It is my firm belief that couples who experience infertility prior to having their children are uniquely blessed. Couples like us must live with the reality that it is possible, and in some cases likely, that a pregnancy will simply not happen. For those of us that eventually become pregnant or find our children through adoption, we have the good fortune of having seen what our future would have been like without our children. Call it “It’s a Wonderful Life” in reverse; we know what we would have had to live without because we experienced the heartache and the dread, followed by the elation that our children bring.

My husband and I never thought that we would be able to provide a sibling for our son, and while it saddened us, we were also keenly aware that we were supremely lucky to have Gus. When we learned we were pregnant again, after four years of hope, we were shocked and thrilled. It took months before we were really able to accept our luck and believe that we were having a baby. This pregnancy was very unlike our first. The fertility treatments that brought Gus also brought OHSS and caused a high risk pregnancy that was constantly monitored by ultrasound. We were able to watch Gus grow while he was in my womb, which connected us to him even more. With our second pregnancy, there were no complications; no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. We felt detached without getting the monthly or sometimes twice monthly ultrasounds that we had become accustomed to with our son. Throughout the pregnancy we were guarded, not sure that we could be so fortunate to have another healthy child.

All of that soon changed. On April 29, our baby girl was born via c-section. Perfectly healthy at 7 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long, Baby Beatrice is the joy of our lives. Of course we are still experiencing sleepless nights and are having to cope with the struggles a new child brings, but every moment – even those that occur at three in the morning – is a blessing.