Recipient Story – Mabel

Jul 22, 2019

Hi my name is Mabel and my husband and I were recipient of a Baby Quest grant in May-2016. I wanted to share our road to our double blessings Mark and Skylar.

My husband and I married on April 2012 and were diagnosed with “early ovarian failure” on September 2012. After a battery of tests, we became pregnant with our 1 in a million baby, but lost her at 12 weeks and our hearts were broken. At this point with my numbers, our only option was IVF with egg donor. This was a very difficult reality for me. I wrestled with it for a few years. I went in for counseling with a therapist that specializes in therapy for couples that are navigating fertility issues.

This was extremely helpful. After a while, I was ready to open up to look at donors. In the process, I found Baby Quest and applied. I remember that we were in session with our therapist when we got the email saying we were finalists. That was the best feeling and the push we needed to jump in with both feet. I’m so grateful for it. 

Selecting a donor was still a daunting task, but once we had found our perfect donor, I was so relieved. We ended up with 9 beautiful embryos that made it to freeze. We had a cancel transfer date. We had a surgery to clean out my “oven”. Then we were ready to go. We transferred two of our embabies. Then came the ever stressful 2 week wait. Finally….I was pregnant!

The day came for our first ultrasound and to our very surprise, both babies decided to get cozy and we were overjoyed. 

Now the hard part was over, right? Nope. I really can’t complain. My RE did an amazing job of telling me what to expect or what could happen with a multiple pregnancy at my age. My first trimester was a breeze. Other than wanting to sleep and eat all the time, I was fine. Week 20, our scans were perfect and all was progressing well. A few days later after coming back from traveling, my babies decided they wanted to escape. We were in the hospital for 2 weeks – two of the scariest weeks of my life. Full bedrest, medicines, monitoring and a cerclage. Finally, I was able to go home and spend the rest of my pregnancy on bedrest- NOT what I had envisioned! 

My husband and mom where there for me the entire time. We planned a quick and very low key baby shower and hurried to get things ready. At week 28, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but we were able to keep it under control. We make it to 29 weeks and 5 days at home. The babies were impatient again. After a few days of stalling so that we could get our shots, they had enough and were born via c-section at 30 weeks and 1 day. They both came out screaming very loudly, and it was the most beautiful noise I have ever heard. We spent 57 and 58 very long days in NICU before we were home as a new party of 4. 

Our journey to have our family was not the easiest, but I would not change a thing. If we did, I would not have my two boys. I truly believe these are the babies we were meant to have and I am forever grateful for our journey and everyone that was a part of it.  I hope my story helps you in knowing you are not alone.