For those of you who read my blog, you know that we went through IVF with ICSI with both of our kids. We were very fortunate, I was a prime candidate for IVF and my body responded very well to all of the medication. I easily produced 22 large eggs, 10 fertilized and 7 made it to beautiful day 5 embryos of the highest grade! We have only had to transfer 1 embryo each time and all 3 resulted in positive pregnancy tests. One did end in an early miscarriage, but 2 out of 3 have turned into beautiful babies. We are blessed to say the least. Blessed that science made this process available for us, blessed to have success with it, to be able to afford it, etc, etc.
In our minds we have always been a 2 kid type of family. I have always said I prefer man on man defense over the zone (smile). Now that I have my 2 beautiful babies, I am hesitant, am I really done? Not so sure. I wavered and came back to the decision that I "think" I am, but still have the ability to change my mind. However, we still have these 4 beautiful baby embryos that are currently sitting in the freezer and each year we pay a rental fee, yes, a rental fee, to store our little babies. It is a pretty large expense and could go towards many other things, kids college, savings, vacation, etc. We can stop paying it at any time and have 3 options of what would happen to our little embryos.
One, they could be disposed of.
Two, they can be donated to science and research.
Or three, they can be donated to someone to use.
We decided from the get go, option three was not an option, for us it was just too weird and while I respect everyone's decisions and while I feel empathy towards those who need emrbyos in order to conceive, for me just cannot do it. We decided science is what got us here, so once we were ready to make that decision, we would donate our embryos to science. However, I cannot bring myself to grips to do it anytime soon. I just am not sure and feel like I have plenty of time to still change my mind, so for now we continue to pay our rental fees, but gosh I don't know if I will ever be ready to say goodbye to them permanently. Although for now our IVF journey is complete, it still is an emotional roller coaster.
My sister went through IVF twice. The first time, she was blessed to become pregnant with 2 beautiful twins, a boy & a girl. Unfortunately, she went into pre-term labor and lost them :( It was a tough time for our family but luckily she had a couple of frozen embryo's left. Only 1 was viable, though. So they implanted it and it worked! She now has a beautiful 13 month old boy! I just love how far science has come, to give people like you, and my sister the chance to become parents.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it's a hard decision to decide what to do with your remaining embryos. But like you said, you don't have to decide right now!
While this is TOTALLY NOT THE SAME, I get where you are coming from. I was going thru my daughters clothes the other day to give some to friends expecting a baby soon. My husband wanted to just give it all to them. I couldn't pull myself to just do it. While I think we are done after this baby is born (a boy), I can't bring myself to come to terms with being done having kids. Like I said, totally not the same situation at all, but I get it. It is nice though that you don't HAVE to make the decision, you can keep doing what you are doing & storing them until you need them or donate them.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand you wanting to pay that rental fee "just in case". I'm so glad it worked so well for you!
ReplyDeleteso glad it worked for you!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo glad it worked out for you. I've never been in your shoes but I'm sure its not an easy decision to make.
ReplyDeleteAs a mom of twins who were donated to us as embryos, I would like to encourage you to reconsider donating your "4 Frozen Babies" to another couple. I am in a secret FB Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/embryoadoptiondonation/) that has several couples who would love the opportunity to raise your babies. Perhaps if you research the idea a bit more and get to know some families who are using donated embryos to grow their families it won't seem so weird. Please feel free to contact me for more information. Good luck!!!
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