Aidan and Gavin's pregnancy was very special for us (so was Ciara's but for different reasons). I always knew we would have difficulty conceiving. I had some weird stuff going on with borderline malignant cysts on my ovaries which I found out about 3 months after we were first married when we were both just 24. I was told not to wait too long to start a family if that was what we had planned. I was horrified. I was working as a teacher's assistant making barely anything. Sean was in his first job making a decent amount for us but not to support a family (it was always our plan that I would stay home when we had children). Plus, we were newlyweds living in a one bedroom apartment. Children were not what we had planned for the immediate future.
After much discussion, we decided to chance it and not have children at that moment. We needed to be more settled in our careers and we most definitely needed a bigger space first. So we waited. We traveled, we got better jobs, we even lived overseas for a few months. And then when we returned, we decided that it was time. We were always told that if we were not pregnant within 6 months rather than the usual 1 year, our doctor would start running tests. And so 6 months passed and we saw a fertility specialist. He did a routine ultrasound and found 2 cysts on my ovaries that he "didn't like the looks of". He called my oncologist and suggested a hysterectomy (I only found this out much later down the road). My oncologist, the top in his field at Mass General, said no way, he would do surgery, see what was going on and take it from there. Thank goodness for him because if it had been anyone else, I probably would have had the hysterectomy. So fast forward: I had the surgery, he removed the cysts only, my ovaries were in perfect working order.
We then did two IUI procedures which did not work. So we jumped to IVF which requires more meds and, gulp, my husband to give me daily injections. It was a very nerve-wracking and tense time in our relationship and after all that, our first attempt failed. We had to take a month off and then start all over again with the meds and the injections. During this time, I had a dream. I dreamt that two bear cubs had invaded our home and when we came downstairs, they were in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator and crawling on the counters. For some reason, I knew one was a boy and one was a girl. So when I woke up I just knew that when we did have children, even if it wasn't this cycle, we would have twins.
After the embryo transfer, we entered the two-week-wait where we would find out at the end of the two weeks if we were successful or not. I had a strong feeling we would be but I didn't want to jinx anything (yes, I am superstitious like that). When we had the transfer we were told we had three embryos growing. Two of them were of a quality they rarely see, 9 and 10 cells respectively and no fragmentation. Usually people have luck with 6-8 cell embryos so 9 and 10 were "superembryos" as the tech called them. On the way to work one day about 10 days after the transfer, while sitting in traffic, I just had this feeling come over me that I was pregnant. I cannot to this day explain it. I wasn't nauseous at all, I had no cramping, I just had this peaceful feeling all of a sudden that it worked. And it did.
(insert photos of my newborn boys here---having blogger difficulty!)
Happy 3rd Birthday, Aidan and Gavin!
1 comment:
I don't think I've ever heard that story before! Were the bears throwing around icing sugar? I'm so glad it all worked out, Happy belated birthday A & G!!
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