How I Became a Mom: Annette’s Story {Series}

I always knew I wanted to have a family and be a mom, but I never really put much thought into it. My husband and I wanted to travel together and have some time with “just us” before we started a family. After being married for four years we decided it was time to start “trying.” I was 30, and starting to sense the clock ticking.

For a year we tried by tracking with a fertility app and nothing was successful, so we decided to seek help and discussed options with my gynecologist. 

We did some testing and discovered that I was not ovulating regularly so we decided the best option to try first was Clomid. I started taking progesterone and having my hCG levels tested each month to see if I was ovulating…and it was working — I was ecstatic! I thought we would be pregnant soon since we found the problem; however, another six months went by and nothing happened.  

After a year and a half of trying we had become very frustrated.

I would get angry and sad when I’d hear of friends or relatives becoming pregnant and how easy it was for them or that they weren’t even trying to get pregnant. That’s the hardest part; when you hear about people that accidentally get pregnant and don’t even want a baby. You start to think that maybe you are being punished for some reason.  

At that point, we decided to seek further help from a fertility specialist.

I have struggled over the years to talk about this and really didn’t like to discuss it with anyone, but I now think it is important to tell my story and share my struggles so others know they are not alone. My husband and I both did testing and found out that although we each had small issues that made it more difficult to get pregnant, there was no reason we shouldn’t be able to get pregnant. This was reassuring, but also vexing since at this point we were coming up on almost two years of trying to conceive. We decided to give IUI (intrauterine insemination) a try; IUI is also known as artificial insemination or as I like to call it, “the turkey baster approach.” This is a fairly simple procedure, is less invasive and much less expensive than IVF. The success rates are also much lower, so it’s not for everyone.

IUI usually requires a round of oral fertility drugs, monitoring of your cycle, blood work and an ultrasound to make sure you are ovulating before the procedure is performed. The procedure is fairly simple and painless. The hardest part is the wait — 14 days of waiting and wondering. We finally had our appointment to have blood work done to see if we were pregnant. We went, they took blood and said they would call in a few hours with the results. We couldn’t wait that long so we bought a pregnancy test and it was POSITIVE!!! We were so excited and overjoyed. (It’s not usual for IUI to work the first time.)

Our dream was starting to become a reality.

The rest of my pregnancy went smoothly and without any problems. I know all moms are worried that something could go wrong, but I felt extremely anxious all of the time, fearing that something bad would happen. We had waited and struggled for so long and I was so afraid to have it all taken away.

December 16th, 2013 was one of the greatest days of my life. My perfectly healthy baby boy was born.  

I am lucky that my infertility struggle was relatively short compared to most. I am lucky that IUI worked the very first time and I didn’t have to do several rounds. I’m lucky that we didn’t have to go through the financial and emotional strain of IVF. Many women struggle with infertility and you are not alone. I have also found that it helps to talk about it. I wish I had spoken to people about it sooner so I didn’t have to go through it alone. 

For more of our How I Became a Mom series, click below:

Chelsea’s story

Danielle’s story

Jennifer’s story

Greer’s story

Christy’s story

Jessie’s story