Hi ladies. Sorry it took so long but here is my birth story in spoiler. Possible trigger warnings for tramatic birth and baby in distress...but happy ending .
We arrived at labor and delivery on 8/19 at 8:30am. We got checked in, IV for fluids and after checking me (I was 1cm and soft but not thinned) at 10:00 they put in a folly bulb and put a pill in to help soften the cervix and get me to 4cm. They told me to expect it to be in for 6-12hours. They gave me some narcotics for the placement and it wasn’t horrible but after they inflated it just moving around was really uncomfortable. Like I had to pee really bad but couldn’t. After about an hour I went in the bathroom to try desperately to pee and the bulb popped out right away! I was pretty stoked.
Unfortunately they couldn’t start the pitocin yet because of the cervix meds so we had to wait. I was having light contractions so I was speed walking the unit trying to get things started, but nothing really picked up. At 2pm they started the pitocin and at are 3pm they broke my water. That’s when sh*t started getting real...real fast. My contractions were about 1:30-2minutes apart and lasting 30-50 seconds. I did the hypnobabies tracks, walked around the room and swayed my hips a lot to relieve the discomfort. At my next check I had no progress but they said that is typical as your body catches up to the mechanical dilation.
At 11pm (now 8hours into contractions <2minites apart) they checked me again. Still 4cm. I was in rough shape. I was pale and shaking from the pain and doing comfort techniques. My monitors for baby/contractions kept falling off so my movements were restricted. They put in internal monitors for both. I lost my focus and couldn’t get back in the zone. I hated to give up on trying to go “med free” but also reminded myself that I’m full of induction meds and wanted to give myself some grace. Sarah my doula and the wonderful doc we got who I never met until that day were all very supportive and I got the epidural around 12am. HEAVEN. We all went to sleep.
Around 2am I was woken up with more pain. I used the button but it wouldn’t go away felt like I had to really really poop. They warned as contractions got more intense I would feel them. The nurse came to check on me at 3am and by that point I was once again listening to my hypnoborthing tracks and moaning to get through it even with the epidural. She said I shouldn’t be in that much discomfort and was going to call the anesthesia team but just in case since I was having pressure wanted me checked first. Doc came and visited around 4 and surprise surprise I was 10cm and ready to go (judging on how I felt I probably went from 4-10cm in about those two hours after the epidural but didn’t know to ask to be checked again!)
They had to turn off my pitocin because the contractions were too close for pushing, they got set up and at about 4:45 started pushing. First 15 minutes were uneventful were they tried to teach me how/where to push but once baby started moving down things got intense quick. The baby went into distress. Our amazing doctor told me that we have 3 options but this baby needs to be born NOW and they think the baby is big. I could give it my everything and all and push her out, she could use forceps to help but she didn’t think it would work or we could go for a c-section now.
I decided to try my all and they gave me 15 minutes or we were heading to the OR. She told me not to be scared but the team would be coming in and when baby is born would go straight to the peds/NICU team. They flipped me to my side, and then helped me to get on hands and knees. I was tangled in chords and my contraction monitor got ripped off (this actually was a good thing). My doc said I trust you you know when to push. The whole scene was crazy. The room was packed. DW and the doula got pushed out of the way, I had my gown ripped all off and my socks. DW said my feet were blue I was pushing so hard I was crying and throwing up its was hella intense. They flipped me back on my back and he head was out but I just couldn’t get the shoulders. She was stuck. The OB had to reach inside past her head grab her arm and shoulder and pull her out! Oddly enough none of this was horrible to me. Adrenalin man. Awesome stuff. DW on the other hand is mildly traumatized. They took the baby over and I couldn’t see her DW was over there by the peds team. I was a bit like a wild animal sitting up and searching for my baby I heard a lot of people but finally heard her cry which was the best sound ever! The doctor came over and told me I did such an amazing job. She said the baby was very big and that her shoulder got stuck and she was in distress. There was no time to go to the OR so she had to pull her out. She explained the baby probably has a dislocate shoulder, broken arm and/or collar bone but all would heal ok. They checked her all over and the NICU doc came over and told me she was all ok. Heart, lungs were great and no breaks and dislocations and wouldn’t have to go to NICU. Such a miracle, the doc said the baby and after Hearing the good news I finally asked if it was a boy or girl and that’s when I found out we had a little girl. The room cleared out a bit and i could see DW over with her holding her and finally she was able to bring her over to me. She is the most amazing miracle ever.
