All couples go through a little bit of fear in those first few weeks but for us it felt like that was magnified by the fact that we had used our last embryo. So when we saw a tiny heartbeat on a scan at seven weeks I felt like I could breathe properly for the first time in a long time. We were discharged from Fertility Associates and gradually our fear of miscarriage was replaced with a mixture of fear and excitement about birth and parenthood. A wonderful feeling that has built over the last nine months.
We are unimaginably grateful to our donor. She changed our lives. She gave us hope. She saved us. And now here we are. I’m sitting on a hospital bed, a little sore and a little tired. Hubby is here with me being amazing. And we are listening to our son squawk and squeak, hoping we can get another 15 minutes before he wants to feed again. I have never been happier. Our son is the result of our love and strength as a couple, the technical skill of the staff and the generosity of a beautiful woman who showed us that humans are capable of the most selfless acts of kindness. We are unimaginably grateful to our donor. She changed our lives. She gave us hope. She saved us. The Babyhope Facebook page started as a way to help us find a donor. It turned into the story of our journey and allowed us to anonymously express ourselves so we could understand and manage our emotions. We have been overwhelmed by the messages of support that we have received through the page from friends, family and strangers. These people have all been part of our lives for two years now and we are grateful. Our doctors learned from the first round and made some changes for the second. In August 2015 our donor gave us 19 eggs! We were over the moon. 12 of the eggs fertilised and we were left with three viable five day embryos. Three chances and three reasons to hope. Our first was transferred fresh but failed to stick. The second was defrosted and transferred but again we weren’t successful. I confess that at this point I had lost hope. We had one embryo left. Only one chance to fulfil our dreams. It felt like our last chance. What if the doctor was wrong and there was another problem? What if the odds were just stacked against us?
A ray of light In November 2015 hubby sent me for a pre-transfer massage and I was happy and relaxed when our last embryo was transferred. 10 days later we received a thrilling phone call where we were told that I was pregnant. It was like a ray of light cutting through the fog of uncertainty that had surrounded us for almost 17 months.
72 kiwiparent – supporting kiwi parents through the early years
Now the purpose of Babyhope is changing again. We want to try and raise awareness of egg donation to try and help the other 100 couples out there to have the opportunity that we did. Please share this post so that we reach as many people as possible. Egg donation is not for everyone but we want people to know that it is a possibility – we want people to talk about it. Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Please tell your friends about us. Let’s talk about egg donation.
Find out more If you want some more information from the perspective of a grateful recipient couple then please message us through our page @nzbabyhope www.fertilityassociates.co.nz