There are couples that take a long time to start a family, and it is not a bed of roses because they have to undergo different tests and ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛs in order to ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ. There are even those who have to resign themselves to the idea of not being able to have children. Tyson and Ashley were about to give up because no method worked for them, but their persistence was so great that, in the end, life rewarded them.
Tyson and Ashley faced ɪɴꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟᴇ for eight years before working with Dr. Russell Foulk of the Utah Fertility Center in Pleasant Grove. The I.V.F ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ was complicated, full of ɪɴᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴs, care, medical visits, ultrasounds, and fear of failure. Fortunately, the doctors found that two ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏs were implanted in Ashley’s ᴜᴛᴇʀᴜs. They only had to hope that one of the two survived. The couple had to wait 10 days to receive good news: after so many years, they were pregnant!
At week seven of the pregnancy, everything was going perfectly, but they had to do an ultrasound to confirm that the baby was fine and developing in the right way. But when the doctors checked the monitor, they couldn’t believe what they saw and explained that the ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏs had divided, so they were not expecting one baby, but four! Two pairs of identical twins. This is an unusual phenomenon that only happens to one woman in 70 million.
And both Ashley and Tyson’s arms were about to be full of everything they ever wanted. Ashley was carrying two sets of identical twins – the only babies she would ever give birth to. This Lone Peak grad carried the four girls for 29 weeks and 4 days, with 7 1/2 weeks on hospital bedrest.
But Ashley wasn’t bored. By the time Ashley met her miracles, the Gardners had become quasi-spokespersons for the ɪɴꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟᴇ community. She spent hours answering questions on social media, reading messages of support, and sending love to those struggling to start families.
Then on Dec. 28, 2014, the bedrest ended and so did the word “rest” in any form. The four baby girls were born within 2.5 minutes, small but healthy. “It’s amazing to see babies come into this world,” Tyson says with emotion. “You can’t describe it, you have to feel it.”
For the Gardners, their journey has been driven by faith. “What we’ve been through has intensified our testimonies and our belief in a higher power,” Tyson says. “Our faith in God has grown, especially at the end when people were praying for us and we were feeling the power. God had a perfect plan for us, and all of those years were part of that plan. There is no way we would have been mentally or physically prepared for what God had in store for us until now. Multiples take a toll on every aspect of your life.”
Finally, and after years of waiting to become parents, they would now have four beautiful babies. Fortunately, Tyson was able to capture the moment and Ashley’s reaction to share it with her family and friends. Her face was full of surprise. They created a Facebook page to share their pregnancy stories. They currently have four beautiful girls, Indie, Esme, Scarlett, and Evangeline, who are already three years old.