Took us until the afternoon to settle on a name and ended up with a name not even on our long list. Lucille was the middle name of my grandmother, we were going to go with the first name but it just didn’t seem to fit. Rose as a shortened version of my MIL’s name Rose Mary. We can do a nickname of Lucy which is also a Beatles reference and Lucy was the name of my imaginary surprise 3rd baby we used to joke about before we did fertility treatments and dreaming became too sad. Which kinda makes her my third after the two confirmed CPs (the first was unconfirmed). She has already brought me so much joy. I’ve never looked at or held anything so precious in my life. Healing is hard, breast feeding is hard, having too many people around is hard. But yesterday after our first night home DW was rocking her while I got ready. I heard her from the other room singing Lucy in the sky with diamonds and peaked in to see the two of them together. Like it was always meant to be this way. So perfect, so beautiful, so right in all the upheaval and scary messy. I would do it all a million times again.
Me:38 DW:33 TTC History in Spoiler ***Trigger Warning*** Losses/Child Mentioned
Dx: My wife has no sperm and apparently my embryos aren't as good as they look 2016 * April IUI#1 - BFN * June IUI#2 - BFN * July IUI#3 - CP * Sept IVF#1 - 4 Retrieved & Mature, 4 Blasts. Fresh Transfer 1 - CP * November FET #1 - Transferred 1 Blast - CP 2017 Switched REs - Recurrent loss testing for me - all normal, remaining 2 frosties sent for PGS - both abnormal * April/May IVF#2: 9 retrieved, 8 mature, 7 fertilized, 7 blasts! Sent for testing - 2PGS Normals (0 remaining) * November IVF #3 12R, 8M, 6F, 4 blasts! - All 4 PGS normal! * November FET# 2 (Transfer a PGS normal from IVF#2) - BFP!!! 2018 DD born 8/20/18 20195PGS frosties ( 4 remaining) * September FET#3 (1PGS normal) - Beta#1: 139.7 Beta#2: 322.6
Oh and I forgot to add the hospital pictures because she’s so cute and I’m totally going to be one of those moms. Not sure how it’s possible but I think she is DWs mini me. Sorry if they are super huge. I don’t know how to adjust things so I added them in the spoiler.
Me:38 DW:33 TTC History in Spoiler ***Trigger Warning*** Losses/Child Mentioned
Dx: My wife has no sperm and apparently my embryos aren't as good as they look 2016 * April IUI#1 - BFN * June IUI#2 - BFN * July IUI#3 - CP * Sept IVF#1 - 4 Retrieved & Mature, 4 Blasts. Fresh Transfer 1 - CP * November FET #1 - Transferred 1 Blast - CP 2017 Switched REs - Recurrent loss testing for me - all normal, remaining 2 frosties sent for PGS - both abnormal * April/May IVF#2: 9 retrieved, 8 mature, 7 fertilized, 7 blasts! Sent for testing - 2PGS Normals (0 remaining) * November IVF #3 12R, 8M, 6F, 4 blasts! - All 4 PGS normal! * November FET# 2 (Transfer a PGS normal from IVF#2) - BFP!!! 2018 DD born 8/20/18 20195PGS frosties ( 4 remaining) * September FET#3 (1PGS normal) - Beta#1: 139.7 Beta#2: 322.6
@2MomsHoping oh my goodness those pictures are adorable! I also dialated super fast. Went from a 6 to a 10 in 45 minutes and got the epidural at a 10. (Major props to anyone who does it naturally) Congrats to you both! Thank you for sharing your story. Brought tears to my eyes.
TTC 4 years. 7 failed IUI's with either Clomid, Femara and/or Trigger Shots. Started IVF journey in February 2017. Polyps removed in May. 1st IVF Transfer September 26th. BFP. Expected due date 6/14/18. Baby boy born 5/25/18 at 6 lb 9 oz. My bundle of joy.
Omg that story @2MomsHoping! Wow. Sounds so crazy. I was nervous to read it bc of your TW and am trying to stay in the positive zone, but my curiosity got the better of me and so glad I did. So beautiful. Glad all is great now and she's beautiful and amazing. Hugs!
