Our backstory…

As you can see on my home page, I have been on this TTC (trying to conceive) journey for quite some time. My husband & I got married June 11, 2016 & I was ready pretty much right away to start our family. Stephen, my husband, was NOT. As he put it: “With our luck, we’d get pregnant right away.” HA! I remind him of the irony of this statement with our perspective now often. At the time, we were in a very, very small 3rd floor apartment with no elevator. So, he wasn’t wrong. I had been on birth control for about 10 years, & decided to get off it the year after we got married & started taking Prenatal vitamins at the same time. This was what my amazing OBGYN at the time recommended.

2017 threw us for a loop. We bought a house unexpectedly in May. We closed (months late for a myriad of reasons) on my birthday. It felt…monumental. And scary. And wonderful. I tore my ACL that June in a ballet class at the studio where I grew up. I was tasked with packing our third floor apartment & torn ACL all by myself. We lost my husband’s beloved father in July, & moved in to said house the day after. It. Was. A. Lot. Of. Shit.

A total ACL recon at 27 isn’t as much fun as it sounds – & it also pretty much halted our plans family plans. Because, medically, I wasn’t allowed or cleared for…ya know…for MONTHS. Also, you don’t feel much like gettin’ down after you’ve been sliced open & have screws in your knee. *sigh*

We kind of took it as a sign to take our time, & let my body heal. We started “seriously” trying (whatever that means) the summer of 2018 on our belated honeymoon trip to Ocean Isle, North Carolina. Month after month, no baby. No double pink lines. Devastation & frustration over & over & over again.

When I heard that someone who already had 3 kids was pregnant with TWINS…I broke. I texted my husband at work & said something “I can’t do this anymore. We need that damn bracelet.” We had talked about buying the Ava bracelet to monitor my BBT (basal body temperature) for a few months but had never bitten the bullet. He responded “I already did.” Stephen got that desperate text from dramatic & manic wife, & immediately clicked “add to cart.” Bless up.

What we learned was that my cycles were on the “longer” side. I had switched doctors at this point (I adored mine, but she was so busy I could never get in to see her & my anxiety just. couldn’t. deal.), & of course she was very visibly pregnant. NEAT. Anyway, she recommended Fertility Friend. FF is very…90’s in its aesthetic. It’s brilliant, but it’s not appealing in any way, shape, or form upon initial download. The app that comes with the Ava bracelet may as well not exist, but the info it gives you is great. I just input everything into FF because it’s *chef’s kiss* When I relayed the long-cycle self diagnosis to my doctor, she rolled her eyes (not at me, at society I’d like to think) & said “That’s a myth. A 28 day cycle is ‘textbook,’ but not for most women. That’s old & outdated information.” My cycles were regular, that’s what mattered. I felt LOADS better. Due to high volume orders & a defective first bracelet, I didn’t start wearing or tracking with it until January, 2019. I had been doing OPKs (ovulation predictor kits) since ordering the bracelet in about October, 2018. So, I knew around when I ovulated; but wasn’t 100% sure. The bracelet would help me narrow down & pinpoint that. And…it did! I was pregnant by the end of March, & found out April 10th. It was the best day of my life. Totally unexpected & had turned a really sad few days into…purpose. A reason. Not that everything happens for a reason. But it felt like a gift from the heavens, a new hope. And I truly believe that it was.

That is where I’ll end my intro.

a) this sumbitch is already too long (twss)

& b) what happens next in our story deserves its own post, time, space, & tbh, an ass-ton more wine than we currently have in our house.

~ Thanks for reading. Much love, & hope for a return of the light.