SigMT

SiG MT 52 he dream of becoming parents was always at the forefront for Dillon and Lexi Udelhoven. As a teacher in Lewistown, Lexi loved spending her days surrounded by energetic, inquisitive third graders, and she and Dillon were looking forward to raising their children in the farming and ranching culture that Dillon has turned into his livelihood. Aer the twenty-something couple married in 2015, having children rocketed to the top of their to-do list. "We were pretty adamant that we wanted kids right away," Lexi recalled. "And I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom." But one year later, the young couple still hadn't conceived the child they so desperately wanted. With the encouragement of their family members, they made the two-and-one-half-hour trip from their home in Winifred to meet with Kelly Timmer, a family nurse practitioner at Benefis Health System in Great Falls who specializes in infertility care and women's health. It would be the first of countless trips they would make over the next two years. "It was always my fear that I wasn't going to be able to be pregnant," Lexi says, looking back on the uncertainty of those days. "It was really challenging." Lexi was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable and understood she immediately felt while working with Kelly. "We just kicked it off right away," she says. "She's treated me like her daughter and became like a second mom to me." Soon thereaer, Kelly diagnosed Lexi with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a hormonal imbalance-related condition that affects approximately 10 percent of women globally. e diagnosis was a double-edged sword. "I was very frustrated and upset, but at the same time, I was relieved that there was something that could be identified and that could be done," she explains. A Young Couple's Infertility Story B L E S S E D B Y T H R E E : By Holly Matkin Really Montana Photography T "The long-awaited Udelhoven boys fill their parents' days with love and laughter."

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