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27th August 2019
01:59pm BST
"You may have noticed I’ve had a lot of down days on here. "In 2014, I married my wonderful wife, after a decade together, and we began trying to get pregnant. It didn’t go as we’d hoped."After two years of trying, he recalled how there was still no sign. In 2016, they suffered two miscarriages - and in early 2017, they faced another heartbreak with an ectopic pregnancy. “I can’t tell you how devastating it was to feel hope then despair on a loop,” Jenner said. He explained that the next step for them was IVF, for which they were funded for two rounds on the NHS. Sadly, both the rounds failed. “It was doubly heartbreaking because IVF is utterly brutal and watching my wife suffer for no end result was truly horrible,” Jenner added.
He recalled how they then made the "biggest decision" of their lives, to put all their savings into private IVF. After four rounds of privately funded IVF, one of them worked in 2018. "But immediately we began fearing another loss; 4 years of grief conditions you to constantly expect bad news. Every growth scan was terrifying," the author continued. However, Jenner noted there was still "a sting in the tail" as his wife began to suffer with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). "She endured nearly 20 weeks of vomiting 8-12 times per day. She lost so much weight, and was hospitalised twice for dangerous dehydration. It was not fun. She was still working full-time. She felt like death warmed up. But the pregnancy stuck," he said. Inspired by fresh hope and aware he had a "baby-shaped deadline", Jenner finished the book he had been working on 10 days before his daughter's birth. On Thursday, the couple welcomed their daughter, Esmé, into the world - and the proud dad posted a photo of himself with his daughter on Twitter.Hi! OK, BIG PERSONAL NEWS... You may have noticed I’ve had a lot of down days on here. In 2014, I married my wonderful wife, after a decade together, and we began trying to get pregnant. It didn’t go as we’d hoped. First, 2 years of nothing. Then in 2016, 2 miscarriages...
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) August 26, 2019
“Thanks to my wife’s incredible courage — and the kind support of friends, family and medical staff — and, after 15 years together, and five years of pain, we finally held our baby. She’s called Esmé, she has a ridiculous amount of hair, and she’s amazing," he wrote. Jenner explained that he shared their story in the hopes it would raise awareness of the difficulties many couples face. He said:And on Thursday night, thanks to my wife’s incredible courage — and the kind support of friends, family & medical staff — and, after 15 years together, and 5 years of pain, we finally held our baby. She’s called Esmé, she has a ridiculous amount of hair, and she’s amazing ? pic.twitter.com/FAuBMTM6bW
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) August 26, 2019
“She’s called Esmé, she has a ridiculous amount of hair, and she’s amazing. “People rarely knew how to talk to us. It sometimes made me angry there wasn’t more awareness. But I get why that is because I kept it hidden. I was scared. And I still don’t want to talk about it now.”Featured image via Twitter/Greg Jenner.
