105. Discover how Marla Tellez beat the biological clock by conceiving at 48 using her own eggs frozen over a decade ago. From a 12-year wait to a miracle birth at 49, this episode reveals the high-stakes reality of IVF, sperm extraction, and the power of preserving your future fertility.
On Episode 105, after anchoring the news for nearly 30 years, Emmy-award winner Marla Tellez found herself reporting on her own miracle: a successful pregnancy at 48 using her own frozen eggs. In this episode, Marla shares the incredible 12-year timeline from freezing her eggs at age 37 to welcoming her daughter, Sloan, just days before her 49th birthday. She pulls back the curtain on the technical and emotional hurdles of later-in-life parenting, including navigating a partner’s prior vasectomy through sperm extraction and the decision to pause treatments during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marla’s story is a testament to the power of proactive fertility preservation and the resilience required to chase a dream across decades. From running three miles on the day of her induction to the raw “identity crisis” of the postpartum period, she offers a candid look at what it really takes to conceive and carry a baby in your late 40s. Whether you are currently “TTC” or considering freezing your eggs, Marla’s journey provides a roadmap of hope, scientific possibility, and the reminder that the best headlines are often the ones we write for ourselves.
About the Guest
Marla Tellez is an Emmy Award-winning news anchor for Fox 11 in Los Angeles, bringing nearly three decades of broadcast journalism experience to the screen. After a career spent reporting on national headlines and local news, Marla embarked on a deeply personal journey to motherhood in her late 40s. Having frozen her eggs at age 37 after being “spooked” by a news story she delivered on air, she navigated a decade of life changes—including the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and her husband’s history with a vasectomy—before successfully undergoing IVF.
In March 2025, just before her 49th birthday, Marla welcomed her daughter, Sloan. A lifelong runner who famously completed a three-mile jog on the day of her induction, Marla is a vocal advocate for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a resilient mindset while navigating high-risk pregnancy. Through sharing her story of “miracle” embryos and the transition into postpartum life, she aims to empower women over 40 to shed the guilt of age-related fears and embrace the unique joy of later-in-life parenting.
Connect with Marla Tellez:
- Instagram: @marlatellez
- Watch Live: foxla.com/live
Key Topics
- The 12-Year Time Capsule: The reality of using eggs frozen at 37 for a successful IVF transfer at age 48.
- Sperm Extraction vs. Reversal: Navigating male fertility when a partner has had a vasectomy for over 15 years.
- The Pandemic Pause: How the “COVID reporter” balanced a high-intensity career with the fear of getting pregnant during a global health crisis.
- Fitness & High-Risk Pregnancy: Why Marla chose to continue her lifelong running routine up until the day of her induction.
- Postpartum Identity & Support: A transparent discussion on the “dark places” of early motherhood, the importance of a supportive OB-GYN, and finding community in birthing classes.
- The Final Embryo: Marla’s plans for her remaining frozen embryo and the emotional weight of “catastrophic thinking” regarding her age.
Resources & Links
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Transcript
Jamie: Marla, welcome to the show!
Marla: Thank you so much, Jamie for having me.
Jamie: and we are sharing Marla’s story at 48. But before we get started, Marla, will you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Marla: Oh, sure. Yes. I’m coming to you from Los Angeles Southern California. I am a news anchor. I work for the local Fox Station here in Los Angeles, Fox 11. You can watch anytime for your listeners. If you’re curious about LA News fox la.com/live. Jamie, sorry, I had to get the plugin.
I’ve been in TV broadcasting my entire career. I’ve been in it since 1998, so if you do the math 27 years now. And I started behind the scenes and made my way in front of the camera where I have been for many years. So I started as a writer and a producer, and then was a general assignment reporter, and I’ve been a news anchor for 15 plus years.
Jamie: Super fun and a little intimidating on my
Marla: No, not at all. Please do not be intimidated, as you’ll find out. I am better at what you’re doing right now than being on this side of questioning. I’d rather be asking the questions.
Jamie: Let’s get into your story. You froze your eggs in your thirties, let’s start there and tell us about that.
Marla: Okay. Yes. I was 37 years old when I actually went in for the procedure to get my eggs frozen. So that was 12 years ago At this point, the reason why I froze my eggs was because I was delivering a news story on the air as a news anchor, and it was talking, I was talking about infertility, fertility in women’s ages, et cetera, and I got spooked reading this story off the air. I went home and actually started to cry. I was 36 at the time and thought, oh my goodness. I’ve just been working in, miss career woman, if you will.
Maybe I’m not fertile right now. Maybe my chances of having a child have already come and gone and I didn’t know this. So I immediately started to think about, financially, how do I pull this off?
And doing more of my homework and research about egg freezing again 12 years ago. So I did that. I did my homework and 37 years old, it took me a little bit to get, the money saved and I found a fertility doctor in the Bay Area and sure enough I had the procedure done and I was lucky enough at the time for one retrieval to garner 22 aches.
Jamie: Wow, that’s amazing.
Marla: My OB and I became friends, meaning she became such a, almost a counselor in my life and I owe her my motherhood. When I met her, I was in my late thirties, and she has always talked to me about getting pregnant.
I was single at the time. And so then once I met my husband, she was like, chop chop, chop. I met my husband when I was 40 and I got, we got married when I was 41. And even though it was later in life, you would think that, or for me I still wanted to be married for a year or two before we had kids, which in hindsight, you know, hindsight’s 2020 as they say, and I almost wish that we would’ve done this sooner. But it’s all meant to be. It is meant to be. She was on me to get pregnant. And then truth be told, my story is this. In 2019, we actually started the process of going through this. So six years ago we were starting to go through it start going to the appointments and figuring out how do we make this happen?
