One of the things I found most frustrating about infertility was the complete lack of control I felt.

And as someone who has a tendency to go into a very “woe is me” place when things don’t go my way, I had basically decided that the only way this season of my life could possibly be meaningful was if I walked away with a baby. Which felt utterly terrifying since I had no control over how this ended…can you relate?

So this is one of those tricky questions because I always wonder, “If I did things differently, would I still have gotten my same outcome?” I can’t imagine life without these amazing two girls so this one always feels like a catch 22 for me, BUT knowing what I know now, there are a few things I would have thought about differently (and honestly, more strategically) looking back…

Raise your hand if you’re terrified of screwing up your fertility treatments 🙋🏽‍♀️ I talk to so many women that feel this way! And after doing 2 IUIs (one that got cancelled and one that happened) and three IVF cycles, I can tell you I’ve made A LOT of mistakes in my infertility journey (specifically as it relates to my fertility treatments). I wanted to share these mistakes with you to hopefully 1) normalize making mistakes - because we’re all human and 2) show your brain that it’s possible to make mistakes in our infertility journeys and still end up with a baby at the end of all of this (because our brains love to tell us a story that if we screw up our fertility treatments it means we’re never gonna get pregnant and have a baby 😬 and the reality is that’s not a universal truth!)

If you’re preparing for your first IVF cycle, you may be wondering if there are helpful things you can pick up to make this process easier, and while you can totally do IVF without buying anything new for it. Let’s be honest. Sometimes getting ourselves a little something to help us feel more excited and prepared for the process is exactly what we need to get our heads in the game. Which is why in this blog post, I’ve rounded up a handful of things that my clients or myself swear by having for IVF!

It’s the situation none of us wants to be in. In my own infertility journey this looked like an IVF cycle whose two transfers ended in pregnancy loss leaving us with zero embryos and back at square zero. For you, it could be related to pregnancy losses, or transfers that never took or an IVF cycle that ended with no viable embryos. If you’re struggling to pick up the pieces after a failed IVF cycle, I hope the words found in this blog post will make the road to recovering a little bit easier and remind you that you’re so not alone 💕

If you’ve been following along with my journey for a while, you know that in this most recent chapter of growing our family we did two additional IVF cycles, experienced three losses and went through four transfers (the most recent of which stuck!) So here’s some exciting news… If you’re reading this it means I’m officially on maternity leave with our rainbow IVF baby! And even though over the next few months I’ll be focusing on nurturing myself, my family and this new baby - I want you to continue to feel so loved and supported as a member of the thrIVF fam as this community means the world to me and getting to walk alongside you in your infertility journeys is truly one of the greatest honors ❤️ So here’s what you can expect from this corner of the internet over the next couple of months…

Over the last few months I’ve had several of you reach out asking for reassurance around getting the Covid-19 vaccine while going through fertility treatments. And while I’m no doctor, and therefore in no position to give medical advice, I thought it would be helpful for me to share my personal story and experience with getting the vaccine while going through fertility treatments in hopes of helping you get a little more clarity and peace of mind in making the best decision for you.

What if you don’t have to choose between IVF and getting support on your infertility journey? I know fertility treatments aren't a thing that any of us expects or budgets for… Heck, most of us end up depleting our savings, taking out loans or doing a variety of other things to be able to afford IVF treatments because we’re so committed to making it happen. (I know we did). And when you’re faced with a large unexpected expense like IVF, it can be easy to put everything else on the back burner. And feel like there’s no way in heck you could possibly add anything else to that financial load…

One of the most common things I hear from potential clients when they’re thinking about getting support from me and diving into The Joyful Journey is “This all sounds great, but I just want to talk to my partner first.” And when it comes to making an investment at this level with your time, money and energy, I think it is SO valuable to have our partners support. And, speaking from personal experience, this can also be one of the scariest conversations to have because it’s usually one of the first time that we’re truly making ourselves a priority and having to talk to another human about that makes it that much more real. So spoiler alert, if you’re suddenly feeling a little nervous about having this conversation, know that you are so not alone in that!

When Sarah started working with me she was using humor to mask a lot of her emotions and struggling from chronic headaches. She didn’t realize how much she was struggling until she found me on TikTok and realized that my content really resonated with her. As someone of “advanced maternal age” (her words not mine) who was diagnosed with PCOS and dealing with male factor infertility she wasn’t so sure how this whole thing would turn out…

So a little while back I did a poll on IG stories asking y’all if you’d be interested in me adding 10 fun or random facts about me to the website. So I decided this would be the perfect topic for a quick blog post so here we go….10 fun (and mostly random) facts about me…

I've never been big on goals. The exact precision of predicting the future never felt great to me, but intentions, I can totally get behind, and, if they’re you're cup of tea too, read on for three intentions to set for your infertility journey in the New Year.

The holiday season can be a challenging time if you’re struggling with infertility. Christmas cards can become a source of unfair comparison. Family gatherings can become a litany of dreaded questions. And messages of joy or peace can feel hollow, when your facing pain or uncertainty. Whether you’re looking for a holiday gift or developing a care package, I hope you’ll find this guide helpful in determining the best way to support yourself or a loved ones through their IVF journey.

This wasn’t the story I was expecting to share. Then again, life isn’t filled with perfect stories with happy endings. It’s a journey of messy middles. Highs and lows. And some of the best surprises you never saw coming. And here’s what I know now with more certainty than ever…

If you’ve been struggling with infertility for any length of time, you know anytime you seemingly feel fine all it takes is one or two small things to pull you back into the infertility spiral. Infertility is not only consuming. It can feel like a full-time job (that you didn’t ask for). No pay. No benefits. Just a whole lot of gross feels. So what can you do about this crazy roller coaster of emotions? Are you fine or are you truly just destined to lose it?

When you first get diagnosed with infertility, you assume it’s going to be a physical process. I mean, after all, it feels like all people are talk about are those dang shots and needles. You don’t realize how emotional infertility it is until you get into it.

Surely I’m not the only one that hears the word IVF and just pictures a bunch of needles. When we were getting ready to go through our cycle. I had a whole range of emotions. Anxiety, excitement, fear, and even a little it of hope. It finally felt like we were doing something that could actually work. But as the medication arrived, as the baseline appointment came and went, as we got closer to starting our shots. Suddenly everything felt so much more real.

Ory, my husband came home one fall evening. He had just gotten his results back from the urologist. “We need to talk,” he said. “You went to a urologist,” I said. “For what?” I could feel the nerves welling up in my stomach. He wasn’t about to say anything I would want to hear…

Every summer towards the end of July, I can’t help but think about our first IVF retrieval and the crazy, whirlwind of a month that was. And while COVID currently has our life a bit turned upside down (this month would have looked WAY different in today’s COVID world), I thought it’d be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share the story of my first IVF retrieval and (what you’re likely here for) my IVF retrieval timeline.

My husband, Ory, was in medical school when we started going through our infertility journey. We were accruing debt by the minute and my 50k higher ed salary wasn’t quite the money tree we had been searching for. We invested all this time and money into this process - the tests, the appointments, but it never once crossed my mind to invest in myself. And if you had suggested this to me at the time, I would have given you all these excuses…