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Alanah's story

My partner and Shane and I have been together a few years when we decided we wanted to have a baby. It actually came about after a pregnancy scare that we were quite sad that it was negative. I have 2 children already which came about very easy and quickly so I figured that it wouldn't be so hard. I had finished my degree in social work and we owned our own home so we felt ready and happy to start.

After about 6 month of trying when it started to become more and more heart breaking with no results I done some research online and came across Fertility Associates in Wellington. I emailed them to get an appointment and looked into the tests that would need to be done. I contacted my doctor who arranged them all and started the ball rolling for us.

We meet DR Andrew Murray who was so warm and welcoming to both of us. It turned out that I was not ovulating at all so there was no chance of getting pregnant. I started a 3 month cycle of Clomid which was just awful, headaches and the hot flushes in winter made me feel like I was going through menopause! I started to ovulate which was exciting but still no positive test. We meet Andrew again after 3 months and to our surprise we got a positive and I cried so much!

About a week later I wasn't not feeling the best so I called the clinic who advised me to head to hospital to get checked out. We had a scan and saw our beautiful baby with a heart beat but sadly the baby was in my tube and I needed surgery straight away to remove the baby and my tube. Was the hardest day I have ever been through but thankfully we had a great doctor looking after us and he took pictures of the operation for us of our baby.

The experience really knocked me and tested our relationship to the point we could hardly talk to each other. The day our baby came home and we were able to plant it in our garden under a rose bush was when we started to heal and talk about everything. I asked to have a few month to heal myself and attend counselling before we would carry on with treatment. That helped me so much and to be able to talk about our baby. We booked in for another fertility appointment and this time we saw Simon McDowell from Fertility Associates. We went back on clomid but after 3 months we had no luck so we tried Letrozole which was easier on my body and to our surprise I got pregnant! After a week or so I started to feel sick again just like with our first pregnancy and headed back to hospital due to the intense pain I was having, I couldn't walk and kept curling over in pain. The hospital thought it was a miscarriage and I was sent home. The next day it was worse and I was given a scan where they saw a sack and said miscarriage and that I might have a cyst on my ovary. The pain was getting really bad so I was sent for another scan which was done by a OBGYN and she found it was another ectopic and I was very large and almost rupturing. I was rushed straight in for surgery and the baby and my tube was taken. Was very hard to wake up and realise that I can no longer get pregnant naturally.

We had a call from Dr McDowell a few days later and made a appointment to see him again.

We knew at this stage that IVF was our only chance to have a baby. After a few weeks of recovery and once this baby came home my partner just said to me that what ever I want to do he will support me. I knew I wanted a baby more than anything, He is a wonderful step dad for my children that I just want to see him with his own. We talked through everything with Simon and decided to bite the bullet and do IVF. We knew we now qualified for public funding but I couldn't wait around 18 months so we decided to go privately then use funding if it didn't work.

We had to travel to Hawkes baby to learn about the injections that I would need and to sign all of the forms to start everything going. Once I got my period I could start. I asked a good friend of ours who is a nurse if she could do the first few injections until I became confident to do them and that really helped us and take the nerves away. We had 2 injections a day and every few days we had a internal scan to measure follicles. The nurses from the clinic are amazing, calling me everyday to see how I am going and to keep me posted on what needs to done. Because I live in Gisborne the medication needed to be sent through to us and 1 day the road was closed so I was waiting at the depot for them to arrive and had to inject myself in the car before I rushed back to work!

Once we had the trigger injection we had to race down to Wellington and sort out the older children who were looked after by my family.

The egg collection was very painful and I remember what happened and my partner to busy watching what was happening to cuddle me. We got 4 eggs and I was so upset because i thought that wasn't enough and the cycle was all over. The next day we got a call that all 4 fertilised which shocked us! The clinic called every day to update us on our babies and 2 made it to day 5 and 1 was implanted on October 7th.

Blood test day was our anniversary and it was the first day I was tempted to not get tested because I really didn't think it worked. I got a call and it was positive! I was in shock for the rest of the day! My partner kept calling me to see if I had results and I wanted to surprise him so I kept telling him I've had no call.

Once I got home I took a test, wrapped it in a box and was able to surprise him and it was the best experience of my fertility journey.

We were a high risk pregnancy and I had to finish work early and be on rest but I wouldn't change it for the world. On Queens birthday weekend my waters broke and a few hours later my little boy was born and I still can not believe he is here and all mine! Our little rainbow baby came into our lives at the right time and brings so much joy to our whole family. We still remember the babies we lost and talk about them all the time, their roses bloomed when our son was born and celebrated with us.