Infertility ~ Hope ~ Joy

Bob and I had a long journey of infertility that began in 2005.  We went to Minneapolis where he had a vasectomy reversal surgery.  In the months that followed, we learned that although the surgery was successful, we still would not be able to get pregnant on our own.  After much devastation and literally crying out to God on my kitchen floor following that phone call, we made an appointment with a urologist in Kettering to learn more.  The urologist had a thick Indian accent and large glasses.  It made for a very vivid memory when he stated, "Well, Bob, your problem is that you need 20 million soldiers marching in the same direction.  What you have are 8 million soldiers marching around in soldiers...some without heads."  Looking back it is quite a funny image, but at the time, it was not what we wanted to hear.

The doctor referred us to the Cleveland Clinic Fertility Center where we found hope.  This was the first time I had heard of in vitro ICSI.  They are able to circumvent the need for the sperm to break through the egg on it's own and instead insert one of Bob's healthy sperm into my egg.  In January 2007, 18 months after the original surgery in Minnesota, we went through this process.  As a result we had 16 fertilized eggs.  At the 5 days stage of development we had 6 surviving blastocysts.  We transferred 2 fresh embryos that month and froze the remaining 4.

In September 2007, we experienced a flawless pregnancy and welcomed Boyd Douglas & Benjamin Charles into the world ~ what a joy!

In August 2009, we were ready for another round of in vitro.  Two of the blastocysts thawed flawlessly and we transferred them up at the Cleveland Clinic.  In September we found out we were pregnant and the day before Thanksgiving we learned at Bright Beginnings in Springboro that we were having one girl.  In May 2010, we welcomed Elle Marie Westerfield into the world.  After her birth we had this feeling that we weren't finished yet.

Over the next 18 months the decision on what to do with the final 2 embryos weighed heavily on our hearts.  We asked for prayer on what to do and really felt like none of the options; donate, destroy or do nothing ~ were not good options.  God gave us 6 embryos for a reason and although our hectic lifestyles made another set of twins seem unmanageable, we made the decision to see what His plan was for us. 

On February 14, 2012 we transferred the remaining two embryos.  Two weeks later we learned that we were in fact pregnant!  Four weeks later we learned that we were having one baby.