Recap Part 2
Our fertility clinic waits nine days to do your pregnancy test. Nine days is a long time, especially if your ninth day falls on a Sunday and you have to wait an extra day. However nothing compares to the wait between your beta and your first ultrasound at six weeks. For me this was the most excruciatingly long 14 days of any of our fertility treatments. Based on our betas, we could be having one or two babies. We prayed for both embryos, and hoped that we would find out we were having two perfect, healthy babies. On the morning of our ultrasound, I was so nervous. So much can happen in between your beta test and your ultrasound, I was just hoping and praying we would hear two little heartbeats. When the doctor showed us the screen there was one sac, one baby, and one perfect heartbeat at 124 bpm. It was such a wonderful and sad moment all at once. We were amazed to see our baby for the first time, yet disappointed to know another one of our embryos did not make it. Out of thirteen embryos that fertilized in our IVF cycle, only one had made it.
If you haven’t gone through the process it’s hard to describe the emotion that comes with finding out you are pregnant. Like most difficult situations, I’m sure each IVF momma handles it differently. While we were excited to tell friends and family, there was still doubt that our baby would continue to grow. While seeing our baby and hearing the heartbeat has made it feel more real, there is still a part of me that will always be amazed that we hit each milestone – 2nd trimester, anatomy ultrasound, viability, etc. I feel so blessed by this miracle, but even now with all the nighttime morning sickness, heightened emotions, and food aversions, I am sometimes still in disbelief that this is really happening. The thought that in six months we will be holding our sweet baby is still so surreal.
We had started telling our family and friends slowly since we really wanted to have our ultrasound to feel more confident that this was going to be a viable pregnancy. We knew they were all praying and excited right along with us and wanted to enjoy telling each person or family in a unique way. We told some people over dinner, some over the phone, some we surprised with just our sweet ultrasound picture. No matter how we told people, everyone was so happy to hear our news. The community of people that supported us in this journey have made the hard days bearable and the good days so much better. A large part of our support system has been our fertility doctors and nurses. One of the best and most emotional days was our graduation from our fertility clinic.
July 13th we went in our for eight week ultrasound and our final fertility clinic visit. It was one of the best days I’ve had over the past few years. Our doctor showed us our little miracle and pointed out all the good growth markers she could see on a baby the size of a blueberry. She talked to us about transitioning to our OB clinic and answered lots of questions. She shared in our excitement and told us she was confident we would have a healthy pregnancy. Robert asked if she had any guesses as to why we couldn’t conceive on our own. She told us there was no way to know for sure why we couldn’t conceive, but her theory is that our sperm and egg were not able to fertilize on their own.
Unexplained infertility is especially difficult to deal with on an emotional level, because you always wonder if less stress, more patience, more faith was all that was needed to conceive. Thankfully we had amazing doctors who encouraged us through our days of doubts, but didn’t rush us into our treatments. I truly could write pages and pages on how much I love Tennessee Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Scotchie, Dr. Murray, all the nurses, the embryologists, and their back office staff are wonderful. I know the Lord used each of their amazing abilities to help create this little life, and we are forever grateful to them. Our appointment ended with lots of hugs and congratulations and with just a few tears from me as we closed the fertility treatment chapter of our journey.
Our next big step in our pregnancy was our initial visit with our OB office. We had our first appointment July 31st. I have been seeing the same midwife since I was 18, and it was great to get to talk to her about all the upcoming appointments, how their office handles deliveries, hospitals, and so much more. She answered all of our questions, and we were even able to hear our baby’s heartbeat at a staggering 181 bpm! This brings us almost up to today. Our hearts are full, and we are so thankful for the last thirteen weeks we've had to love on our baby.
With Love,
Ashton
