It's so hard to say goodbye...

Well, the time has come for me to finish up my story here on Bloomin' Babies. I cant believe how far Mr. Worry Bud & I have come since I started this blog back in August 2009 - from my very first post where I discussed what brought me to blogging about our journey. I think even at the beginning of our journey, I had an inkling that we would require assistance to get pregnant, but I never had a clue that would include a path through infertility & IVF. I thought for sure that our issue getting pregnant was related to my ridiculously short LP & then, after several failed & very short cycles, we went to see an RE for a consult; and of course, that very cycle my LP miraculously lengthened to an almost normal number of days. I thought for sure that with some help getting my LP lengthened, that we'd get pregnant. Then, we got some of the most devastating news of our young, married lives when we received Mr. WB's S/A results. And after lots of discussions between our RE, Mr. WB & I, we decided to go straight to IVF with ICSI. Naively, I'd always thought IVF was something that people I read about in magazines & saw on TV did. Never in a million years did I think Mr. WB & I would find out what the process was like first hand, but I guess that goes to show you that the story you dream up for your life doesn't always happen as you think it will.

Our IVF cycle (specifically the monitoring portion) happened to fall during one of the worst winters in my area in years, but we got through it & I was responding so well that we made it to my egg retrieval earlier than my RE originally expected. But, when I got my extremely disappointing fert report, I was really down about our chances of success. The support I got from this blog & on the message boards I frequented during that time meant so much to me & helped me to remain optimistic...and amazingly, we made it to a 5 day transfer of two beautiful embies!

I don't think I was ever so nervous as I was during that 2ww, but I made it pretty far without POAS until I started spotting at 8dp5dt & I almost broke down, but decided to POAS anyways & to my very pleasant surprise, I got a very strong BFP!!!!

And from that point, I POAS every day until I got my first, very strong beta of 519 - wooo! After a few subsequent strong betas, we had our early ultrasounds with my RE & got a chance to see our precious Baby WB developing normally:

Everything was going well with the pregnancy, so my RE eventually released me to the care of my OB. At my 12 week routine appointment, they could not find Baby WB's heartbeat, so I was sent for an emergency f/u ultrasound, where we learned everything with our beautiful LO was just fine (& as a bonus, we got an extra peak at the LO that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise). :)

Thankfully, my pregnancy was pretty uneventful from that point on & we just excitedly awaited the arrival of our precious baby. We found out in May that we were having a little girl & I began my baby buying obsession! From then on, I updated you guys on her progress every two weeks or so until I was 36 weeks & my water broke unexpectedly. And about 14 hours later, our precious little girl arrived (& I later shared her full birth story with all of you) - a little small, with high billirubin (causes jaundice) levels & she had trouble maintaining her body temperature at first, but overall pretty perfect if I do say so myself ::winks::!

And with that, we began the journey into finding out what parenthood is all about. And I must say, it is the both the hardest & best job I could have ever asked for. We are so in love with our precious little girl & despite all the bumps & bruises {literally} to get to where we are now, she was worth everything we went through. She is truly a blessing from God & our pride & joy!

And from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all of the Bloomin' Babies readers & Buds who prayed for, thought of & cheered us on as we went through this amazing & scary journey to parenthood. Please continue to send thoughts & prayers for our new family's continued health, happiness & safety. I'll still be around as the administrator of the blog & of course, as a reader, but my time blogging as Worry Bud has now come to an end. If you'd like to follow Baby WB's progress & our journey as a family on my personal blog, please email me at worrybud{at}gmail{dot}com & I'll send you the link so you can follow me!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I never thought we'd travel the path we did to have our first child, but I think it's truly a testament that sometimes things that are seemingly hopeless, are possible with faith, love & lots of support {medically & from friends & family}. I would like to send lots of prayers & thoughts to those of you still on the journey of IF, TTC & pregnancy...I think about each of you every day. And with that I must sign off as Worry Bud for the last time because Baby WB is starting to wake up from her nap! Happy Holidays & a Happy New Year to each of you!