For millions of Americans, getting pregnant isn't easy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in9couples struggle to concieve.
Dan Majesky and his wife, Leah, were a part of that statistic for a long time.
But after more than three years of trying, the couple is finally expecting. Majesky posted this photo of his wife's sonogram. Although it's a little hard to make out what's what, he wrote: "We are pregnant. ... Arms and legs and moving around. We're very excited, but I'll be holding my breath for 26ish weeks."
Majesky's Facebook post wasn't like any other typical baby announcement taking over your feed; the dad-to-be went into detail about the infertility struggles he and his wife faced, hoping "maybe this helps someone else feel less alone."
He described the rounds of medical visits, different hormone therapies, failed pregnancy tests and the emotions that came with each step.
One of those emotions — jealousy.
He wrote: "So you wait. And it's negative, but you hope, and you see your friends getting pregnant, and you get a little sad. But you get mad at yourself because you want to feel happy for other people, and that's not fair to them. And then the 17-year-old across the street gets pregnant, and you get a little sadder. And your cousins get pregnant, and you get a little sadder."
Perhaps the most devastating part of the process for Majesky and his wife — hearing a heartbeat one day, and not the next. He wrote, "People lose babies all the time. Miscarriage. But no one talks about it. No one gets on Facebook and tells their friends."
The dad-to-be's sincere honesty could be why this Facebook post has been shared thousands of times in the past few days.
Majesky acknowledged many couples have faced even tougher obstacles in their quest to start a family and said, "I hesitate to share this because I don't want anyone to read this and feel what we felt, watching others' dreams come true."
But for the Majesky family, a dream is coming true. By the way — it's a girl, and she's due in November.
This video includes images from Getty Images, and music provided courtesy of APM Music.
