Soun & Greg

After we got married in 2014, Greg and I never imagined we would run into fertility issues. Everyone around us was having kids and the thought never even crossed our minds. After a year of unsuccessfully trying to have a baby went by, we decided to turn to SGF for help. It was hard for us to watch our closest friends have their first kids, then their second. It was difficult to see strangers who were out with their kids in public. We felt jealousy and longing and tried our hardest to feel like it would eventually happen for us too.

We met with Dr. Kara Nguyen in SGF’s Reading, PA office, and also saw doctors at the Chesterbrook, PA location where our procedures were done. All of the physicians were fantastic. Dr. Nguyen was so caring, and she went through every heartbreak with us as if it was her own. The nursing staff at both locations were amazing because they invested time in understanding our personal journey and supporting us along the way.

Greg and I tried one IUI cycle and it failed, so we made the decision to go directly to IVF. Over the course of 4 years, we went through 4 retrievals and got 7 embryos. On our 6^th transfer, we finally got news of our own miracle. On June 3, 2019, Greg and I brought our baby girl, Bellamy, into the world!

No one can prepare you for how you will feel after your child is born, and everyone’s journey is so different. I have great days when I feel like I’m killing it both at work and as a mom. I also have not-so-great days when I feel the guilt of dropping the baby off at daycare or leaving work exactly at 5 PM. What I had yearned for for so long is now here, and I am evolving into a different person. For Greg and me, our careers were our lives, but now we rush home to spend every moment we can with the little one. Your life takes on a new perspective and we are certainly grateful for it.

During treatment, Greg and I tried to keep our lives as normal as possible. Going through IVF is a tedious process and it can be very isolating when you have such a strict schedule. It’s much easier to stay at home, instead of packing up your needles and medications just to try to find a place out in public to do your injections. We tried not to let IVF consume our lives for 4 years and took any moment we could to remind ourselves that it didn’t define us.

For everyone out there that has felt the way we felt throughout this process, I want to tell you not to lose hope. Lean on your friends and family as much or as little as you want. You will feel sadness and resentment, and calloused from what you’re going through, but you too can have a happy ending to your fertility story.