How to Make a Baby

1 part boy
1 part girl
1 bottle of wine (optional)

Combine all ingredients. Bake for 9 months, remove from oven and enjoy!

Seems simple right? Turns out this is not the recipe for some people. Yours truly to be exact. B was not sleeping too well last night (lingering effects of a head cold) so I was up, reflecting on the past couple years and how my life got to where it is now. I know! Pretty deep thoughts for 1am! :) Well, this is my recipe for how to make a baby

1 part boy
1 part girl
2 months of various tests
1 team of fertility specialists
1 round of drug injections
1 highly invasive x-ray
1 very special way to spend the day after Christmas

Be sick for 7 months, lose 10 pounds before gaining 45, bake, and bake, AND bake until you are about ready to serve an eviction notice to said oven. Remove via "emergency" dis-assembly of oven rather than the all natural "open the door" route, remove and enjoy!

Cooked to perfection!

To jump back just a little bit, I never thought I would struggle with infertility. Here I was mid-20's, healthy, non-smoker, rare drinker, IDEAL baby-making factory, or so it seemed. Shows how naive I was! When I first realized something wasn't "right" I didn't know what kinds of questions to ask, or who to ask them to. On paper, I shouldn't have these issues. Everyone kept saying "once you stop trying, it will happen", "when it's meant to be, it will be"....yeah yeah yeah. EXACTLY what I wanted to hear! :) Turns out, I have a form of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom. When my doctor told me that, the first thing I did was hit Google. BIG mistake. I didn't fit the mold at all! But the ultrasound pictures didn't lie. So, off to a fertility specialst we went. The next month seemed like a blur, everything happend fast, shot here, pills there, cream here, x-ray next, sample here, looooooong tube WHERE?!, and again, a very memorable day after Christmas. We were told we had a less than 20% chance of conceiving "spontaneously" (think Teen Mom style). With the first few rounds of fertility treatments being IUI (Intra-uterine insemination) our chances of conception went to just under 50%. We had 3 different options for fertility treatments, each round increased our chances of conceiving, but those chances also increased the likelihood of multiples. Given that we weren't in a huge hurry and thought about getting pregnant summer of 2011 we started "small" with the IUI. Thankfully we had great insurance that helped cover some of these costs.

You know that they say "you make a plan and God laughs". Well joke was on us! We got pregnant with the first IUI. When we took the test, I was in disbelief. We pretty much stayed in shock for the first 6-8 weeks or so. It wasn't supposed to happen so fast, it wasn't supposed to work yet. Sure we were planning and "trying" but we thought we had time! Now what?! As soon as the shock started to fade, the morning sickness set in, and never really let up! Once we hit 12 weeks, it was safe to tell family and we told friends around 16 weeks or so. This was after many ultrasounds to confirm health, and MANY more to confirm there was just one little bambino in there! Fast forward 9 months, my water broke on my actual due date and little baby B came one day later via c-section. All 9lbs 3 ounces of him! We chose not to find out if we were having a boy or girl, so we were quite surprised when we got to meet him for the first time!

Part of me thought it would be interesting to fill you in our background and the other part of me wanted to raise some awareness about infertility. After going through what we went through, I started learning more and more young couples go through this. I don't know if it's more common nowadays or if it's just that people are more willing to talk about it, but it's nice to feel like you're not alone. A friend of mine told me about the Walk of Hope.

 "The Walk of Hope is a day to recognize the many ways in which families are built. People of all ages can participate as a walker or donor and raise awareness of how the disease of infertility impacts families nationwide. Funds raised from the Walk support local programming which includes support groups and educational events, public awareness initiatives, and advocacy efforts to ensure all family building options are available to all."

You can bet Polish Prince, myself and B will be there walking! To support us, you can click here.