Here is the earliest picture of my 3 kids:

And here they are today:

For those of you who don’t know the story, technically speaking all 3 kids were conceived on the same day. They are all IVF babies, from the same egg retreival and ICSI fertilization. Geetle and Pookie were planted on June 9, 2002 and born on January 31, 2003. Giggles, from the same batch as Geetle and Pookie, was planted on January 31, 2007 and born on October 24, 2007. Between the time Geetle and Pookie were born and the time Giggles was born, Giggles and 6 of her frozen siblings were stored in a cryogenic environment. On July 7, 2006 Geetle, Pookie and I picked that cryo-tank up at the storage facility and drove it to my fertility doctor’s office. When the doctor told me I should go pick up the tank and drive it over, I was surprised and said “Me? Am I qualified to do that?” He said “Do you think Fed-Ex is qualified to do it?” So, I did it, with Geetle and Pookie trailing along behind me. For the sake of posterity, I took the top picture in the doctor’s office parking lot. Eerie, but cute.

We started working on Giggles in early Summer 2006. We had 3 failed IVF transfers before she went in on January 31, 2007. It was a lucky day (Geetle and Pookie’s birthday) and she stuck. Luckily for all of us, because we were down to just Giggles and one of the frozen kids left.

After we were well into the pregnancy with Giggles, we donated our last frozen embryo for research.

Some day we will show these photos to the kids and talk about it. We have never kept the IVF thing a secret. When you keep secrets, you imply that you are ashamed of something. We are not ashamed of it. I probably share more details about the whole process than most people want to hear. But, from Spring 2001 to Summer 2002 and again from Summer 2006 to Spring 2007, Clomid, ART, Artificial insemination, IVF, Lupron, Progesterone, “blood and ultrasound,” IM injections and baby aspirin were my life. BAGD has his own perspective to deal with. He has written alot about it, and you may want to pop over here and there for a summary.

We will tell our kids all about it when they are old enough to ask and understand.

Sometimes the ART stuff pops into my head when I least expect it. Most of the time I do not think about how the kids came to be. But sometimes I do. Then I remember that while people say some of the best things in life are unexpected, alot of the really great things ARE expected.

and hoped for

and planned for

and dreamed about

and labored over

and appreciated even more because of it.