I've known Jodie since college and have loved her so so much through the years. She's been with me through graduations, job changes, very first Slumber Parties events, very first boudoir sessions, breakups, weddings, a whole array of important events. If you have ever spoken to her, then you know that she is so full of passion. Passion for her job, passion for her husband, for their pups, for her friends. She has wanted to be a mother for a long time and the struggle for her is beyond anything that I can imagine.
She has been SO STRONG in being able to share her journey and shed light on the fact that there are so many women struggling silently with this. One in eight women struggle with this and nobody's really talking about it. I'm so glad she is willing to share her story with us. There's so much emotion in this blog. It has sadness, disappointment, grief, love and most importantly hope. Also, a special thanks to Glam by Jeet for the amazing hair and makeup artistry. Here we go:
May 17, 2015 I married my best friend. We were in our mid twenties, and just decided to “let things happen” and stopped using any type of birth control on our honeymoon. 6 months passed, no pregnancy, which isn’t unusual. A year passed, still nothing. Then the doctor visits began, it was three years before we finally received a diagnosis. 1095 days of waiting for an answer.
It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized the issue was me, and while my condition is rare (which is why a diagnosis took so long) it made our chances of conceiving naturally less than 1%. Our only option now for a family is In Vitro Fertilization. And even with that, each cycle is a 37% chance of a live birth.
Not only that, but the process is also taxing, mentally, physically, and financially. IVF isn’t just growing an embryo in a Petri dish, it’s waiting until the timing is perfect for your body, it’s multiple daily injections, suppositories (and not for your butt), pills, patches, and bloodwork. More waiting. Waiting to see if you had any viable eggs, waiting to see how many of those viable eggs fertilize, waiting to see if any make it to the blastocyst stage. And then, if you’re lucky enough to have a viable embryo, more shots, and implanting it. Then more waiting, two weeks in fact, to know if the implantation worked. And if it doesn’t? Well, scroll back up to the top & repeat.
So next time you go to ask someone in casual conversation when they are starting a family, don’t. Because if you ask me, I won’t hold back. Waiting on our miracle, 1168 days & counting.
