Helen & Nicole

Helen & Nicole's Story:

Trying to have a family has been the hardest thing I’ve had to endure in my life. It has been like a roller coaster in the worlds scariest amusement park. My fertility journey began In 2012, after my wife and I eloped we decided we wanted to start our family and we went to Cny fertility in Albany. We were very excited to start our journey and luckily we got pregnant our first medicated cycle of IUI with the help of Rebecca Eskin, and resulted in our first child Lexi who is now 7.

We tried a year later to make a sibling for our daughter to be close in age but those pregnancies had ended in miscarriages.
Then when Lexi was 4 years old we tried again with a medicated IUI cycle and Rebecca got us pregnant again - she got me pregnant every time we attempted a cycle. However, this time with triplets! We were over the moon excited! After being released from CNY and going to an obgyn We lost baby C at 6 weeks, and were very sad. But ecstatic we still had our twins who were growing well and thriving.

We found out at our maternal-fetal appointment they were a boy and girl! We had a gender reveal with our family and were so happy. Sadly, and unexpectedly, I gave birth to them at 23 weeks due to an untreated infection, and they passed away. The loss was unbearable for our family, our son lived until he was a mile away from the hospital and our daughter spent two days in the neonatal intensive care unit where she passed in my arms. Our hearts were broken we wanted them so badly.

Cny fertility had been there for us throughout the years, and through the loss of our babies. Cny helped us go through IVF in 2019 when we wanted to try again but only had one vial remaining of our anonymous donors sperm which would be a full blood sibling to our daughter. I had an egg retrieval done by Dr. Grossman where he retrieved 20 eggs. I was so happy. Then we used our donor sperm and ended up with 7 mature embryos.

Our first Frozen Transfer did not work with one embryo, so we moved onto transferring two embryos. I got pregnant but it turned into a chemical pregnancy by the time it was BETA day. Then Coronavirus happened and we didn’t know whether or not to continue the journey. However, with living in Pennsylvania it made it easier on my family to take the time to try since being out of work. So we tried this last time but having Rebecca Eskin do our transfer with Dr. Kiltz approval. She transferred 3 of our embryos this time with embryo glue. We transferred one fair and two poor frozen embryos. I didn’t think this cycle would work because my body didn’t feel at it’s best weight due to eating so much during quarantine and me being the heaviest I’ve ever been. But I knew I had Rebecca who made me most comfortable and I trusted her in her capability to get me pregnant as she did every time before.

To my surprise my beta result came back positive for pregnancy, however, it was a low 50. I went back for my second beta and it didn’t double it was a 90. I then started bleeding around 5 weeks and went to a local hospital which did a sonogram and said the baby was okay and had a heartbeat. I was so happy but cautious. I scheduled my follow up with Rebecca and the baby had a strong heartbeat I was so thrilled. Pregnancy is never easy for me and I was terrified every day. I went to my local obgyn once to twice a week and once a week to maternal fetal. I was put on Makena shots around 22 weeks up until I was induced at 36 weeks due to having gestational diabetes and Preeclampsia.

My daughter Isabella Nicole Ann was born on 3/21/2021 at 3:21am in room 321 at our local hospital. She was 6lbs 2oz and 17 inches long. My Lexi finally has a living sibling after 6 years of trying. We are blessed and grateful beyond words to Cny fertility especially Dr. Kiltz for allowing Rebecca to be able to help us throughout our journey since 2012. We couldn’t have done any of this without Cny or our wonderful providers. Cny gave us more than money can buy. Cny gave us two miracle children and two angels to watch over them. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Rebecca Eskin
Dr. Kiltz
Justine
Niccole Davey
Dr. Grossman

Helpful resources Helen & Nicole found:

I did everything Rebecca told me to do and she got me pregnant every attempt.

Unique Moments:

I didn’t get a period regularly because of my pcos. My thyroid was horrible that when I did my retrieval it was a 20 at the beginning of the cycle. Cny got me to go to an endocrinologist that I wouldn’t have ever known to do.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

In the 6 years I’ve tried to have a baby I always never gave up. Even after losing my babies. I know my purpose is to be a mother that’s all I want in life and I wasn’t going to stop trying until it happened. Don’t give up on the dream of your family it will happen.