Our Baby Journey
Our names are Sarah and Cole Hutchison, and we thank you for the opportunity to share our journey thus far toward realizing our heart’s number one desire -- conceiving a child and taking on the awesome challenge of being parents. We met in February 2013, and it didn’t take long for both of us to realize that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together as best friends, and husband and wife. We were engaged in November 2013, and married June 21st, 2014. By April 2015 we found out we were pregnant with our first child! We were so excited and we couldn’t wait for the life experiences that were heading our way! However, the excitement soon turned into great heartache when on May 10th, 2015 (Mother’s Day) we miscarried our baby. We were heart broken and devastated. As we tried the best we could piece together what was forever broken and move forward with our lives, we once again began discussing our aspiration of being parents.
In July of 2015, we were able to conceive our daughter McKenna Grace. It was truly a miracle! Even though the pregnancy was considered high risk, we weren’t going to let anything bring us down -- we couldn’t wait to be parents! Immediately, Sarah began experiencing severe all day sickness that was seemingly unending. A single day didn’t go by without Sarah getting sick at least five times. After multiple hospital visits and substantial weight loss, she was diagnosed with Hyperemesis. But, as we mentioned before, we weren’t going to let that bring us down. We were so excited to await the arrival of our baby girl who was due to enter this World on April 24th, 2016. However, in the last week of December 2015, our emotions once again shifted from excitement to devastation as we had to struggle through the most difficult experience either one of us could have ever imagined. After multiple rounds of bloodwork ànd testing, Sarah was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia with HELLP syndrome on December 30th. We were informed that Sarah’s condition was deteriorating so quickly, that in order to save her life, they needed to perform a C-section to deliver our precious daughter. McKenna Grace Hutchison was born at 2:13 am December 31st, 2015 at 23 weeks and 5 days’ gestation, weighing 14oz and measuring in at 11 inches. The next few days were a rollercoaster of emotions, not knowing if our prematurely born baby girl would survive. On January 2nd, after 65 hours of being in this World with us, McKenna’s condition made a turn for the worse, and our daughter passed away.
Two weeks later, we found out the real reason why Sarah had so many pregnancy complications. She was diagnosed with Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome, which is a clotting disorder that causes the body to grow blood clots and multiplies complications in pregnancy such as growth restriction in fetuses, stillbirth, pre-eclampsia, premature birth, and infertility. We decided to seek the advice of a high risk OBGYN about trying to conceive knowing that Sarah had the anti-phospholipid syndrome and a history of pre-eclampsia with HELLP syndrome. The high risk specialist informed us that Sarah would not be able to carry a baby to term, the likelihood was that she would miscarry before 12 weeks, and there was a 60% chance of getting the preeclampsia with HELLP again, resulting in the same situation where both Sarah’s and our child’s chances at surviving were minimal. It’s with this information that we have decided to try and achieve our dream of having a child together through the gestational surrogacy process. One of our closest friends has volunteered to be a gestational carrier for us. Even with our friend as the gestational carrier, the surrogacy process is estimated to be more than $30,000 out of pocket. Your donation will help with IVF, IVF meds, lawyer fees and medical bills. It is under these circumstances that we humbly reach out and ask for your support.
Sincerely, Sarah and Cole Hutchison
