When you are happily married and you want a child, most people want to get pregnant the second they start trying. After 6 months of trying to get pregnant, I went and saw my OBGYN. She ran some basic tests and everything seemed normal so she referred my husband and I to a fertility specialist. After both of us going through multiple tests, we got diagnosed with “unexplained infertility”. Basically all of our tests came back normal.
After a few more months of trying our fertility specialist suggested trying an IUI. An IUI is where they basically take what looks like a turkey baster and shoot your spouses sperm directly into your uterus during the time of ovulation. After going through a month of shots and daily blood work to predict when I’m going to ovulate, we did the procedure with high hopes. Two weeks later I went back for more blood work and I got the dreaded call saying “we are sorry, but you aren’t pregnant”. Our fertility specialist suggested trying another IUI. So this time they upped my dosage of shots trying to make sure I add more than one egg which would hopefully increase my chances of getting pregnant. I went through the two weeks of giving myself injections into my stomach and heading to my fertility office every single morning so they could check my estrogen and progesterone levels. The IUI went well, but again two weeks later after my blood test, I got another dreaded call. I left work in tears.
That week I received two phone calls that two of my best friends were pregnant. Of course, one of them it was an “accident”. Needless to say, that was a miserable week. Most insurance companies will not pay for an IVF procedure unless you first do three IUI’s. Back we headed for another round of shots and going to my doctor’s office every morning. Again, a perfect IUI procedure, but the same results: “not pregnant”. Since we did three IUI’s insurance would now cover our IVF procedure. We were so lucky that we had insurance that covers this because one IVF procedure runs approximately $20,000 with drugs and the actual procedure. This time I had multiple shots a day. I had to give myself two shots in my stomach every morning and another two shots every evening. I also had to give myself one inter muscular shot in my bum every night. That one was not fun!
At my egg retrieval they were able to get 13 eggs. My number playing sports was always number 13, so I thought that was a great sign. Out of those 13, 7 fertilized (half usually fertilize, so that was normal) and all 7 were grade A (yes they rate embryos like they rate eggs), which is the highest rating you can get. We decided with our doctor to implant two embryos. Four days after my retrieval our doctor put back in two embryos. Then we had that dreaded two week waiting period. I agonized over every twinge I saw. Every time I went to the bathroom I looked for blood. Again I had to give myself that inter muscular shot every night for two weeks. Ten days after they implanted the embryos I decided to take a pregnancy test. It was inconclusive so 30 minutes later I took another test and this one was definitely negative. I couldn’t believe it. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I get pregnant if they couldn’t find anything wrong with either one of us? I literally cried for two days.
Then I still had to go back in for blood work to make sure I wasn’t pregnant. I gave my blood and 4 hours later got the dreaded call, but this time they said “congratulations, you are pregnant”. I couldn’t believe it! I had taken two pregnancy tests. One was inconclusive (no line showed up at all) and the other one was definitely negative. The nurse said “well, you are pregnant and to warn you, it’s either twins or a very nice healthy pregnancy because your HCG number is very high”. It was 360. The average pregnancy number at 12 days after ovulation is 100 for a single pregnancy and 200 for twins. Again, I couldn’t believe it. I went back in to the doctor 48 hours later for another blood test to make sure my HCG was climbing and it had tripled!!! Again, the nurse said to prepare myself for twins. I still couldn’t believe it. I didn’t feel pregnant! Two weeks later, at 6 weeks pregnant we had our first ultrasound where they confirmed that it was twins!!! Everything looked great and they released me to a normal OB. I still could not believe it since I didn’t feel pregnant at all.
I had a very normal, uneventful pregnancy and we never found out what we were having. We wanted it to be a surprise. The entire first trimester every single time I went to the bathroom, I wiped expecting to see blood. Throughout my pregnancy I would have dreams that I had a miscarriage and had to go through IVF again. I don’t think I fully enjoyed my pregnancy due to these worries. At 35 weeks I developed preeclampsia. My blood pressure was high so at 36 1/2 weeks I had a planned C-section where had our son and daughter. The best of both worlds. It was an overwhelming day. I still couldn’t believe after all we had been through we had two healthy kids. Our twins are now 4 years old and the center of our world. I couldn’t imagine a day without them. I also couldn’t imagine not having to go through IVF. If we hadn’t suffered through infertility, I wouldn’t know the joy of having twins!!!
Fast forward to a few years later and we decided we wanted 1 more baby. We went through two more IVF’s where we only implanted one embryo each. Neither worked! As sad as I was, I wasn’t devastated like I was after our failed IUI’s. God gave me two beautiful children and I am so grateful he gave me the experience of going through pregnancy and having a son and a daughter. I could not ask for more!
Story written by: Michelle Downey
This story was seen first on Real Imprints.