IVF and Our story…

Dress:Anthropologie old (similar style) | Shoes:T.J. Maxx old (similar style) | Earrings:Stella and Dot | Necklaces:Stella and Dot, My Name Necklace c/o | Bracelets:Gift (similar style) Gift, Jane.com (similar style) | Watch:Michael Kors | Ring:Stella and Dot | Lipstick:MAC Fabby, Bobbi Brown Lip gloss|

It’s finally time to share some amazing news; my husband Manny and I are expecting!!! The journey has been filled with trials and tribulations, but we are thrilled to celebrate with family and friends. Please excuse my absence with Pretty In Her Pearls lately. The physical and emotional ups and downs of this pregnancy have left me with little energy. But now it’s time to bask in the glory of being pregnant and In the spirit of being open I wanted to share what we have gone through to get here. Over the last three years we have been trying to have a healthy pregnancy. Yet, the problem for us was we could get pregnant, but couldn’t seem to get through the first trimester. After the second miscarriage, we decided we needed specialized help, or at least an appointment so that we could speak with a specialist to get some sort of idea of why it kept happening. Since the miscarriages were at the beginning of the first trimester there was a good possibility that we were having a chromosomal issue. When we learned this, my imagination was running wild, and we needed answers to why this kept happening. Luckily we found a great Fertility Specialist like Dr. Andrew Levi MD, who understood our sense of urgency in this process. First, I tried Clomid, and again we could get pregnant but weren’t able to make it through the first trimester. We knew we couldn’t emotionally handle another loss. With lots of careful thought, research, and consideration, we decided to try affordable IVF with genetic testing. It was a hard decision to make because it meant we were accepting that we really needed a lot more help than we had previously realized, and that was a hard reality to face. It was definitely a very invasive process with my blood being drawn weekly, daily shots, the retrieval of my eggs, and then the embryo transfer. After that it was bed rest for 5 days, followed by more shots. Two weeks after the transfer we went to our doctors office for a blood test to see if we were pregnant. I was so nervous the day of the test; feeling jitters and and hopeful at the same time. When we got the news later that day that we were pregnant, we were so excited. However, we still weren’t ready to celebrate, and the next 8 weeks were filled with continued shots, doctors visits, and taking it easy. We struggled at times, but stayed hopeful, knowing that this process was giving our baby things that we couldn’t, and believing that this is the beginning of our family. We are so excited for this new journey in our life, and I am happy to share it with you. I hope that the beginning of my story offers hope to each of you, because I know it’s not something that is talked about often, and isn’t always wildly accepted. But believe in your story, and you will get your ending.