The Very Beginning

To cover for time until up until now and have our story make sense, I figured I should start from the very beginning.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away... Ok, in Wisconsin... There was a young girl. This girl complained of tummy aches but was sent home from the ER with no relief. A few days later, back in the hospital, the doctors thought she had appendicitis which would require emergency surgery. The girl was upset to miss school and soccer games, but was hurting badly and wanted it fixed. Off to the OR she went with her family in tears. When she woke up, they learned it was not the appendix which was causing pain, but a large ovarian cyst. This cyst caused a torsion and what the surgeons found instead of a normal, almond-sized ovary was one the size of a grapefruit. Ouch, no wonder I hurt so bad! It was horribly damaged and had to be removed. Since this girl was so young, she had to see many specialists over the next weeks and months. The pediatric endocrinologist was worried about new cysts forming so a second surgery a few months later removed 2/3 of the left ovary. This 10 yr old girl was now facing a life of uncertain fertility and very early menopause r/t these surgeries which left her with 17% of the egg supply of a normal woman. To protect herself from disappointment, she grew up always thinking a family of her own might not be an option.

This girl led a wonderful life with a great family and blossomed into a beautiful, educated, very successful, and independent young lady.

In another time and place, there was a boy. This boy got married very young and decided to serve his country by joining the Navy. During his first 2 deployments as a young enlisted sailor, his family grew from 2 to 4. Unfortunately, Navy life is hard and not all can handle the pressures, so this boy and girl decided life was better for them not married any longer. It was hard for the boy to leave his family, but he spent the next 10 years doing 7 deployments, earning his bachelors and masters degrees, and working very hard to be promoted in the Navy to an officer. His life was hard and he missed his sons very much. His heart broke, and not wanting to experience such awful heartbreak again, he decided a vasectomy was a good option for him.

As fate would have it, this boy and girl met. Their love story is a thing of beauty, but I'll spare you the details for now :) In our hearts, we know we were always meant to be. When DH (J) and I met, he was fixing to deploy and not looking for a serious relationship. I had just moved to a new part of the country and was looking forward to experiencing life unattached. Low and behold, 6 months fly by and we are inseparable. I survive my first deployment and get to see my sailor return on the USS Bataan. The next 6 months passes and we decide that marriage is in our future. We share our histories and get married knowing a family is uncertain but undecided. 10 days after our wedding, we survive our 2nd deployment... An individual augmentee assignment to work with the Army in Iraq. J had a very safe job, but everyday was stressful... They don't make soldiers carry guns on their hips for no reason! J's return is like something off of a tv show. I am at dinner with a group of friends and to my surprise, J showed up, a day early, straight from the airport still in his uniform smelling like the desert. They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder.". Though the time apart is horrid, I think it helps us cherish each other every day and never take anything for granted.

Our first three years as newlyweds is absolutely blissful. We love to travel, we love working to make our backyard beautiful, it pretty much makes everyone gag to see how happy we are :) :) :) We are huge fans of always having options so in 2009, 9 years after his original snip, we let the Navy perform a vasectomy reversal.... Ya know, just in case!

Our relationship continues to grow, and we decide that we want to share our great love ... Unfortunately, the dog just wasn't cutting it! (though we love you and miss you dearly, Sconnie!) Between moving across country and surviving our 3rd deployment and 2homeport shifts, we decide the next year (2011) is a great time to start the road to adding number 3. Knowing it will probably be a difficult road, I spend the duration of J's deployment gearing up. Reading, reading, researching, reading, and finding out all the secrets there is to know about TTC. And trust me, there are a lot of secrets! I do the basics... Get off BC (which I had been on since surgery #2... a total of 15 years), exercise regularly, take a vitamin, eat veggies, track my cycles, no caffeine. Check, check, check! J comes home and we are living in beautiful San Diego. Heaven, I tell you. I join the community at baby zone.com where I ask soooo many questions and learn a lot from some of the most supportive girls! I never thought I'd be an Internet junkie, but there are just some things you can't ask your mom or BFF or Facebook....