Lauren Walker has shared her two and a half year struggle to fall pregnant in a powerful Facebook post.
Now expecting twins, Lauren, from Texas, announced her pregnancy with a picture of the 452 needles she administered as part of her IVF treatment, arranged in a circle around two tiny baby onesies.
It took Lauren corrective surgery, four clomid/letrozole attempts, two rounds of IVF and three failed transfers to fall pregnant.
“Taking out these needles by the handful to take this photograph was… surreal,” Lauren captioned the post. “Not because I was sad about what it took to get here, but because it was a representation of my world, our world, for the past over two and a half years staring back at me.”
“There was a lot of pain, hope and fear behind each of these needles.”
Lauren continues: “The hardest part of this journey wasn’t having to do IVF. Getting to that fork in the road is heartbreaking and difficult for anyone, but it was not my darkest hour.”
“My darkest hour was going through an entire cycle and losing embryo after embryo; 5. Coming so far only to miscarry.”
“Feeling broken and empty physically, emotionally and above all, spiritually. I remember nights clutching my shattered heart and empty belly crying.”
Lauren ends the post with a message to her two unborn children, who she reveals she and her husband have named Duke and Diana. They are due in August.
“Duke and Diana, you are already so loved. You are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalms 139:14). Mommy and Daddy cannot wait to hold you in our arms, for we have carried you in our hearts for a lifetime.”
Lauren shared her experience to give hope to women trying to fall pregnant.
Read the full post here.
