Because they CARE...this is our thank you!

Sat in a cold hospital room with my husband when we got our diagnosis, I genuinely believe our heart's stopped simultaneously when we were told we might never have a baby.
I don't want this post to be sad or downcast in the slightest, quite the opposite this post is a celebration of our baby boy who is now almost 10 weeks old and a thank you to the people that made his life possible.

Every baby is special, every one unique and a miracle in their own right but we have CARE Nottingham to thank for our little man. CARE fertility is the UK's largest fertility specialist that has clinics all around the Britain and their founder Simon Fishel was part of the team that created the first successful IVF baby back in 1978. The man, that by some crazy coincidence was in our clinic the day that Leo was created!

It's an amazing concept, one that almost a year later I'm still struggling to get my head around, that our little man was created there by a team of wonderful people. Everyone at CARE were brilliant and within five minutes of walking through the door we both felt like we were with family. They explained each and every step to us right from the word go and answered every question I could think of (there were lots!). After all it's not something I ever thought would happen.

I've wanted to be a mother for as long as I can remember, literally since a young teen and meeting my Arron at sixteen only made our yearn for a baby that much stronger. We'd both decided to start a family a few years ago and before long it was obvious that something just wasn't right. Tests, tests and more tests and soon we were knocking on the door of a fertility specialist. People are entitled to their own opinion, I understand that and for some doctors they thought we were too young to be going through this process but it's what we needed in life and it became apparent quickly that IVF was our only chance.

We were put in the hands of CARE and couldn't have felt safer or better looked after. There isn't much about the process that's glamorous. We moved into our first proper family home the day that I started treatment and I remember feeling a sense of euphoria taking that first injection (I wasn't quite so happy after the 30th!) but for us it was the long game! The course of injections and tablets worked well and soon we were waiting on the doorstep of the clinic to go in and have my eggs collected. In the end it was ICSI that worked for us when IVF failed, it is a more detailed and long treatment of creating embryos but again CARE dealt with everything in their stride as they have done thousands of times.
I could explain the whole process, god knows we heard all about it enough times but it's not the process that matters here-that's not why I'm writing this. I would love to answer any questions regarding IVF and ICSI that anyone might have by messaging me over on my Facebook page-MumHack but this post is our way of saying thank you!

Everything that we went through over three years led up to the day that we got our first ever positive pregnancy test and anyone that has been through infertility themselves will know that's not the first test you've taken. Everything led up to our first scan and our second. Led up to feeling our baby move for the first time and finding out we were having a baby boy ten days before Christmas. Led up to me bulging out of any normal clothes, my husband feel him kick like a footballer and me waddle like a penguin. And finally ended when he was born, perfectly healthy (if a little bamboozled by his 7 minute delivery-again a story for another day!!)
For us he will always be because of all of those people that helped to make him but to them he is only ours and I couldn't think of better humans in the world that have given my husband and I this gift.
From the bottom of our hearts and the tiny one of our Leo's we are eternally thankful.

This photo was when Leo Geoffrey Sunny was 20 hours old of him holding his embryo picture, taken the day he was created.

Modern medicine and the people that practice it are a magical thing!