2601 baby is 18 months and very healthy!

angieH

My husband and I began trying to have children years ago only to have miscarriage after miscarriage. Getting pregnant was never the problem, but staying pregnant was. Amist six pregnancies, we were actually able to conceive and carry one child to term, the second pregnancy. We wanted nothing more than to have another child and a sibling for our son and began trying to have a second child. Having only had one miscarriage at the time we did not necessarily feel like having another child would be impossible. But, we had four more miscarriages and time was passing to have a sibling close enough in age to allow our children to enjoy growing up together. We turned to a reproductive specialist who began testing for the cause of our miscarriages. Both my husband and I underwent bloodwork, sonograms, and other testing and it was soon discovered that my husband had a fairly rare "translocation" of his chromosomes. Basically, a piece of his chromosome was broke off and "translocated" to another chromosome. We would get pregnant and as the baby would develop over the 1st trimester and chromosomes were taken to form the vital organs of the growing baby inside, in most cases this dysfunctional chromosome would be selected and the body would get the signal to abort because it knew something was not right. There was maybe a 25% of having a child, and we knew it was possible because we had already had one, but chances were extremely high of having a special needs child, and quite possibly a significantly disabled child. God was looking out for us with our first son because he turned 6 this past week and he is healthy and has only had some mild developmental delays.

Finding out this information we made the decision we could not take the risk of having another child together and we began exploring our options with our doctor. IVF was expensive and our chances of success were even less than normal with my husband's chromosome issue. Other options did not appeal to us either for other reasons. Our only affordable choice and the only thing we agreed together on was donor insemination. We started right away and picked out Donor 2601 with Fairfax Cryobank. We looked at a large number of the donors and spent a great deal of time reading up on each one. The really neat thing is, when we first put in our preferences on criteria the one donor that came back that was the perfect match was #2601. We were instantly excited, but not wanting to rush in we continued searching other donors. We narrowed down to our favorite five and took a close look at all of them. But, 2601 remained the one that was our perfect match and we just couldn't shake the feeling that he was the right choice for us. We were so excited that not only did he match our criteria, but he also had the same job title as my husband, the exact same height, same eyes and hair, same interests and even same temperment! It felt like he was given to us in our time of need.

We were so excited when our first insemination was successful and in December of 2008 we gave birth to our second son. He is now 18 months old and is so, so loved! Both boys adore each other and we adore them. We thank Donor #2601 and Fairfax for all their help in giving us one of the most precious things in life! Our lives mean so much more with the birth of our son.

We chose an ID consent donor for our child to have the option to know and explore his biological side if he ever feels the need to. We know children have a natural need to understand where they come from. Because of this, we are interested in connecting with any half-siblings and/or the donor. We pray that one day we can thank the man who had such a hugh impact in our lives and gave us the greatest gift in life!

hyphenatedlady

Congratulations on both of your sons. I suffered two m/c and they were awful. I am glad that you were able to find both answers and a solution.

angieH

Thank you! I certainly understand how miscarriages can feel. With my five I was so depressed and so torn up. And, it wasn't until after having all of them before I knew why so that only made it worse. It is certainly tough for anyone who has to experience it.

I hope things turned out well for you...

wjohnson75

I completely understand your situation. We are dealing with the same issue. We have been trying to have another child for 4 years. I have had several miscarriages and we could not figure out why I was not able to carry my pregnancies. All of the miscarriages happened very early in the pregnancies. We hoped since we have a healthy girl that we might be able to have another child. She is our miracle child! Our specialist suggested we run some tests for chromosome problems. We discovered my husband has the rare "translocation" of his chromosomes. This news was devastating and I thought all hope was lost and that we hit a dead end. We could either do IVF or donor insemination. IVF was not in our favor and after some thoughts and prayers it was clear to us that we were open to donor insemination. I believe God placed it in our hearts and we were very comfortable with the idea. We love our daughter and we are so excited to think about her having a brother or sister. I did not have much difficulty selecting a donor. His answer to the question on the oral interview was so much like what my husband would say. We laughed at how similar they seemed. We were focused on the blessing that hopefully would happen. It is such a wonderful gift these men are giving couples and I am thankful that they are open and willing to help those of us in need. I had my first IUI last Tuesday and I did injectable medication to help with the process. I hope and pray this goes well for us also. We are hoping for another miracle child! I enjoy reading all of the stories on this forum because we are not alone in this battle. Many people are struggling with fertility and I wish the best for everyone.