Melbourne couple’s extraordinary IVF journey to parenthood
- deansimpson7
- Apr 1
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 1
This is an extraordinary story of resilience, love, and hope – one that will inspire you to never give up, no matter the odds. When Rhiannon and Dale Nicholls fell in love and married, they never imagined the gruelling 10-year journey that would follow in their dream of becoming parents. It was an unrelenting battle, but one they would ultimately win, as Salvos Online journalist LERISSE SMITH discovered when she met the remarkable Sunshine Corps couple and their two precious miracles.
Are you needing a shot of inspiration?
Then Rhiannon and Dale’s story is sure to lift your spirit.
As the Melbourne couple cuddle their adored young sons, Drew and Aidan, following Aidan’s recent dedication at Sunshine Corps (Vic.), they can’t help but reflect on the extraordinary path that led them to parenthood. It was a decade-long journey that involved more than $100,000 in medical costs, international medical trips, over 25 fertility treatments, numerous surgeries, debilitating medications, physical and emotional pain, and traumatic experiences … just to name a few.
Yet, despite every obstacle, the couple has emerged triumphant, with Aidan’s dedication to celebrating not only their precious baby but also their treasured family of four.
“We have gone through so much,” they said. “But the joy of seeing our boys together makes it all worth it.”
At their welcoming home in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, the Nicholls family radiate love, laughter and happiness. The two little chilled-out brothers are besotted with each other, while special memento books are cherished and frequently enjoyed.
Journey to parenthood Their journey to parenthood all began with one single force – love.
Rhiannon and Dale met on a blind date. It only took two dates plus a belated overseas Valentine’s Day message for Rhiannon to realise Dale was a ‘keeper.’
Dale wanted to be a dad just as much as Rhiannon wanted to be a mum. On their rather spectacular fifth date, Dale declared to his girlfriend that their son would be called ‘Dale William the Third’. She told him it wouldn’t happen, and years later, Dale still insists he was joking, though Rhiannon doesn’t buy it!
Five months into their relationship, they decided to get married and chose their children’s names.
“It seemed like everything would come easily to us,” Rhiannon said. “I had a clear plan for my life – university, excellent career, married at 26, my first child at 28, and another after my 30th birthday so I could enjoy the party in between pregnancies. I was raised by a wonderful single mum with the help of my grandparents and, eventually, I got a fantastic stepdad. I imagined being the kind of parent and support they were to me and couldn’t wait to experience that closeness.”
Though Rhiannon knew conceiving might be difficult due to a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) at age 15 and endometriosis in her 20s, she was hopeful. Other people with the condition had children, including her aunty.
The couple embarked on their first IVF cycle in 2014, with the doctor declaring, “We will get you pregnant within six months.” But they were famous last words.
After no less than nine IVF cycles in just two years, which took a huge physical, psychological, and emotional toll on Rhiannon, the doctor informed the couple it was no longer ethical to continue IVF financially and physically and believed it would be too much for Rhiannon’s body. So, he suggested the couple consider egg donors.
Help arrived thanks to Rhiannon’s close cousin, Tara, who generously offered donor eggs. However, after several procedures, the transfers were unsuccessful.
But then came an unexpected glimmer of hope.
The doctor recommended travelling to Barcelona, Spain, where anonymous egg and embryo donors were plentiful. It was a potential breakthrough they so desperately needed.
The couple’s subsequent trips in 2017 brought much hope but also challenges. In July 2017, Dale was made redundant, and one Barcelona trip and two Spanish egg donors yielded no success.
Yet through it all, Dale and Rhiannon found an inner strength to not give up. Her work advocating for family violence and child protection reform helped her stay focused on the bigger picture, while Dale’s unwavering support never faltered.
In December 2017, Dale began a new job. Not wanting to suffer through another painful Christmas of not being a mum, Rhiannon embarked on her second Spanish trip, making a fateful call to her mother: “Do you want to come with me to Barcelona and get pregnant?!,” she recalled. “She said yes!” And Rhiannon had a donor embryo transfer.
Christmas 2017 marked a major turning point that redefined their lives.
Rhiannon couldn’t keep Christmas lunch down and two days later took a pregnancy test. Fearing the worst of a negative test, she buried herself in the bed covers. But then Dale glanced at the pregnancy test – and cried out, “Yan (Rhiannon’s nickname) There’s a line!” The couple hugged, ecstatic, as they realised their dream had finally come true.
Nine months later, in August 2018, to the tune of Madonna’s Holiday, Drew Nicholls was born via caesarean section. It was an overwhelming experience for the couple.
