Photo: Becky Ankrum
Mallory Weggemann is enjoying her “sweet little miracle.”
“Holding Little One in my arms after long carrying her in our hearts is something that is still hard to put into words,” the Paralympic gold medalist, 34, told PEOPLE exclusively. “We felt our hearts expand beyond what we ever thought imaginable.”
But it’s been a long journey to get here as the couple navigated 18 months of IVF, including 707 injections, two ovarian stimulation cycles, two egg retrievals, two months of supplemental hormone treatment for suspected endometriosis and two embryo transfers.
Throughout the process Weggemann documented herpregnancywhile being candid about Snyder’s male-factor infertility, destigmatizing parents with disabilities and refuting the idea that female athletes have to choose between their careers and motherhood.
Becky Ankrum
In August, they shared the good news with PEOPLE that their second transfer had been successful and Weggemann was pregnant. “We are over the moon!” she said at the time. Snyder, 40, added: “Hearing the heartbeat was truly a miracle.”
“The idea of facing that has triggered emotions and flashbacks I haven’t had in years,” she told PEOPLE a few weeks before the birth.
But there was one problem — the epidural didn’t work. “I was feeling really sharp pains in my stomach and my back and areas that I shouldn’t be feeling between the epidural and being paralyzed. Doctors thought it was because some of the scarring from my paralysis wasn’t allowing the medicine to disperse correctly.”
For more on Mallory Weggemann’s pregnancy journey, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
“When I look at our sweet little miracle, who fought so hard to join us in this world, I see every ounce of love Jay and I put in to protecting our dream and our fight to grow our family.”
source: people.com
