A Dream Come True, Times 2!

I can remember when my husband Tom and I were dating, we would talk about how many kids we wanted once we were married and even talked about baby names that we loved.  We always knew that we wanted to have children, and wanted to start trying right after we were married.  After about 6 months of trying, however, I had a gut feeling that something just wasn't right.  We were recommended to a specialist who immediately starting testing both of us to see if there was any reason we weren't able to get pregnant on our own.  In the fall of 2009, we received heartbreaking news.  My husband had severe male factor infertility, and our chances of conceiving on our own were slim to none.  We were referred to Dr. Ahlering at SIRM-St. Louis and made an appointment right away.  He informed us that, due to our circumstances, IVF would basically be our only option.  Tom and I didn't even have to discuss it, we knew that we would do whatever it took to have a baby.  We started right away with the medications, ultrasounds, blood tests, etc.  At times, it was a lot to deal with, but I could only hope that it would all be worth it in the end.
The preparation went very smoothly, and it was finally the day of our egg retrieval.  The procedure went very well, and it seemed that they were able to retrieve several viable eggs.  We then hit our first, and worst, bump in the road.  Dr. Ahlering told us that they were not able to retrieve any quality sperm from Tom's specimen and that they would have to try retrieving them using the ICSI method.  They tried 3 or 4 times and told us that they were still not seeing any good quality sperm.  Dr. Ahlering told us that they would continue to look at the specimens and see if they could find anything, but that we really needed to consider our other option, which was finding a sperm donor.  My eggs would go to waste if we didn't use them, and neither of us wanted that.  We were both absolutely devastated.  We knew that we would love any child no matter what, but the initial thought of our baby not being both of ours was heartbreaking.  We took a moment, cried together, but then quickly decided that we would look at a donor list so that we could go on with the process.  I will never forget how strong Tom was that day, to find out that he may never be able to father his own children, and then being forced to decide if he was ok with the idea of using a sperm donor.  As we looked over the donor list, the nurse would come in periodically and give us updates on how it was going with Tom's specimens.  She told us they found a couple good ones...then a couple more...then a few more.  Things started looking up.  Dr. Ahlering told us that he was still not sure how good those sperm would be but they would do everything they could to try and make it work.
I left the office that day with a very sick feeling in my stomach, that stayed until we got a phone call the next morning.  It was the nurse from Dr. Ahlering's office.  She told us that several of my eggs had fertilized with Tom's sperm and that they were very optimistic.  We were good to go for the embryo transfer the following week!  We still had a lot of waiting and anticipating to do, but we were thrilled with that news.  Everything went as planned with the embryo transfer.  We were able to transfer 2 embryos, and freeze 4.  A few weeks later we found out that we were pregnant...with twins!  We couldn't be happier.  After feeling a whirlwind of emotions over the last year, our dream of starting a family was finally coming true. 
On September 23, 2010, we welcomed our beautiful babies into the world.  Raegen Kathleen and Braeden Thomas were born just 2 minutes apart, both weighing 4lbs., 14 oz.

Here they are at 6 months...

And we just celebrated their first birthday...

This past year has been challenging, but has also been the most exciting and rewarding year of our lives.  Even after everything we went through, Tom and I consider ourselves to be incredibly fortunate and blessed to have 2 beautiful and healthy children.  They have filled our hearts with so much love, and brought an incredible amount of joy to our lives.  It is amazing to know that we went from not knowing if we would ever be able to have our own children, to having 2 at one time!  Our hearts go out to all of those still struggling to have families of their own.  With lots of prayers and the help of SIRM, miracles can happen.  We owe everything to Dr. Ahlering and his staff.  They turned a heartbreaking situation into an amazing one, and our dreams into a reality!
Molly Lubiewski