Trying to conceive for 8 months and losing hope

New to this app and new to public posting, but here goes nothing... Sorry for the length.

My fiance and I have been trying to conceive for 8 months and have yet to succeed.

Each month as my period gets closer I start noticing symptoms that are so close to the symptoms I experienced with my first pregnancy, that I convince myself we have succeeded. Nausea, dizziness, increased appetite, fatigue, mood swings, all of which are completely different from period symptoms BEFORE my first pregnancy. Of course, I'm let down every single time when I get a negative test.

It is extremely frustrating and I lose hope every time we fail. I shouldn't look at it that way, but it is very difficult given our previous experiences.

Last year we lost our son after he was born 19 weeks early. Doctors said there was no cause, that it happens 1 in every 5000 pregnancies. They said we wouldn't have any trouble conceiving and there would be no issues with carrying to full term.

Since then I have become very envious of pregnant women... I try to be happy for them, but in the back of my mind I ask why that can't be me. Why can't we conceive as easily as we did the first time? It only took 3 months, so what's the deal this time?

People keep telling us to stop trying and it will happen... How does one simply "stop" trying for a baby when that is their goal? I've also had people try to fill me with negativity, such as, "you probably won't be able to have anymore kids," or, "you need to wait until everything is perfect. Now isn't the right time." It irritates the crap out of me...

No child can take the place of our son, but we so desperately want to give our baby boy a brother or sister, but I'm losing hope so fast that isn't even funny.

Not really sure what to do as this point. I know I need to stay positive and keep my head up. I suppose all we can do at this point is keep trying and hope for the best.

My period is due in 5 days, but I think this time I'm going to save myself the stress and not get my hopes up.