Hello! If you've found this site, it's either because you're a friend or family member following along with our journey (in which case, thanks for following along!) OR, you're also struggling with infertility and are obsessively searching the web looking for others like you so that maybe you can find hope, or guidance, or just someone who totally "gets it." I'm so there with ya, trust me. 

So, why blog about infertility? A few reasons, actually. One, it is about all I can think about these days, so I figured I might as well write it all down and maybe one day I'll like to look back on the crazy stuff I went through to (hopefully) have a baby. Maybe, my future child will like to see all the crap I went through for him or her too :) Two, strangely, I feel insanely better when I'm able to write out what I'm going through and share it with the world. Maybe it's because I know it will help me to avoid dumb questions like, "when are you two starting a family?!," and "you've been married 2 years, don't you want babies?!", definitely a bonus to stop hearing those, but also, I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders knowing that I don't have to make excuses for why I have 500 doctors appointments and why I need to cancel plans last minute. Oh and finally, the most important reason of all, I'm blogging this journey because I would love to help other women who are struggling through infertility too. It's a lonely, sad, club to be apart of, but I can't tell you how much knowledge, companionship, and hope I received from stalking infertility blogs. I think I found maybe only 3-4 blogs on the entire internet written by fellow unicorns, so, at the very least, if you're also the "lucky" 1/4000 to be diagnosed with this deformed uterus, here is one more blog for you to stalk ;)

My husband, Kyle, and I are both 27, have been married for two years (since January 2015) and have been together since we were freshman in high school :) I've actually never been on birth control my whole life. I'm not sure why, I just never liked the idea of messing with my cycle and I knew I could use other forms of contraception, which we did. But for some reason, I always had this lingering thought in my head that I would wind up here (here = the club of infertility).

I knew my mom had complications with pregnancy, never with getting pregnant, but with staying pregnant and carrying to full term - maybe that's where my worries stemmed from? Or maybe it was just a gut instinct. But other than those two things, I never had any medical reason to think that I would have any trouble getting pregnant. My cycles were always consistent, normal and perfectly timed.

Well, it turns out that gut instinct I had was true. After a year and a half of trying to start a family, we were stumped. We began fertility testing in early November 2016 and by the end of December, I had my diagnosis: a left unicornuate uterus. Simply put, I have half of my reproductive system. One left tube and the left half of a uterus. But, lucky me, I still have both ovaries. So, whenever I ovulate from my right ovary that isn't connected to anything, I have zero chance at getting pregnant. The doctors say that technically we could still get pregnant naturally, but it could take up to 4 years or longer since our chances are cut at least in half. And, with my small uterus, the earlier I can get pregnant the better because my chances of carrying full term and delivering a live baby are higher the younger I am. So, there's no waiting around for 4 years for us. 

We decided, at the direction of our doctor, to jump right into IVF. We did our first IVF cycle in March and 4 days after our embryo transfer, I found out I was pregnant from a home pregnancy test. I've been completely shocked and amazed at how well my unicornuate uterus dealt with pregnancy and I'm now convinced that the internet has it all wrong. I've found so many women with my diagnosis that have gone on to have healthy pregnancies. It's not easy, but it is possible, so I hope my story can give hope. With a due date of December 9, 2017, I gave birth just one day later on December 10 at 40 weeks + 1 day (full term!!) to our miracle baby boy, Coleson :) 

This blog details our journey to parenthood and I hope it brings you hope, companionship, and maybe some laughs :)

Lyss