Also, I’M GONNA BE A DAD! We’ve been trying since 2017, and I got a job two years ago specifically to help us do IVF. It’s incredibly expensive — artificial womb tech can’t come too soon. My dad’s over 70, and I was worried he might not get to see his grandkid, so my new year’s resolution is to proudly show him his grandchild for his birthday.
We’re very worried about the possibility of a miscarriage. Apparently something like >20% of pregnancies miscarry; had no idea the stats were so grim. But fingers crossed!
IVF is hella cool. A very “living in the future” moment. It has a surprising number of advantages from a parenting perspective: no need to worry about Down’s syndrome (a condition you might suppose I have, though you’d be wrong) — genetic screening eliminates that possibility, and with it, the trauma of an abortion. We had six healthy embryos: four female, two male, so it feels like having a bunch of babies in your garage’s deep freezer. Literally cold storage. We wanted a daughter first, so it’s nice to have a guarantee of it.
And the process itself was fascinating. They pull up the embryo on a big TV during implantation, so we got to see Kess go from dish baby to real baby right before our eyes.
Can’t believe we finally did it. 2023 feels like my lucky year. (NARRATOR: “It was not.”)