I've been debating for a while now about whether I wanted to write this blog post. It's a wee bit personal and I really have no idea who reads this blog! But if my experience can help a friend, a Facebook friend, a friend of a friend of a friend, or a complete stranger, I will be happy I wrote these words. I know we were not alone in this experience and there may be some of you reading this right now that are on/have been on the same journey.

The decision to start a family is not an easy one. Tom and I started talking about babies a few years ago, and  finally a day came last March where we said "why are we waiting?!". There are many details that we wish to keep personal, but long story short, the baby journey has taken us over a year.

Since it had officially been a year since we started "trying" to have a baby, my doctor gave us a referral to a fertility clinic. So in March this year we had our initial consultation and came home with a slew of paperwork and fertility testing requisition forms. As someone who has had a lifelong needle phobia, these tests did not look fun. The clinic basically told us we were probably a statistic waiting to happen and after they did all the tests we would probably fall into the "unexplained" infertility category. This was really not reassuring to me and I left the initial appointment feeling really discouraged.

The good news is that we never returned to the fertility clinic. Less than a week after that initial appointment, we found out we were finally pregnant by our own means! And I am happy to say that everything is going well so far and I am already 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I am officially due on November 29, 2013!

There are so many things I learned throughout our year long fertility journey. Here are a few tidbits that might help some of you through this incredibly frustrating and difficult time.

• Find someone you can talk to. A good friend who understands or can get you through the emotional roller coaster of the dreaded two-week wait.
• During a free infertility webinar I learned that the terminology "trying" to have a baby implies failure can be involved. But having a baby should not be a "try and then fail" kind of thing. Instead change your thoughts and vocabulary to "I am OPEN to conceiving a child" or "I invite a child into my heart". I know it sounds kind of new age or hooky, but it really changed how I was looking at the whole process.
• Your emotional journey is just as important as your physical health. It may play a bigger role in the process than we actually know. I found out about Sarah Holland through the same infertility webinar I mentioned above. She offers free EFT (tapping) videos that I found helpful for the emotional aspects of dealing with (in)fertility. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique (read about it here) that involves "tapping" (using your fingers) various meridians on your hands, head and face, the same points used in acupuncture. Again, may sound a bit strange to some people but keep an open mind and you never know it might work!
• I heard a rumour that reflexology can often help woman who are having fertility issues (we tried to find some scientific evidence of this rumour, but no luck). So I had a family friend give me a treatment and low and behold, that cycle I became pregnant....coincidence?
• When you want a baby, you begin to get really desperate...haha. So I remembered my friend (from the first bullet point - you know who you are!) emailed me this Globe and Mail article "Robitussin: Pregnancy in a $5 bottle of hope" a long time ago, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. So I bought a bottle and happened to get pregnant that month.....another coincidence?