Sarah and Hank — former high-school classmates who fell in love in New York City in their 20s — were counting down the days until their dream wedding: a funky, colorful affair in September 2020 on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. But six months before their big day, the COVID pandemic began, and by summer they’d postponed their destination wedding. Sarah, almost 30, worried about pushing back their family planning, too. She and Hank wanted at least three kids and knew conceiving might be difficult because Sarah had a blood-clotting disorder, factor V Leiden, that increased her chances of miscarriage.
With no vaccine or return to pre-pandemic normalcy in sight, Sarah and Hank decided they were done waiting. Sarah’s mom got to work planning a backyard wedding with 25 people on their original date. Meanwhile, they began trying. Just a month after saying “I do,” Sarah’s period was late. She took a pregnancy test: Positive. She and Hank were giddy. “We started planning our future, discussing if we would move out of New York and what we wanted life to look like now that a baby was coming,” she says. “I picked the name Callum because I was sure it was a boy.” But she also couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that the pregnancy might not last. Her OB told her by phone that there was no reason to worry and that she should come in for an ultrasound in a few weeks.