And then all of a sudden, and this is the very end of 2019, so jump ahead to March of 2020 and we know COVID hit and in my industry and regardless of that, but it was, I was like thrust into COVID reporting.
That’s all I did and consumed. And I never was sent home. I was one of the very few who remained at the television station.
So while everyone was reporting from home or I was still there and I actually quite frankly, became. The COVID reporter where I covered all of the press briefings from local in Los Angeles to national in the White House press briefing. So I was inundated with everything, COVID, and I just got really scared. I was in a newsroom, in a news studio without anybody, and I thought, I am not comfortable getting pregnant right now. And I interviewed actually a fertility doctor about this trend. So I wasn’t alone in that. Women who, families who were in the process of going through this, it COVID did one of two things.
It either did what it did to me and spooked me and made me put everything on pause. The other trend was quite the opposite. Women and families took advantage of it, that they could still get it done now. They were home. And doctors were still doing it, and it made it more viable for them. And so I was in the camp that decided to put everything on hold fast forward, and I didn’t think that it was gonna be a couple of years before you really got out of COVID.
If you recall, it was two weeks to stop the spread, we know how that all worked out. So fast forward to a couple years later in 2021, and I’m, we started to rethink the process of getting back into it. Then I deemed myself too old. So at this point in time I was, I’m trying to figure out how old I was at the time 44, 45. And my husband was a hundred percent still wanting to do it. And then I was the one who I just said, you know what? I think the time is coming, gone. So I didn’t do it. And even though my OB to get back to that, she was, I really think that you need to do this. And the pressure of that in the back of my head, although we had, I had decided it wasn’t for me, I regretted it and I just lived with that.
And so then I was going for my annual checkup with my ob and she says to me, and I remember it vividly, it was one of those moments that you won’t forget. She says, Marla, I’ve known you for a long time and I know that you will regret this if you don’t try. And, that made me emotional in her office.
And I said, you’re absolutely right. I don’t wanna be here in 10 years when it’s, potentially just too late. And so I got in the car, I called my husband and I said, I’m coming home. We’re gonna go through with this. And that’s the first thing I did. I called immediately right then and there. While I was driving I called the fertility clinic, left a message, they called me back.
That was in December of 2023 and that got the ball rolling. So if it weren’t for that conversation with my ob slash counselor slash life coach, I don’t know if I’d be where I am today, so I owe her all of that. She’s been a part of the journey since then.
Jamie: Oh, how cute.
Marla: Talk about full circle. So I owe her my motherhood.
Jamie: Yeah, that is wonderful. I love having that relationship with your doctor too.
Marla: Oh yeah. She really takes the time to listen and get to know you and your lifestyle because if I were just another, if she treated us just here’s just a patient and I’m just gonna make sure they’re healthy now, and didn’t take it upon herself to have that conversation and be really frank with me and give her thoughts and how I am as a person and how she sees me from the outside, I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it.
Jamie: Wow. That’s wild.
Marla: Yeah.
Jamie: Did y’all try at all or did you just go straight to IVF?
Marla: So that’s the thing. My story’s a little different in that we didn’t try because my husband had a vasectomy.
Jamie: That’s right.
Marla: My husband had a vasectomy, and while my OB appointments showed that I was still fertile in my mid forties to late forties. It just smarter when we had to get his sperm anyway non-traditionally because he didn’t do a reversal.
A lot of people think oh, it was a reversal. No, we were advised for him and for our situation it was a sperm extraction, so he went in to have that done and you can ask questions if you’re curious about that or if
Jamie: I am
Marla: if you and so he had that done. And so then the, my fertility doctor said, it’s just smarter to use your younger DNA, your 37-year-old eggs that you’ve been, storing for all these years.
With that said, the science has changed in that. I will say this, when I froze them 12 years ago, I was told that they, and at the time I’m not faulting any doctors, because science changes as we know that it was, okay, you’re gonna freeze your eggs and they’re viable forever, theoretically.
Then come to find out it’s, the longer that they’re frozen, it doesn’t, that can actually wear and tear on them, so they don’t know how viable they’ll be. So I thought, oh my goodness, maybe none of ’em will be a thing. But it turned out, and that wasn’t the case for me. So I was blessed in that regard.
Sperm extraction, they quite frank, they just literally slice poor guy. He had to go in. It was an outpatient procedure, so let me just say that. Outpatient they cut open a testicle and they just extract sperm. They sew him back up. He had stitches and he came home and he had to have ice, on him for a couple of weeks. And he’s a runner too. He is a lifelong runner. And so he couldn’t run and, not a big deal. But the process, it wasn’t painful.
But it was uncomfortable in the healing. I’ll say that as I speak for him now. But that’s what he endured. And so that, that was his sperm extraction. The whole appointment I think took 30 minutes maybe.
Jamie: Wow, that’s quick.
Marla: which is amazing. Yeah. And he just, he he drove himself. I don’t mean to sound like I’m an insensitive wife, but there was something going on that day and the doctor’s oh no, you can drive yourself.
It’s not a big deal. That’s how like relaxed this whole situation was. And you think about what they’re doing and what the result is. And we have a baby girl now, so it works.
Jamie: Wow. That’s incredible that you didn’t have to bother with a reversal or anything. That’s great.
