My pregnancy journey

Our cover model, Ilse Wolfe of Aglow, tells us about running two businesses and keeping up with her growing family.

WHEN I LEARNED I WAS PREGNANT, I FELT EMOTIONAL AND APPRECIATIVE BEYOND WORDS.

Our daughter London (3) was conceived with ease, but then my partner Taylor and I experienced unexplained secondary infertility. It took about a year of trying before we made the decision to seek professional fertility intervention. Following medical assessments and then fertility treatment with Repromed, including two rounds of IUI and one round of IVF, we finally got pregnant with a baby boy!

OURS WAS THE LAST IMPLANTATION PROCEDURE PRIOR TO THE FIRST LOCKDOWN.

Repromed was shut down as a non-essential service for the first lockdown from March to May, and they literally turned off the lights as we walked out the door after our IVF procedure. This pregnancy is nothing short of a miracle.

MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT PREGNANCY IS THE CUTENESS FACTOR OF LONDON MIMICKING ME.

She walks around the house wearing stuffed toys under her dresses and arching her back with her hands on her hips – I think to myself, “Do I really walk like this?” Once she asked me why I go to the loo so often, and I explained that the baby is pushing on my bladder – so now she fondly says this herself when running off to the toilet!

I’M A LOT MORE RELAXED THE SECOND TIME AROUND.

With London, Taylor and I took hypnobirthing classes as a couple, which I believe was really... Read the full article in BUMP&baby issue #11