OUR LITTLE MIRACLE IS HERE – Thanks to St Jude’s
We first started our journey to parenthood not long after we got married and tried naturally for around 1.5 years but nothing seemed to work having pcos didn’t help as my periods were challenging to say the least, the monthly testing had become a day we dreaded each month as it seemed like everyone around us was conceiving with no effort . So we went for initial testing via the nhs in which no issues with either of us were found, so we were given 7 rounds of clomid (a drug that increases the amount of eggs you produce), but none of these worked for us. We’d talked about IVF as an option for a long time and had looked into St Judes as we’d been recommended and knew that you weren’t judged on your bmi (my Achilles heel). So we decided to treat ourselves to a holiday to relax before our consultation discussion in December 2017.
From our first visit assessing our suitability to being discharged with a 6 week old embryo in Jan 2019 we were treated like individuals, with the most caring and compassionate staff who made it feel like we were being treated by family not a strange medical team. Mr Adeghe and the team carried out more tests including a hysteroscopy (to get my environment ready for extraction and implantation), and we were given the go ahead for our first round . Fast forward to Good Friday 2018 and it’s collection day, with an outcome of 9 eggs being fertilised of which 7 were good enough to use, so Easter Monday our first 2 embryos were implanted and the other 5 safely kept in the freezer (in case we needed them again - we were hopeful that this would work for us first time). The elation after 2 weeks when the test confirmed that we were pregnant was incredible and we knew that we’d made the right decision to go to the clinic for our test as the support from the team was like sharing it with family , however this wasn’t to be our success story as at our 6 week scan no heartbeats could be found. We talked through our options with the team and decided to go ahead with a frozen transfer in the summer of 2018 (Mr Adeghe advised us to have a few months off to get mentally ready again - and we’d totally recommend that even though you just want to keep going- you need the time to grieve and process what’s happened ) . Sadly our first frozen cycle (implanting another 2 embryos ) didn’t even get past the starting line - no Pregnancy, but we’d started to talk to the team about a test for NK cells (natural killer cells) which can be present in your womb and can reject embryos either from implantation or fertilisation (i had a form of e.coli as a toddler and there were cases linking the 2) . So with the support of Mr Adeghe and the team we followed through with this blood test and the results showed that I did have raised levels . So for our final cycle (all eggs had either been used or were defrosted) as well as progesterone pessaries and estrogen, I also had progesterone injections and steroids and our 2 strongest embryos were implanted into me Christmas Eve 2018, we surrounded ourselves with positivity and hoped that this attempt would give us the best present we could have ever wished for !
From our first visit assessing our suitability to being discharged with a 6 week old embryo in Jan 2019 we were treated like individuals, with the most caring and compassionate staff who made it feel like we were being treated by family not a strange medical team. Mr Adeghe and the team carried out more tests including a hysteroscopy (to get my environment ready for extraction and implantation), and we were given the go ahead for our first round . Fast forward to Good Friday 2018 and it’s collection day, with an outcome of 9 eggs being fertilised of which 7 were good enough to use, so Easter Monday our first 2 embryos were implanted and the other 5 safely kept in the freezer (in case we needed them again - we were hopeful that this would work for us first time). The elation after 2 weeks when the test confirmed that we were pregnant was incredible and we knew that we’d made the right decision to go to the clinic for our test as the support from the team was like sharing it with family , however this wasn’t to be our success story as at our 6 week scan no heartbeats could be found. We talked through our options with the team and decided to go ahead with a frozen transfer in the summer of 2018 (Mr Adeghe advised us to have a few months off to get mentally ready again - and we’d totally recommend that even though you just want to keep going- you need the time to grieve and process what’s happened ) . Sadly our first frozen cycle (implanting another 2 embryos ) didn’t even get past the starting line - no Pregnancy, but we’d started to talk to the team about a test for NK cells (natural killer cells) which can be present in your womb and can reject embryos either from implantation or fertilisation (i had a form of e.coli as a toddler and there were cases linking the 2) . So with the support of Mr Adeghe and the team we followed through with this blood test and the results showed that I did have raised levels . So for our final cycle (all eggs had either been used or were defrosted) as well as progesterone pessaries and estrogen, I also had progesterone injections and steroids and our 2 strongest embryos were implanted into me Christmas Eve 2018, we surrounded ourselves with positivity and hoped that this attempt would give us the best present we could have ever wished for !
2 weeks later we made our way to the clinic and the nerves were stronger than ever (I don’t think we actually spoke on the way there), and our dreams came true we were pregnant with a much stronger result than the first time so we left the clinic excited but obviously apprehensive for the elusive scan at 6 weeks . At our 6 week scan we saw our baby’s heartbeat and it was the best moment we had ever experienced - there was our baby. We unfortunately suffered a bleed the day after but the team managed to slot me in for a scan to check all was still ok and it was, this baby was a fighter (we think I lost the twin and that caused the bleeding) . Throughout the pregnancy we kept in touch with all the team at each of the major milestones and sometimes just calling them to share our development !
Our little Miracle [REDACTED] was born on Tuesday September 3 at Birmingham woman’s hospital by Caesarean section and she has made us smile everyday since. We are grateful for the medical care, love and support that we received from all the team - you truly are miracle workers and [REDACTED] will learn all about you as she grows and will be in for visits! The picture is Christmas Eve 2019 (1 year to the day of implantation).
Our little Miracle [REDACTED] was born on Tuesday September 3 at Birmingham woman’s hospital by Caesarean section and she has made us smile everyday since. We are grateful for the medical care, love and support that we received from all the team - you truly are miracle workers and [REDACTED] will learn all about you as she grows and will be in for visits! The picture is Christmas Eve 2019 (1 year to the day of implantation).
Our little Miracle