Marla: And the reason why we didn’t do the reversal, because, I initially, in 2019 before we were learning about the process, we went in thinking, I went in thinking that he was gonna get a reversal. The reason why the urologists were saying no to him specifically was because he had his vasectomy more than 15 years prior.
Jamie: Oh,
Marla: And so the longer it is, apparently, or at least this is what these doctors said, that it just, it’s, the chances of it taking aren’t as good.
Jamie: that makes sense. ’cause I’m sure things like healed over and you have a lot of scar tissue from that. That makes a lot of sense.
Marla: Yes. So there was that, but I, in my head I thought. Okay. He is gonna get a reversal and we’re gonna try traditionally. So we never went that route.
Jamie: Straight to IV. F.
Marla: Yeah. But then you fast forward to when I was my husband and I were going to conceive when I was officially 47 at the time, I’m doing the math in my head, but around there,
And when the testing is all done, genetic testing and with his sperm and to make that healthy embryo, we got down to two viable embryos.
So I had 22 and within, a couple of weeks it went down to two. With that said, so blessed to have any, because you just don’t know. So the science is amazing, but at the same time, you don’t know if genetically it’s going to be viable or not. So we were so blessed, so over the moon that we had two viable embryos.
Actually I had turned 48 at that point. Let me just get my ages right. And we went in for the transfer. Again, no guarantees on that. This was July when I was 48 years old.
Jamie: First time.
Marla: the first time and I know that is not, normal or regular or there is no such thing in that, in what, in this whole world. So just so blessed. And our miracle baby girl Sloan was born just before I turned 49. So we’re both Aries and she was born March 23rd of 2025. And by the time this episodes airs, she’ll almost be a year old.
Jamie: That’s amazing. Congratulations.
Marla: you so much.
Jamie: And tell us, did you do anything before the transfer,
Marla: In terms of,
Jamie: acupuncture or any preparedness on your end?
Marla: That’s funny you’re asking me that. Because the day that we were sitting there, and I’m not kidding, in the waiting room for the transfer, there was notifications up, signs up that said, call this acupuncturist or try this method prior to transfer date. And for whatever reason, this wasn’t offered to us prior.
Not that I recall. And I thought, oh my goodness, I didn’t do acupuncture. I didn’t do any of that. I just did my best to live a healthy lifestyle and follow doctor’s orders. The answer is no. I didn’t. I just I’ve been a lifelong runner and I know that’s probably sounds counterintuitive to acupuncture, but because I have been running for decades. When I say that more than 30 years, my ob, GYN who I worked with, in addition to my fertility doctor, who I’ve been with for a long time she said, you can continue to do your runs, mind you, abbreviated runs slower and shorter distances, but just to get my physical exercise in that I’ve been so used to, my body’s been so accustomed to.
So I did all of that. And of course everything was checking out along the way. We were making sure that everything was healthy and still stable and good. So the short answer is no. I didn’t do the traditional acupuncture. And so still got blessed in that regard.
Jamie: That’s amazing. And when you, after your transfer, did you test yourself or did you wait for your doctor?
Marla: For the pregnancy test?
Jamie: Yeah
Marla: I waited for the doctor only because they had said, don’t test yourself. Our tests are much more accurate than at home. And even if you did it at Yeah, that’s enough said. So as much as I wanted to, and my husband and I went back and forth on that. Me more than him. He just told me to wait, but I’m not that patient. But I did, I suffered it out and waited for the actual test done at the fertility clinic.
Jamie: Were you feeling any symptoms?
Marla: Not, no, I wasn’t. And that’s the thing. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel and I didn’t feel any differently. And that scared me.
Jamie: Sure.
Marla: So I wasn’t sure. And the sort of sweetness element to this story is I mentioned I’m from the Bay Area. My mom, who I’m very close to, she still lives in the Bay Area.
She surprised me and drove down from Northern California to Southern California, which is quite a drive the night before we were to get the pregnancy results because she wanted to be there for that moment. And on one hand, when I got home from work that night, I was, so excited to see her and what a surprise, she and my husband pulled off.
But at the same time I thought, oh my goodness, what if I’m not? And she said that’s even more reason for me to be here too, for support, which is very true. So mom was there. We went I got the pregnancy test that morning. You had to wait, I think it was maybe 90 minutes or a couple hours.
And so we went to breakfast right after I took the test. I think like an eight 30 appointment. And it was of course at Murphy’s Law, right? We finished breakfast. We’re getting in an elevator to go down to the parking garage in the parking structure to get to our car. And you know how cell phones work in an elevator.
Literally as we step into the elevator, the fertility clinic calls,
Jamie: Oh, no.
Marla: and I’m trying to get the doors open and I’m shoving my mom outta the way. And it was chaos and stress and all of this. And I was able to get out of the elevator. And we usher out and I put it on speakerphone so that we could all hear.
And my fertility doctor said, hi Marla. And I’m like, hold on one second. Hold on. Yes. And he said, are you ready for your results? And he’s very, monotone, so you can’t tell. And I said, I am Dr. Danzer. And he says, I’m looking at a very positive pregnancy test and overwhelmed with, tears of joy, and my mom’s not a crier.
So when that evoked tears, I knew it was a really sentimental and important moment for her to be there and share that with me. And I have a picture. My husband took a picture of us on the phone, and it’s actually framed in Sloan. My daughter’s name is Sloan in Sloan’s room. So it’s a memory that I’ll never forget.
Jamie: That’s really sweet. And you’ve never been pregnant before.
Marla: No.
