Our Journey to Parenthood

Photography: Hailey Nicole Photo

“The love you feel is overpowering at times. I never knew I could love someone this much.”

I remember being on vacation in Washington, D.C., in January 2019 like it was yesterday. My husband and I had stopped at a CVS Pharmacy in the middle of the night to pick up a pregnancy test because we thought I might be pregnant.

After what seemed like hours, but only a few minutes later, we realized the test was negative, and I was late once again.

Over the next three years, we were hit with many fertility obstacles we had no clue we would encounter trying to start our family. From switching insurances to doctors, the next three years were highly focused on figuring out why it wasn’t working.

I got bloodwork done. I wore an ovulation-tracking bracelet to bed for almost six months—still nothing.

We switched doctors.

I spent day in and day out for almost a year using ovulation strips every single morning and tracking what I ate – even going gluten-free.

We moved in mid-2020 and had to switch doctors again.

More and more bloodwork was done until I finally put my foot down to ask why my husband wasn’t getting testing done as well. We finally got an order to get full panels and analysis done on him.

That brings us to winter of 2021.

Meet Leanna & Kit Carson

“Many of you know me from social media (whether you realize it or not); I am an entrepreneur, wife, mama, and the face behind my personal brand, Change With Us (@mrsleannacarson), as well as one of two faces behind Nevada Moms (@southernnevadamoms) – the #1 Family Guide to Nevada experiences, activities, local happenings, and more.

My husband, Kit, is also an entrepreneur and owns a real estate investment company (@thekitcarson), who buys, sells, and flips houses. You may have seen those We Buy Ugly Houses billboards around town with the caveman – that’s us!

We have deep roots in Nevada. Me – being born and raised right here in Henderson and Las Vegas. My husband – a fifth generation Carson (ya know, Kit Carson, the frontiersman and our capitol, Carson City?).

We’ve been together for ten years, married for 5, and just welcomed our little guy at the end of 2022. And it wasn’t the easiest journey to get him here, but boy, did we blaze our own trail.

Our Journey with IVF

Bringing you back to winter of 2021, I spent hours researching our next steps as it seemed most of the medical professionals kept giving us the run around to try different things with no actual progress.”

So with forceful hands, my husband and I pushed to get into a fertility clinic after his bloodwork and analysis came back, and a urologist told him he would never have kids in a 15-minute appointment and then billed us $300 for absolutely nothing.

After our own research, we chose to have a consult with Dr. Foulk at Nevada Fertility Center, and by this point, it was already January 2022.

IVF

I won’t give you all the details of our IVF journey. However, you can read and watch our entire journey here.

During our consult, the doctor checked our bloodwork and then took my husband to check him out. We realized my husband has azoospermia and that it is not reversible, which put IUI out of the question.

Three days after the consult, my husband went in for successful surgery, and a month later, I started taking multiple injections daily until my egg retrieval. After a month of injections, and a successful egg retrieval, we had over 20 eggs that turned into four healthy embryos.

In April 2022, we went in for a frozen embryo transfer and, two weeks later, found out it was successful, and we were expecting. At that point, we were about four weeks pregnant and continued daily injections and meds up until ten weeks.

My pregnancy was considered high-risk due to us doing IVF, which brought ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

On December 28, 2022, we welcomed our sweet boy, Atticus.

It has been the best three months of our lives, and I cannot believe I am actually a mama to a little human who also has the best dad in the world. We are oh so grateful.

Q&A
Q: How much does IVF cost?

A: This is one question we get all the time. Our insurance did not cover IVF or testing, so we spent around $25,000 on a single cycle, including my husband’s surgery, egg retrieval, embryo transfer, and meds. This cost varies, so take that number with a grain of salt. Many insurances do cover IUI, which we were not able to do.

Q: When would you recommend someone go to a fertility clinic?

A: We waited too long but didn’t know any better because we were listening to doctors. If I could do it all over again, I would immediately book a fertility consultation with a clinic after TTC (trying to conceive) for 1-1.5 years.

Q: What advice do you have for those going through IVF?

A: It is a long and grueling process, to say the least. All the fears of “is it going to work” or “what happens if we spend thousands of dollars and it doesn’t take” are real fears. They are valid, and let me be the first to tell you, no matter how many people you talk to, you will never be fully prepared. It’s like achieving anything difficult in life. It takes a good team and lots of hard work.

We thought the shots would be the hardest part to get through, but the psychological aspect of it all was harder. We all experience hard times differently; I’ll admit that our entrepreneurial attitudes got us through it all. My husband is a dreamer.

One of those annoying guys that will pump you up like you can accomplish anything, when deep down, he is fearful just like anyone else. Being able to balance each other’s emotions while staying hopeful is the hardest part of the entire process once you get past the shocking price of it all.

Just like anything hard in life, it helps to focus on the goal at hand. You have to really think about WHY you are doing it in the first place.

Q: What is something you weren’t prepared for as a first-time parent?

A: Learning to operate on very little sleep. Both of us are huge proponents of good sleep. I even have an entire Instagram highlight dedicated to it. But, it is nearly impossible to get a full night’s sleep almost three months in. I know we will get there eventually, but we were in for a rude awakening.

The love you feel is overpowering at times. I never knew I could love someone this much. You also see your partner differently. I wasn’t fully prepared for that change because you assume life will continue like before, only with another person. Boy, is that not true.

If you’re not with the right partner, I can see how those flaws are exaggerated 10x. Conversely, what we have found is a profound love for each other. We value our partnership more. It means something more than it did before our son was born. It’s richer and timeless.

Our fights last a fraction of the time now because it’s almost like we understand each other more after birth. We went unmedicated, and the teamwork needed to accomplish that was the most bonding I will ever do with someone.

If you have more questions about our journey with IVF, pregnancy, unmedicated birth, doulas, being a first-time mom, etc. – please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram!

I have a lot of information saved there, but my inbox is open as well.

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