As many of you know if you have been a follower for a while I suffer from Low AMH or low egg count. Adelyn was our first blessing and was conceived naturally after a year of ttc but then after 18 months of trying for baby number 2 we went and got some answers as it just wasn’t happening for us. It showed I had extremely low egg count which means my body had already released majority of my eggs and each month I wasn’t actually releasing an egg. Fast forward – we were very lucky that our first IVF round split into the twins and our pregnancy and postpartum journey with them was a roller coaster but to look at them now we are forever grateful. After the twins we honestly thought we were done and in my head I never expected to want any more children. After suffering from PTSD PND and PNA I wasn’t in any mental place to even consider another baby. Then COVID hit and something in my brain flicked. Crazy right? Justin thinks I finally had accepted our journey with the twins and have moved past the pain which led me to start thinking maybe, just maybe we werent actually done…

In our full IVF cycle we had one fresh embryo which ended up being the twins with 3 frozen in the freezer. We were always up in the air about what to do with those 3 frozen embryos as to us they were potential babies. We knew we always wanted our children fairly close together and not with huge age gaps so we begun thinking maybe we should try for another one. With IVF there is so many factors to consider and weigh up. Its not an easy decision to make. There are financial costs, the injections, how my cycle , medication, will it work, wont it work, will they embryos survive, can my body hold a pregnancy again, my age , would an embryo split again and so many other factors to consider. Both Justin and I agreed that if we didn’t at least try and give those embryos a chance we would regret it in 5 years time. This decision led us back to Genea where once they re opened after the COVID isolation we went back and chatted with the team. During this time we found out my body was in perimenopause and in a few years I would be going through menopause at the age of approx 35. Another factor to consider that my body clock was running out. We took it as a sign to just go for it. We decided we would try the last viable embryos but wouldn’t go as far as doing a new full IVF cycle as we are already blessed with 3 beautiful children and if these embryos didn’t take that would be our journey to grow our family done.

Juggling when was the timing right to do a Frozen Embryo Transfer was tough but there is never a perfect time so we decided when ever my period came in Aug 2020 we would go for it. Typical my period came as we were driving down south to stay with friends for the weekend… which meant no drinking and I was so unprepared as it wasn’t due for another 5 days… The holiday was cut short as I needed bloods and to start my medication/injections on Day 3 so back up to Perth I drove with the kids after 3 days. Injections after injections, the hormones, the emotions, the juggling, the bloods tests – all my IVF/IUI ladies will understand. Compared to a full IVF cycle the FET seemed , I dont want to call it easy as it wasn’t, more like simple. There was no egg collection or surgery just the normal emotional rollercoaster that goes alongside any IVF cycle. Bloods looked good during the cycle and injections went well. Then it came to trigger time to make me ovulate, then to wait 5 days until transfer day. In the car on the way to the clinic for transfer we got the call about our first embryo. It unfortunately didn’t survive thawing and they had to take out the second one. This was one factor we knew may happen but didn’t really think it would happen to us , so we were a bit thrown. With our 3 embryos that were frozen, 2 were second grade and 1 was the lowest grade. The Drs always mentioned they wouldn’t try the last embryo as it most likely wouldn’t have success, so this was it – our last chance at a baby. After a good cry in the car we had to stay positive for us and our embryo that we could transfer. Transfer time came and the Dr mentioned, whilst i had my legs spread in stirrups, how beautiful my cervix was haha This made me laugh and brought a smile to me face as silly as the comment seemed! Starting the transfer with a laugh and happy vibes I believed helped. It felt so surreal being PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise). Knowing you are carrying such precious cargo on board is amazing yet terrifying. You don’t want to do anything ‘wrong’ to your body and the waiting game over the next 2 weeks is tough. Was especially tough as I was injecting myself with booster shots which is basically pregnancy hormones. So I felt pregnant but was I really pregnant or was it the injections? Because I had 3 of these injections over the 2 week wait I couldn’t test early as it would come up positive due to the injections. So we waited… I did test the day before my blood test as I figured it should be out of my system by then and SUPRISE it came back positive! Seeing those 2 lines on a pregnancy test will never get old after so many years of negative tests and the pain that goes alongside it. The line was strong so we were feeling pretty positive. My HCG came back high and each blood test at 5, 6 and 7 weeks came back high also… Which was scary as it was higher then the twins pregnancy. The wait until that 7 week scan to see if there was one baby or 2 or 3 was horrible. Add morning sickness in there which I didn’t get with any other pregnancy and we were very happy to see one little baby on the screen at the 7 week scan.

One happy healthy baby was growing in my belly ❤ we were so blessed once again to be able to carry another baby.