Woman, 44, Spends 6 Years Doing IVF and Undergoes Surgery Only to Get One Viable Embryo — What Happens Next Is Amazing (Exclusive)

When Lindsay Albanese first saw her baby daughter, she had one of those movie-magic moments of experiencing a "true miracle" — because she wasn't always certain she'd get to be a mom.

"It is indescribable and such a relief," the 44-year-old tells PEOPLE of welcoming her daughter Saeyer Essx in February. "I think that's where I get really emotional about my daughter. I look at her and I think six years of trying, six years of IVF, multiple rounds of everything, surgeries, and you are the one embryo that survives."

"If that isn't meant to be, I don't know what it is," the new mom shares, adding, "It's like magic."

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Related: Celebrities Who've Opened Up About Their Emotional IVF Journeys

It almost didn't happen. Albanese, who began her career as a celebrity stylist and now works as a social media influencer, started trying to get pregnant at 38 and decided to document her journey online since she knew she was having a baby a little bit later than others might.

"I met my husband the good old-fashioned way, drunk at a bar in 2006," Albanese jokes, noting that the two are very career-focused and both own their own businesses. They spent the first part of their marriage feeling "very fulfilled," spending their time running their businesses and traveling the world. But when she hit 38, Albanese realized that if they were going to become parents, they were running out of time.

"Our first loves were our careers, so age caught up and I was like, 'Okay, if we're going to do this, we need to do it now,' " she recalls thinking. "I took out my birth control and then that started the long journey of not being able to conceive, going to different doctors and feeling pressure to just go right into IVF without looking deeper to see, well, why can't I get pregnant?"

After two years of trying, Albanese and her husband turned to intrauterine insemination (IUI) on a doctor's recommendation. They endured the process five times with no success, leading their fertility specialist to suggest in vitro fertilization (IVF).

"I just felt in my gut that something else was wrong," Albanese says. "If it wasn't for that feeling, I know I wouldn't be pregnant right now."

Shortly after her doctor recommended IVF, Albanese was driving in the car and heard actress Gabrielle Union talking about her own infertility struggles. When the star said that she was ultimately diagnosed with endometriosis, something clicked for Albanese.

"I was like, 'Oh my god, this is a sign,' " she says, explaining she researched the same doctor as Union and scheduled an appointment. "And I'm not kidding when I tell you this, within 10 minutes of just [the doctor] doing the ultrasound, she said I had endometriosis [and] I had a cartilage septum growth in the middle of my uterus where 80% of implantation occurs."

Albanese learned she had to have laparoscopic surgery and would then have to wait a year before going through three more rounds of IVF. After going through the process, Albanese and her husband ended up with just one embryo — and successfully got pregnant.

"And the crazy part is it just takes one," she says. "One plus one does not equal two in your fertility journey. Just because you have a lot of eggs doesn't necessarily mean your odds are better. For me, I only had eight, and then one lasted. I thought I was doomed."

When she first learned she was pregnant, Albanese explains that she didn't fully let the good news sink in.

"When you go through such a traumatic experience of so many years of trying, being undiagnosed, then being diagnosed, we had multiple failed IUIs, multiple failed IVF rounds," she says. "You start to guard yourself, so you start to feel like you have a wall up."

Saying she was "very neutral" when she first learned she was pregnant, Albanese notes that she didn't want to "get ahead of myself" because there was a lot that had to happen to ensure that the pregnancy would stick.

"You're just so scared to give in to the emotion until you really know that your chances of miscarrying are very slim because you're just trying to protect yourself," Albanese explains.

She was also worried that her pregnancy might be harder than others because she was expecting her daughter at 44. Although Albanese says her pregnancy was "pretty uneventful," she did have to abide by a few different rules since there was "zero room for error."

"Zero working out since two weeks before the embryo transfer, because doctors will say that rigorous exercise is just not good when you want to conceive," Albanese explains, adding that she was able to walk five to six days a week.

"I truly believe that helped with everything, circulation, mindset, swelling, just the overall health of my mind and body," she says.

Despite needing to have a C-section, Albanese had a relatively easy birth and has been recovering at home with her baby girl. Now when she looks into her daughter's eyes, she thinks about all she went through just to have her one chance at being a mom.

"It's such a spiritual thing," she says. "You were supposed to be here against all odds. We only had one chance, and you're here."

"And I think anybody embarking on this journey would agree because you think right away that more increases your odds, but I'm here to share it only takes one, and it's possible."

Read the original article on People