Not a Closed Book, Just a New Chapter!

I've been getting a lot of questions after a facebook post I wrote saying I was selling all our baby stuff off so in the spirit of being open and honest I thought I would fill everyone in since we've always been very open about our fertility joys/struggles.

After the babies were born we decided we wanted to try to have another baby right away again, figuring it would probably take awhile to get pregnant. After hearing so many people say "oh, you'll get pregnant right away after doing invitro" Chad and I both had it in our heads that it would just magically happen this time. After over a year of trying, still nothing so we went back to the fertility doctor that helped us get pregnant with Grant and McKinley. After retesting Chad they discovered his sperm count was that of someone that has had a vasectomy...essentially zero. They said our chance of conceiving were slim to none unless we did invitro again. The $30,000 price tag on that took that option away so the option we were left with was IUI (intrauterine insemination, artificial insemination for all you old-schoolers!) using donor sperm. We decided to try this route b/c to us being a parent isn't dependent on biology. (You should hear some of the comments we got, though, when we told people we were using donor sperm and I'm sure some of you are cringing right now!) Although this wasn't a $30,000 route, it's still pretty pricey so we decided to only do 2 cycles and unfortunately neither of them took.

For all of you out there that are still struggling with fertility, just know I used to hate people like me!! How can someone with 2 healthy kids and a boy/girl to boot be complaining about not getting pregnant again....I hear you yelling at me through the computer. Just know that Chad and I feel INCREDIBLY BLESSED to have been given the opportunity to experience pregnancy and raising our two little rambuctious bundles of joy and we never take that for granted! I've had some time to reflect the last couple of days and realize that most of my desire to have another baby was to experience a "normal" pregnancy and be able to come home with a baby right away instead of sitting in a hospital for 2 months.

So, before you think we're over here feeling sorry for ourselves let me nip that in the bud. We're so, so happy with our situation right now. We're both looking forward to our mommy/daddy days with each kid when they get older and one of our desires is to homeschool Grant and McKinley and that is going to be so much easier having 2 kids the same age.

Oh, and if I hear one more "Just stop trying and you'll get pregnant" I'll smack you in the head!! Ha, ha...but seriously...I will.

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

1 Thessalonians 5:18