Oh wow, I've finally made the success story thread! After watching others 'graduate' in here its such a privilege to share our story.

Like so many others in this part of the forum, DH and I never imagined our journey to realise our dream of a child and family would be so long and such a rollercoaster ride.

After a 'whoopsie' accident in 2004 several months into seeing each other, we decided I would not to take the morning after pill and took the exciting decision to actively try to have a baby together as we'd already decided we were life partners and ready for the next step in cementing our relationship. We'd just turned 35 and did the right thing by seeking pre TTC medical advice and DTD during O for the first time with purpose at DH's parents house LOL. Fast forward 2 years following our marriage and exploratory laparoscopies & tests and we started IVF as it was obvious with the severity of my discovered endometrosis we were going to need help.
It turned out I was a poor responder to IVF and my eggs were pretty shot. What a shock! We'd assumed that once deciding to go down the IVF path that it would be the solution to delivering our dream but it looked very grim indeed. After a couple of years of failed or cancelled cycles we turned to one of my younger sisters who had already offered her eggs to us if we wanted them.

The egg donation journey was a big positive step for us. After years of disappointment, depression, and the ensuing impacts it had on our personal and professional lives, we felt uplifted and encouraged as someone else started carrying part of our heavy load and sharing in our experience. With my sister's involvement both of our families became more involved and understanding of what we had been going through, and DH and I felt lighter about it all and were able to 'rejoin' life to a bigger degree. We were on the up side of the rollercoaster, regardless of the outcome. We started exploring adoption and permanent care options and discussing what it would mean to us to be child free.

The first cycle with my sis resulted in a chemical pg which we found very encouraging! The second cycle 6 months later we got a BFP but by 6 weeks we realised it was unlikely it progress and at 10 weeks I had a natural m/c but strangely again I felt encouraged (albeit disappointed and sad) that my body could do this given the right embryo. On our third ED cycle a year later we had success and this embryo "Phoenix" was sticking around and I had a wonderful, fulfilling uneventful pg eventually giving birth naturally 17 days past our EDD. I loved pg and once the risky milestones were passed I settled into becoming earth mother and didn't want it to stop (hence the long gestation... ).

Our DD was born vaginally, drug free with her auntie and dad present and it was the most incredible experience of my life to date. When they placed her on my chest I was astounded & ecstatic to see I had birthed a real baby. A writhing, beautiful, 9lb girl with 9/9 apgars. She seemed the most beautiful thing I had ever seen (gotta love those hormones!) I think this was the first time I realised that we had actually succeeded in fulfilling our dream of over 5 years.

Each day with her is a miracle. I feel so blessed to have experienced what I have on this journey, and shared this with my DH, sister and families. Everything happens for a reason, I believe it is just each of our mission to discover what that reason is for us.

The support I have received on BB has been a life saver. Unless you have walked in a LTTTCer's shoes there is no way you can begin to understand the pain infertility can cause.