Hi,

We are Chris and Steph de Vries.

Our journey to parenthood hasn't been easy. It's been extremely challenging. Yet here we are still holding on to the hope of being parents to our rainbow baby.

Shortly after we got married in 2015, we knew we wanted to start having a family. Unfortunately, after a year of trying, we had no luck. We contacted a fertility center in Ontario and went through blood work, ultrasounds, and sperm samples. Then one morning we heard the news. Chris was infertile. All his sperm samples that came back showed no sperm. Chris was referred to Mount Sanai Hospital in Toronto to see a urologist to learn more. It was suggested he have a microTESE surgery to investigate further. We paid for the surgery in hopes they would have success. We learned that Chris did not produce any mature sperm. Our only option would be IVF with the samples retrieved from the microTESE surgery, if we wanted Chris to be the biological father of our children.

After a few tearful nights, we accepted the news and fully invested in the blood work, the drugs, the early ultrasound monitoring, and the needles. We were suggested to increase our odds of embryos by using donor sperm if the samples retrieved from Chris' surgery are unsuccessful. So, we did. We tried to find a "Chris" and ordered a sample.

Our retrieval was a success. We gained 14 follicles and matched 7 with donor sperm and 7 with samples from Chris. Then the nurse called, 13 eggs had matured but only 5 eggs were fertilized. Then on Day 3 we were down to 3. Then on day 5 we were down to 1 Embryo. We were disappointed. But we knew our journey wasn't over. We had 1 embryo, and we weren't giving up. I was hyper stimulated because of the drugs so we were told we would be doing a frozen transfer when my body comes down. A month later we had our implantation followed by the dreaded 2 weeks and then the news. The transfer had failed. We were devastated. All our time, and money and there was nothing to show of it and no way to try again.

We moved across the country to Nova Scotia and began our lives again. We knew we wanted to keep trying so we contacted a fertility clinic. We completed ultrasounds and blood work and were ready to start round 2! This time with the previous results we knew the chance of using Chris' sperm was not an option so we went strictly with donor sperm. We thought we'd try IUI's knowing that it wouldn't be as invasive or expensive.

After our 2-week wait we were in SHOCK! We were pregnant  We couldn’t believe it. Our first IUI after our IVF fail and we were going to have a baby. We shared the news, had all our checks and were already planning our nursery. Then 2 days after our 16-week scan Steph got up to use the washroom and had a huge GUSH of some clear liquid. We rushed to the ER, did ultrasounds, and saw our beautiful heart beating baby, but we knew something wasn’t right. We learned that all that liquid was her water breaking and the baby had no more amniotic fluid. We were going to need to be induced and give birth as the baby couldn’t survive without it. Our hearts sank. We cried. We couldn’t believe it and we didn’t understand it. We spent 2 days at the women’s hospital and gave birth to our 16 and a half week old baby. A tiny piece of us gone too soon. Our hearts were shattered. We took time off work and just spent days grieving.

We had follow-up tests, blood work, ultrasounds, MRI’s but nothing came back giving us any indication why we lost our baby. This gave us hope that there was nothing wrong and we wanted to try again. We did another IUI with donor sperm but no luck. We did a 3rd IUI and unfortunately, it resulted in a chemical pregnancy. Again, our lives were shattered as we knew this baby was not going to stick. But again, we continued three more times. But no luck

Now 1 IVF cycle and 7 IUI cycles later, here we are. Still dealing with unexplained infertility, still not pregnant, and still waiting for that rainbow baby. We are wanting to do another IVF cycle, but the costs of donor sperm, medication and procedures have drained us dry. We are hoping that this story reaches others who feel the urge to donate and help us build our forever family.