About Us

For those of you that don't know a lot about us, Chris and I married on New Years Eve, 1999. We knew we wanted to start a family right away. We started seriously trying to conceive in March of 2000. After 12 months of no success, we started seeing a reproductive endocrinologist (RE) at the REACH infertility clinic in Charlotte, NC. It was determined that I had what was called "unexplained infertility." There was no clear-cut reason I wasn't able to conceive on my own. Chris and I both had exploratory surgeries to try to find an answer and there just wasn't one. All of my blood work was coming back normal, so we decided to begin the process of having IUI (intrauterine insemination, or artificial insemination as some like to call it) to help the process along. If we got no response from that, then we would have to move on to IVF (in vitro fertilization). We went through four IUI cycles with oral medications (Clomid). We had our first cycle on December 18, 2002. We did get a positive pregnancy test, but I miscarried shortly after, on January 6, 2003. We were devastated but vowed we would keep trying. We continued through three more cycles with the oral agent with no success. Then, we moved on to injectables (Gonal-F). The first injectable cycle failed. We were now on our fifth IUI and it was taking a toll on me..mentally, physically, and emotionally. I told Chris that I didn’t know how much more I was going to be able to take. He said maybe we should take a break. After the fifth cycle failed, we both agreed we would try one more (#6) and then take a break for a while and decide what to do from there. We again used the injectable Gonal-F, just at a higher dosage this time. Ironically, in this cycle, I had the poorest ovarian response so far. I only produced one average quality follicle this time (2-4 are desired). Almost every other time, we had at least two, sometimes three, good quality follicles with no success. We went ahead with the procedure, because, as my doctor liked to say, it only takes ONE. I remember joking as we got on the elevator to go back to the parking deck after the procedure was done. Ha..ha. One little follicle this time.. yea right. So much for THAT ever working. So I went home, got in the pool and went swimming (something they tell you not to do right after an IUI), and I didn't rest (something you were supposed to do). Basically, I was so sure it WASN'T going to work that I did everything I wasn't supposed to do. I went ahead and took a pregnancy test two weeks later on the day they told me to, even though I was still 100% positive there was no way under the sun I could ever be pregnant. I remember sitting there, watching the progress and there looked like a faint second line. It was really, really faint but it was there. I called Chris at work. He came home and looked at the test and said he thought it was positive. I immediately called my RE. They had me come in for a beta hCG (pregnancy blood test) to confirm it. I went in for three more over the next week to make sure the numbers were increasing like they should. We were still a little skeptical because of the previous miscarriage, but, sure enough, they numbers were dramatically increasing this time. I WAS PREGNANT!! Could it be that we were FINALLY going to be parents??!

Although I think I floated somewhere amongst cloud 9 (mentally) through my pregnancy due the fact that I was so happy I finally was pregnant, I had a very hard pregnancy physically. I had gestational diabetes, elevated blood pressure, severe edema of my feet and legs and had a subchorionic hematoma (blood clot) that ruptured, causing me to have so much bleeding that I had to go to the hospital. I had to sleep the last three months of my pregnancy sitting up in a chair at night b/c I couldn't take in enough air lying down. I managed to make it through nine months, and on March 10, 2004, I delivered a (very) healthy nearly 10-pound baby boy that we named Tyler Cole. He has made us the happiest two people on the face of the earth. I truly believe that being a parent is the greatest thing in the universe. I could die tomorrow and my life would be fulfilled, just in the four short years I have gotten to be a mom. A mom. Can I say that again?…A MOM. For a long time, I never thought I would ever be able to say that. Anybody who has ever struggled to conceive a child or has battled infertility knows that longing…there is a piece of your heart that is always missing. It hurts the most on Mother's Day, on Christmas morning, at baby showers, and every time you see a child or an expectant mother. But the moment you have a child of your own, from the moment you hear their first cry..all that is replaced by happiness and joy. And every moment that passes, it only grows. I tell Tyler all the time that I don't know how but I love him more every day than the day before.

Now, my "baby boy" is growing up way too fast for his mama's liking. Being a parent is so bittersweet. I want him to grow up to be a strong independent young man while at the same time, I would be perfectly content for him to be forever 4. That's just how life works, I guess. Nobody ever said being a parent was easy. I just pray every day that I am the best parent I can be and that I do the best job I can to help him make the right choices in life and to have good morals and values and to treat others the way he would want to be treated. I thank God every day for the blessing He has given us. We had to sacrifice a lot along the way, and it was a long journey to get there, but, boy, IT WAS SO WORTH IT!