My husband and I have been trying for months to conceive. Every time my TWW came along, I got my hopes up. One time I bled and thought it was an implantation bleed. I had a rough time distinguishing my menstrual symptoms from potential pregnancy symptoms.

We tried everything. I took Uplift fertility support pills, charted by basal, used OPK, took prenatals, had sex almost daily during my fertile window, kept my legs in the air (OWT I know), used Preseed. Nothing stuck. We live in CA and our family is in NY. We had flights booked for Thanksgiving and I yearned for nothing more than to be able to tell our moms in person that we were pregnant.

One day, my cervical mucus was particularly sticky and thick. I figured I was ovulating but according to Glow and my OPK I was not. I still insisted on having sex with my husband. The next day I tested using the OPK and again it indicated I was not ovulating, but I told my husband we should continue trying. This cycle we used the preseed and after ejaculation, I used the menstrual softdiscs to hold the sperm near my cervix. I know this might sound gross, but I slept with the disc in and removed it in the am. I did it three days in a row during my fertile window.

And then...

A few days ago, I missed my period so I took a test...

My husband doesn’t even know because he is at his moms and I’m at mine. We took different fights due to our schedules. I’m going to break the news after Thanksgiving dinner. The pic of the shirt was how I came out of the bathroom to share with my mom.

I wrote this whole novel to say- I’m going to be 36 in December. We tried actively for almost a year. Prior to this year, we half-heartedly tried many times before (without tracking and using any products) Everyone else I knew was getting pregnant and it wasn’t happening for us. I was so sad and disappointed. I started to believe it just wasn’t in the cards for us. If you are trying and it’s in your heart please keep going. And try the soft discs. It’s the only thing I did differently this cycle. Also trust your own instinct. I knew I was ovulating despite what the OPK and app said and I was right.