Camille Guatyis officially a mom!
ThePrison Breakactress, 43, and husband Sy Rhys Kaye welcomed their first child, a son named Morrison Rafael Kaye, on Saturday, Oct. 5, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
While Rafael is in honor of the new mom’s father, Morrison is a play off the name Morris, Guaty’s husband’s grandfather, who was a big influence in his life.
The couple also loved the name Sonny, a second inspiration for their son’s first name.
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Brooke Nevin
Camille Guaty and son Morrison.Hayley Valeri
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In August, the actress exclusively announced with PEOPLE that she and Kayewere expecting their first childwith the help of an egg donor. “The day the nurse called to tell me I was pregnant, I burst out crying!” she said at the time. “I made her say it to me four or five times. I feel so grateful now and can’t wait to meet our son.”
“You never think this is going to be your story,” she said. “Women come up to me and say, ‘If you’re 43 and pregnant, I have plenty of time!’ I just want to say, ‘It didn’t happen the way you think it did.’ ”
The couple went through fivefailed rounds of IVF andalso tried intrauterine insemination — which involves placing the sperm directly into the uterus — but were still unable to get pregnant.
Candida Wohlgemuth
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Two years ago, Guaty visited another doctor in New York who felt confident about her chances of conceiving, and put her on a three-month regimen to start her sixth round of IVF.
“I thought he was the end-all, be-all,” said Guaty. “But then I took such a nosedive in my fertility in those three months that he was like, ‘I don’t know what happened!’ My fertility was pretty much nonexistent.”
Last year, Guaty and Kaye begandiscussions of using an egg donor. “I honestly had a difficult time wrapping my mind around this choice,” she admitted. “Just a couple of years ago, the idea of another woman’s egg in my body was unfathomable.”
But the star stayed open-minded, and after months of looking, the couple found a donor through an “amazing IVF clinic in Mexico.”
“Sy flew to Mexicoto give his sperm deposit, and I FaceTimed him from my trailer while the wardrobe team was putting on my prosthetic belly,” she recalled. “I saw thislookon my doctor’s face. He told me our donor had messed up her final shot and ovulated all 17 eggs, so they weren’t retrievable.”
Camille Guaty and Sy Rhys Kaye.Candida Wohlgemuth
Despite being “tapped out” both emotionally and financially, Kaye wanted to try again with a new egg donor. But Guaty, who hadbegun working with foster childrenduring this time, wanted him to consider foster-to-adoption as an option as well.
“After we found a second egg donor, we were told she could only give us two eggs — and then only one embryo matured. That’s when I told my husband, ‘I can’t do this. It’s too much pressure,’ ” she said.
Just as the couple began seeing eye-to-eyeand seriously considering adoption, Guaty received the call that she was pregnant. “When we both let go of our expectations of what parenthood was supposed to be, our pregnancy happened with that one golden egg,” she said about their mutual breakthrough.
“I had such faith that I was going to be a mother,” Guaty recalled. “I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but I realized being a mother means nurturing a child in an environment that will help them grow and flourish.That’sa family.”
source: people.com
