honestly say I am OVERJOYED for you. I am so happy that this has happened for you and I know you wanted it so much. What happy news! I am so excited for you and hope that you continue to feel well throughout your pregnancy and into your parenting journey. Sending you all the good vibes. CHEERS!
I’m so incredibly happy for you!!!! What wonderful news!!! I wish you a smooth, uneventful and amazing pregnancy.
I’m so effing happy for you! Today I was like “hmm I wonder how their infertility journey is going?” And am so thrilled! Pregnancy and parenthood is hard, so why shouldn’t fertility be hard too? You guys are awesome. Sending much love
I am happy for you guys. Me and my Husband Frank tried for years too. We almost gave up on it. But a miracle happened for us too.
For several years my husband and I tried to get pregnant. He and I went to see doctors to get checked out several times. I have eaten right and exercised most of my life and just found it heartbreaking when the doctor discovered that I had Ovarian CYSTS on my UTERUS and other infertility issues. I had the cysts removed but that did not start our success right away. A friend of mine told me about something she did, contacting a spell caster, Dr Ozigidon. Once, I tried her steps by contacting this same man via his email [drozigidonhenz. spell. net @ gmail. com] and with his spiritual prayers and powerful spells my husband and I had success, I became pregnant and finally gave birth to a wonderful baby boy . Dr Ozigidon did it all for us. Contact him now to put an end to your years of infertility. I pray everyone gets the opportunity to have their dreams come true of becoming a mother, because it is a wonderful experience and a love like no other holding your bundle of joy!