Mindy3: Taking the challenge and posting my storyI think I came out of my mom's womb asking where babies come from b/c from the time I was little I was determined to get married early and have 8 kids! Yup, you read that right. I had the whole thing planned, 6 girls and 2 boys and one would be named Elizabeth. Fast forward to January 1998 (a lot later than I had ever planned to get married!) My husband & I met on a blind date 1/98. He was going through a divorce and I was out of a relationship that went on for almost 7 years off and on. Tragically, the man I thought I'd spend my life with died on Sept. 11th in the World Trade Center and till this day a part of my heart died with him. My husband proposed 12/98 and we got married 2/25/99. All through our dating, we talked about a family & even started trying around 9/98 before getting engaged. Our attitude was that we were in our 30's, both had great careers and if it happened, it happened. No such luck and I thought it was just stress and irregular periods. By the time I walked down the aisle, I had already been on prenatals for months, charting my temp, and done a chlomid cycle. I did the hsg test, no problem. Started with a re in 11/99 doing my first stim cycle. I think I cried more in the earlier months than the later months for some odd reason but I was determined like crazy to get pregnant. Sparing you all the cycle details, let's just say 6 "picture perfect" cycles came and went. We did the first IVF and had to freeze the embies at the last minute b/c I hyperstimmed in pain, but not in the blood work numbers. First fet, chemical. Did one more stim cycle, negative. 2nd IVF, chemical. Switched re's and went to a new place with a group of doctors instead of a single re like the first office. Backtrack, my husband had some sperm issues we discovered as the months went by. There were no red flags in the beginning but the urologist confirmed he had a varicocele and that it can affect the temperature of the sperm and that's why a lot of the sperm could be dying off after he gave samples. First re said that IVF was really the way to go. First two IVF's, just did it with ICSI. New clinic used assisted hatching. Lo and behold, last summer on July 3rd we did my r/t and did a 3d transfer. I was so doubtful it would work, even had a glass of wine the night before I did an hpt. I did my b/w a day earlier than dh knew and surprised him that night by putting monkey dolls on a glider chair in our spare bedroom at the time. I (ironically) put 3 dolls on the chair and had a balloon and cards on chair too. dh asked me how many babies we were having and I told him I didn't know but my beta number sure was good! We found out later that month that we had 3 beautiful heartbeats. My pregnancy carrying triplets was uneventful the first month with just one bleeding scare in the beginning. It went on to be excruciatingly painful with all the stretching that takes place but I did it. At 16-17 weeks, one baby (baby A) was found to have Choroid Plexus Cysts on the brain. We opted to do an amnio and found out everything was fine and that Baby "A" was a girl. Just one more major scare at 21 weeks sent me in to the hospital with pre-term labor that I didn't even know was happening mostly because I wasn't drinking enough water and got dehydrated. We were truly lucky that I was able to stay home without anyone helping me but my husband doing the food shopping and laundry. I never really stayed in bed like I was suppose to and made it luckily to 33w1d. On the morning of February 6, 2002, a nice sunny day, three little lives changed our world. I only knew we had a combination. First, Chloe Elizabeth arrived, then Dylan Scott and lastly, my big girl, Hailey Sophia. Everyone did great and the babies came home the last week in February. There's so many other little things I'd love to add here but I'll wrap it up now. We are blessed and they are healthy and happy and I couldn't have done it without the support of all the women here too who have shared my journey and let me be a part of your lives as well to grow everyday with becoming the best mom I can be. Hope that makes sense. Luv to all, |