Michelle & Jared

Michelle & Jared's Story:

I was diagnosed with PCOS in my early 20’s. We got married in my early 30’s in 2012. I was charting for years to know my cycle. We thought we had conceived, but a few days before Father’s day of 2013, I went to the bathroom and had massive bleeding and something came out that looked like a little bitty baby. I was devastated.

In late 2013, we started going to various RE’s. In 2015, we visited a new RE. My husband’s sperm was tested and he had an extremely low sperm count that they think was due to having mumps as a child. The MMR vaccine didn’t cover that specific strain, unfortunately. Mumps basically ruined most of his fertility. They also had me undergo several tests and have bloodwork taken. They said it would be impossible to get pregnant without having IVF because I now had diminished ovarian reserve and Jared’s sperm count was bad. The RE told me I only had a year to conceive. We were devastated. I then found CNY.
I had my egg retrieval on New Year’s Eve in 2016 with Dr. Kiltz. Unfortunately, it only resulted in one embryo being frozen.

In 2018, I asked to be put on the donor embryo list. Exactly one year later, we received 6 donor embryos. Unfortunately, a month later my dad passed away so I wasn’t in the position to do the transfer. In the beginning of 2020, I was ready to transfer, but then the pandemic started. I was able to finally transfer in July 2020. Dr. Corley did the FET.

The transfer worked. The pregnancy was going perfectly, except for one ER visit at 6 weeks. I was told I was definitely going to miscarry. Luckily, that doctor was wrong. On December 28, 2020, I gave birth unexpectedly at home. She came 3 months early. She was only given a 50% chance to live. Thankfully she survived and flourished.

I must say I didn’t do anything special to prepare. I didn’t do Keto or anything. I just took the minimum of medication.

We are so happy to have her in our lives. It took almost 20 years to have a baby, but we are certainly glad to have been blessed with the most pleasant baby. We hope that we can do another transfer in 2022 and hope our second child won’t be a second-trimester baby. Our baby is perfect and already caught up developmentally. She is my warrior princess. We want to thank the person who donated their remaining embryos. Without their generous donation, we wouldn’t have our rainbow baby!

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Greta Nellis was great as well, but I don't think she is at CNY anymore. She was my nurse when I was doing my retrieval process. Dr. Kiltz is amazing. He went above and beyond to retrieve my eggs out of both ovaries. Dr. Corley is very kind. He made the transfer process so smooth. Ann Singh was great on updating me on my betas and telling me the steps I needed to take next. She was very sweet.

Helpful resources Michelle & Jared found:

I always loved to watch Dr. Kiltz's Facebook Live. I also joined some Facebook groups.

Unique Moments:

I hated that both of us had infertility issues. But, it was comforting to know it wasn't all my issue. The cost of medications were the hardest to overcome.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

You are the best advocate for yourself. If you feel something isn't right, please speak up. Don't wait longer than you have to, to begin treatment. I wish I would have done it in my twenties or early thirties instead of waiting until I was 40 to have a baby.