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Stacie and Matt's story
I wish that by reading our story it gives you hope throughout your journey of trying to conceive. Through all the ups and downs of infertility, i always had hope.
Our journey started when i was 28 and Matt 29. Just married! Life was great! Matt and i have been together since i was 17. We have built our future together and now husband and wife its the perfect time to start a family.
We had been trying for 1 year and still no pregnancies. I had been on the contraceptive pill for sometime and thought perhaps it takes a while to flush out of my system.
Another 6 months later still nothing?Given my history, I have had severe Endometriosis for 10 years, and have had 3 surgeries. I was too nervous to make the call to the fertility clinic, as i didn't want to come to terms with the fact that I'm infertile, or that i may face the most devastating news that i will not experience being a mother. All my friends were having babies or pregnant, although I was so happy for them, it was hard to digest. So another 6 months went by...Friends and Family asking "when are you going to start a family" which was always upsetting, unbeknown to them we were trying and it was not working!! I had another surgery booked to remove more Endometriosis!. After the surgery, the surgeon came around with the results from the operation. He told me that both fallopian tubes were blocked with Endo, and if we were considering having children the only option would be looking at IVF. WOW? I was so so devastated! that right there just shattered me into a million pieces!
I was referred to a fertility specialist. That year was full with a lot of appointments, diagnostic tests, pills, blood tests, needles, injections, hormones, suppositories, speculums, vaginal ultrasounds, sperm tests, painful procedures, operations.
The fertility specialist found that I had a low ovarian reserve which meant I do not produce that many good quality eggs. Sperm tests also revealed a low sperm count.
Ok, so theres no way I can get pregnant naturally, but what about IVF? With my low ovarian reserve this meant we had to start right away. The public waiting list was 2 years! Which was 2 years we didn't have when planning a family.
So we started the IVF process which turned out we needed to do ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) where each sperm in injected into each egg. 10 eggs collected and 4 developed into Embryos. So we had 4 chances...the first embryo transfer was unsuccessful. Extreme disappointment when I got the call. I really thought I had this! That it would work first pop!. No, I was not pregnant. The treatment failed!. Would I like to try again next month? Yes, I guess I would. Hope is a powerful drug. More tests! Hormones, appointments! So roll on January! Another embryo transfer, the daunting 2 week wait! The day before we were about to go on holiday I got the call from the Nurses. "Sorry Stacie your not pregnant" My heart sank! I felt like a tone of bricks fell from the sky and totally squashed me. I cried and cried and cried, the pain was unbearable I felt like I'd lost something I never even had. We gave it a rest for a couple of months and began again in March 2015 .This was our 3rd Embryo, could this be 3rd time lucky? Or are my hopes up again? Hope is all I had! The 2 week wait was so long, it seemed like eternity!.I got the call from the Nurses.........”Congratulations Stacie you are pregnant”. We were ecstatic and so so so happy I wanted to tell the world.
Early in the pregnancy about 6 weeks, I woke with a lot of pain and bleeding. I was so scared and thought that I was miscarrying. A trip to the hospital to check if baby was ok and sure enough we heard her heart beat for the first time. I had a tear in my uterus and needed to be monitored for the next few weeks.
Indy was born on the 12th November 2015. This has been an amazing journey and we are so blessed to have this precious girl in our life.