Jamie: Okay. Wow. What a great moment to capture what a good husband.
Marla: Oh yeah, my husband, he’s an amazing father as well. Let me just say that he has done so well because it’s just the two of us here at home. I’m coming to you from my home right now, and we’ve done a really great job tag teaming and he’s so wonderful with Sloan.
Jamie: Yeah. No, that’s amazing. Did, since you did the testing, the PGT?
Marla: Formal pregnancy test?
Jamie: That’s the genetic testing on the embryos. Did you know the sex before
Marla: Yes.
Jamie: The transfer?
Marla: I did and that necessarily wasn’t totally by design. It caught me off guard. Prior to the transfer, once we found out that we, had two viable embryos. It was leading up to that and waiting for that phone call. I think it was a two week wait where we were gonna find out if the embryos were viable or not. So that was painstaking for women who have experienced that. That was really hard.
And, I asked all the questions I’m sure most of us ask, and that is, what are the chances? And there are none, there’s no, you just roll the dice, right? So I was waiting for that phone call. It was gonna be on a Friday and I work weird hours. I work in the afternoon to really late at night, they told me that it was gonna be before I went to work. And I said, okay. So the phone rang, my husband works from home and he was in the midst of a meeting at that point in time, the phone rings and I’m thinking, oh gosh, here’s the moment. And Dr. Danzer iss on the line and he says, would he always starts it off with, are you ready for your results?
Yes I am. And he said, both embryos are genetically viable. So I immediately started crying tears of joy. And he’s excited suddenly. And he is pretty a emotional, as mentioned, monotone. But then he heard my joy. He picked up on that. And then he says don’t you wanna know the sexes?
And I wasn’t prepared for that question.
Jamie: Yeah.
Marla: And so in my joy and over excitement, and my husband’s in a meeting and I just said, yes, and he says to me, they’re both girls.
Jamie: Oh wow.
Marla: So I did, I went over to my husband, interrupted him, probably irresponsibly while he’s on the meeting, and I said, he obviously could hear me so happy. So he knew that the embryos were viable. But then when I said, are you ready to know what they are? And I wrote him a note that he saved and I just wrote, they’re both girls. He is on, he is got his headphones on in the work meeting and he took himself off camera and he was like, hearing, and then we gotta celebrate thereafter.
But yes, that was the moment.
Jamie: I love that. What did you think about girls? Is that something you wanted or did you care?
Marla: I didn’t care, honestly. I just, I went back and forth. I think I just wanted healthy. And I know that might sound obvious and, but it’s, it was true. I didn’t have a preference one way or the other. If they were both boys, one boy. Of course if I could have a boy and a girl, that would be amazing.
And in fact, I did want to know about could I have them, can you and I don’t know if I’m saying this correctly, you would know better than me twins. So that at, being an older mom, can I have two at one, two for one sort of a thing. And my doctor, he did not wanna do two, put two in at the same time.
Just said it’s just better for you. It doesn’t increase your chances. And if you lose both and you lose both and it’s better if the first one doesn’t take, at least you have a second try. So we went by that.
Jamie: Yeah. Same with my doctor. She wouldn’t put two in either.
Marla: Okay. Yeah. And that’s really changed because as I think years ago they would put a lot in all at once.
Jamie: That’s amazing. Tell us, how was your pregnancy?
Marla: Pregnancy I got incredibly blessed at most of the symptoms that I’ve heard about and that I was told I was going to get where it was, a lot of women sharing with me, just wait until the heartburn starts, wait until this happens, all of that. And by and large, it was just, I would say the first trimester I was really tired. And exhaustion that I hadn’t felt before. And then I had some nausea, but it wasn’t outright morning sickness. I didn’t necessarily get sick, but things just, I just didn’t feel well in that regard. So that was the first trimester.
And then the second trimester, I feel that all of that dissipated and I felt as normal as I think you can feel.
Third trimester, I started to feel my biggest symptom was fatigue. Interestingly, I had an incredible appetite, I will say that, where I just could not eat enough. It was incredible how much I could consume, but I didn’t actually get cravings necessarily.
Jamie: Oh, interesting.
Marla: And nothing, I’ve heard that taste buds change as well. Nothing tasted differently to me. So that was interesting. And I know this is case by case, but for me, this was just, how it went for me.
Jamie: For your pregnancy was there any product or anything that you could recommend that helped with pregnancy?
Marla: First of all, for my nausea, I just did the the ginger chews really helped me. I don’t know if that was a placebo effect or what. And I just like ginger, which I do, but it worked for me, I’ll say that.
Then the pillow, I got the big pillow. Enormous pillow that worked for me for a while. And I, so I used that for naps and I used that in bed because I was so afraid to turn over as well. So that made it more comfortable for me. So yes, I have my huge pillow that I used.
For those listening who exercise and whether it’s a jog or ’cause I’m certainly not the only person who has, jogged or walked quickly when your kid, when your belly gets bigger. I had looked up in runner’s magazines ’cause, because I had heard that those like security belts help you a lot. But for me, that didn’t work well. And I tried a few different brands and I’m not gonna name those because, just because it didn’t work for me, but a lot of women were swearing by them.
And for me it just really, my spandex, actually, my pants did the trick where it was sturdy enough that it just held the belly in such a way. It just almost felt more restricting with those belts around.
Jamie: Okay. And how long did you run for like into your pregnancy?
Marla: Until my induction, I ran on my induction day.
Jamie: Oh, that is amazing. You did tell me that. That’s so amazing.
