Our Story of our Rainbow Baby :
My husband and I actually met about 25 years ago, acquaintances only, we lived in the same freshman dormitory at University of Texas in San Antonio.
We would “re-meet” in 2018 at church . It was an absolute Love at First Sight moment. Married less than a year later at ages 41 andt 42, we each came in to the marriage with a son and a daughter. We wanted to have a baby together and create our perfect “Yours, Mine and Ours ” blended family. In 2020, amidst the stress of 4 children and COVID, I would suffer from 2 miscarriages and we were basically told that at our ages, this was likely to reoccur again . My heart couldn’t take it. We decided to look into IVF with Aspire Fertility and were told that at my age (now 43) it would take 3-5 egg retrievals to possibly get 1-2 healthy eggs to create embryos. Again, it broke my heart because the process of preparing for egg retrieval was exhausting both physically and mentally.
At this point, I was driving 150 miles round trip to the fertility clinic regularly. This added to the ongoing stress of the IVF hormones/ pills/ shots . My embryologist shared with me the idea of using Donor Eggs . I was blessed that was healthy enough at 43 to carry and give birth, but Donor Eggs were honestly my best option .
I struggled with thoughts of:
” will this baby be ANYTHING like me?”
“will the baby even resemble me at all ? ”
” what if I don’t feel connected to this baby ? ”
” what if this baby doesn’t feel connected to me ? ”
We looked at Donor Egg Bank USA for an egg donor that we felt “connected ” to. These donors can have their eggs retrieved and held at many different fertility clinics and once you’ve chosen your Donor, her lot of (6-8 frozen eggs ) is sent to your fertility clinic for fertilization and embryo freezing. I tried to look for a donor who matched my height/ weight/ face shape / blood type …. the list went on and on .
Then, one evening, my husband and I both saw a donor and by just looking at her picture we knew ” that’s her ” .
Blood Type : perfect match to me
Face shape / height/ weight: perfect match to me …..and almost unbelievably … her eggs were retrieved by OUR FERTILITY CLINIC. Our little frozen “Egg babies” to be had been right there in my clinic so close to me through every appointment this entire time . We immediately reserved our Donor and the eggs were released to us in October of 2020.
Hormone shots/ pills/ more shots and our eggs were ready to be fertilized and re-frozen for genetic testing and implantation.
Our lot of 6 eggs resulted in 5 being fertilized and after 5 days of observation , we were told that only ONE was going to be good enough to proceed to genetic testing … I wasn’t prepared to hear that we only had ONE embryo.
I prayed for that ONE little egg baby so hard , every day . After the cost of IVF ( $ 63,000.00) and everything we had been through , we absolutely had to have this ONE embryo genetically tested . Testing involved thawing , re-freezing, testing and re-freezing again …. each time increasing the odds that our ONE would be lost in the freezing/ thawing process. But , our little “Embryo that could ” made it through !
Our little ONE embryo tested genetically perfect and it was a little baby GIRL .
Transfer took place in March of 2021 and I found out about 15 days later that she had successfully implanted.
We were blessed and so happy .
I woke up to bleeding on April 22, 2021 ( coincidentally the same date of my first miscarriage ) . My heart sank and I called my doctor who calmly told me to come in for an ultrasound … after the long drive , I sat in the office for an excruciating 20 minutes . I prayed and I prayed and then I prayed some more . My doctor came in and began the ultrasound …. and there she was ! Perfect baby , perfect heart beat . A small blood clot , known as an SCH and common in IVF transfers, was next to the baby and as she was getting larger , the blood clot was slowly passing .
We made it to summer of 2021 and in July I woke up to bleeding again . A trip to the Maternity ER showed that it was the residue of the original clot that hadn’t all passed. This time on the ultrasound , the baby was actually developed enough to see her little hands waving at me . At my 20 week scan , I was diagnosed with Placenta Previa and told that if it didn’t shift , I would be looking at having a C-section. I didn’t want a C- section , but my healthy baby girl mattered more .
By October 2021, the Placenta Previa had shifted and I was able to deliver our Rainbow Baby naturally on November 18, 2021.
She is the greatest miracle we’ve ever experienced . She has golden , strawberry blond hair, and beautiful blue eyes . She looks so much like her Daddy , but she is completely attached to me . I’ve never once looked at her as anything but ALL MINE . Egg donation is the greatest gift that we’ve ever received . She is adored by us, her siblings and our family is complete and filled with LOVE .
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