Summary background - May 2008

My journey through infertility - though unknown at the time - began in May of 2008. I graduated with my MBA, had recently obtained the job I had been reaching towards for several years, had a great house, and just generally felt that everything was finally in place. My husband and I were planning on waiting a few more months to start trying, as we were certain that pregnancy would happen right away, but decided "What the hell!?" and stopped taking the pill. We immediately started trying. Those first few months were quite a rollercoaster - my cycles took about 40 days at first, and I had many of the traditional early signs of pregnancy. I had the headaches, sore breasts, nausea, bloating, and exhaustion. I thought for sure that I was indeed pregnant - but why did those pesky tests keep coming back negative? Well, they came back negative because I just wasn't pregnant. I wasn't really worried at the time. It was still early on in the process. Most couples don't get pregnant right away, right? No worries.

But the months ticked on, and still the tests came back negative month after month. I began tracking my ovulation with over the counter ovulation predictor kits, which test for a hormone surge called the LH Surge, which is the trigger for ovulation that occurs about a day before you ovulate. Every month that I used one of the kits, I had a surge, which indicated that I was ovulating. And we'd get the timing just right over and over, but still no luck. About 7 months in, I went to my doctor, as I was so frusterated with our lack of success. I knew that it was normal to wait 12 months before seeking help, but I wanted to see if there were any tests we could do early, or if we could just put a plan in place - something, anything to put my mind at ease! Unfortunately, she just told me to wait. Meh.

My husband and I had agreed to keep the fact that we were trying a secret, but I'm not very good at keeping things to myself. I'm a venter, and I desperately needed to vent to maintain my sanity! We really had thought it would happen quickly, so keeping it a secret at first was kind of fun and exciting. We actually made off-hand comments to try and throw our friends off the track - we really wanted it to be a surprise! Turns out that the joke was on us. I'll talk more about the secrets, our confidants, and all of this intrigue later. It's really an interesting tale with many interesting twists and turns. For now though, just keep it in the back of your mind.