Marla: Yeah. It’s one of those things where the doctor’s you still feel good and you can do it, and it was a few miles. That’s the longest that I would go three miles. But yes.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. And a few more questions before we get into the birth. What about preparing for baby? Did you do classes or how did you prepare for her?
Marla: I did we took a birthing class, three or four Sundays for three to four hours. So quite a few hours of birthing class, which for me it was fascinating and I did learn a lot because I was clean slate, didn’t know anything what to expect. As it turned out, I didn’t get to use a lot of it.
I did the birthing class, which just I think for peace of mind made me feel more prepared. I always wanna be prepared, do my homework, whether it’s, getting ready for this podcast or gonna have a baby. I always wanna do my research. So yes, I do recommend taking a birthing class and I also took a breastfeeding class and that gave me some insight into, what to expect because again, clean slate. Didn’t know anything about breastfeeding. And I am still breastfeeding.
Jamie: Oh, awesome.
Marla: She is set to turn seven months at the time of this recording. That’s been going well for me, that whole journey. So I feel blessed in that regard. What else did I take? Birthing class, breastfeeding class just, a lot of literature online.
And I will say this, social media is a wonderful thing. These podcasts are wonderful. But at the same time it can be very overwhelming. There’s so much information and to sift through it. And as a journalist, really fact check, right? Because you can doom scroll all day long and be told that never do this, and then come to find out doing that’s okay or do, or absolutely do this because it worked for me.
And come to find out it’s not necessarily for everybody, so that was totally overwhelming for me. I got to a point where I’m just like, I don’t wanna see anything. And once I get to. That stage of my pregnancy or once I get to that stage of motherhood that I’m gonna do my homework there.
’cause it was just totally overwhelming.
Jamie: Yeah, it really can be.
Marla: Yeah.
Jamie: Now, is there anything else you want to mention about your pregnancy before we move on to your birth?
Marla: Pregnancy the only thing that I’ll say that was interesting to me and it, interesting, sad, empowering, all of that was being pregnant on the air. I worked through my entire pregnancy and, I don’t have a, it’s not labor inducing job that I have, so I am in the studio and it’s limited in terms of I don’t have to do any heavy lifting or anything. So I was able to work through pregnancy, but it was interesting to me to receive viewer emails from women who were commending me for still being on the air while pregnant, not for working, but for showing, not being embarrassed to show my belly.
Jamie: Huh.
Marla: These were emails notably from older women who said, in my day, this would’ve never been accepted and so it’s so nice to see how far we’ve come. And so thank you for being an example. And I thought, oh my gosh, yeah. I guess you’re right, way back decades ago, this this wasn’t the norm.
Jamie: Yeah,
Marla: that was an interesting perspective and I thought yes, and I wasn’t the kind either to and nothing’s wrong with that, where it’s like I’d wear super tight things to really show it off, but you get to a point where no matter what you wear.
Jamie: you can’t help
Marla: Yeah. You just can’t help it. And then it’s, the funny thing is that I know when you think of a news anchor, you think of a traditional anchor desk by and large, but one of the newscasts that I anchor, I solo anchor it, and it’s a hundred, it’s standing the whole thing. So it’s literally full body 90% of the time. So you really aren’t hiding anything.
I did receive that feedback which I thought was nice. On the other end of it, I received, and it doesn’t matter that I’m on air or not, but because, you open your up, open yourself up to a lot of people who you don’t know strangers, right? Viewers. I did get the mean, the critical emails and messages on Instagram or social media generally speaking.
You’re old, you realize that you’re gonna be. 70 they graduating from high school. That’s selfish. And people just like poking fun at it, and that doesn’t feel good. I’m a human being. But at the same time, I would respond, sometimes I would respond and sometimes I wouldn’t.
I’ve learned, to kill people with kindness, right? And I would just simply say, thanks for your comment, thanks for your feedback. And then if I was feeling a little feisty, which I am very feisty behind the scenes, I would write, you’re acting like I’m asking you for child support. You have zero. You have zero to do with my pregnancy or my child. Like, why does it bother you that I’m pregnant at my age? Come.
Jamie: Yeah. It’s funny ’cause people have so many opinions about pregnancies, but when it comes to like careers or other things, like they don’t care about,
Marla: And these comments, mostly the critical ones. And don’t get me wrong, there were some women but were from men.
Jamie: wow.
Marla: Yeah. I don’t block people because, unless they were threatening. And I’ll tell the station for good reason if someone’s that gonna go that far, which is very rare. Let me just make that clear. But as a journalist I’m, I wanna be open and honest, obviously, I don’t wanna block you for your opinion. But there are, there have been some times that I have blocked some people because it’s just, it’s incessant where no matter what I post, it’s a mean comment. And it’s I don’t need, you know what? I’ve told you to unfollow me. You haven’t unfollowed me. You like to get under my skin. I’m gonna block, I’m gonna block just because I don’t need to see that.
Jamie: Yeah. That it is fascinating about the women’s comments that they’re proud of you for showing your belly and I guess that’s true. Long ago, pr, they didn’t show pregnant women on TV at all.
Marla: Isn’t that wild?
Jamie: It’s so crazy to think about that.
Marla: And at the same time, women in their forties weren’t necessarily getting pregnant. It was a lot younger, so there’s that as well.
Jamie: Yeah. That’s wild.
Marla: Yeah.
Jamie: Wow. Okay, so let’s get into your birth story. How far along were you when she wanted to induce?
Marla: 39 weeks. So full period is 40, so it was just a week before and I went in on a Thursday, and then Sloan was born on the Sunday.
