Amber's Story

"Being a mom is my entire world!"

So began Amber’s submission for our Mother’s Day contest.

In a 14-minute post-Mother’s Day phone call, she generously (and often hilariously) added detail.

Told in 14 quotes, this is Amber’s Story:

1. I struggled so long and never thought I would get the opportunity to become a mom. 
2. My husband and I tried for years to naturally conceive, and it just wasn’t working. Growing up you just assume it’s really easy to get pregnant. I spent all those years preventing it, and then you're like, “Okay, well, apparently it's not as easy as I thought.”
3. Unsuccessful fertility treatments were exhausting, both physically and emotionally. You plan everything out, and then you don’t get the results you want. It's so frustrating. And you're like, “Oh, these people keep getting pregnant. Why can't I?”
4. Towards the end of 2020, I stopped taking all the medications. And I thought, “If it happens, it happens.” At that point, I didn't even expect I was ever going to have kids, and I just kind of accepted it.
5. You know how at the end of the year you make your New Year's resolutions? I said to myself, “I'm gonna start working on myself, lose weight and just try to make better choices and be healthier.” So I started a new diet, was working out, and I lost 25 pounds. And then on Valentine's Day of 2021, I found out I was pregnant. It was exciting, but then I was like, “Well, there goes my hot girl summer.”
6. When I got pregnant, I sent my husband a picture of the test. I had so many tests. I pretty much bought in bulk on Amazon all the cheapy little tests, and I took, like, three of them, just to make sure. He thought I sent him a picture of an ovulation test, because I've sent those in the past. I have a picture of him holding the real deal with a surprised look.
7. It took six long years of fertility treatments and testing and I finally had my now three-and-a-half-year-old son, Austin. He made me realize how amazing motherhood is! He opened my heart up to so many emotions I never even knew I could feel.  
8. Literally the day that I had Austin, I looked at my husband and I said, “I'm ready for another one!” And he was like, “What?” But after having Austin I knew I wanted to give him a younger sibling to grow up with. Three years later I got to bless him with a little baby brother, Callum. He’s four months old now.
9. With my second child, I didn't do any fertility. I just was like, “If it's meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
10. Austin loves Callum. He is always talking to him and playing with him. Callum just smiles every time Austin talks. It's really cute. I think they'll grow up and love/hate each other.
11. Women's Care has been with me every step of the way and I am so grateful for every single person that works there. They were all so kind and helpful. I started with Elise (Gessler), and she was wonderful. But I had gestational diabetes, and she was not a high-risk provider, so I switched over to Gretchen (Augustine), who delivered both my children. I've had numerous providers for my appointments at Women’s Care, and I've never had a bad experience.
12. And I want to give a shout out to Alicia, one of the Medical Assistants. I really enjoyed working with her; she made me feel really, really comfortable. She’s so down to earth, just super easy to get along with.
13. I'm 38 now. Do I want another one, or do I want to be done? At first, my husband said, “We're done.” Then it was, “If you want one more, we can do one more.” But if it's going to be another three years, I don't know if I want to be that old having another baby.
14. My husband is older than I am and has kids from previous marriages. His 24-year-old son just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. So technically we’re grandparents with a four-month-old.