2010 ended up being a huge year for Amber and me.

Amber started the year celebrating her 30th birthday in epic 80′s style with her sisters surprising her by flying down from up north. Probably the best start to a year that was going to end up being an emotional rollercoaster.

We finished building and moved into our very first home together, we worked very hard to be able to save up and buy some nice new furniture and everything else that we needed to make our house perfect. Who would have thought that owning a house (or sharing with the bank at least) would feel so amazing? It took us almost 2 years to finish the garden and we still haven’t finished painting inside – But we made it pretty and homely enough.

We also welcomed a new member into our family.

Our little fur baby Ruby. Such a great addition, she is so loyal and can make us feel so needed and can on the occasion make everything feel better with one little cuddle. Sure we had our moments with her – and still do! But I thank God we ended up getting her, the poor doggy that nobody wanted.I was very lucky to witness my first Nephew be born in September and was very lucky to welcome another Nephew in December 2010. It was a great year for new additions to the family! This was definitely a great part of the year!

We also had 5 attempts of IUI. That was not easy. We had really had enough by the end of our 5th attempt, which was also our 5th negative result in October 2010. I remember not long before our 5th cycle Amber’s mum was going to Bali and quite last-minute we decided we wanted to go also. We hijacked her holiday with her friends and tagged along too. I think that it was something we really needed to do. We weren’t sure if we would be going with Amber pregnant or not. It was October that we ended up going and it was not long after we had got our last negative result for the year and it was great to relax and unwind with a group of people. We also visited an orphanage, it was beautiful to see these children that had a rough life and realise how lucky we were to have everything that we do have. It was a highlight of our trip.

After getting back from Bali, Amber had made an appointment with our Doctor at Concept to see why she wasn’t falling pregnant.

We both went into the appointment and had a bundle of questions. The doctor said she wasn’t sure why Amber wasn’t falling pregnant and had thought it would be a good idea to do exploratory surgery. We weren’t sure exactly what this meant but the Doctor assured us that it was nothing major, just wanting to check out that Amber didn’t have endometriosis or other problems in our around her uterus. We consented to the surgery and it was booked in for December 21 2010. Dr Williams explained we could try while we waited for the surgery but we decided there was no point spending money on any other attempts and it was a good idea to give Amber’s body a break.

Being a week before Christmas I couldn’t take time off work and Ambers Nan took Amber in and home from her surgery. We had our kids Christmas party at work that day and I was busy with that until around 4 that afternoon. I got a call at one stage saying she was at home and ok. Not long after that Amber called and asked me to come home (I was just about to leave anyway) she had been vomiting and was not feeling very well. We ended up spending most of the night in Emergency with Amber experiencing a migraine from hell and bleeding from the entry site and nausea. The people at Armadale were amazing and caring. After a few days, Amber was feeling better. We had to wait until the next year for our follow-up appointment with our doctor, so of course, we stayed on our baby-making break to give Ambers body a good old rest!

Finally, Christmas came along but there was a lot going on with our family and after spending Xmas Eve with my family (our tradition) we ended up spending most of Christmas day in our new house sweating it out in the middle of a ridiculous heatwave alone and feeling sorry for ourselves. We ended up tagging along with my mum to my cousin’s house. We hadn’t seen that side of the family for a while and it was nice to catch up with them all again.

2010 was a year of ups (holidays, new family members and new houses) and plenty of downs (too many negative pregnancy results and family dramas) and on New Year’s Eve of 2010, we just wished that we might get pregnant in 2011. As it turned out the roller coaster of 2011 was just as rough and unpredictable as 2010!