The Casts

29/09/2021

Just one more day until the Joyful Movement 5K Fundraiser ends! We would be so honored if you donated to this amazing cause as they try to raise $5,000 to celebrate ’s 45th Anniversary! Every dollar helps!

Thank you in advance for your generosity for this incredible organization! To donate: https://runsignup.com/Race/Donate/IL/Chicago/ANAD5kFunRun

24/09/2021

✨Today was a BIG day for us! It was Graduation Day from ! Last night as we prepared thank you notes and gifts for and staff, we couldn’t believe the moment was finally here. It has been a year and a half since we started TTC (partially delayed due to Covid) and we are happy to report we got to see our Peanut napping today with a healthy heartbeat measuring 10 weeks! 🎓

We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Levine and the entire staff at CCRM for helping to make our little miracle happen and also grateful for the friendships we have made throughout this process - even getting to finally meet a fellow patient and friend today that we’ve connected with through our IG!

As we move forward with testing out new OB’s, we are excited to get ready to share our gender reveal in three weeks when we cross over into the second trimester!

Swipe for some pics from today’s visit! .for 🌈

📸 💛

16/08/2021

🥳Birthday Celebrations Complete !

🎉Beta Pregnancy Test #2 Positive !

It’s been a whirlwind of almost a month but we are finally relaxing in our new home today and grateful for all the celebratory time we’ve spent with family and friends over the last two weeks!

Peanut is snuggling in and thriving so far!

Beta #3 happens this Friday right before the 5 week mark!

Swipe to see all the glorious cakes we had for Michelle’s birthday celebrations!

13/08/2021

Beta Test 1 ✔️
Birthday Celebrations ✔️
Positive Pregnancy Celebrations ✔️

🎉 It’s been a wild ride. 4 months ago on Lisa’s Birthday, we suffered a loss. Today, we cried tears of joy when called with the amazing news of a wonderful beta number on Michelle’s Birthday. And in April of 2022, right before Lisa turns 40, we will be celebrating the arrival of our Peanut!

🎢Life is quite the rollercoaster, but we couldn’t get through the highs & lows without all of the support that has been with us every step of the way as well as the amazing team at 🙏

🍾 Now to celebrate all of the wonderful things in our life and the promise of fresh starts all around! .for rainbows, indeed! 💛
🌈

05/08/2021

🎉Transfer Day #2 is finally here. Everything went well this afternoon at and was super pleased!

Our little Peanut looked very active under the microscope and we are very excited that it went from a 5AA embryo to a 6AA after the thaw and left its zona behind which means it fully hatched for implantation!

Thanks to the whole team at CCRM for an amazingly zen day including our nurse, and acupuncturist, .

Post-transfer, we picked up some decaf and headed to Astoria for a few of our favorite warm foods for lunch and dinner! Thanks to some forced rest, we are thrilled to be home and finally enjoying our new Den for the first time in days!

This whole process has felt so much more relaxing than the first time & we are freeing really positive for good news at our first beta test on Michelle’s Birthday next Friday! Thanks for all of the support & well wishes, we are so grateful for all of the support around us, our new home & our little Peanut!

18/06/2021

You’ve followed so much of our journey and have heard so much about Dr. Levine, now see us all in action! Join us live on Tuesday 6/22 at 12:30pm (time has changed since the original post) Link in the post to sign up for this free Instagram Live event!

JOIN CCRM FERTILITY NEW YORK AND CCRM PATIENTS FOR AN IG LIVE TO DEBUNK ALL THE MISCONCEPTIONS OF LGBTQ+ FAMILY-BUILDING.

12/05/2021

Shared from Instagram:
Hi All! 🥂 Lots of positive changes around here! New name 🎉, new followers 👯‍♀️, new home.🏡

We know we have been very quiet on here for the last two weeks. We really made sure to listen to our bodies and our minds for what we needed through the miscarriage. That turned out to be a lot of rest, relaxation, patience with ourselves and time together. We appreciate all those who checked in during our down time from social media and were thankful for some fun moments with friends and family sprinkled in.

That being said, if you saw our IG story today, you know that we are in the process of officially becoming first time homeowners! Fingers crossed that third-time’s a charm for us as this was the 3rd house we put an offer in on and we are in contract! It was a bit unexpected but when things are meant to be, they certainly will be. We are thankful to our realtor and Aunt who kept her eyes open for us and gently nudged us to take a peek at it. We kept it quiet from everyone until our offer was accepted and the ball just kept rolling from there!

We’d also like to say hello to our new followers! We are grateful you’ve joined us! While you’re here you’ll find that we are:

✨Going through a fertility journey
✨Becoming homeowners
✨Struggling with our weight despite major weight loss success
✨Enjoying our Peloton, which we’ve had to dust off after a trying time in the last month
✨Sharing daily gratitude, and encourage you to do the same!
✨In the middle of another rebrand, post-name-change!

And check out our IGTV episodes where you can get to know us better (more episodes filming soon!)

