Where Do Babies Come From?

Some of you know and some of you may not know that Chris and I struggled to have a baby. (I'm pretty sure you all know because we didn't really keep it a secret, but maybe not.) Anyway, after two years I finally went to see a fertility specialist. It was really hard for me to make that step because it meant that I had to admit to myself that there was a problem, and of course a chance that I'd never get pregnant. The first thing I had to do was have a laparoscopy to remove the endometriosis I had. (NOT something, by the way, that I would recommend!) The recovery was supposed to be only 3 days, but it was 3 days before I could even walk on my own, and another 3 or 4 days until I could walk normal. My doctor hoped that that alone would fix things, but it didn't so we moved onto the next thing. Chlomid. Chlomid increases your chances of pregnancy by making your body produce more eggs at a time. We combined the chlomid with doing an IUI and for four months hoped and prayed it would do the trick. When that didn't work, we finally had nothing left to do but invitro fertilization. This involved lots of drugs (the legal kinds, of course!), 60+ days of shots administered by Chris (some days it was more than one shot, and at one point it was 4), a minor surgical procedure to remove the eggs, and then a minor non surgical procedure to put the embryos back in (which involved lots and lots of water and a very full bladder...NOT FUN!) Then after years of trying, years of heartbreak and crying, months of shots and hormones, and weeks of waiting for the news, we finally got the news we'd been waiting for. I was pregnant!


It took a long time for me to get around to it, but I finally took Ava back to my fertility doctor to get a picture taken of them together. The picture above is of Ava and Dr. Trout. I also got to know the nurses and other staff members really well and have a couple of other pictures below.


So, the point of the story is......


Someday, when Ava is older and starts getting curios and asks the question every parent dreads...."Mom, where do babies come from?" I can proudly say "well, there is this doctor, and she has this small dish called a petri dish....."

Ava and Michelle
















Ava and Melinda