Newest Adventure

When Dayson was first diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, we were living in Phoenix and his CF clinic was in Phoenix Children's Hospital. His nutritionist at the time was pregnant with her first baby. She was super cute, fun and very helpful with teaching us how to give Dayson his enzymes and getting him on the correct food plan. We found out later that she had gotten pregnant through IVF because her and her husband were both carriers for cystic fibrosis. So they did IVF and tested the embyro for cystic fibrosis before they implanted it. I thought that was so interesting because I had no idea that was even possible. I also didn't think much about it, because at the time, I thought we were done having kids. When I was pregnant with Layla and after she was born, I again thought that we were done having kids, but then when Layla was 6 months old, it hit me that our family was not complete. There is one more out there. But how we were we supposed to bring the last one to our family? I was not comfortable with just rolling the dice again and getting pregnant on our own, so the other 2 options were adoption and IVF with PGD. We thought and prayed for months and months. In April of 2012 we went to the IVF Doctor that our pediatrician had used herself and recommended for us. We both felt extremely comfortable with this doctor and felt like this was the way to go, but we didn't know if we should try to test for Meckel-Gruber and cystic fibrosis or just cystic fibrosis. So after talking to two different geneticists we found out that trying to test for Meckel-Gruber with out knowing the exact DNA because Hope was not tested, was trying to find a needle in a haystack. So, after months of talking and praying we decided to go ahead with IVF with PGD and just test for cystic fibrosis. We had a doctor appointment Saturday to make sure everything was on track to start the process and everything did check out fine. So Saturday night was the first night to give myself shots. My friend Lacey came over to help me, since I was so nervous, she was very sweet to come over and coach me through it. Chet stayed in the other room, he has a tendency to pass out around needles. It went pretty smooth, and Sunday night went even smoother and I was able to do it by myself and feel confident about it. Monday and Tuesday nights were the same two shots and then I had another Doctor appointment today. Today's appointment was a blood draw and checking to see how many follicles I have. Everything checked out right on track. I continue with those same two shots for the next several days and today we added a pill to take twice a day and in a couple of days we will add a third shot. I'm so grateful for modern medicine and science. When Dayson was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis we were made aware that 95% of males with cystic fibrosis are sterile.What we didn't find out until a couple of months ago, after we had started down the path of IVF, was that the "sterile" was actually a natural vasectomy, and that most CF males still produce sperm, but it just doesn't come out with the semen. So that means that there is a process of extracting sperm from the male and by means of IVF, the male with CF and his wife can actually have a baby using this method. For some reason, after I learned this information, it made me feel like us doing IVF now, will maybe someday make Dayson more comfortable with it if he and his wife decide to go down this path. I'm so excited to go through this process, because I am learning so much information that I never would have thought about had we not had to go through this and I feel like we will be able to help others in the future that need to go through anything similar. I'm so thankful for the IVF doctor and all the staff at the clinic. I'm so thankful for a husband that is so supportive and grateful that we are always on the same page when it comes to big life changing decisions. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that takes the time to listen and answer our prayers. He truly has been a huge part in all of our families decisions and I feel so blessed because we have always tried to do what He wants us to do. This is an exciting time for our family and I am happy to share it with everyone.