TTC #1
me- 37, DH- 38
Married 6.28.14, started TTC right away BFP Nov 2015, PPROM Feb 2016 ER #1 May 2017, 15 retrieved, 10 fertilized, 3 day 5. ER#2 July 2017, 22 retrieved, 13 fertilized, 6 day 5/6 9 embryos tested for pgs and pgd. FET #1 9.29.17- 1 embryo-BFN FET#2 12.19.17- I embryo-BFP 1/1/18! Happy New Year to me! EDD 9/6/18 Baby boy born 9.11.18- the love of my life!
@2MomsHoping u r amazing!! Way to go mom Congrats!! Look at all that hair!! Totally her mini me!! And It's all hard in the beginning but hopefully with each passing day gets a Lil easier!!
History of TTC in spoiler box
TTC since 2014 Unexplained Infertility - but I am 40...Low AMH .30 7 - IUI (50mg-150mg Clomid) Feb - August 2016 all BFN IVF#1 August 2016 (Antagonist protocol 4/5 eggs) Cancelled cycle RE thought I would get at least 10. IVF#2 Sept 2016 (microdose luporn pro - disappearing follies, ONLY ONE, convert to IUI) BFN IVF#3 November 2016 (4 ER, 3 F, 3DT)-BFP with TWINS // MC both at almost 10wks IVF#4 March 2017 //EPP (10 ER (1 wonky so 9 ER) 7F, 3B (5AB, (2)5BB) PGS tested- ALL abnormal IVF#5 April 2017 // EPP (7 ER, 7F yes! 6B) 2/5 day 4/6 day - 2 PGS normal! yes!! IVF#6 May 2017 // Antagonist didn't have time for Estrogen Priming...(4 ER, 3 F, 3B) (5AB, (2) 5BB) 2 PGS normal, yes!! IVF#7 June 2017 // EPP praying this is it and then on to an FET!
@2MomsHoping So sweet!!! And your story -- wow! I'm glad everything ended up well You lived through my fears re: induction! I only lasted 12 hours with no progress though....so I'm a bit of a wimp compared to you I was just done with it at that point!
And I agree - the resemblance is uncanny!
~~ Our Story in Spoiler! TW loss/child~~
Fall 2012 -- started TTC Summer 2015 - no BFP yet, labs normal, referred to RE Fall 2015 - Summer 2016 - Further testing all normal. 3 IUI's -- BFN. Recommended move to IVF. Planned cycle for fall 2016. September 2016 - Surprise natural BFP. MMC @ 8 weeks. RE expressed confidence that we just needed the 'right' embryo. Fall 2016 - Spring 2017 -- Break from TTC June 2017 - Started IVF; egg retrieval for freeze all cycle. 9 mature eggs retrieved, 5 fertilized. 2 4BB embies on ice. August 2017 - FET transfer both embies. BFP. Twin pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound. EDD 4/28/18 September 2017 - Twin B stopped developing; Twin A doing perfectly! Graduated from RE @ 10 weeks March 2018 - Baby Girl born via C/S due to pre-eclampsia -- strong and healthy!
TTC #2 January/Feb 2021 - Freeze-all IVF cycle March 2021 - FET of 1 PGS normal female embryo. BFP! Beta #1 156, #2 472, #3 1241, #4 5268 EDD 12/5/21 - Christmas baby!
Re: 3rd Trimester Check-in | week of August 20th
Sorry it took so long but here is my birth story in spoiler. Possible trigger warnings for tramatic birth and baby in distress...but happy ending
Unfortunately they couldn’t start the pitocin yet because of the cervix meds so we had to wait. I was having light contractions so I was speed walking the unit trying to get things started, but nothing really picked up.
At 2pm they started the pitocin and at are 3pm they broke my water. That’s when sh*t started getting real...real fast. My contractions were about 1:30-2minutes apart and lasting 30-50 seconds. I did the hypnobabies tracks, walked around the room and swayed my hips a lot to relieve the discomfort. At my next check I had no progress but they said that is typical as your body catches up to the mechanical dilation.
At 11pm (now 8hours into contractions <2minites apart) they checked me again. Still 4cm. I was in rough shape. I was pale and shaking from the pain and doing comfort techniques. My monitors for baby/contractions kept falling off so my movements were restricted. They put in internal monitors for both. I lost my focus and couldn’t get back in the zone. I hated to give up on trying to go “med free” but also reminded myself that I’m full of induction meds and wanted to give myself some grace. Sarah my doula and the wonderful doc we got who I never met until that day were all very supportive and I got the epidural around 12am. HEAVEN. We all went to sleep.
