The phenomenal Stacey Prohaska with her daughter Sophia (5) and son Samuel (18 mo). Stacey spent six years all together doing infertility treatments to have her children. Her daughter was a Clomid baby and they were lucky enough to conceive on the first cycle and had a fairly normal pregnancy with a cesarean birth. They wanted her to have a sibling and after about a year tried 5 or 6 Clomid cycles with no luck. From there they tried IVF and things were far more difficult than she imaged. She was diagnosed with Placenta Previa with Sam and was experiencing some bleeding. She was told she was carrying so low they thought the pregnancy was not viable. Stacey's doctors counseled her about ending the pregnancy, which was not an option for her. She spent some time in the hospital and ultimately had to have an emergency cesarean birth 2 month early due to a severe hemorrhage. At the time of her cesarean she had to be under general anesthesia and have a complete hysterectomy.
Stacey provided some amazing numbers to us at her session that I found so important to include with her story:
14: number of doctors involved in my pregnancy with Sammy
13: number of months of nursing my daughter, Sophia
12: number of oocytes they harvested through in vitro
11: number of weeks of pumping round the clock until I could exclusively nurse my son.
10: number of years of marriage the year my picture was taken for 4th trimester project!
9: number of babies in the NICU when Sammy was born, including him
8: number of viable eggs I had for in vitro fertilization
7: number of weeks of bed rest I endured with Sam
6: number of years total that I underwent infertility treatments
5: total number of chlomid cycles I tried (Sophia is my chlomid baby)
4: my total number of pregnancies
3: number of years of trying before my first successful pregnancy
2: number of healthy, beautiful children I have - and...
1: very supportive husband