Thoughts on Assisted Reproduction

I just finished reading the following book:



I often keep details of the assistance we received private, saying only that we got some help to conceive this time around. We tried for 3 years and have often longed for a sibling for our Boy who is growing up so fast! The journey we found ourselves on was painful and personal. Being surrounded by mainly Christian identifying people, we learned to be careful. I asked around before we started treatments to see if I could figure out the flavor of opinions of people around us in regards to various fertility options. I am sad to say that Christians were generally the most closed minded and judgmental of those I spoke to without understanding of the ethics and processes involved.

I appreciate Dollar's account of their own story and the honesty with which she writes. I like that she comes to no real conclusion except for this... there is no easy choice in the context in which we live these days. And the right answer isn't the same for everybody. It's complex and mufti-faceted, personal and heart-wrenching.

Coasting

This week has been fabulous! Nothing happened. I had no pregnancy related scares or worries, I went to work, increased my activity somewhat, and did my normal household stuff.

Here's hoping we can coast til our next ultrasound on Mar 13 and then have more good news with the anatomical scan. Then we'll be able to see the chambers of the hearts, functioning kidneys, etc.

Good News!

This afternoon we met with Genetics and went through our histories. Possibilities were presented to us that ranged from two normal to to abnormal babies with either or both being alive or dead. We discussed the gamut of decisions available to us ranging from termination of the pregnancy, termination of the sick baby, or doing nothing other than watching and waiting. We were gently reminded that Hydrops has a poor prognosis. We were also told that identical twins have the potential for many more difficulties than fraternal and thus far had been unable to establish whether there were one or two placentas.

We were then sent for fetal assessment and nuchal translucency testing. Nuchal translucency can only be done between weeks 11 and 14 and measures the amount of fluid behind the neck of a fetus. It gives an indication of risk for chromosomal defects.

Baby A looks great. Active and hogging the camera.

Baby B looks very good! He/She has a higher measurement (on the high side of normal) behind the neck and no hydrops evident whatsoever. No extra fluid is accumulated on the fetus or in the amniotic fluid as had been seen earlier. Baby doesn't appear to be distressed in any way. Many babies with higher readings are totally normal (the vast majority) and some babies with normal measurements have defects noted at birth. We could go on with an amniocentesis but will likely pass. Our big concerns were a) how sick is baby B and b) what impact does that pose to Baby A's health. At this point they both appear healthy and active. They are fraternal as well.

The best case scenario I had imagined was that Baby B had died and Baby A was looking fine. This blows me away!

Up goes the yo-yo of emotions in the early part of this pregnancy.

I leave you with pictures of the babies:

The two. Baby B on the left looks bigger due to angle of the shot only.

Baby A liked to hog the camera and appears to be sucking his thumb

Baby B is destined to be our worry child. This kid has long legs!