Jamie: Okay. You had some time there
Marla: Yeah. Yes.
Jamie: ’cause she was stuck. Clearly she wasn’t progressing.
Marla: No, and I went through the whole let’s see. Went in and you’ll remember and I should have probably, when I said I like to prepare for these things I just didn’t think about going back to remember the medication. But it wasn’t Pitocin first, it was something else that, or was it Pitocin first? No, I thought it was something else that they first gave me to speed it up to be induced, and then it was Pitocin and then nothing was really happening. And so then I got the balloon insert.
Jamie: Ooh, okay. I’ve heard those are really painful. I chose not to do those.
Marla: I’ve never done it, so I don’t know. And I don’t have anything to compare it to, but for sure. And again, I didn’t have traditional a vaginal birth, so I can’t compare it to the pain on that either. But this by far was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. It was just awful, ugh, just thinking about it.
But so I got that done. And then from that though I couldn’t, once it was inserted and I believe that they told me that it was gonna be about an hour for hour and a half maybe, until the discomfort went away. And I thought once the balloon was in that it would just be a relief at that point, and you could just, relax. And that, for me, it wasn’t the case where it was just excruciating pain. And I thought, I cannot, what is my, what are my options right now? And so I got an epidural at that point to help me. And and so yes, I had an epidural. I knew that what it would do to your body, but I didn’t realize that literally couldn’t move my legs.
And I suppose that’s normal. And so that was, yeah, it was, that whole thing was a wild experience for me. So I had an epidural probably about 36 hours after the induction process started. And then it was, hour 51 where we did the C-section.
Jamie: Uhhuh, good for you. For lasting for 36 hours. I sure didn’t.
Marla: The whole thing was it’s a it’s amazing the grueling process that it is.
Jamie: So walk us through like the, I guess the conversation on how y’all came to deciding to do the C-section.
Marla: So my ob she was really upfront once it started to look like this could be an option, and she said, I’m gonna tell you this right now, that it does look like this could become the way that this happens. And when you decide to, when we decide to, she said, I’m gonna tell you that it’s gonna be very emotional for you.
I was not feeling emotional where I was gonna break down. I was just like, okay, I’m excited. Let’s get through this. What do I need to do to give birth to her? And I said, okay thank you for that. We’ll see what happens. And I think that it’s all gonna work out and I’ll have her vaginally sort of a thing.
I was in that mindset. And then fast forward to that conversation where it was eight o’clock at night on Saturday night. Again, I went in on Thursday night. So 48 hours later, essentially she said, here’s the thing I dilated to I think six, six or seven, and she said, we can continue to try, but there’s no guarantee.
So she said, I recommend a C-section and we can do that tonight. And I said let me talk to my husband about it. So we talked about it and I just said, I was so exhausted. I said, let’s just do the C-section. And sure enough, she had called it, I just totally broke down. I was crying. I was so emotional. And it was because I felt after all of this, now I’m doing a c-section.
It was like, it was a, I was feeling a letdown. I was feeling, could I have done something differently? Is this my fault? Am I to blame? Even though, that’s probably not a healthy mentality at the time, but I felt it all. Once we went in for the C-section I was, I started to get nervous because I hadn’t really prepared for a C-section, right?
I had taken the birthing classes, but I didn’t know a lot about the C-section process. But just went in, we actually went in, I was rolled in at midnight, literally at midnight, Saturday to Sunday. And Sloan came out at 12:38 AM
Jamie: Wow. You really almost got that cutoff from the next day. Did you care like when she was born on that day or the previous day, or were you just done at that point?
Marla: The only thing that I cared about going into this prior to, the whole timeline was, and maybe you think I’m weird or funny or whatever people can relate. I was really hoping for an Aries, I mentioned that I’m an Aries too, and a lot of people in my life are Aries, it sounds like I’m tooting my own horn.
But it just so happened that once I got pregnant and we did the math and it was literally on the cusp of, if I had carried her full term, 40, she would absolutely be an Aries. She was either gonna be if she came early, she’d be a Pisces, and then on the cusp of Aries. When I told Dr. Rami, my ob when she said, we’re gonna schedule an induction, because I thought for sure I was having an Aries, she said March 20th or something, was her date.
I said, I’m sorry, Dr. A, if she comes anyway naturally before on her own, that’s meant to be and fine. I said, but if it’s up to me, can I, can we do it once the Zodiac goes into Aries? And she’s she said, I’m an Aries. You don’t want an Aries. And I go, I’m an Aries. The actual induction day was on the cusp of Pisces to Aries. So I already knew once she had lasted that long that I was having an Aries.
Jamie: Oh, that’s fun. Tell us about your recovery. How was it
Marla: That was tough. That was another thing that I just did not. My recovery was really brutal. Definitely harder than the pregnancy. Obviously a lot shorter than nine months of pregnancy, but it was still really hard. I came home and I don’t think this is normal. I actually, you can tell me, you’re an expert in this field, Jamie. I came home from the hospital weighing more than when I went in.
Jamie: really? I have, I don’t know if I’ve heard this.
Marla: Yeah, it was, I was so uncomfortable, so I’m short. So for those, everyone watching this, no one knows me, so I’m five foot one, so I’m short, I’m petite. How about petite? I’m petite. I’m vertical challenge. All of a sudden, from all the liquids being pumped into me and everything else, I suppose I just was like this a mast of just water weight. I came home weighing like five more pounds than when I went in.
