So at this time last year my husband and I were just arriving at our fertility clinic in Valencia Spain to meet our new fertility doctor for the first time. Before being sent to the clinic, we had experienced at least 4 early miscarriages and chemical pregnancies over 3.5 years. I had been diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis (the most severe diagnosis possible), had gone through 4 surgeries including an open abdominal surgery where my left ovary was removed due to an endometrioma. I had sought <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a> in the UK to be told that the best bet was for us to go home and continue trying naturally. I then sought treatment from a clinic in Switzerland when we moved there, to be told 10 days before Christmas that I was in premature ovarian failure, our only chance of conceiving a child was through donor egg donation, that it was illegal to pursue that kind of treatment in the German speaking countries and our only option was to go to Spain.

Anyways a year ago today we went to our clinic in Valencia and met our fertility doctor, a short little Spanish man who split his time between Spain and the USA. We liked him from the start- he was very efficient, listened to us and gave us a clear course of action.

In February when I had a fresh cycle, we started a practice cycle for the ERA test. It was my first experience with the fertility meds and I was pretty emotionally affected by them.

In March we had the ERA biopsy. It was very painful and I developed an endometrial infection from the process so I had to go on antibiotics for two weeks. Our first donor went through her collection. Unfortunately we only had 4 eggs fertilize normally, and ultimately we were notified that none of them developed to day 5. We were devastated and I thought about giving up on <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>. I’m Catholic and I felt like God was telling me this was not my path, but our doctor called us- told us how devastated everyone at the clinic was at the results and offered us a second round with a different donor for free. I remember praying at the time, ok God, you have given us this second chance- if it isn’t our path, please make it clear again and we will stop. I got my ERA results back, showing that my transfer window was later than expected.

In April, right before Easter, we got news that our second donor was having her egg collection. We were notified on the Thursday before Easter that we had 12 fertilized eggs. I was blown away! The following Tuesday afternoon, the clinic sent me our report, of the twelve, we had 6 waiting for us. I cried at my desk at work, I was so happy. After the infection, my cycles stopped completely, so they put me on birth control to see if they could jump start them.

In May, when the birth control didn’t work, they scanned me and found that I was showing no signs of a normal cycle. They decided to start a medicated cycle to prepare for our transfer.

On June 14 we were back in Valencia for transfer day. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience but the transfer went well and everyone was so kind. I had french fries post transfer and spent the rest of the day in bed. The following day we went to the cathedral so

I could pray and then to the airport to start the longest wait of my life. Two weeks later I got the positive test I was waiting for l- our transfer had worked! Our beta tests all showed sharply increasing numbers, everything looked positive.

In August I had some bleeding and thought I was miscarrying again. Luckily it was a low lying placenta and an overly sensitive cervix. Our little one was just fine. Shortly afterwards we did genetic testing to ensure that everything was ok with our little embryo that could. We found out that our baby was perfect and a little girl!

Since then we have been just keeping her safe. I went through 7 weeks of morning sickness. I developed high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, and was recently put on bed rest for our last 7 weeks of pregnancy due to placental Insufficiency. We have had a lot to worry about but our Ellie is looking great at all of her checks and spends her time doing acrobatics in my tummy. We are 35w3d today and we are hoping she will stay put for her due date of February 29, 2020.

It’s been a long year with a lot of ups and downs. If you had told either my husband or me at this point last year if we thought we would be weeks away from meeting our daughter, we wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are because we had hope, faith, love and science! And I couldn’t be happier!