Happy 2nd birthday Francesca!

My baby girl is 2!  I know that all children are miracles.  I feel we were extra blessed in the miracle department with Francesca.  I found myself reflecting a lot this week on how very fortunate I am to have my four children; my two grown girls of course, and the opportunity to have increased my family by 2 at this, “ahem”, older stage of my life. 

With Ross I was 40 when he was conceived and it took all of 6 months, not bad when you realize how quickly your fertility decreases after 35.  We knew we wanted more children so we started trying shortly after Ross was born.  We tried for 6 months, until he was one.  We then used Chlomid for 6 more months, under my OB-Gynies supervision -  a roller coaster ride of hormones - oh my what a nasty drug.  And then we were referred to a reproductive endochronologist. 

Another 6 months of chlomid along with artificial insemination and again no luck.  All during this tme we were researching insurance policies that would pay for in-vitro fertilization, and fortunately work offered one that did.  I learned a lot about state based policies and those that originated in other states and for us, BCBCS HMO was the answer.

Interestingly enough, the injections and plethera of drugs were less of a hormonal imbalance than the chlomid was.  The emotional piece was hard, but the drugs affected me less.  I had accupuncture and tried some herbal remedies but our first attempy failed (you needed at least 4 eggs for retrieval and I only had 2).  The second time around I had exactly 4 eggs of retrieval size , so retrieval came and out of that 3 eggs fertilized. 

The next few days were excrutiating as we decided, based on my age, to do the PGD testing.  We learned right away that one of the embryos had triple X, which was not condusive to life, the other two were still being tested.  On the day that we went for implantation we learned that there was a problem with testing and that they had to retest and we’d need to come back the next day.

The next day we learned that both of the embryos had tested fine, but only one survived to be implanted.  Now a day 5 blastocyst, they proceeded with the implantation and a kind and wonderful nurse with ah Irish brogue placed the blastocyst in my uterus and said “your home now” at which point I burst into tears.  So much for not being hormonal.

After the wait, which was in reality not that long but felt like eternity, I went for the blood test to see if my counts were doubling and if I was pregnant.  I was at work when they called to say I was pregnant, I burst into tears on the phone.  The very next day I called the geneticist to see if I was carrying a boy or girl.  They can tell the sex of the embryo when they do the genetic testing (for 13 of the most common chromosonal disorders) but do not share the info prior to implantation so there is not improper “gender choosing”.  I didn’t care if I was having a boy or girl but just knowing that the information was available was too much to handle.  I then had to keep the information from Sam, as he didn’t want to know until the 20 week ultrasound. 

Fast forward to now, and my baby girl is 2!  How quickly the time flies.  We are so blessed to have her.  As I was going through my Christmas card list, I came across Dr. Jacob’s card as well as the cards of our in-vitro nurses.  Going through the process the nurses asked us to send them holiday pictures, which I dutifully and gratefully will.  Thank you Dr. Jacobs and staff for allowing us to grow our family and have our little Francesca.  And again, I am crying.