Jamie: Wow. That’s wild. That does make sense. I’m sure you were on IVs
Marla: Yes, I was on IVs for all that time. And I just was so uncomfortable. So not just the, it wasn’t just the weight. Everything hurt, right? That, all that extra water. So like my feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my legs hurt. My body was unrecognizable when I was pregnant. I was, everything was just in my belly, right?
Like my weight was there. I looked like I had a basketball. And then when I came out I was just like everywhere was huge for me, right theoretical, just for me, I was just not in a comfort zone at all. And then the c-section discomfort and the incision line, that was extremely sore.
So that was hard for me to deal with and, just get out, up and outta bed. And that’s the thing is I don’t know if you can prepare for this mentally anyway. But as a first time mom who in hindsight did not know what I was doing at all, despite being as prepared as I, thought I was, and then having to get up and out of bed with the C-section and c incision and care for the newborn, and, that was just really hard.
Really hard. I’m independent. I’m strong-willed. And I can endure pain pretty well. And so I didn’t want to be, oh, I need help and help in here and help me up. But I had to be, I had to lean on my husband quite a bit to just, I need help.
I can’t get up. Help me, and then to deal with the newborn who is crying and you don’t know why and figure that out. And I mean it, that was, it was really hard. And mentally for me, I didn’t also expect the loss of identity that I felt as well, that was really hard for me. I was, and I felt guilty about feeling that way.
I felt guilty of the tears of sadness, of loss of my freedom, which in hindsight is of course you’re gonna lose that. And I was told that too, life changes the minute that you have a child, but until you actually go through it, you really can’t even begin to process what that really means and what that feels like.
And that was a huge shock to my system
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. And now that you’re seven months postpartum, do you feel completely healed?
Marla: incision wise, I do. That doesn’t hurt at all. It’s still, there’s still, I do some massage on it to deal with some of the scar tissue that’s there. And I use a like a healing cream that my OB suggested. And I put that on that every day. There’s still, so it’s still a little puffy on one side more than the other, which she said is normal.
But in terms of there’s no pain, so that’s fine. I’ve lost my pregnancy weight, but my body is different still. So despite the number, my body’s still different and I feel that I’m still getting my stomach muscles in working order, if that makes sense. For a while it’s like I couldn’t even like the motion of trying to suck in your stomach.
Like I didn’t, I felt like I had no control of that still. And I’m just actually as we were recording this, I’m just starting to be able to like, feel my stomach again, like the muscles. ’cause it’s still like soft down there.
Jamie: sure.
Marla: Again, having never gone through this, I have no idea what’s normal and what’s not.
So that’s where I’m at right now. So I’m not like a hundred percent back, and I don’t know if I ever will be, I don’t know. But it still was just amazing that what the body had, the transformation from what the female body goes through. It’s just absolutely incredible.
Jamie: It really is. One thing I forgot to ask you were, you seemed a little fearful about your age before you started your IVF journey during pregnancy. Did you have any of those fears also?
Marla: Not outright, not fearful, but I think about it. And now that Sloan is here I do get emotional because I think about. I don’t like to be negative but the chances of me being able to see her turn to 50 aren’t great. And that breaks my heart. I think that far ahead, which is catastrophic thinking. I know. But at the same time I love this little thing so much. That whole thing about, you’re told that you’re gonna feel something that, a mother’s love or a parent’s love is something that you can’t describe. And my goodness, woo, you can’t describe it.
Jamie: Yeah. You really can’t.
Marla: So I know that in real time now, what that feels and to think that me having her at an older age means fewer years with her and seeing her journey, makes me sad. But that just means that I don’t like to take anything for granted and I’ll do, value the time that I have with her to the best of my ability.
And I have, we have I’m close to my nephew who is now 22 years old, and, I had a serious talk with him that, you’re gonna be her advocate. You’re 22 years older than she is, so you’re gonna get to see your, we call him he’s really a cousin, but we call him Sloane’s uncle. You’re gonna be, you’re gonna be around more than any of us. So I want you to have a really great relationship with her. That means a lot. That means a lot to him.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Someone mentioned to me that we don’t know how much time any of us has. And you could be 20 years old and die in a car accident, so it’s
Marla: you’re right.
Jamie: it doesn’t matter. And but those fearful thoughts are just, they’re strong.
Marla: Yeah. They really are strong. But that’s you’re abs. Hundred percent right? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how well you’re, so just give love, love why you can.
Jamie: Yeah. And it seems like your relationship with your doctor, I bet really helped you not have those fears too.
Marla: Yes. And just as she told me that if it came to the the c-section moment where you have to make that decision, she called it that I would become emotional. She checked on me. She told me, you’re gonna have these, this identity crisis after. And sure enough, and she checked on me.
She called Bailey and she said to me, I need you to, because I was really in a dark place. And she said, I need you to get outside of your house. Go for a 10 minute walk. And again, you’re still recovering from the C-section. And so that was a 10 minute walk was a lot for me. That was about the max that I could do at the time, really.
But she said, you leave the baby at home, you leave your husband at home, you leave everybody at home. And you go and you get 10 minutes on your own outside. You need to do that every single day. And that really did help me. And I would literally be gone. Sometimes I’d push it to 15 minutes, but I would listen to, I love music and I would listen to songs that just I could relate to and I would cry. I would just cry and just let that out. And I’m emotional now thinking about it because I’m on the other side of it. And th thank goodness there is the other side of it, because it did feel so, so tough at the time. And I felt so lost and unsure and my goodness, what have I done?
