Success story 25
I still cannot believe how lucky I am, to everyday wake up next to my beautiful, baby daughter who is now almost 7 weeks old.
After three failed IVF cycles and a natural miscarriage, it appeared that trying for a baby at 40 years old was simply too late; I`d had a career and forgotten to have a family!
The doctor told me that the third failed IVF was a defining time, and the realisation that medical science may not work for me closed in.
I was then told about egg donation, which sounded fantastic. All of a sudden the percentage success went up enormously, although there was the slight concern that it isn`t “your” egg.
Fortunately though I had a friend who had just had a second child, a gorgeous baby girl, from egg donation in Spain at 47 years old. Her first, a boy, was natural and she reassured me that her feelings for the girl were exactly the same as her little boy. “After carrying a baby for 9 months, it`s totally your baby,” she told me.
However, in the UK there was at least a year`s waiting list at my fertility hospital and it would be very hit and miss as to whether the first donor`s egg matched your attributes. It was then that I seriously considered going abroad to eliminate both these issues.
Being fair-haired, I chose Russia for my treatment and it proved a fantastic choice.
Dr Zaysteff was both professional and friendly, speaking perfect English and unlike my experience in the UK, where I saw different people each time (I was paying privately) she did everything, consultation, scan, implantation. My husband and I met her and arranged our timetable of clinic visits. After the fertilisation, were told to return in 5 days for implantation, We were both amazed by her confidence that we would not need to return sooner, if there were not enough embryos. We succeeded in getting 6 blastocysts and 1 morulla, 2 were used and the rest frozen, hopefully for a future brother or sister.
In the UK egg sharing reduces the number of embryos available to you, so you are less likely to be able to freeze embryos for future siblings, increasing the expense. The donor would always get the embryos if there were only a small number. There is also the possibility of a half sibling living in your local area, which may cause concern.
St Petersburg is a great place to visit and we felt like we had a holiday, we even visited Moscow by train on our 5 day wait period.
I will never forget the postive pregnancy rnd_test, at 43-years old, and the joy of my 12-week scan showing a baby sommersaulting on the screen. My husband and I both cried with joy.
Fortunatly the pregnancy was very straightforward and surprisingly enjoyable; waking up to baby hiccups in the morning and kicking feet is incredible. I gave birth (Dec 2010) via C-section after cajoling the consultant about my fear of any damage to the baby. It was all perfect, my husband was there next to me and I was awake throughout with an epidural. She was a big, 8lbs 7oz, baby and looked like her father. The bonding was instant. The last 6 and a half weeks have been a bit of a blur, I`ve spent a long time independent so it was a huge learning curve.
It`s funny you have terribly disturbed sleep, but you don`t really mind. At 8 days after her birth, on my 44th birthday, I only got out to the supermarket, not the usual restaurant, and Christmas and New Year came and went without any parties but it was all very special and new.
I have just had my 6-week GP`s appointment and he asked me if I had the baby blues, he then said, “What am I thinking, you must be over the moon to have a daughter?” and I smiled and replied, “Yes, she`s my miracle.”