Words by Kellie Tapp | @tap.into.ivf |
Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned. We all know that. They even tell us, “Life is like a roller coaster.” Our pregnancy journey has been a roller coaster full of ups and downs, but for some reason, it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the ones I’ve been on at Disney World. Our ride somehow went up as high as the mountaintops quickly and continued to keep taking plunges downhill, never coming back up again… or so we thought.
In 2020, Michael and I got pregnant naturally and carried what we thought was a healthy baby for almost 14 weeks. We were full of joy and dreaming of what our baby would look like, act like, and everything else in-between. Because of COVID, ultrasounds were without a spouse, which wasn’t fun, but it was always exciting to jump in the car and show Michael pictures of our tiny little nugget. What we thought would be another routine appointment ended up being a moment that changed our lives.
After several normal-looking ultrasounds, the nurse didn’t say much while she was scanning. Afterward, the doctor came back and told me that things didn’t seem to be developing the way they were supposed to. She didn’t think the baby would make it full term, and if he/she did, they would probably be born with many health problems due to lots of fluid buildup, among other things. That walkout to the car was tough, conveying this information to Michael, who would be blindsided. We prayed that things would change, but the doctor said at this point, it would probably be a waiting game to miscarry our baby.
During that time of heartbreak and uncertainty, we also got my genetic blood carrier screening back that we had done a few weeks prior. Yet again, more bad news. I told you this roller coaster kept going downhill!
It turns out I’m a carrier of Duchenne, which is a severe form of Muscular Dystrophy. Who would’ve ever thought? I know I didn’t, nor the doctor. We have no family history of this. We are young and didn’t have any issues getting pregnant. Maybe we were naive to think our baby couldn’t possibly have any major health issues, but reality sure set in quickly.
We ended up losing our sweet baby, and the journey after the loss was hard.
After meeting with the doctor several months later, she recommended that we go the IVF route for a chance to have a healthy baby. We started looking into what this was and how we could afford it, and we were overwhelmed with all this process entailed. We started by doing a fundraiser selling t-shirts and sweatshirts, and we were over the moon when we ended up selling over 500 shirts, which gave us enough to begin our IVF journey.
In May 2021, I began my shots and medication for our egg retrieval. It was exhausting, but knowing what “could be” made it more bearable. On June 30, I went in for my egg retrieval, and we were shocked to find out they had retrieved 28 eggs! The days after felt like a century, but we were blessed to find out that 21 of those fertilized eggs, 15 ended up being frozen.
We continued with more medication and injections to start our cycle for our FET (frozen embryo transfer). Each night, as I would sit on an ice pack numbing the area before my injections, I would pray that this process would work. I prayed that we would be lucky enough to hold our baby before 2022 was over.
On September 23, I went in for my frozen embryo transfer (FET). The doctor said things went perfectly, but we knew there were still a lot of hoops to jump through before we could get too excited. We did all the IVF superstitions known to man; wore my lucky socks to transfer, ate pineapple core, drank pomegranate juice, and even got McDonald’s fries right after the transfer. Of course, everyone tells you not to take a pregnancy test before you go in for your bloodwork, but we all do it, right?
I took multiple tests a day, starting just two days after my transfer. On day four post-transfer, I got a faint positive line on my test! I probably took five more tests directly afterward, just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things! When Michael came through the door home from work, I ran and showed him the test, and we were thrilled but still trying to contain our emotion until the doctor said things looked good themselves. After several appointments, we could finally be excited!
We are now so blessed and thankful to say that our baby girl is due in June of this year, and I am currently 22 weeks pregnant. It looks like our rollercoaster made its way back uphill after all. For those still on your journey, just know that the devil has a plot but that God has a plan for each of you.