Campaign Story

We are the Shields Family, we have quite the journey. We struggled with asking for help financially because we know how incredibly blessed we are with our two beautiful girls. We have 4 embryos left and we know deep in our hearts we deserve the chance to complete our family. We found out we needed IVF in 2016 because my tubes were blocked and I had diminished ovarian reserve as well as endometriosis. We did our first round of IVF and made 7 normal embryos. We transferred 2 and got pregnant with our daughter Reagan, she was born at 34 weeks and spent 11 days in the NICU. When she was around 6 months old we decided to try for another baby. Our dream was always to have 3 children. We did 3 more embryo transfers all resulting in chemical pregnancies. We did another round of IVF to bank more embryos and ended up with 7 more genetically normal embryos. We switched fertility clinics and I started seeing a reproductive immunologist. I had laparoscopic surgery and had an isthomecele repaired and endometriosis removed. We did another embryo transfer and finally got pregnant. Unfortunately, I developed a massive subchorionic hemorrhage under my placenta. At the end of the first trimester I started bleeding out and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I was fighting for my life and received a mass blood transfusion. Our ultrasound showed our baby was still okay. I was transferred to the DOU and later my body went into full blown labor before baby was viable. The worst pain of my life was delivering my baby girl with an open wound in my uterus that continued to bleed. I delivered her and the placenta and they kept trying to stop the bleeding. I ended up needing a D&C. After that tragedy we decided to move forward with surrogacy and signed with an agency. We lost our daughter in February and in May we were close to transferring to our surrogate and I was going to have a hysterectomy because the bleeding didn’t stop. We found out our surrogate had been lying and the contract needed to be terminated and we lost out on over 35K. In that same month we found out I was spontaneously pregnant. I had developed another SCH but not near the placenta and went on bed rest and made it to 36 weeks with our daughter Willow. We spent the last 2.5 years enjoying our beautiful girls but feeling like we had unfinished business, our embryos. I had surgery to fix my ishtomecele again, remove polyps, and endometriosis. We decided to try another embryo transfer but naturally this time. My transfer failed. Which brings us to now. We want to try again desperately. Despite my history, I know and I have to believe I can carry another baby and safely deliver him/her earth side. Miracles take time. We have 4 embryos that deserve a chance at completing our family. Never a day goes by that we don’t picture what life would look like if our daughter Blake was here with us but we know she is protecting and watching over her sisters. We are choosing to have hope and faith that one of those four embryos will complete our family. If you made it this far, thank you!