Runner Rug: Bepa
Our beloved Mae Woven Muse series is back! Meet Brittany Tanner, IVF mama of preemie twin boys. She is a California girl residing in our home state of Utah. Britt has an eye for all things design, fashion and beauty. We deeply admire her strength + faith throughout her pregnancy journey. We can't wait for you to get to know her, too.
Tell us a little bit about yourself...
I was born and raised in California with a deep love for the ocean and sunshine. Being raised in a large family, I thrive off connection and relationships. I’ve traveled to 5 continents, 19 countries and 38 states. I love to explore outdoors and I’m always up for an adventure! I love all things design and have run my own design business for years doing fashion design and styling, graphic design and interior design.
What is your home style?
Organic modern. I feel strongly about having my home be a safe place for others to come and feel welcome and loved. I am passionate about interior design and am constantly thinking of new ideas for my home. I love the combination of clean simple lines and organic textures. A lot of pieces in my home are from my travels or handed down from my late mother.
How do you cope with your family living in a different state, especially during a worldwide pandemic? What are some tips you might have?
The hardest part about Covid for me has been having my dad in California. Because of the pandemic, he hasn’t met my 6mo old babies yet. We FaceTime with him multiple times a week so he can still get to know them and see them through the different stages they are going through until he comes out in May!
What's your favorite thing about motherhood?
Oh man this is a loaded question! Honestly, I love being a mother. Like really really love it. My mother passed away almost 7 yrs ago. She always inspired me to be a mom. I don’t know how she did it, raising 8 kids and making it all look so easy. I certainly don’t make it look easy ha, but I do find so much joy in being able to share the massive amount of love that I have with these tiny humans. Mothers have a powerful effect on their children and I strive daily to have that be a positive one.
What was your experience with IVF and what piece of advice would you give someone going through that right now?
We went through quite the emotional roller coaster with IVF. After years of unsuccessfully trying to grow our family, we decided to see a fertility specialist and found out I have a rare genetic mutation where I’m missing 2 copies of the MTHFR gene. Because of that, my egg reserve is extremely low and the chances of us getting pregnant, even with IVF, were very slim. We did two rounds of IVF back to back, two months in a row and only had 3 viable embryos (average per round of IVF is anywhere from 8-14). We put all three in and two took, Max and Golden! It is absolutely a miracle, even my doctor didn’t think it was possible.
My advice for anyone going through infertility of any kind is to not give up and do your best to hold out hope. Stay focused on your end goal and try to not to get too discouraged. Growing your family is such a sensitive and emotional thing and there will be ups and downs with any IVF journey. We had bad news after bad news that nearly left us feeling wiped out and unsure if it would ever work out. It was hard to keep trying and have hope that things would work out, but I am so glad that we did. Just remember, it will all be so so worth it in the end.
Instagram: @britt__tanner
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