Hi friends! For those of you who follow me on Instagram (@coffeeandgraceblog) you know that we just announced that we are going to transfer one of our remaining 13 embryos to try for baby #3 very soon! I know the IVF world can be so confusing, so I thought I would answer some questions to help you better understand what will be happening. But first, let’s back track a little...
So, my secondary infertility story in a nutshell is that we conceived Baylee naturally, without any struggle, and the month after we got married. It goes without saying that we had no clue anything was wrong, and we thought that once we decided to try for baby #2 that the same thing would happen. We wanted our babies close in age, so we starting trying again when Baylee was only 9 months old. Two years later, we still were not pregnant.
We had been working closely with my OB and tried many cycles of clomid, but things were just not working out. After a lot of testing we found out I have PCOS and a heart shaped (bicornuate) uterus...both of which cause infertility. Basically, Baylee is an absolute miracle, because the odds of her being conceived were slim to none.
We were referred to our amazing Reproductive Endocrinologist, and after meeting and doing some tests with him, we all decided that IVF was our best bet. That’s when the whirlwind began...our meeting was in November, I started stim shots in December, and my egg retrieval was January 10th. So. Fast. We were able to harvest 27 eggs, and of those 27 that were fertilized, 15 embryos survived and were frozen! In the IVF world that’s positively amazing, and we felt so blessed. (You can read details on my stims and egg retrieval in this blog post.)
A couple months later, we transferred our first frozen embryo. I ended up pregnant, but at 7 weeks the baby’s heart stopped beating. It was absolutely crushing after all that we had been through, not to mention the money spent (not a dime was covered by insurance, we paid entirely out-of-pocket), but I kept my hopes high, and three months later we tried again. And thank goodness we did, because the result of that embryo transfer was my sweet Natty Lou!
With 13 embryos left, I truly wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But now that I feel more adjusted in the world of being a mom to two and a fire wife, I definitely feel ready to take on a third (and last!!) babe. ;)
To answer some of the questions you guys have been asking:
No, we do not get to pick the gender. We opted not to do PGS (genetic) testing which finds out the sex and has to be done before the embryos are frozen. So, this baby’s gender will be a complete surprise to us all!
We will only be transferring one embryo because with my bicornuate uterus, carrying multiples would put me at extreme high risk. There is around an 8% chance of my embryo splitting in to identical twins, but we would just have to cross that road once we got there!
The odds of a frozen embryo transfer resulting in pregnancy is about 80%, but with already having two successful transfers, my odds are more like 90%. Anything can happen though, so we still need all the prayers and good vibes!
If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask, I am an open book! I can’t thank you all enough for your love and support through this next journey!
