Sherri knew she wanted to be a mother. When her body refused to cooperate, she took on daily injections and endless testing to combat her infertility. Several years later, her persistence finally paid off.
Sherri's Story
"I had to have a shot, a three-inch needle, on both of my hips every day."
I had polycystic ovaries, and because of that I had a hormone problem. My eggs couldn't release, and I couldn't get pregnant. I had to go through a lot of testing, and the different tests they put me through were really physically wearing. I started getting shots – my husband would give them to me -- everyday from my period until I ovulated. Then I would go to the doctor and see if I had some eggs that were ready to pop. The shots were pretty painful.
"That was a very trying time in my and my husband's relationship."
Every time I would go into my infertility doctor's office I would say, "You need to have little pamphlets about stress out here in your lobby because everyone going through this is having stress." The best thing is to teach people how to relax and be able to make the best of it. Amazingly enough we got through it.
"The hardest thing through all of it was people's attitudes."
I had a very positive attitude about the whole thing, but we weren't telling people because you just didn't discuss that stuff. I wasn't working because it was a full time job going to the doctor to be treated. A lot of older women could be really cruel about the whole thing, saying things like, "My daughter has to work and she has children." But they had no idea, no clue. They did not understand what was going on, and that taught me that no one ever really knows the whole story of someone's journey. Even though people make comments, they don't really mean to be mean; they don't know that they are being mean.
"I cried, and I prayed, and I kept putting one foot in front of the other."
My philosophy in life is that there is a reason for everything, and if it is not meant for me, then there is another journey meant for me. There were times we thought it wouldn't happen and we might have to go the route of adoption, but that would've been fine too. If that was our journey, than that would've been our journey. I always felt like I was going to be a mom, no matter what. It took me several years, but then I actually got pregnant.
"We were a little leery about telling anyone, but then we just had to tell my father-in-law."
My father-in-law had a heart attack and was in the hospital. We had a sonogram at the same hospital the next day. We found out there was a baby in there, and then I got to be strolled into his room. I had tears flowing down my face, and the first thing he heard from me was that he was going to be a grandfather. He'd made it through heart surgery so he could be a grandfather for the first time.
"I have three children. They are my little miracles, my little blessings."
I breast fed for their whole first year of life to keep my hormones in check. People don't realize that breast feeding keeps your body in that mode of reproducing. As long as I was breast feeding, it was easier for me to get pregnant again.
"Going through the infertility helped me to appreciate life more than I did before all this."
I took things for granted. I thought if you are going to have a baby, you will have a baby, life will turn out the way you want it to. Life doesn't always turn out the way you want it to, but in the end, hopefully God gives you what you need.
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