"The Most Special Gift"

For nearly half of my life, I thought I would never be able to have children. I first knew that I had a problem when I was seventeen years old and, unlike all of my friends, had not gotten my period yet. A trip to the doctor confirmed the reason why. I was born with premature ovarian failure.

Now, I am 32 and because my body does not produce the hormones I need, I have been taking hormone medication since my diagnosis. Although that helps me get my monthly period, I would not be able to become pregnant without In Vitro Fertilization. IVF was only in early development when I was a teenager, but now it has been available for several years.

When I was first diagnosed my sister and I had a talk. She said, I'll have a baby for you. Little did she know that, in a way, I would take her up on that offer! Many years passed before we discussed it again.

My husband and I have been married for almost five years. Before we were married, we met with my obstetrician to discuss the possibilities of having children. The doctor told us about the procedure of using a donor egg. After a few years of marriage when we were settled in, we felt the time was right to give it a try. My sister has three children, ages 10, 9 and 7. She was happy to fulfill her promise of many years ago and help us try for children of our own.

After the first IVF procedure, I was too nervous to find out if it worked or not. When I went for a pregnancy test, I told the nurses to call my husband to tell him the results. That evening after work, my husband came home carrying a bouquet of my favorite flowers...pink and yellow carnations. I was pregnant! We were so excited to share the news with our families and especially my sister.

We felt so fortunate that IVF worked the first time for us, but we were still nervous because the risk of miscarriage is higher. We had a lot of people hoping and praying for us. I stayed on progesterone oil for the first trimester. It was a daily injection that my husband usually gave me. If he was away on a business trip, someone in my family helped. Since the injection was in my hip, I had to go for a walk afterwards to heat up the muscle and disperse the medicine. At least it forced me to exercise! I never had to worry about running out of the daily shots because I had a lot of confidence in IVPCARE. I had my own contact, Rachel, who was always helpful and made sure the medications arrived easily and in a punctual manner.

I'm thrilled to say that I had a great pregnancy, smooth delivery, and my beautiful baby girl was born in February, weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces and measuring 19 3/4 inches long. We named her after my great grandmother and her middle name is my sister's middle name.

Now, I work part-time as a marketing manager, but spend most of my days with my daughter. My husband and I are both completely and utterly in love with her. She is a good-natured baby who hardly cries except when she is hungry. Most people tell us that she looks like my husband, except that her hair is coming in and his is not! Her eyes and mouth are more like my side of the family. She is starting to eat solid foods now and loves to stand with help.

Hopefully, one day our daughter will have a brother or sister. Three frozen blastocysts remain so that we can try one more time. If it does not work, we will count our blessings and try to adopt. Someday when she is older, we will talk to her about how she was born. We feel that there is nothing to be ashamed about and it is something that does not need to be kept a secret. My sister gave us the most special gift anyone could give.