On Monday Apr 15th we went to the Maternity block at Royal Berkshire Hospital to run the screening scan to check on Frosty.

The scan aimed mainly to take the nuchal translucency measurements, that will be cross-checked with my blood values to have some info about the chances of Frosty contracting Down’s, Pateau’s and/or Edward’s Syndromes.

We didn’t focus on that, but on seeing how Frosty’s doing in the oven.
Here they are, in a classic facepalm pose:

Frosty is such an athlete already: they didn’t stay still one minute! They kept rolling, doing hip thrusts and stretching their back. It was amazing to see how lively they are. If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, we should start sorting out a home gym ASAP, not a nursery.

At some point the sonographer got also a little upset as she couldn’t take the proper measurements properly! Because of all this fetal activity, it wasn’t possible to hear the heartbeat – it’d be too complicated to catch the heart well enough to trigger the heartbeat-sound magic. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
We got content with another sonographer’s magic resulting in a third picture:

The announcement

We’re social media people, so we unleashed the joy-sharing shenanigans basically everywhere:

The avalanche of love we received is overwhelmingly beautiful.

About the IVF journey

When you thought love would be too much, then you reached another level of love, support and appreciation. The journey that led us to Frosty is something we’re very proud to show and share with everyone, as there’s still too much shame, silence and tabu around IVF.

The way people welcomed that on Instagram (and elsewhere) went beyond our wildest expectations:

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🍼 As you may know, @franzvitulli and I are expecting a baby due October 2019. While (🤞) I’m having a wonderful pregnancy so far, I am coming from a very complicated and painful path. – 💔 The causes of my infertility have never been found. I haven’t had any periods in 3 years. I was told I was broken, and that damaged me deeply. It has taken time to recover: you feel lost, imperfect, alone. Broken. – 💉 We found help and support in science. I ran an IVF cycle that resulted in 5 top graded embryos, of which 4 were frozen. The fresh transfer ended up with a miscarriage. The worst experience of my life. I didn’t waste time and went through the FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer), that is, in fact, our beloved and strong Frosty. – 🎢 IVF is not a walk in the park but ANYONE can do it: it challenges your body and your mind. I came out stronger than ever. It’s a safe procedure, and it’s worth all the ups and downs. – 🎥 I documented every step of my IVF journey, day by day, with the intent of helping people get familiar with IVF and consider trying it. The link to my IVF vlog series is in my bio and here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL99hFipO4IP-C61IuFY7aYs2UHE9jXlY4 NO ONE HAS TO FEEL ‘BROKEN’, WE’RE ALL PERFECT IN OUR IMPERFECTIONS. YOU’RE NOT ALONE, YOU CAN HAVE A FAMILY, YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY. Science can help you with that. Don’t lose hope. Don’t give up. . . . #ivf #ivfjourney #ivfsuccess #ivfstrong #ivfpregnancy #ivfsupport #ivfwarrior #ivfsisters #ivfcommunity #ivfstrongertogether #invitrofertilization #ivfuk #fertilityjourney #frozenembryotransfer #infertilitywarrior #inferilityawreness #infertility #infertilitysupport #infertilitysucks #ttcwithpcos #ttcsisters #ttcsupport #ttccommunity #ttcjourney #ttctribe #fivet

A post shared by Stefania Mattana (@eraniapinnera) on Apr 17, 2019 at 10:41am PDT

What empowered us the most, though, is that tons of people reached out to us saying they can relate with this in a way or another, and thanked us for sharing our story under the sun. It feels like we opened a Pandora’s box.

Click here to watch my IVF vlogs series