We are excited to announce the birth of Chris and Anne’s baby girl – the first Fertility Journey baby with Oregon Reproductive Medicine. Now that Chris and Anne close their fertility journey they start the wonderful journey ahead for them as a family!
Anne writes…
9 weeks to go… this felt both very soon and very far away. Our little girl was due to grow a huge amount in that time and I was to get bigger and bigger.
Having had a rest from appointments, they restarted with a vengeance during this period. The consultant wanted me to have scans every 3 then every 2 weeks to check that she was continuing to grow adequately. I enjoyed these as it meant I could have another peek at my little girl moving around, usually with her feet in front of her face!
The midwife also booked me in every 3 weeks for a check-up, blood pressure, a feel of her position and a quick listen to her heartbeat. These were also nice to know that all was progressing normally.
Our ante-natal classes continued for a total of 6 sessions. We enjoyed going to these and continued seeing our group socially afterwards. Our most notable session was educating us on breast-feeding. The men had a lesson using knitted breasts and dolls, a sight to see with much hilarity. Then they had to teach the ladies with varying degrees of success! Hearing about the other ladies’ experiences was interesting; I felt very lucky to have had no reflux or swollen leg issues, and no pelvic pain or back ache.
As time went on we finally succumbed to preparing the nursery and buying our essential items. With 3 weeks to go, our large order of cot bed, car seat, travel system, changing unit, cute bed linen, etc… was delivered. One part of the changing unit was lost on the way, in fact had been delivered to another person we later found out. This caused some consternation as they could not deliver it for another 10 days…so we were constructing the changing unit the weekend before our due date! We decided to paint a mural on the wall on the nursery, and this was completed in the couple of weeks run up to delivery date. We trawled the internet for ideas and eventually chose a tree with owls. It was actually lots of fun painting on the wall! But we were finally ready and prepared for our little one to arrive!
I had many comments on the neatness of my bump, so I decided to document it properly and arranged a maternity photo session. This I had done 10 days before due date. The session was great fun and we have a selection of gorgeous images with which to remember my bump. I also took my own final selfie. I felt I looked really massive now! But in truth, people were only just starting to notice and were amazed when they learnt the due date was in a couple of weeks. Our little girl was getting very active now with only a week or so to go. My bump would occasionally show a Mexican wave as her hands, feet and bum wafted around! I loved watching and feeling her move around, a special time together.
Our last appointment with the consultant was three days before the planned caesarean date. Chris came with me and we discussed our birth plan, some of which was possible and some was not. But having a caesarean meant that much of the normal choices that mothers make were not applicable to us, such as choice of pain relief, location, and position of birth. We were told that it would not be possible to have skin to skin contact with my daughter immediately but that she would need to be dried and wrapped first. However, Chris would be able to cut the umbilical cord, although he was not so sure about this! Then we signed our consent forms and went off to enjoy our last weekend as a couple…
Caesarean day arrived! We arrived at the hospital at 7am ready to go and slightly nervous about what would happen during the day. After one last blood test, we waited for our turn to go to theatre. We ended up being the last of the three planned caesareans that day so it was not till lunchtime that we were taken down. I was majorly hungry by that time to the point of nausea and vomiting. But once we were on our way, adrenaline kicked in and I felt fine again thankfully.
The surgical team, midwives and anaesthetists were all wonderful, relaxed and jovial. They scanned my back before placing the spinal needle for the spinal anaesthetic, then my legs felt progressively cold and then numbness spread down to my toes and up to my rib cage. I was worried it would spread too far up and affect my breathing and also that I would not be numb enough, but I need not have been concerned, the anaesthesia was perfect.
The screen went up to shield the surgical field, and Chris was by my head dressed in scrubs and a flattering surgical cap! Within a few minutes, my little girl could be heard! A very good pair of lungs she had, and wanted to let everyone know she had arrived. In fact, she was given straight to me, still covered in vernix so I did have my skin to skin cuddle straightaway!
Then she was taken away and washed, weighed and checked over before coming back to me and Chris. We went out to the recovery room and she had her first suckle on my breast – result!
I was taken to the ward to continue my recovery. It took a few hours before I was able to be helped out of bed and had the use of my legs again. Chris stayed with me until dinner time and we had a visit from the new proud grandparents!
Overnight I was awake most of the night trying to keep an eye on my new precious bundle and calling the midwives to help me feed her every few hours. Quite a nerve wracking experience, watching her to make sure she continued breathing, although she was right next to me in a ‘beside the bed cot’.
The next morning, we visited the paediatrician who checked my little girl out, the midwife came to show me how to bath her and I had a few chats with the midwives about the best way to feed her. By lunchtime they were pleased with our progress and we were discharged! Chris took us home and then we were on our own, a new family!
After the past 2 years of fertility treatment, a roller coaster of emotions and a happy pregnancy, we had finally realised our dream! Our little bundle of love had arrived!
Now all we had to do was name her!!
We want to thank ORM and all their lovely team we met on our journey from the bottom of our hearts for making all this possible. Until this moment we had not dared to believe it would happen. But it has, and our new addition is just perfect!
Two weeks on and the hard work has really started… Babies seem to just want to sleep in the day and wake up all through the night! Despite that, we are still grinning and she is growing and thriving. We had a newborn photo session with the same photographer and now have some gorgeous keepsakes to treasure forever.
Congratulations to Chris and Anne from Oregon Reproductive Medicine
The entire team at ORM is filled with joy for Chris and Anne and we offer them our heartfelt congratulations! Helping our patients realise their hopes of building a family is what drives us every day to try and deliver the highest standards of care and the very best chance of success on the first attempt.
Chris and Anne’s experience with ORM has been exactly how we hope donor egg IVF treatment at ORM to progress for all our patients. Chris and Anne were able to find a donor that was right for them; with the application of reproductive genomic screening we were able to be confident that their choice of donor was a good match for the future health of their baby and we were able to transfer an embryo that had screened as chromosomally normal, providing the best chance for a healthy pregnancy and baby; Anne’s first transfer was successful and it’s been a normal pregnancy and delivery; and now they are home safely settling into their new roles as parents.
We are grateful and feel honoured that Chris and Anne have shared their journey with us, and we wish them every health and happiness as a family!
