Third Strand Baby Hawk
“Jason and I met in San Diego on a blind date in 2008. We were set up by an Ophthalmologist, whom I called on as a pharmaceutical sales rep. It took a few dates before we realized how well we were matched and had lots in common: same faith, love for college football, being active, travelling, and family, etc.
We were married on October 25, 2013 in Austin, Texas, and started our journey to parenthood.
We conceived our first baby in 2014, which ended in a miscarrigae at the ripe gestation of 6 weeks. We were devastated!
We kept our faith in God and believed it would work out for us. After many months of trying, I was led to a fertility specialist.
Our daughter was conceived via intrauterine insemination (IUI) in early 2015 and she was born in November 2015. What a miracle and blessing from God!
With our fertility issues we decided to try again when she was 7 months old, not knowing if it would take a long time. Well, the IUI worked on the first try AGAIN!
Our son was conceived in 2016 and born in March 2017! Overjoyed! They are 15 months apart and it was an adventure from day 1.
When he was a year old, we decided to go through fertility again to conceive another child (2018). We tried multiple doctors and fertility clinics in Texas to no avail. We then decided maybe it wasn't meant to be.
In January 2019, I had a vivid dream that we had a baby via a gestational carrier. It was beautiful and I still remember details from that dream to this day.
I conceived naturally later that summer and we were ecstatic! After 10 weeks, our sweet baby went to be with our Lord Savior and we were again devastated.
After I healed physically from that loss, I conceived naturally again the very next month-HUGE surprise and again lots of emotions came with this pregnancy. Was it too soon? Will it work out? Is my body ready? Of course we were excited and this baby was loved already.
A short 6 weeks later, we were struck with the sad news that this baby too was called to Heaven on Christmas morning. DEVASTATION.
2020.
Well, at this point we literally had given up. A pandemic, as we all know, started in March. Fertility didn't work. My age was not in my favor...I was turning 40 in July. My birthday week approached and as I did the math, we conceived naturally that very week! What a miracle and a blessing! We both just couldn't believe it! This must be our greatest gift from God! As you can imagine our history repeating itself, we had some fears and trying to stay healthy was another hurdle in this pandemic.
When I was younger I had cervical issues; therefore, needing extra care with pregnancies. This being our first baby to be born in Texas, I had asked my doctor to receive care under a perinatologist. I was told that she was very busy and couldn't see me until early in the new year! What? I was told I could go to Lubbock for extra care.
Meanwhile, I had asked for cervical length checks at every appointment knowing my cervix was compromised. The 14 week appointment came and the doctor didn't order the cervical check, so I didn't receive one. I was shocked, but was hopeful everything was going well. Again, I reminded her to do cervical checks and she later admitted that the only reason I received one at the 20+ week appointment was because I was persistent.
Well, at this anatomy scan appointment I knew something was wrong-not with the baby, but with my cervix. The ultrasound tech got really quiet, stepped out to make a phone call, came back and said the doctor will be calling me. Not even a minute later my phone rings with the unfortunate news.
My cervix had thinned out and it was too late to put a cerclage on it. I was ordered to strict bed rest. I lasted 10 days on bed rest and then my water broke.
I was admitted into the hospital and lasted another week until the untimely death of our sweet baby Gemma Rose at almost 24 week gestation. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her and that is how she passed away. I underwent a c-section.
The doctor had a hard time getting her out and she had to do a T-incision on my uterus. This surgery on top of my 2 previous c-sections AND a uterine rupture with my son's delivery had completely put my uterus out of commission. I got a tubal ligation and we knew our journey wasn't over that very day we lost Gemma. We kept our faith and trust in God.
After recovering, my husband did some research on the best fertility doctor/clinic in the country.
We found our next steps to conceiving in Colorado doing full IFV with a transfer into a gestational carrier. The first round, we didn't get any viable embryos. Due to my age (41 at the time), the doctor recommended one more try before looking to use a donor egg. Second retrieval worked! We had 3 genetically tested normal embryos! Praise God!
The quest to find a carrier was next and quite tricky. God led us to our cousin who lived in California. She agreed to be our carrier, and after lots of testing, she and her husband qualified to be our surrogate! We had the transfer on June 8, 2022 AND it worked!
The pregnancy was great. We of course were on pins and needles this time around, but kept our faith and trust in our Lord.
Our son was due February 24, 2023.
Kyle Joy reached out to me on February 23 with the amazing news that we were able to be a recipient of donor breast milk from Third Strand! Our son was delivered on February 28, 2023, and he is healthy! We made the long drive home and were blessed with the donor milk on Sunday, March 5.
We are so grateful for this non-profit and the selfless donations of milk from special momma's! Our journey has been challenging and tested our faith many times. However, we are beyond blessed to have 3 healthy children. We keep our other 4 angel babies-Walker, Estelle, Anja, and Gemma very much alive in our home too- we love them dearly. I feel called to help other families dealing with the loss of an infant, and I'm currently navigating what that looks like. I'm happy to share our story to anyone as you see fit.
Again, sincerest gratitude for the love and support of Third Strand and the breast milk donors.”
