Once we made the decision to start trying for a family we never expected it to take 7 years in total.

We watched friends and family announce they were expecting and their little bundles of joy come into the world. Time ticked along and after a year we visited our GP and were told we were still young, keep trying it will happen. After another year we went back and the referral started.

All the tests came back with inconclusive results, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I had a laparoscopy which revealed a slight endometriosis which was removed. We had a few IUI’s (intrauterine insemination) which were unsuccessful and by this point baby number 2’s for our friends and family started arriving and although we were happy for them it did make us think is it ever going to happen for us? It was at this point IVF was mentioned.

Anyone going down this route will know there is a lot of paperwork involved at this stage. We were given all the paperwork early December and decided to take Christmas off from the process go out and enjoy ourselves and submit the paperwork Early January.

Once all paperwork was all submitted it was just a waiting game of getting the timings right. And at the beginning of May 2018 we were off to Lister hospital in London for an egg collection and sperm sample. We chose to come back to Jersey between the egg collection and transfer to try and keep costs down. We received a phone call to say the embryos were doing well we had 6 at this point and told to come back into Lister in 2 days.

Once at Lister they were super nice and put you at ease. 1 embryo was transferred the other 5 were put in the “freezer”. We were then sent on our way with big good luck from the doctors and nurses at Lister.

The next 2 weeks until you can take a pregnancy test are a pretty long wait. I remember taking the test very well. It was a Sunday morning. I got up while my husband was still asleep. I was nervous, I didn't want to wake him as I didn't want his nerves while waiting for the blue line/lines to appear. Once the longest 2 minutes ever was up I plucked up the courage to look and there they were... the 2 lines. We were so lucky it had worked first time!

In January 2019 we welcomed our little girl Ashleigh. She is a wonderful little smiley ball of energy and has bought so much joy to us and our friends and family. She is loved by all the older girls in our group of friends and she loves playing with all the big girls.

After a year we received a letter from Lister about our frozen embryos. With luck being on our side first time and us not getting any younger we decided to donate the remaining embryos to medical research.

My advice to anyone going through this is share what is happening with friends and family. We were very open about what was going on and I think this helped with the process. Also take copies of everything as you never know when you might need them to refer back to.

- Lauren is pictured with her little miracle Ashleigh

- Photo credit - Sophie Darwin Photography