Boys?!

Yesterday, we were spending our Sunday afternoon in a pretty normal fashion.  Two of our kids were playing ping-pong in the garage while the other had holed up in her room behind an iPad screen that was playing her latest teeny-bopper TV show obsession.  Todd and I had turned our kitchen into gift-wrapping central.  He wraps gifts as well as and probably better than anyone else I know.  I make pretty cute bows to dress them up.  Two of Gary Morris’ Christmas albums were setting the mood for our afternoon of Christmas fun.  (If you haven’t heard Gary and his son, Matt, sing together, you’re missing out on a beautiful treat.)

I stopped for a quick restroom break, and while I was away from my given duties, I had the idea that it was time to find out the sex of the two babies we just lost.  I ran back into the kitchen to make sure my handsome stag was on board with the new idea.  After assuring him that I would not turn into a complete pile of mush for the remainder of the day, he agreed that he was ready to see the answers.

We turned on my phone, opened my email, and found the PGS (pre-implantation genetic screening) results from Tulsa Fertility Center.  (Remember, we performed genetic testing on our embryos, so we actually have the chromosomal make-up of all 7 embryos from this cycle, including their sex.)

It quickly jumped out at us that both of the chromosomally normal embryos (the two that we transferred) had an XY chromosome in the 23^rd spot.  It then quickly dawned on us that we had no idea what that meant.  For some reason, all of our training had left both of our minds.  After a search on Dr. Google, we found out that meant they were both boys.  Boys!

For years, we had assumed we would have girls.  Most of the IVF babies (not all, but most) that we know personally are girls.  We hadn’t dreamt of having boys any further than coming up with a family name we would use for one.  But standing there in our kitchen, surrounded by gifts, wrapping paper, bows, and Gary Morris singing “What Child is This?,” my world was turned upside down once again.

For the first time in this entire process, I knew that we could have ourselves a little, baby boy.  In fact, our most successful cycle to date was with a son.  I was overwhelmed with emotions, but as promised, I did not turn to mush…

… until I received a text from my sister, Jenny, saying that she knew we would be reunited with these babies someday.  I like to believe that all of the babies we have made through IVF are in Heaven with our Father.  Now, we know that there are definitely some feisty boys up there pulling their sisters’ hair.  I hope we meet all of our babies, someday.

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As a side note, my acupuncture doctor told me on November 26 that he could tell from my pulse that I was pregnant with a boy.  Even more ironic, my uncle announced to my cousin (before any of them knew we were pregnant) that we were pregnant with two boys.  Like my cousin said, he’s never been known to be clairvoyant; I guess some dreams are more real than others.

Todd and I have a long history with Gary Morris and Matt Morris music.  Therefore, I’m going to leave two videos that I would recommend everyone watch:

·         Gary Morris singing “My Son”

·         Matt Morris & Justin Timberlake singing “Hallelujah”  (For the record, Matt Morris was on The Mickey Mouse Club with Justin Timberlake.  Now, you know.)