As a birth doula, I’ve seen hundreds of births, but nobody can tell a birth story like the birthing mother.
“Our birth story starts in June 2020. We knew we would have to employ the help of a fertility specialist in order to even have a chance at having a baby together.
We first met with Dr. Andrew Toledo of Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) in June 2020.
In November we began all the initial workup and pre-screening procedures that needed to occur, before we could move forward with retrievals.
Once all the preliminary testing was completed, we were slated to do our first round of IVF, which included retrievals for both of us. This stimulation cycle and retrieval cycle occurred in April 2021. We were so incredibly hopeful! This hope quickly faded to disappointment.
We were left with only 1 viable embryo.
On July 22, 2021 we transferred our one and only embryo with a lot of love and hope for the future. The next 10 days, known as the two week wait (TWW), went by incredibly slowly as we awaited to find out our results. Fast forward to August 2 when we got the call.
I knew immediately upon answering the phone that the results were not in our favor. Our embryo transfer had failed and our hearts were shattered.
It took several weeks to pick up the pieces to even think about how we’d move forward.
During the process of our first round, I actually stumbled across the name of a fertility consultant out of California, Tasha Blasi and her program, The FU Project (Fertilities Unite). During our “waiting” period she held what she called a “Fertility Boostcamp” which was a mini series of workshops for all things fertility.
It was through this workshop series that I realized that we needed her support moving forward with another stimulation and retrieval cycle.
The first stimulation and retrieval cycle did not yield the results we expected and even led to a near overstimulation scenario for me. We made the investment in her program and with Tasha’s (and her team’s) guidance we were able to present an alternative stimulation protocol to Dr. Toledo in order to attempt to yield different results this time around… and boy did it!
With our second stimulation and retrieval cycle we had 12 eggs vs. 8 retrieved, 11 of which were mature compared to only 4 the first time. After 24 hours we had 3 eggs that fertilized and we did a fresh transfer of our three day 3 embryos. We also had 7 additional embryos that fertilized on day 2 after the retrieval that the lab would continue to watch for development.
This was a huge victory in this process as we began our next TWW. On February 23, 2022 we got the call that we hoped we wouldn’t get- another negative pregnancy test. Our hearts were shattered once more. We did however have a total of 4 embryos of the remaining ones that fertilized “on ice” that could potentially be used in the future.
At this point we went back to the drawing board meeting with Dr. Toledo and Tasha to come up with a plan for moving forward with our next transfer cycle. Prior to a third transfer cycle, we repeated many of the initial workup tests/procedures in an effort to leave no stone unturned.
Once we were ready to move forward with our transfer we actually ran into a small roadblock- I was not starting my period. With IVF, everything is centered around your menses and the timing of when it starts.
Despite our best efforts my body was not cooperating and I actually did not have a period for the month of September 2022, despite our efforts to force a period, my body actually moved into an ovulation cycle. This actually played to our favor as with our previous 2 transfers my uterine lining was very thin- it measured the absolute minimum in order to be able to move forward with transfer.
Not this time- my endometrial lining was at an optimal thickness between the lack of a menstrual cycle and the addition of a medication (at Tasha’s recommendation).
Once ovulation was confirmed, we were scheduled for our embryo transfer- in 6 days (normal lead time for a transfer is 21 days). We would be doing a modified natural transfer cycle vs. a true medicated cycle. On October 12, 2022, 2 days before my birthday, we transferred 2 embryos.
We had a lot of love and hope for the future.
Following this transfer we kept life normal during our TWW. With the previous 2 transfers, our life was pretty much on hold. I did nothing but sit at home. This time our transfer was on a Wednesday, and that Friday, we headed to Knoxville! We attended the Tennessee Alabama football game.
We had the time of our lives!
On October 21, 2022 we got the phone call we had been hoping and praying so long for-
we were pregnant!
The nerves didn’t stop there- this was just our first of 3 hCG tests that we needed and each one needed to double. Thankfully, it did and we were confirmed to be pregnant. The wait for our first ultrasound was nerve wracking- especially since I was one of the lucky women that experienced implantation bleeding.
The entire month of November was spent on pins and needles, holding our breaths as we awaited our “graduation day” from RBA. This day finally came on November 28, 2022. It was a beautiful day!
We were ready to move on to our regular OB care.
When deciding which OB to work with, we considered a lot of factors. We ultimately moved forward with Carson Ragan, a midwife with OB2Me. I had worked with her many years prior, when she was still in traditional practice. It was the personalized and detailed care that Carson provided that sealed the deal for us. Rather than stay with my traditional big practice and not know who would be on call to deliver our miracle, surprise gender baby, we wanted the comfort in knowing that Carson would be the one to attend the delivery- even if we ended up with a C-section.
As the months went by, I had the most perfect and uneventful pregnancy with care provided by Carson and her backup midwife, Hannah Meurer. We couldn’t have asked for a better care team in the two of them. As the end of my pregnancy drew near, we actually ended up severing ties with our maternal fetal medicine specialist and only saw Carson- I was considered high risk but not with anything that Carson and Hannah couldn’t manage themselves.
Around week 37 the discussion of induction came up. Due to my history of IVF and the fact I was on blood thinners (for an incidental finding of a potential clotting disorder), it was recommended that I be induced at 39w. This is not something we expected or were planning for, but we trusted Carson implicitly to steer us in the right direction.
At 39w, we arrived at the hospital on a Friday night to start the induction. Our induction went for 3 days before our little miracle arrived via an unplanned, but medically necessary C-section. It was a whirlwind of a weekend with many highs and many lows that ultimately led to the beautiful birth of our baby girl. We are so incredibly thankful to have had the support of Carson and Ob2Me, Dr. Frederick of Nile Women’s Health, Maegan Hall, our atlanta birth doula and photographer, and the nursing/support staff of North Fulton Hospital for ensuring that I and our baby were safe throughout the labor and delivery process.
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