Around 2am I was woken up with more pain. I used the button but it wouldn’t go away felt like I had to really really poop. They warned as contractions got more intense I would feel them. The nurse came to check on me at 3am and by that point I was once again listening to my hypnoborthing tracks and moaning to get through it even with the epidural. She said I shouldn’t be in that much discomfort and was going to call the anesthesia team but just in case since I was having pressure wanted me checked first. Doc came and visited around 4 and surprise surprise I was 10cm and ready to go (judging on how I felt I probably went from 4-10cm in about those two hours after the epidural but didn’t know to ask to be checked again!)
They had to turn off my pitocin because the contractions were too close for pushing, they got set up and at about 4:45 started pushing. First 15 minutes were uneventful were they tried to teach me how/where to push but once baby started moving down things got intense quick. The baby went into distress. Our amazing doctor told me that we have 3 options but this baby needs to be born NOW and they think the baby is big. I could give it my everything and all and push her out, she could use forceps to help but she didn’t think it would work or we could go for a c-section now.
I decided to try my all and they gave me 15 minutes or we were heading to the OR. She told me not to be scared but the team would be coming in and when baby is born would go straight to the peds/NICU team. They flipped me to my side, and then helped me to get on hands and knees. I was tangled in chords and my contraction monitor got ripped off (this actually was a good thing). My doc said I trust you you know when to push. The whole scene was crazy. The room was packed. DW and the doula got pushed out of the way, I had my gown ripped all off and my socks. DW said my feet were blue I was pushing so hard I was crying and throwing up its was hella intense. They flipped me back on my back and he head was out but I just couldn’t get the shoulders. She was stuck. The OB had to reach inside past her head grab her arm and shoulder and pull her out! Oddly enough none of this was horrible to me. Adrenalin man. Awesome stuff. DW on the other hand is mildly traumatized.
They took the baby over and I couldn’t see her DW was over there by the peds team. I was a bit like a wild animal sitting up and searching for my baby I heard a lot of people but finally heard her cry which was the best sound ever! The doctor came over and told me I did such an amazing job. She said the baby was very big and that her shoulder got stuck and she was in distress. There was no time to go to the OR so she had to pull her out. She explained the baby probably has a dislocate shoulder, broken arm and/or collar bone but all would heal ok.
They checked her all over and the NICU doc came over and told me she was all ok. Heart, lungs were great and no breaks and dislocations and wouldn’t have to go to NICU. Such a miracle, the doc said the baby and after Hearing the good news I finally asked if it was a boy or girl and that’s when I found out we had a little girl. The room cleared out a bit and i could see DW over with her holding her and finally she was able to bring her over to me. She is the most amazing miracle ever.
Took us until the afternoon to settle on a name and ended up with a name not even on our long list. Lucille was the middle name of my grandmother, we were going to go with the first name but it just didn’t seem to fit. Rose as a shortened version of my MIL’s name Rose Mary. We can do a nickname of Lucy which is also a Beatles reference and Lucy was the name of my imaginary surprise 3rd baby we used to joke about before we did fertility treatments and dreaming became too sad. Which kinda makes her my third after the two confirmed CPs (the first was unconfirmed).
She has already brought me so much joy. I’ve never looked at or held anything so precious in my life. Healing is hard, breast feeding is hard, having too many people around is hard. But yesterday after our first night home DW was rocking her while I got ready. I heard her from the other room singing Lucy in the sky with diamonds and peaked in to see the two of them together. Like it was always meant to be this way. So perfect, so beautiful, so right in all the upheaval and scary messy. I would do it all a million times again.
TTC History in Spoiler ***Trigger Warning*** Losses/Child Mentioned
2016
* April IUI#1 - BFN
* June IUI#2 - BFN
* July IUI#3 - CP
* Sept IVF#1 - 4 Retrieved & Mature, 4 Blasts. Fresh Transfer 1 - CP
* November FET #1 - Transferred 1 Blast - CP
2017 Switched REs - Recurrent loss testing for me - all normal, remaining 2 frosties sent for PGS - both abnormal
* April/May IVF#2: 9 retrieved, 8 mature, 7 fertilized, 7 blasts! Sent for testing - 2PGS Normals (0 remaining)
* November IVF #3 12R, 8M, 6F, 4 blasts! - All 4 PGS normal!
* November FET# 2 (Transfer a PGS normal from IVF#2) - BFP!!!
