Sid and I (Regan) finally shared the news about our two little babies on the way!
It’s been a super emotional past few months for our family, as many of you know and can imagine, but the news of welcoming two new little blessings so close together, has definitely brought lots of smiles and joy and gratitude into the situation. Sid and I couldn’t be happier about being able to go through this stage together, and about our little babies being so close in age (our due dates are less than a month apart!).
I wanted to share a little bit about how we both found out we were pregnant and the backstories behind it.
My pregnancy process actually started almost two years ago. Some of you probably remember me sharing my IVF journey when we did my egg retrieval and froze our embryos a year after Cal was born.
Well, we finally decided we were ready to try for baby number two, and planned on starting the frozen embryo transfer process this past summer of 2019.
When my mom got sick I wasn’t sure if I should put the transfer on hold, since I knew I’d want to be down in California visiting her a bunch. My mom and I had a really close relationship, and spoke on the phone every single day, if not multiple times per day. I ran almost everything I did by her, and always wanted her opinion on everything (I still do, and still ask for help even now that she’s gone). She, of course, didn’t want anyone to put anything on hold on account of her, and convinced me that it was the perfect time to do the transfer, and that we should move forward with it.
We had our frozen transfer scheduled for September 3rd, and I started the medication (the dreaded shots in my bum) on August 13th, 3 days before my mom passed away.
Up until the day I started the meds, I was still so torn as to whether I should go through with the transfer or not. My parents were in China for cancer treatments for my mom, and I had gotten a Visa to visit so that I had the option to go and be with my mom if needed. My parents kept convincing me that I should go forward with the transfer, and my doctor and IVF coordinator were so sweet and understanding, and told me that even after I started the meds, I could still stop for any reason and push back the transfer date.
Long story short, I went through with it. When we got the news of my mom passing away, I was an emotional mess, needless to say, and I don’t think the extra hormones I was taking for the transfer helped. I kept taking the shots (Sidney and my husband, Daniel, were my nurses who gave me most of them! So grateful for them), because I didn’t want to make any rash decisions, and because I knew my mom would still want me to move forward with the transfer. Still though, I wasn’t sure if I might end up stopping and pushing back the transfer date. We were in the middle of figuring out how we wanted to celebrate the amazing life of my mom (she didn’t want a funeral) and I didn’t know how I’d work it all out, and also if the added stress would be good timing for the possible pregnancy.
Then about a week later…Sid found out she was pregnant!!!
This was a huge surprise to all of us, including Sidney and her husband, Morgan. A good one though! Although very emotional and heart-wrenching that our mom wasn’t here for it. But we knew she was there in spirit, and how happy she must have been, and we were all so thrilled for Sidney and Morgan!!
The cool part of Sid’s story is that our mom had been encouraging her to start their family over the last year or so. She’d remind Sid of the importance of being a mother and starting families, and that nothing should put that on hold. Sid knew it too, and although they weren’t trying to get pregnant, she also felt like it would be fine if it happened.
Well, Tori always gets her way, as we always joke! It felt like our mom definitely had her hand in how this all played out, and we were/are so happy and grateful!
It was actually such a cute and emotional morning the day she found out. Our grandma, mum (our mom’s mom), was here in Utah so that we could all be together after we got the news of our mom passing away. She randomly asked Sidney a few times if she was pregnant! She said something about her looking pregnant - that she had that pregnancy glow. Sidney didn’t think at ALL that she could be pregnant, but happened to have a pregnancy test leftover from a film shoot she did (she is a cinematographer), and decided to take it one morning. Sidney and Morgan live in our basement apartment (so fun, btw), and the rest of us were all upstairs while Sidney was down in her apartment showering. The door to the basement was open, and we suddenly started hearing Sidney urgently yelling for Morgan to come downstairs. He wouldn’t tell us what was up, but I, being the nosey sister that I am, ran downstairs after and she told me the awesome news. We both cried and I videoed as she came upstairs to tell my dad and the rest of our family who were at the house. There were more tears of happiness and many more smiles and phone calls made. Such a tender moment.
As soon as Sid found out she was pregnant, that confirmed my decision to move forward with my frozen transfer date of September 3rd. We talked about how fun it would be to have cousins so close in age, and the timing worked out perfectly with my mom’s celebration of life, which was held on September 9th.
^^^ there’s our little embryo right after the transfer!
We found out it took on September 13th. I was sooo nervous to find out, and pretty much stressed my entire first trimester about everything being okay. To be honest, I still worry, and I think I will until I feel our little babe moving around more. I think I’ve felt some little movements already, but am still in that stage where I’m not really sure if the little flutters I’m feeling is the baby or not. Lol.
When I finally made it to 10 weeks and graduated from my fertility center, and had heard the little heartbeat multiple times, I was ready to find out the gender.
Since we did genetic testing on the embryos, we actually had the opportunity to choose the gender if we wanted! But we decided not to, and just asked my doctor and the lab to choose the healthiest looking embryo, and not to tell us the gender. I also prayed that my mom would be able to come and have her hand in choosing whichever little embryo was meant to come join our family.
Sid was 14 weeks by then, and I really wanted to find out the genders together! I had my nurse write down our baby’s gender in an envelope, and gave it to Paige. Sid went over to Fetal Photo that same day and was told her gender. So she and Paige both knew what she was having, but no one else did, and only Paige knew what mine was. That night we did a little gender reveal for our family and it was such an exciting night!!! Here’s the video.
TWO GIRLS!! Sid is currently 20 weeks, due April 26th, and I am 16 weeks, due May 22nd. We couldn’t be more excited! The thought of our little girls wrapped up in our mom’s arms, waiting to come join our family is everything! She left us kids the most amazing note before she passed away, knowing she might be leaving us and in it she said, “I’ll also be spending lots of time with my unborn grand children and telling them how lucky they are to be born into our awesome family.” We know that’s exactly what she’s doing and that brings us so much happiness.
