Dear Frosties,

 

Yesterday we got The Letter from the very clever people at the clinic where you were made. I don’t know why they chose Little (our current baby) to be placed back inside Mummy instead of you. Little got herself cosy, and you were frozen. Knowing Little, she probably thumped you and made you stand behind her.

 

I dread this letter arriving. Did we want to keep the three of you frozen at -196 degees for another year, or will we let you go? They didn’t phrase it quite so kindly. They asked if we wanted to let you perish.

 

Perish.

 

Taken out of your wintery sleep and left to fade away. A story that will never be told. A life that will not be lived. The very wording of the letter hits me square in the heart every time. With the Miracle growing inside me, my hormones are all over the place, and being asked if I can let my three potential babies perish is a bitter choice to make.

 

(This is a photograph of the frosty that became Medium child as a three-day embryo, defrosted after a year in storage the day before)

 

 

We were so lucky. Not only did we manage to make embryos, but they seemed to stick too. I don’t think of you as ‘leftovers’, but you were there in case we needed to try again. I don’t know if you are boys or girls or if you’d have blue eyes like me or brown eyes like Daddy. I don’t know if you’d have even survived being defrosted, but you’ve been on the periphery of my consciousness since you were made. I knew you were there and that you were safe.

 

With the Miracle on his or her way and your three ICSI pixie sisters, one of whom, like you, spent a year frozen at -196 degrees, we’ll be done. Our family will be complete. But the nurturing, maternal heart inside me grieves for you, even though we’ve never met. I’ll never know who you were or what you might do.

 

It’s given me a shock. I thought the trauma of fertility treatment was over. We had our glorious girls, and our Miracle to boot. Yet this decision has affected me deeply. We’ve had to let you go. We cannot give you to others, or even to other clever people to learn how to help other couples escape from the hellish wilderness years. We couldn’t leave you in the freezer forever.

 

I don’t know if there’s a place you can go to while your soul waits for another Mummy and Daddy. I like to think there is. And if there is, I hope you get the nicest family in the world – full of warmth where you’ll never be cold again.

 

So goodbye, my nearly loves. The ones that never were.

 

xxx

Powered By Cake follows the sleep deprived ramblings of a mum of four of five and under. Having conceived pixies one to three via IVF ICSI and being told that a natural conception was less likely than winning the lottery jackpot, #4 was a complete surprise and consequently coined the moniker of The Miracle. Powered by Cake includes parenting tales, recipes (mainly for cakes, naturally) and reviews of family-friendly travel destinations.
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