2018 DD born 8/20/18
2019 5PGS frosties ( 4 remaining)
* September FET#3 (1PGS normal) - Beta#1: 139.7 Beta#2: 322.6
TTC History in Spoiler ***Trigger Warning*** Losses/Child Mentioned
2016
* April IUI#1 - BFN
* June IUI#2 - BFN
* July IUI#3 - CP
* Sept IVF#1 - 4 Retrieved & Mature, 4 Blasts. Fresh Transfer 1 - CP
* November FET #1 - Transferred 1 Blast - CP
2017 Switched REs - Recurrent loss testing for me - all normal, remaining 2 frosties sent for PGS - both abnormal
* April/May IVF#2: 9 retrieved, 8 mature, 7 fertilized, 7 blasts! Sent for testing - 2PGS Normals (0 remaining)
* November IVF #3 12R, 8M, 6F, 4 blasts! - All 4 PGS normal!
* November FET# 2 (Transfer a PGS normal from IVF#2) - BFP!!!
2018 DD born 8/20/18
2019 5PGS frosties ( 4 remaining)
* September FET#3 (1PGS normal) - Beta#1: 139.7 Beta#2: 322.6
No Folic acid/pharmaceuticals/supplements (too many to list- private message me if interested), IVIL infusion
BFP Nov 2015, PPROM Feb 2016
ER #1 May 2017, 15 retrieved, 10 fertilized, 3 day 5.
ER#2 July 2017, 22 retrieved, 13 fertilized, 6 day 5/6
9 embryos tested for pgs and pgd.
FET #1 9.29.17- 1 embryo-BFN
FET#2 12.19.17- I embryo-BFP 1/1/18! Happy New Year to me! EDD 9/6/18
Baby boy born 9.11.18- the love of my life!
Unexplained Infertility - but I am 40...Low AMH .30
7 - IUI (50mg-150mg Clomid) Feb - August 2016 all BFN
IVF#1 August 2016 (Antagonist protocol 4/5 eggs) Cancelled cycle
IVF#2 Sept 2016 (microdose luporn pro - disappearing follies, ONLY ONE, convert to IUI) BFN
IVF#3 November 2016 (4 ER, 3 F, 3DT)-BFP
IVF#4 March 2017 //EPP (10 ER (1 wonky so 9 ER) 7F, 3B (5AB, (2)5BB) PGS tested- ALL abnormal
IVF#5 April 2017 // EPP (7 ER, 7F yes! 6B) 2/5 day 4/6 day - 2 PGS normal! yes!!
IVF#6 May 2017 // Antagonist didn't have time for Estrogen Priming...(4 ER, 3 F, 3B) (5AB, (2) 5BB) 2 PGS normal, yes!!
IVF#7 June 2017 // EPP praying this is it and then on to an FET!
So sweet!!! And your story -- wow! I'm glad everything ended up well
I was just done with it at that point!
And I agree - the resemblance is uncanny!
Summer 2015 - no BFP yet, labs normal, referred to RE
Fall 2015 - Summer 2016 - Further testing all normal. 3 IUI's -- BFN. Recommended move to IVF. Planned cycle for fall 2016.
September 2016 - Surprise natural BFP. MMC @ 8 weeks. RE expressed confidence that we just needed the 'right' embryo.
Fall 2016 - Spring 2017 -- Break from TTC
June 2017 - Started IVF; egg retrieval for freeze all cycle. 9 mature eggs retrieved, 5 fertilized. 2 4BB embies on ice.
August 2017 - FET transfer both embies. BFP. Twin pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound. EDD 4/28/18
September 2017 - Twin B stopped developing; Twin A doing perfectly! Graduated from RE @ 10 weeks
March 2018 - Baby Girl born via C/S due to pre-eclampsia -- strong and healthy!
TTC #2
January/Feb 2021 - Freeze-all IVF cycle
March 2021 - FET of 1 PGS normal female embryo. BFP! Beta #1 156, #2 472, #3 1241, #4 5268 EDD 12/5/21 - Christmas baby!
"When all is lost then all is found."
@2MomsHoping Congratulations! Your baby looks so adorable!!!
@BusinessWife How are you doing? I'm hoping for a safe, successful and happy delivery! I'll be eagerly waiting for your update
To all other ladies here, I pray for all of you... Just a little more and you'd be holding your precious lil one/s.