After approx 6 months of trying to conceive I started to wonder why we hadn't conceived, I joined many "trying to conceive" groups and kept seeing people graduating with pregnancy announcements, as I still continued to wait...Finally after a year of trying I decided it was time to look into why it wasn't happening for us, numerous tests were run on both myself and my husband James, it was determined that James had an extremely low sperm count, everything checked out 100% normal for me. Now an average fertile man of James age has approx 40-200 million sperm, James had just 1 million, we were devestated. We met with doctors, did a lot of research on vitamins and things that could improve our situation. The meeting with our first RE was grim, they told us IVF was our only hope, we simply could not afford the $16,000 they wanted for it, we asked for an alternative so they told us about Proxeed, unfortunately even that was too much for us, $100 a month, so we researched the active ingredients in it and bought them individually, costing us about $40 every 3 months, we could swing that, we only had 1 income and just couldn't afford much. Over the course of the next 6-8 months James counts went to 3.2 million then 5.8 million, around that time he was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, we started to wonder if that could be affecting his fertility? No reason was ever found as to why his counts were so low, his blood work was fine, no blockages at the time, nothing. Well we got his sleep apnea taken care of and I could finally sleep in the same room as him again! He snored so loud from the apnea we were sleeping in separate bedrooms.
I was so desperate to be a mother I began looking into flying out of the country for IVF, as it was 1/4 of the cost in India, but the amount of time James would have to take off work and the cost to fly there and stay in a hotel for 2 weeks was too much for us. During all this we made a move from Deepstep (extremely small town) to Smyrna, just north of Atlanta and about 2 1/2 hours away from where we were living, we had been trying to get to Atlanta for years and James finally got a job at IBM through his best friend, so August of 2006 we moved outside of Atlanta.
I never gave up hope and faith that I would become pregnant, it was the desire of my heart and I knew the Lord was doing to give me this desire of my heart, though my heart broke each and every month I wasn't pregnant and every pregnant woman I seen was a knife digging deeper into my heart, we continued taking the vitamins and trying on our own.
Now, almost 4 months to the day after James went on his c-pap machine for sleep apnea, I don't know if it helped his fertility or was related in any way, but it takes 3.5 month for new sperm to form from any type of treatment so it was kind of odd that we got an amazing suprise 4 months after going on his c-pap. We had a second opinion fertility center appointment set up for the following day on May 18th, 2007, I set it up the month before around the time my period was due just in case the Lord had other plans for us. Just 24 hours before that appointment we received a complete and total miracle from the Lord that occured on May 17th, 2007, as I clearly noticed I was 2 days late on my period, I refused to believe it could be, I thought it was a fluke but I decided to test, I walked away from the test after James left for work and prayed to my Savior for the strength to handle a negative outcome, as I slowly walked back in the bathroom it looked negative, as I got closer my heart did flips as I seen a light pink line on the test portion of the pregnancy test, I was pregnant! I was shaking, crying, fell to the floor and began praising the Lord, after 26 long, hurtful months of trying, we were pregnant, and naturally! I ran out to Walgreens and purchased 2 more tests, one of them being a digital that read "pregnant" when I got home, I was in awe. I ran out to the store and bought a ribbon that said "Dad to be", printed up a picture of a daddy holding a babies hand and wrote "Hey Daddy, the Lord finally blessed us, we're going to be parents, I am pregnant, I love you"...I put it on James dresser with the ribbon and as he came home I told him a package came in for him that I left on his dresser, he went in and came running out with a huge grin on his face and kept asking me, are you sure? We were so excited! Me and James called several friends and then drove to Chattanooga to share the news with his brother, we also drove the next day to see his mother who was 2 1/2 hours away to share the news, everyone was so excited! While I thought at that time we were going to need ART's to conceive, the Lord had other plans at this point in our lives and I was glady able to cancel my new consult appointment at the fertility center!
This all happened around my mother and sis in law's birthday so we had a celebration 3 days after I found out to celebrate birthday's and I wrapped a gift for my mom with a "grandma to be" bib, some pacies, and a baby hand print kit, everyone was there, my 3 brothers, grandma, parents, and a family friend, when my mom opened her present she looked at me and asked if I was pregnant, I said yes and she nearly had a heart attack, she cried, she screamed, she shouted, and she praised the Lord! My mom knew all of what I went through to conceive and prayed for me often, calling many prayer lines for me, she followed my journey closely and felt she witnessed a miracle, it was a great day and all caught on video!
Fast forward to 9 months later, I had a wonderful pregnancy, I enjoyed every minute of it and our son Jacob John was born on January 25th, 2008, he is our pride and joy and I am forever grateful and blessed the Lord gave him to us, I cannot imagine what life was like before him.
Just a quick couple pictures of me at the happiest time in my life and my sweet newborn baby boy :)
I'm so thankful for you and the other girls and so glad we have each other. I'm praying for you. Praying that you are soon blessed with another little miracle that's as precious and beautiful as your sweet little Jacob! Love you!
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