Since we are coming out of a fog (Cue ’s “Coming Out of the Dark”) and feeling more like ourselves, there will be more about us popping up in your feed! Our DMs are open, feel free to reach out and connect with us!
🌈

29/04/2021

‼️Trigger Warning - Pregnancy Loss: As many know, we had our follow up at on Monday after we learned that it seemed Bean had stopped growing. We received the news we anticipated & though we’ve taken a couple of days to process & enjoy Lisa’s Birthday, we find it important to not keep quiet.

There is much stigma about miscarriage as well as LGBTQ+ family building & if our journey can remove the taboo around discussing these issues & help just one person, then it’s worth sharing all of the highs & lows.

Last March (2020), we were about to embark on our first IUI when Covid hit. We resumed in July with our first IUI attempt & August with our second. After two negative tests, we decided IVF was less of a gamble & Michelle had her first egg retrieval in September, which yielded no normal embryos. We paused Michelle’s attempts for Lisa’s retrieval in October, which yielded one normal (🎉) & had Michelle’s second retrieval in November, which yielded one normal & one requiring a rebiopsy. We learned in January that our rebiopsy results indicated a normal 4AA embryo & planned for our first transfer of that embryo this March (2021).

Even though this was a “perfect” PGS/PGD tested embryo, sadly, there is a 4% chance of miscarriage after implantation. & the amazing team at CCRM are going to conduct additional tests to ensure Michelle’s body did not have any adverse reactions to the pregnancy, but from bloodwork & ultrasound results, Michelle’s uterus responded as planned. Sadly, it just wasn’t Bean’s time.

We will take a small pause for Michelle to get COVID vaccinated & back to a comfortable place before our next transfer this July. We have faith that our little 5AA embaby will make us Moms in the Spring of 2022.

We hope that our story is helpful for anyone struggling. As Dr. Levine has told us many times, LGBTQ+ couples are not automatically infertile, just limited with our resources. We have only had 3 pregnancy attempts & know that many struggle for their miracles for much longer. We want you to know this is a lot more common than people realize & we feel lucky to have all of the love & support on our journey to growing our family 💛🌈

23/04/2021

Here’s a photo of two girls who in 20 years have been through a lifetime of highs and lows together.

We’ve loved having you all along on this journey from the very beginning with us, from our first IUI and retrievals, to our first ultrasound last week and the bleeding scare earlier this week. We were grateful that our anxiety was put to rest through all of your messages of support.

Today we had our second ultrasound at CCRM marking Week 6, Day 6. Though we were hopeful that everything would be as it should be, since Michelle’s body quickly normalized to her usual pregnancy symptoms, had some news that we didn’t expect.

We learned that Bean may have stopped growing and is only measuring at Week 5, Day 6, the same as last week.

Michelle’s body however, is on track to support a growing baby as her uterus and yolk sac measured on track at Week 6, Day 6 and Dr. Levine addressed that the bleeding Michelle experienced this week was likely her uterus expanding, which made perfect sense.

With that, there is only a 5% chance that Bean will progress positively from today. We will be back at CCRM for another ultrasound on Monday. Until then, Dr. Levine asked us to prepare for the worst but hope for the best. We do know that miracles can happen and prayers are welcome, but we are bracing for impact.

In IVF with a PGS/PGD Normal embryo after implantation/positive pregnancy there is only a 4% chance of miscarriage, but it happens.

This is part of why we share this journey. Even though it’s , technically we are not suffering from infertility (sadly, just advanced age) and this is something more common than people realize.

We hope our story continues to normalize these conversations and let other couples know they are not alone. We are so grateful for the support and prayers though every step. We are still celebrating life and miracles and we know that this is just a part of our journey - we will keep you all posted 💛
🏳️‍🌈

15/04/2021

🎉FIRST Ultrasound! Today was a big day for us! It was the first time we were able to see Bean since the day of the transfer under a microscope! What a little home they’ve made.

You may need to zoom in to see, but right there, it’s there, a tiny white bean amongst the dark circle of their sac.

said that Bean is measuring right on track and that next week we should be able to see a flickering heartbeat!

Being able to see Bean in any form is exciting and puts us at ease that they’re doing just what they’re supposed to!

Tomorrow Bean is officially the size of a sweet pea!

Grateful for so many of your messages of well wishes and prayers! We can’t wait to keep sharing Bean’s journey with you all. ✨🙏🏼💛

09/04/2021

🎉Final Beta Results: This photo was taken two days after our transfer when we took some time to relax during our two week wait! That little break from life was probably key to receiving today’s beta results!

➕Beta bloodwork test #3 makes a super official positive pregnancy result!

Michelle’s HCG levels rose exponentially since Monday and she is officially 5 weeks pregnant today, woohoo!! Her TSH leveled out after her endocrinologist increased her thyroid medication just a smidge and all is looking well for our little Bean who is the size of an orange seed this week!

Our first ultrasound will be next Thursday, April 15th with . It will be the first time we get to see Bean since the transfer.

Be sure to keep a watch on our story for daily updates from us on how we are feeling! Example, we had two very hormonal women in our home today 😱

We hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
🏳️‍🌈👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