My new guest blogger is Oscar’s Mummy, Emma.

She will be blogging all about Oscar’s first year,  below is Emma’s first blog – an intro to their journey from IVF treatment to parenthood.

On New Years Day 2019 we began our journey to parenthood. Months of negative pregnancy tests, upset, & despair persuaded us to seek answers. We were referred to Bourn Hall Clinic & testing started just as covid hit, meaning a nervous wait until July 2021 when we were told we had unexplained infertility as they couldn’t find anything wrong with either of us. We would need to continue trying to conceive for 3 years before we would be eligible to have IVF on the NHS.

Fast forward to January 2022 & we started IVF. I was full of conflicting emotions. Happy & excited to finally have our dreams come true to have the family we had always wished for, but scared, knowing that this journey wouldn’t be easy & may not be successful first time. After preparing my body for 3 weeks of injections & medication it was finally egg collection day.

I was nervous & worried, not knowing whether they would be able to retrieve enough or any healthy eggs & whether they would produce embryos. After 5 days we got the call to say we had viable embryos. However, being so unwell due to all the medication I had taken prior to the egg collection, I was unable to have a fresh transfer. I would have to wait 3 months to let my body recover, 3 months which seemed like years, with a frozen transfer date set for 27th May.  I counted down the days until the all important date arrived, a day I will never forget, again awash with excitement, apprehension, fear, but with a positive mindset, ready for the next, so important stage in our journey

Now the 2 weeks wait began. This was undoubtedly the hardest part for me, not knowing whether the little embryo inside of me was growing, overthinking every little symptom. Monday 6th June arrived – test day & the day our lives changed forever. We finally saw those two blue lines.

Infertility comes with huge anxiety & until we had our first scan and heard his heartbeat for the first time it simply didn’t feel real. I hadn’t allowed myself to believe this was really happening until that crucial first scan & the relief, joy & anticipation was overwhelming.I enjoyed every minute of being pregnant and carrying my baby boy was the biggest possible blessing. We couldn’t wait to bring our little miracle into the world.

Friday 24th February 8:09am & our baby boy Oscar Ocean was born weighing 8lb15 by emergency C-Section. We knew our lives had changed with the positive pregnancy test but this was the day we finally became the family we had wanted for so long. The journey was long, emotionally exhausting, full of hopes, fears, laughter & tears.

Thanks to the wonders of modern science & the wonderful Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic to whom we will be eternally grateful, our dreams all came true. Now the next stage in our journey as a family of 3 has started and I can’t wait to tell you all about it in my next blog post.

Emma

Please check out my other guest blogs here. and below is a few photos from Oscar’s first baby photo session.