Today I have Brandi who is the owner over at LittleBLove. You may remember that I mentioned her shop a few times last week. I am so happy to have her sharing her journey today and I would love for y'all to go and visit her shop too!
Here is Brandi's story.
Hi all! I'm Brandi and I'm a wife, a mama(more on that below), a teacher, and the owner of Little B Love!
I wear many many hats but I will be the first to say that being a mama is my favorite, but it wasn't an easy ride.
My husband Stephen and I have known each other through most of my life, but we started dating while I was away at college and eventually we wed in 2010. He wanted kids like ASAP, however right after we got married we said we'd take some time to enjoy ourselves etc. A few months before our 1 year anniversary my doctor suggested I go off the pill for a few months before we really started trying in order to build up my lining. Not long after, we ditched the birth control. I was surprised when month 1 of no protection, we weren't pregnant!
Like wait, what?!? I thought no protection equals baby? We didn't panic and tried for a few more months until I started worrying some and then we started the ovulation kits. The first month we used an ovulation kit and I ended up still not being pregnant, a smidge of panic started to creep in. I was very into the show Guiliana and Bill at the time and watching all their fertility struggles..........it wasn't fun. I remember VERY vividly a couple months, having Aunt Flo arrive while I was at work on one of my breaks and literally bursting into tears and having to compose myself before going back to my classroom full of kids.
Have you guys ever seen that meme, the one that says "those who say trying to get pregnant is fun, have obviously never tried to get pregnant"? And it's soooo true! I, like many, think oh when we're ready we will just try and use no protection and boom, prego! Nope!
Anyways, we had been trying for about a year when FINALLY my doctor said to come in and see her. The day I went in to see her, my period was actually late and I said Doc do you think? And I can remember her saying, "mmm nope I don't think so, you're cycles are so over the place that I doubt you are. So go ahead and come back on day 3 of your period for bloodwork and then we're going to go ahead and start you on Clomid." Before this appointment I was testing like crazy and negative, negative, negative. Seriously, the number of pregnancy tests you go through when trying, it's pretty crazy! Anyways, a couple days after this appointment, it was day 33 of my cycle, and the FAINTEST positive came up. I think I screeched with joy. I immediately emailed my doctor's office asking for a blood test to confirm. Hours later, I got the positive, I had been waiting for. I rushed home to tell my husband the news. He was so excited and kept asking, are you sure, is this for real, how do you know?
Overwhelming joy!!! My OB likes to joke that she scared my body into getting pregnant since I was supposed to start fertility treatments in just a few days. My doctor believed that the problem was that each month your ovaries technically have the potential to produce about 8 eggs but instead they fight each other off so that the strongest, best egg wins (she always told me, think of the show Survivor), but in some people the eggs like to get together and play nice and try to "split the prize at the end". She thought my eggs were just playing nice, so the Clomid would turn them into nasty fighting things so that the strongest egg would win. Luckily I didn't need it and on October 2, 2012 after 20 hours of labor, I gave birth to the sweetest little boy.
We have been trying for number 2 for quite a while now and it's been even more of a roller coaster than the first go around but we're trying to hold out hope. Some days hope is harder to have than others and it certainly hard when it seems like it's pregnancy announcement after announcement! But trying to have hope and enjoy the one blessing that God did give us and that we are so thankful for each day!
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.-Ecclesiastes 11:5
For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it.-Habakkak 1:5
And so it was that having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained what God has promised.-Hebrews 6:15
Thanks for letting me share my journey and I hope that it can help to encourage some of you.
Beautiful story that really inspires me. The struggles of pregnancy reallt are something. I keep telling myself it's the will of God. xoxo
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