all right this sunday is going to be a
very special mother's day for one
growing family isabelle and xander
spitzer they're siblings in fact they
are twiblings born four months apart to
two different women i know everyone's
doing the math like how could this be
when we're gonna chat with mom and dad
in just a moment but first their story
we always knew that both of us were on
the same page and
you know wanted to build the family
together i think that was that was
always something that was very important
to us
but in their wildest dreams ashley and
john spitzer could have never imagined
the long difficult road they were about
to embark on
when ashley was diagnosed with
unexplained infertility the couple
started fertility treatments it was an
emotional rollercoaster and it was
mentally physically and emotionally
exhausting five retrievals six transfers
at countless procedures and surgeries
more tears than i'd like to admit
after three miscarriages ashley and john
decided to find a surrogate
we got to a point where we decided how
much more can we take of you know
heartbreak and losing these precious
embryos that are genetically ours to my
body surrogacy is a beautiful beautiful
thing but again
heartbreak their surrogate miscarried
their embryos twice really felt like we
hit like rock bottom um and we were
basically starting all over
finally their luck changed after three
very long years on just one day we had
found out that
ashley was pregnant on her
sixth ivf cycle
and that our
second surrogate was a genetic match and
that we could continue
to go move forward with her and that was
just
one of the best days i think of our
lives we were due exactly 12 weeks apart
pregnancy after loss is no joke you're
constantly waiting for the other shoe to
drop
at just 33 weeks ashley was told her
baby was in distress an emergency
c-section was needed
the alarms are going off all the doctors
are rushing in and
they're basically telling me they can't
find her heartbeat and um i got on all
fours i put my head into the pillow and
i literally just started praying to god
our daughter was born at four pounds and
three ounces
her name was isabelle hart she needed a
lot of assistance in terms of breathing
and she was she was intubated the first
five days
were
i think harder than the entire
infertility journey um i there's no type
of mom like a nicu mom finally after 47
days in the neonatal intensive care unit
ashley and john brought home their baby
girl i just remember the first morning
that we woke up with her in the
apartment and we just both were like
staring at her like we just could not
believe we had a baby at home we spent
september and october at home with her
as a family of three and in november we
flew down to florida
to meet our surrogate
another baby for the spitzers this time
it was a boy
and our son xander cole was born
on november 17th he was perfectly
healthy and
as cute as can be the twiblings as
they're called are now nine and five
months old on her first mother's day one
i just want her to enjoy that feeling of
not
having to think about you know any of
the
fertility
appointments and procedures and just
fully embrace the fact that she's just a
wonderful mother this mother's day i
could not be more proud to call myself
an ivf nicu and surrogacy mom i really
wouldn't change a thing
and now with us is the beautiful spitzer
family ashley john isabel and xander you
said so many beautiful things by the way
your babies are so gorgeous i can't
believe they're just sitting right here
but what struck me your very last line
in that was i wouldn't change a thing
yeah please tell me a little bit more
about that i just feel so blessed that i
have two beautiful healthy babies and i
i think these were the babies we were
meant to have um you know obviously
those those other embryos were not them
this this was our izzy and xander but it
has been four years since your
infertility journey began four years
what does this mother's day mean to you
i honestly think a lot of mornings i
wake up and i'm still in shock that i
you know have not alone one baby but but
two um and so it's something that we
worked so hard for and i dreamed up for
so long and i'm just
so grateful to have these two yeah your
dreams are sitting right on your laps
john there's so much to talk to you
about but i do want to ask you about
your beautiful wife what kind of a mom
is she
she's absolutely incredible um i find
that i think motherhood just comes very
natural to her
and you know not just as a mom but as
just a partner i think she's just
just
you know she's a calming voice for a new
uh sometimes nervous father uh and she's
really the backbone of our family i
think what you're doing just you're
embodying hope sitting here on these
chairs right here talking to people on
this mother's day this week before
mother's day you guys did a lot of your
fertility treatments with dr brian
levine at ccrm the starfish foundation
works with ccrm to help those who are in
financial need financial assistance
through this process well they heard
your story and they're creating a new
grant in your name it's called the
spitzer twiblings grant
they are allocating five thousand
dollars so that you know they want more
folks to be able to have some money to
be able to make through that make it
through this
you guys this is a real thing here
amazing that that's that's absolutely
wonderful i mean
the the financial burden is definitely
something fortunately we we've had um
fertility coverage to our employers i
know others aren't fortunate um but my
advice for anybody going through it is
really it's so important to advocate for
yourself by the way your kids are eye
locking us it's unbelievable what's
happening they know it's their day too
yeah i just want people to know also um
you know i really took my passion um and
my own um struggle that i had and um i
created a facebook group called
fertility friends of friends and it's
really become an amazing community
knowing you're not alone exactly thank
you guys bye guys
happy mother's day bye bye
see you later
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