Notable Quote
"Children are a lot of hard work. Telling them to ‘ask their mother’ over and over can get tiring if there is a game on TV." Mike Ewing, 2005.
posted by Michael Ewing @ 2:32 PM
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Bryce Kotlow Ewing
Bryce Kotlow Ewing was born August 5 2006 at 2:56 AM at the Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. He is a whopping nine pounds and 21 inches long and if he keeps it up, he will be trying out for the NBA by the third grade!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The Story of Bryce
The Story of Bryce
Written by Mike -- now known as 'Dad'
The story of Bryce starts shortly before Urszula moved to Arizona. She had just accepted a position with the United States Commission Corps pending a physical. During her physical, it was discovered that she had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer can be fatal if not treated but if it is caught early, thyroid cancer has one of the highest survival rates of all the cancers. Urszula was treated twice and it was thought that it was in remission until three months before our wedding when she was told that she would need to get operated on again. We got married in Rhode Island and three days after returning to Arizona, Urszula was operated on again. It was at this time that it was suggested that we speak with a fertility specialist because thyroid cancer is widely known to cause fertility problems.
A few months later, we met with Dr. Craig, one of the leading fertility treatment doctors in the country. He bluntly told Urszula that the chance of her getting pregnant using her own eggs was only around 5%. The only option with a good chance of us having a family was using an egg donor.
We made an appointment with X & Y Consulting, the world’s largest egg donor service and filled out what we were looking for in an egg donor. X & Y brought out about 30 bios of women that generally matched what we were looking for. Of those, we narrowed our choice down to five women and then finally to Urszula's eventual choice, Michelle. I was involved somewhat in the decision but it was Urszula that made the final decision. Our highest priority through the selection process was health, intelligence and beauty – in that order – but we were not prepared for how beautiful and intelligent Michelle was in person. She was five foot, seven inches tall with blue eyes and striking enough that Urszula later told me that Michelle reminded her of Bo Derrikk in the classic movie, 10 (without the hair braids). She is a published writer and mother of two boys.
On November 3, 2005, 18 of Michelle’s eggs were harvested and combined with my sperm. Nine embryos resulted. Dr. Craig has a 79% success rate using a two-egg transfer—one of the highest in the world. Two of the best embryos—both were ranked as very good—were inserted into Urszula’s womb and ten days later, Urszula tested positive for being pregnant. The other seven embryos were then frozen to be used again when needed.
Nine months later, Friday August 4th 2006 at 5:30 AM, Urszula’s water broke and we sped to the hospital. Originally we had wanted to do a water birth in the Women’s Birthing Center but after some testing, they sent us to the hospital due to some minor complications. Urszula was given an epidural for the pain and after eighteen hours of labor, it was determined that Bryce was sideways in the womb and was having extreme difficulty in entering the birth canal. An emergency C-section was performed and at 2:56 AM, Saturday August 5th, 2006, Bryce Kotlow Ewing was born.
Mother and baby are doing fine. Father is recovering nicely…
Written by Mike -- now known as 'Dad'
The story of Bryce starts shortly before Urszula moved to Arizona. She had just accepted a position with the United States Commission Corps pending a physical. During her physical, it was discovered that she had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer can be fatal if not treated but if it is caught early, thyroid cancer has one of the highest survival rates of all the cancers. Urszula was treated twice and it was thought that it was in remission until three months before our wedding when she was told that she would need to get operated on again. We got married in Rhode Island and three days after returning to Arizona, Urszula was operated on again. It was at this time that it was suggested that we speak with a fertility specialist because thyroid cancer is widely known to cause fertility problems.
A few months later, we met with Dr. Craig, one of the leading fertility treatment doctors in the country. He bluntly told Urszula that the chance of her getting pregnant using her own eggs was only around 5%. The only option with a good chance of us having a family was using an egg donor.
We made an appointment with X & Y Consulting, the world’s largest egg donor service and filled out what we were looking for in an egg donor. X & Y brought out about 30 bios of women that generally matched what we were looking for. Of those, we narrowed our choice down to five women and then finally to Urszula's eventual choice, Michelle. I was involved somewhat in the decision but it was Urszula that made the final decision. Our highest priority through the selection process was health, intelligence and beauty – in that order – but we were not prepared for how beautiful and intelligent Michelle was in person. She was five foot, seven inches tall with blue eyes and striking enough that Urszula later told me that Michelle reminded her of Bo Derrikk in the classic movie, 10 (without the hair braids). She is a published writer and mother of two boys.
On November 3, 2005, 18 of Michelle’s eggs were harvested and combined with my sperm. Nine embryos resulted. Dr. Craig has a 79% success rate using a two-egg transfer—one of the highest in the world. Two of the best embryos—both were ranked as very good—were inserted into Urszula’s womb and ten days later, Urszula tested positive for being pregnant. The other seven embryos were then frozen to be used again when needed.
Nine months later, Friday August 4th 2006 at 5:30 AM, Urszula’s water broke and we sped to the hospital. Originally we had wanted to do a water birth in the Women’s Birthing Center but after some testing, they sent us to the hospital due to some minor complications. Urszula was given an epidural for the pain and after eighteen hours of labor, it was determined that Bryce was sideways in the womb and was having extreme difficulty in entering the birth canal. An emergency C-section was performed and at 2:56 AM, Saturday August 5th, 2006, Bryce Kotlow Ewing was born.
Mother and baby are doing fine. Father is recovering nicely…
posted by Michael Ewing @ 1:55 PM
0 comments
Bryce Kotlow Ewing
Bryce Kotlow Ewing was born August 5 2006 at 2:56 AM at the Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. He is a whopping nine pounds and 21 inches long and if he keeps it up, he will be trying out for the NBA by the third grade!
