On December 18, 2009 we welcomed Ashton to this world... here is the story on how he got here.

DH and I married in 2006 and started trying for a family on our honeymoon. We were 25 years old and never considered we wouldn't just fall pregnant like all my friends had. But that was not to be our path.

In July 2007 my GP detected a large 'something' in my belly. Further investigation discovered a dermoid tumour the size of a large orange growing on my right ovary. I was immediately sent to a specialist, who happened to be linked to the local ivf clinic, who removed the dermoid, saving my ovary, and draining a heap of cysts.

I was diagnosed with polycyctic ovaries and placed on metformin. My doctor also encouraged DH to get his boys checked out and we discovered they are mishapen, lazy, and swimming in the wrong direction. We were given a very low chance of ever having a child through natural conception and referred to the IVF clinic.

This news was just devastating news and we decided to take a year to digest the "you can't have kids'' thing as well as save money. I started running and did some 10km races, we went away for weekends, camping and had a great time generally. It took a good 6 months for me to accept the diagnosis fully and be okay with it. I really found it was one of those things that took a long time to work through and digest. It broke my heart and I got quite upset a lot in the first few months.

We were waiting for Jan 2009 to start (mainly for the medicare threshold) but decided we would 'fly under the radar' and start in Oct 08. What i mean by that is we had told our family and friends about our diagnosis and the path ahead for us. But this generated "when are you starting" questions constantly and I started to feel pressure, particularly from my mum.

So we decided we'd do a cycle and not tell a soul. we'd do it pressure-free and just keep saying to people "oh, we are still saving up for it". This worked a treat

Our FS didn't hold back. He went straight for the jugular to get us a baby. We went straight onto an IVF ICSI cycle in Oct 08. it was a full stim cycle and as with most first cycles was unsuccessful. We had one fresh blasto transferred and one embryo frozen. The drugs hit me for six. I could barely get out of bed most days and was very emotional. I would say i was barely functioning. It took me quite a few goes to get the pen needle technique and the guts to poke the needle into myself. I felt stripped bare and vulnerable. I stopped running and DH took over doing everything for me. it was a hopeless matter.

After getting the news our fresh transfer had not worked, I was beside myself. It was so upsetting to have endured so much and not get a result. We did not have time to fit in a transfer or full cycle that year so went away for Christmas and lived it up.

We were so shattered by our lack of success. I'd really convinced myself we would be one of the lucky ones who get preg on their first cycle but it was not to be. That month off over christmas was much needed and really healing as we went away and spent time with friends. We still didn't tell anyone what we were doing.

On our return home in 2009 we had our frozen embryo transferred without success. In February we started our second full stim cycle.

But this cycle I decided i'd try and pull myself out of my fog and bed and not let it interfere as much with our life. I kept running and this became a real lifeline for me. Even when i was exhausted i'd still log 8km runs and feel great afterwards. I'd also become more accepting of our situation and DH and I agreed after this cycle we'd do one more and then call it quits.

I was also mentally protecting myself by looking ahead to our life without children. I did actually start to see an alternative existence and we decided we'd buy a house, upgrade our cars and travel more if kids were not to be part of our life.

On March 23 we had our EPU and I got in a nice long 10km a few days later just before our transfer. This cycle had resulted in 3 excellent quality blasties. I strongly believe my running and better frame of mind really helped the quality of the eggs. We had one transfered and two frozen.

In early April we got the news that finally, for the first time in my life I was pregnant! I could hardly believe it... in fact it took me a good 9 months to believe it was happening... right about the time the midwife yelled 'push' lol.

I had a pretty good pregnancy (although i am not a fan of being pregnant ugh specially in summer) and on Dec 18 Ashton arrived, four days overdue I had a vaginal birth, no tears, just a bit of gas and used a tens machine (and my lovely wonderful DH) and Ash arrived perfect. Not a blemish, spot, squished or mishapen anything.

He is nearly 9 weeks old. Laying in his cot squeaking, means he'll be awake soon. I fall in love a little more everyday and can't wait to transfer our other 2 embies, which hopefully become Ash's siblings.

We probably won't do another full cycle once we've used our 2 embies and part of us hope for a natural wonder to occur. But we feel so blessed to have Ash and can't believe it worked! lol.

I hope that helps given someone starting out on this path some hope.