Motherhood- My Journey

We have struggled with infertility issues for over 4 years.  After a year of “trying” and no baby we met with a fertility specialist.  I have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) so he had us try a few different drugs to help with ovulation (which made me break out like CRAZY), but still no baby.  My husband got his swimmers checked out and found out that only 1% of his sperm are normal shape and swim well enough to fertilize an egg.  The diagnosis was infertility.  The only possible way we could ever get pregnant was through In Vitro Ferilization (IVF) with ICSI (which is where they get all the good sperm and inject it directly into my egg). So, at least there was a chance to still have kids…right??

 

We jumped right into a fresh IVF cycle.  After medications, injections, ultrasounds, etc. we implanted two embryos.  Ten days later we found out it didn’t work.  We were shocked!  We ended up doing 4 more rounds of IVF.  I got pregnant on the 5th try!!!  Six weeks later I started bleeding and lost the pregnancy.  Can you say devastating!!!  At this point we were completely lost.  Is this ever going to work for us?

 

So now what???  Five rounds of IVF, no baby, and no answers.  The Dr. could not believe it hadn’t worked for us yet.  What do we do now?  Another round of IVF?  Adoption?  What?  All we wanted was a baby.

 

About 2 years ago – after 3 rounds of failed IVF cycles – my brother’s wife made the comment, “I’d totally have a baby for you guys.”  We kind of laughed and were thinking, “Yea right, there’s no way she’d really do that.”  Then she got pregnant with her 4th baby and said, “After I have this baby, I’ll just pop one out for you guys.”  We still thought, “No way, she’s just saying that.”  Then a few months after she delivered her baby she asked us “So when am I getting implanted?” We finally asked her if she was serious.  We asked her what my brother thought of this all, knowing it would have to be a joint decision.  She told us that they had already talked about it and both thought it was a great thing.  My husband and I were floored. Who would do that?  Who would go through all this IVF crap without having to?  Who would get fat and put their life on hold for a year to be pregnant for someone else? My sister-in-law!  She’s freakin’ amazing.  So my husband and I talked about it and thought it was such an awesome opportunity for us.  We met with my brother and his wife the next day for lunch and asked everything…What if you had twins? What if you were put on bed rest? What if you had to have a c-section? What if, what if, what if?  She still was 100% for it.  So we started the process…

 

We talked with our Dr. to see what we needed to do to get the ball rolling.  You have to be legally, mentally, and psychologically cleared before going through with a gestational carrier.  We already had 4 embryos in storage, so we planned on doing a frozen IVF transfer.  It took us about ten months to get all the background stuff done.

 

Our Dr. defrosted our four embryos, but only two were good.  We implanted the two embryos and waited 14 days.  My sister-in-law said she totally felt pregnant.  They drew her blood and called us that night with the news – Not Pregnant!  What the heck?  At this point we were financially and emotionally exhausted.

 

My husband and I prayed and prayed and felt good about one last try.  This was it.  Lucky number seven.  If this didn’t work we were moving on – knowing we tried everything we could.  We would try one last fresh IVF cycle and implant them into my sister-in-law.

 

A few months later we were ready.  The Dr. retrieved 33 eggs from me!!  They implanted two embryos in my sister-in-law and froze nine.  Two weeks later we found out we were PREGNANT!!  We were still so nervous, knowing our history.

 

A week and a half later my sister-in-law started bleeding.  Not spotting.  But actually bleeding.  I couldn’t believe it.  We called our Dr. and he said to go get an ultrasound.  He said it was really early but we just want to rule out an ectopic pregnancy and see what we see.  We got an ultrasound a couple hours later.  Driving to that ultrasound felt like we were driving to a funeral.

 

The ultrasound tech didn’t sound very optimistic.  She said she saw a considerable amount of blood around the uterus.  She said that it looked like one of our embryos didn’t really grow – the gestational sac was empty.  The other gestational sac had two yolk sacs inside – which means that the embryo split into identical twins.  She was worried because she didn’t see a fetal pole – which normally develops between 5-6 weeks.  We left the ultrasound with no answers.  Our Dr. told us to go back in a week for a repeat ultrasound to see if we see any progression.  We could come back and see babies, or nothing at all.  I felt like it was all over.  Our emotions were all over the place the next week.  We were so stressed out!!

 

We went back to the same ultrasound tech exactly a week later.  I walked in thinking we weren’t going to see anything.  She started the ultrasound and immediately saw a baby!!!!  She said it looked like a completely different patient.  Things were looking SO good.  The bleeding around the uterus was a lot less.  The ultrasound tech was a bit confused because she saw two babies – but this time they were in two different sacs.  The embryo she thought didn’t work actually had worked – and had a baby with a heartbeat inside!!  The best sound I have ever heard.  I immediately started bawling.  I was ecstatic!! She moved over to the other baby and started measuring that heartbeat.  My brother was looking up at the ultrasound on the big screen and thought he could see two heartbeats on that baby.  The ultrasound tech wasn’t convinced.  She was like, “No…that’s just the baby…OH MY GOSH, THERE ARE TWO HEARTBEATS OVER THERE. YOU GUYS ARE HAVING TRIPLETS!!!”  The babies were up against each other.  When she moved the ultrasound machine around you could distinctly see two babies in that sac.  I couldn’t believe it. Three freaking babies!!  One embryo split into identical twins and the other embryo grew into a baby as well.  We were all in shock.  Going from thinking we were going to see no heartbeats to seeing three heartbeats!  What a miracle!!  I can’t even explain to you the feelings that were going through me.  I’m not really a crier, but I was bawling!  SO CRAZY!!  My sister-in-law was shocked as well.  Three babies?!  She had been feeling really sick/tired the past week and was relieved it was actually for something.  We never thought we would implant two embryos and end up with three babies!!  We all just kept saying, “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Are you kidding me?”  I never thought we’d have triplets, but couldn’t be happier!

 

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We are now the proud parents of TRIPLETS – two identical boys and a little girl – born April 9th, 2013.  They are all healthy and doing well.  Our sister-in-law gave us the family we have always wanted.  What a selfless gift.  Truly amazing.

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