Infertility. It's something that I never struggled with unless I count the five months I waited to get pregnant with Johannah.
Fortunately, Glo has an OB/Gyn for a father, and a mother who listens to the Spirit and stays on top of things.
Glo and Gordon started thinking about getting pregnant in January, 2024, four months before Glo was graduating from college, and five months after they got married. Gordon didn't want to try right away (despite Glo wanting to be a mom as soon as she was done with school) because they weren't living together at the time (she was in Utah, and he was in Arizona) and he felt like he should be there through her pregnancy. So when they started trying, they didn't think it would take very long.
Heavenly Father laughs at us and our ignorance, I'm sure.
Months passed, Glo's acne returned with a vengeance from being suppressed for ten years with BCP, and no pregnancy.
Nine months passed, and we celebrated Glo's 25th birthday in October. In just one year, she would be kicked off of our insurance. I encouraged John to reach out to a reproductive endocrinologist, and he knew just the man, Dr. Hamoud.
Both doctors had a bit of an issue because it hadn't been a year since they started trying, but in my mind, if we waited until the year mark, Glo would need to get pregnant that month to cover the birth under our insurance. I fudged the numbers a bit, and Glo and Gordon started getting work-ups.
Infertility. It causes a couple of lose all sense of modesty or decorum. They are forced to do things that normal humans don't have to do. For one, Gordon had to be worked up with a sperm sample. Most places have a stack of porn to look through or movies to watch, but that wasn't going to work for this sweet couple. So when Glo started to go back with Gordon, the staff treated her with judgement and rather rudely. She stood up for herself and her values.
And then Glo, who had never had a pelvic exam, headed in to be worked up as well.
Turns out, the issue was with Gordon. He started taking various meds and had to change up his lifestyle (no more sitting in a chair for eight hours at a time at work). Three months later, still no pregnancy.
So Glo went in for saline vaginal ultrasound in January, two weeks before she was to begin a round of Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). Dr. Hamoud asked her about pelvic exams, and she bluntly told him that she'd never had one. So a first pelvic exam coupled with a saline vaginal ultrasound. Wow. But when she came out to the waiting room, she seemed nonplussed and told me that he could tell she should get pregnant that night if she was going to get pregnant because the egg was RIGHT THERE.
At this point, Glo didn't really pay attention to dates anymore. It gets emotionally exhausting after a year, and I think Glo was just of the mindset of letting things happen if they were going to happen.
But me? I marked ALL of the dates on my calendar....and two weeks later she wasn't talking about getting her period (which she has always done being of the generation who doesn't believe in NOT talking about menstruation openly). And I kept waiting. No news at all.
After a few more weeks, I figured she must've gotten her period and hadn't told me.
So the night of my birthday (which also happens to be Gordon's birthday...but 30 years apart), Glo told me that she needed an hour or so to give Gordon his birthday present, so they headed down to the basement. When she came up, I had a truckload of presents on the table, but one was marked "Open this last".
You would think with the shape of the gift and knowing what I know that I would've realized what was happening....but NO. No clue at all. (To be honest, I've never suspected Rebecca's cute and sneaky announcements either. Someday I won't be fooled.)
But one tear into the gift and I was in tears. And hugging Glo. And still crying.
As Glo says, we Kennedys are always pushed to the limit. All the way up to scheduling the IUI...and she gets pregnant. She hadn't even thought about the dates until that day when she wondered when her period was coming. So she went and bought a cheap pregnancy test, and a fancy one. When the cheap one came back positive, she double checked with the fancy one, and gave that one to me.
I don't know that this birthday gift will ever be topped <3
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