This is a collection of posters’ experiences with High Tech, the good and the bad. Their stories can provide hope, great information and sometimes, a reality check.
Feel free to read their stories and one day add your own!
From One to Four
My high tech journey begin in August 2009. I had an early miscarriage and even though we hadn’t been trying we decided that now we would. We were not sure how many kids we would end up having as our first baby had severe reflux so we decided to go HT for a girl, in case she had reflux too – in which we’d have a pigeon pair and our baby days would be over!
Things got going fairly quickly and within about 6 weeks from the initial idea we flew from Australia (where we live) to LA and underwent cycle no.1. We used Microsort and PGD (although I was never 100% comfortable with the PGD as I believe it can damage otherwise healthy embryos). We got 15 eggs but only 4 successfully fertilized, and 2 baby girls made it to transfer. I was convinced we would be one-hit-wonders and come home pregnant with twins but it was not to be. BFN.
I was devastated when the first cycle failed but tried to get pregnant naturally but again had an early miscarriage in December – which was when we decided to go back to the USA and try again in Feb 2010. This time I raised the idea with my husband of putting 3 back, he said no. I was desperate to get pregnant and convinced this cycle would also fail. At the same time, someone else I k new put back three 5 day old blasts and got a BFN so I was convinced even with 3 our chances were low.
This time we got 9 eggs, 6 fertilized and 3 made it to transfer day. Our doctor (Dr F at HRC) recommended that based on my history with miscarriages and failed cycle, that we transfer three. I was happy to do so but left the decision up to my husband. He decided to go ahead and transfer all three because the embryo had a better chance in me than being successfully being frozen and thawed.
This 2nd cycle we decided to just use IVF with Microsort and not use PGD. I simply wasn’t comfortable with unnecessarily stressing the embryos and believed that if we ended up with another boy it was meant to be.
I had my first (extremely) faint BFP 3 days after blast transfer. By 5dp5dt the BFP was clear. I was exstatic! I was finally pregnant again and it was most likely (approx.. 85% chance) a girl. Blood tests confirmed the pregnancy and showed a perfectly normal beta, consistent with one embryo.
I knew theoretically that we may have multiples but based on my beta I was only expecting one – and to be honest was terrified I’d had a missed miscarriage and we wouldn’t find a beating heart. Ultrasound day came a few weeks later and I will never forget looking at the screen and wondering what the ultrasound lady was looking at. It couldn’t be my ovaries, I could see three round things..
Then she said it – “Yep, there’s three!” I think I asked “three what? And was told “three babies.” “Do they all have heartbeats?” “Yes.” I couldn’t move. I almost couldn’t breathe! My husband took a deep breath and came to give me a kiss and tell me it was going to be fine. He looked amused. I felt a mix of terror and total regret. Our son was only 14 months old at the time – how would triplets affect his life?
It took a few weeks to get used to the idea of triplets but I started researching that very first day which helped a lot. I learned what I could do to help avoid severe pre-term labour, and started a very high calorie diet (weight gain in the first trimester is associated with longer gestation in higher order multiples). We had to get very organized early as I went on bed rest at 20 weeks but in reality needed to sleep a lot during the whole pregnancy – being pregnant with triplets is exhausting.
The pregnancy itself was pretty good for a high-risk pregnancy. I had no bleeding or preterm labour and we made it 33 weeks before we had to deliver due to triplet C being growth restricted. I went into a scheduled c-section and delivered three healthy babies 7 weeks early – 2 baby girls and one beautiful baby boy!
It’s a few months down the track now and things have definitely changed in our house – we need help with the house and the babies and almost always have someone here helping. Feedings require two people, but of course we also have our first son who is 2 now so things are busy!
But we would not change a thing. We have been blessed with four beautiful kids who make us smile every single day.