We can’t believe it! We have our very own Baby Hunter arriving in August! And yes, Baby Hunter is a GIRL!
It is a complete and utter miracle!
If you want the whole story of how she came to be you can keep reading, but it’s a long one!
In September we went through our 2nd round of IVF and experienced a miscarriage in October. We did have 2 embryos to freeze from that cycle. Only a week after our miscarriage we went in to meet with our doctor. Looking at everything we have been through she determined that egg quality, most likely abnormalities in genetics/DNA in my eggs, was what was causing our embryos to arrest (die) prematurely before day 5 and then also die inside the uterus after implantation (my miscarriage and my chemical pregnancy after our first round of IVF). There is nothing you can really do medically or lifestyle wise to increase your egg quality since you are already born with all of your eggs. Basically your born with it and they don’t know why and it’s really rare.
At this appointment we decided we would have our two frozen embryos genetically tested so we could know if they were genetically abnormal. In a long and hard battle like infertility knowledge brings so much peace. We also felt like we would feel a sense of closure and move on to other options for expanding our family without wondering “what if?” if we knew for sure all of our embryos were genetically abnormal.
The process of genetic testing (PGD) is crazy! Science is such a gift from God! Our little frozen embryos (tiny multi celled babies) were 5 days old when they were frozen. To be genetically tested, you thaw the embryo, biopsy a few cells (the ones that will form the placenta so they don’t harm the baby), send the biopsied cells to a lab for testing and re-freeze the embryo. As you can imagine this testing is not cheap. You pay a one time fee and can send up to 8 embryos to test, so just sending two meant that we were spending a lot more per embryo than most people, but we decided to move forward.
I got a call on the day of the biopsy that one of our two embryos had “shriveled up and died” in the thawing process (98% of embryos survive thawing). I was shocked and so devastated. We consider each of these embryos our babies. It was yet again another loss. We were then asked if we even wanted to test the other one or just discard it. With the statistics we had – around 60 eggs retrieved and 59 of those had died (that’s over 98% ) – odds were overwhelmingly telling us this last egg was also abnormal. For some reason I said no still test that one and hung up the phone. I then started thinking about how much money we were spending to test just one embryo when the odds overwhelmingly told me it wasn’t worth it. I called back and said no don’t test it, we already really know what the results will say. But they said it was too late, the biopsy was already done and ready to be sent.
A week later I got a call from one of my nurses saying the results were in and that the embryo came back genetically normal. I WAS SHOCKED! So was our doctor and everyone at the fertility clinic. They said it was a miracle. That they never would have told us in a million years told us to expect that result. Then they asked me if I wanted to know the sex of the baby (since they saw the whole DNA strand) and I was like YES YES YES!! When she said it was a little girl I started crying! It made it so real know it was a girl!
From there it was a whirlwind of emotions. I felt like I still hadn’t emotionally recovered from my miscarriage and that I had almost mourned completely the loss of ever being able to get pregnant. So then all of a sudden to be right back in everything was a little overwhelming. The very next day I started the gigantic shots in my bum and a few weeks later they became daily. Before we knew it it was the day of our transfer. It went so well! Baby girl thawed perfectly and our amazing Dr. Conway placed her perfectly in my uterus. I have the MOST amazing doctor and nurses. They are like family to me! I was on bed rest for Thanksgiving which made for a memorable day (so grateful for a Hubby who gives me all my shots and takes such good care of me through all of it)
At our transfer
Although we knew baby girl was genetically normal which increases success rates and lowers miscarriage rates, I was still so worried if she would stick. If she didn’t that would give us a lot of answers about my body (that I could probably never carry a child). So ya, I was a little anxious haha. Your official pregnancy blood test is 10 days after your transfer, but I can never wait! I took a home pregnancy test 6 days after transfer and it was a strong positive. I had never had that before in any of the previous IVF attempts. We were cautiously optimistic. You put up protective walls after years of loss and failures.
We got our official positive 10 days after with a great number at our blood draw. We were excited but still guarded. We have slowly become more and more excited as the weeks have gone by. The moment it felt real to me was our first ultrasound at 6 weeks when we first heard her heartbeat. We couldn’t see anything but a small dot, but her heartbeat was so strong and so beautiful. Each ultrasound has been equally amazing! (that’s the plus to struggling so long with infertility, lots of early ultrasounds!) The 3rd ultrasound at 9 weeks is when she first looked like a baby instead of a peanut. We saw her waving her little arms and kicking her little legs. She sure is a wiggler! AH it is still so unreal.
I have been so excited to announce this! It has been the hardest secret to keep! I had planned on waiting till 12 weeks, but after our 11 week ultrasound at our OBGYN I just couldn’t wait any more! We love this little girl more than words can express! We cannot wait to watch her grow over the coming months and to meet her! Our official due date is August 11th, which makes me 11 weeks tomorrow!
P.S. Yes I have been very sick (all day morning sickness since week 6) but I don’t care one bit! Bring it on! I love it!!
Our gorgeous announcement photos are by Ashley Morgan Photography. She is the cutest and SO incredibly talented!