“They held him up for me to see him,” recalls Rhiannon. “Then Dale cut the cord. They placed him on my chest, and for once, my arms didn’t feel empty. This was my baby. I was finally someone’s mum. Your heart just fills up, it just overflows. It was a lot of relief. I felt like we made it.”
Dale added: “Whatever happened from that point, we had a baby!”
But their parenthood journey was not complete.
At 20 weeks pregnant, Rhiannon discovered that the Barcelona fertility clinic still had a full sibling embryo to Drew. However, COVID-19 disrupted their plans, intensifying their desire for the embryo. The couple fought to bring it from Spain to Australia, but their request was denied.
After travel restrictions were lifted in 2022, Rhiannon returned to Spain with her mother, leaving Dale to care for Drew. The couple felt they owed it to their son to get a sibling. It was an “insane trip” filled with many dramas, notwithstanding Alison’s serious fall where she broke both arms after accidentally tripping, and Rhiannon having to undertake 23 taxi trips across Barcelona in one day, to and from the IVF clinic and the hospital where her mother was being treated.
More bad news was to come.
The Spanish fertility clinic informed Rhiannon the full sibling embryo had not survived thawing. Despite the pain and heartache, Rhiannon decided to go for another transfer. Unfortunately, it was not successful.
But a chance meeting with a new coworker with similar experiences was to lead to a second miracle.
After consulting Melbourne IVF specialist Dr Lynn Burmeister and another doctor, tests showed Rhiannon was coeliac and could conceive with a gluten-free diet and immune medication using her own eggs. A subsequent embryo transfer ended in a chemical pregnancy, but the specialist remained optimistic, forecasting an 80 per cent chance of success with another trip to Spain.
In March 2024, the couple went to Barcelona for another transfer. A few days later, they returned home, and Rhiannon began to feel sick, just like when Drew was conceived.
After 10 days, the couple were thrilled – they were pregnant again! Despite Rhiannon suffering carpel tunnel syndrome and bursitis in both feet during her pregnancy, Aidan Joseph Nicolls arrived safely.
“I physically saw my heart grow bigger,” Rhiannon said. “It was such an intense feeling. It felt complete straight away. It was the most wonderful feeling.”
For Dale, another son meant another buddy in the household.
Now, with their two adored sons in their arms, Dale and Rhiannon love every minute of parenthood. Nothing is taken for granted.
“It’s exhausting, but the best,” Rhiannon remarked. For Dale, he loves being a dad. “The best part is being buddies!”
The couple is deeply grateful to their families, the Sunshine Corps community, and the prayers that helped them navigate their eventful journey. They acknowledge that they could not have done it without their emotional support and financial backing from family.
And their entire journey has brought them closer too.
“We are pretty lucky,” they explained. “We have been really good to each other. And that was that a determination from the start – by both saying to each other, ‘This is going to be tough. We don’t know what the future will hold, but we are just going to stick at it.’ It has brought us much closer as we really leaned on each other. Only we can truly understand what it is really like … trauma will always be there. But it’s less of an impact now.”
Dale and Rhiannon will also always remember the ‘roller-coaster’ of their journey to parenthood, including the 12 IVF cycles and 15 embryo transfers, along with the heartbreak they felt each time they thought they were pregnant and the difficult task of sharing the news with friends when transfers failed.
“The fertility medication makes you feel like you have pregnancy symptoms, and you start to get hope, and then it would all come crashing down,” Rhiannon reflected.
“With IVF, you find out how many eggs are collected, and then only so many mature, and then only so many fertilise, and then only so many test well to transfer. So, it’s like, shrink, shrink, shrink every day. It gets less and less.”
The emotional and physical toll on Rhiannon was immense, as she suffered from Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome that required hospitalisation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome triggered by anxiety. At one point, Rhiannon even experienced suicidal thoughts due to the overwhelming emotional pain.
At another low point, Rhiannon even suggested to Dale, whom she describes as a “wonderful husband and father”, to leave her and find someone who could give him children. But his response was unwavering: he wanted to be with her – children or no children. “He was my rock,” Rhiannon said. “Without him, I would not have made it.”
Christmas has now become an incredibly meaningful time for the family, especially after the challenging years Rhiannon faced during the festive season where she longed for children to celebrate the special event. Rhiannon also loves working in politics and Dale in Information Technology.
Equally meaningful for the couple is their commitment to being open and honest with their Drew, aged six, and Aidan, 13 weeks, about how they came into the world. They will support their sons and DNA testing if they want to search for siblings in their later years. Rhiannon has even written a heartfelt book to help Drew understand his origins.
“These guys were just blueprints in a freezer, and now they have lives, and they have made our family complete,” Rhiannon said. “They are going to do wonderful things and bring light to the world – and affectionately call them our Barcelona Boys!”