And and again, that’s not against Sloan but it was such a turning point for me on, oh my gosh, I’m a mom now. I have to take care of this child and I don’t actually know how to, and oh, I can’t just go to dinner right now. I can’t go for a run right now. As selfish as that sounds, we can’t just make a decision to go here tomorrow, it was just, and things like, duh. But until that transition happens, you can’t fathom it.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Marla: Getting back to the importance of my doctor, she kept calling and checking on me and telling me, okay, now once a week you need to make a, an appointment. Not an appointment, schedule a lunch date, even if you go by yourself, go out there and go to the cafe down the street and get a coffee or have lunch with a girlfriend, or, whatever that was.
And that did that. That helps. And I’ve connected to one of the best gifts that I’ve gotten postpartum was one of the women in the birthing class that we took. My husband and I both took the class day that I was walking the halls that Sloan was born. I’m in the hospital walking the halls and they told me that I needed to get out and do it.
So I was, and in my gown and slippers and all of a sudden I heard my name called and it was one of the women from my birthing class. And she had her daughter significantly early, maybe three weeks early, earlier than she had thought. And they were born on the same day, eight hours apart.
Jamie: Oh, wow.
Marla: and she had an unexpected C-section as well. And so Jessica and I now have daughters born on, and she had a girl. Daughter’s born on the same day. Sloan is eight hours older and we’ve maintained, we’ve developed a friendship in this, sure we met in class, but we didn’t necessarily keep in touch after.
And then since then we’ve all gotten together. We’ve gotten together for brunch and we had a lunch date and a picnic. And and our girls are growing up together and we’ve become really great friends. And so to have Jessica part of the journey too, and she’s 15 years younger, she’s in her mid thirties. It’s been so wonderful and healthy for me and I think for Sloan and and that’s meant a lot to me as well.
Jamie: Yeah. Having that woman who is doing the same thing that you are every day, irreplaceable. Yeah.
Marla: my gosh. Yeah, the text like, what have you experienced? This? Is this normal? What have you tried? You’ve tried this. Okay. Yeah. That’s, it’s invaluable
Jamie: Yeah. Amazing. What about, how’s your breastfeeding experience been?
Marla: at first, like anything else, when I say that I really didn’t know what I was doing. And let me just be clear when I say that I didn’t grow up around babies and I don’t think I actually changed a diaper prior to Sloan. I really was starting from scratch. So yes, we took the the breastfeeding class where you had the dolls and you figure it out.
You mimic it, but again, until it’s a real thing, you don’t really know. So she took to me really well and I had milk production so blessed in that regard. And so it’s been. I would say that my breastfeeding journey has been a really good one and I feel I feel really good about it and I don’t know, I went back to work after weeks, so now, gosh, I’ve, wait, no.
How long did I, was I out 16 weeks? I think I was out 16 weeks. Sorry, I’m getting my weeks wrong or confused in any case. I wasn’t sure once I went back to work how my breastfeeding schedule would be impacted. I knew it would be, but I wasn’t sure how long to be able to maintain it. And like anything else, you get into a routine.
So I had to find my new routine and I’m still able to do that. Obviously I have to pump and all of that. And that’s been great. I think as good as it can be working full time. And so I’m still breastfeeding Sloan and now she’s onto some solids, which has been really fun in the last month. And I’m still keeping up, the breastfeeding as well.
Jamie: That’s amazing. What are your goals with that? Like when do you plan to wean or anything?
Marla: My goal was originally just six months. And so now I’ve done that, and now I’m onto, it’ll be seven months this week. I don’t know.
Jamie: Okay.
Marla: I don’t know, my new goal I love the connection that I feel with her on that element and so that’s scary for me to think that, to stop that. I’m not sure. I gotta figure that out.
Jamie: Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else you wanna mention about postpartum or birth or pregnancy?
Marla: I think for people who wa who are watching and who are pregnant right now especially, I just wanna hit up. Emphasize this idea that, you’re not alone and the feelings that you feel there, it’s your journey. And, definitely don’t do it alone and to reach out to somebody because people wanna help.
And I think it’s important to lean on other people who have experienced it and don’t be afraid, and don’t be ashamed of your feelings and don’t feel guilty. And, we’ve all felt it in some form. And and get ready for the best love you’ve ever felt.
Jamie: So true.
And you have one embryo left. What are your plans for that little girl?
Marla: Yes. So my husband and I were just talking about that. And when I say that, literally he brought it up yesterday, we went to brunch and he brought it up and. We had already talked to our fertility doctor about it. How soon could we do this? So the answer is early next year of 2026, so when this recording will air, this would be the time.
So we think we are going to do the transfer and leave it in God’s hands and see where that takes us. We thought about, we wanna do it sooner than later. Given given my age and all of that, our age and so yes, we will, we are going to try, we’ve made the decision that we will try and see if we can give Sloane a baby sister.
Jamie: Oh, how wonderful. Now don’t be intimidated because I’ve interviewed, we probably have about maybe five women who are in their fifties that have had healthy babies. So we, I even interviewed she was 57 and she is like a workout queen. She had absolutely no problems.
Marla: Oh, that’s amazing. Oh that’s incredible. Thank you for the inspiration. Yeah, so there’s no rush. And the other thing though, about that too is I’ll add this into the fold in the conversation is and again, I know this is case by case, so I don’t think this is the case for everybody, but I haven’t had a mammogram in it’ll be two years this January. My. Doctor recommended that I, I don’t, while I was breastfeeding that it can get mixed results and all of that.
So she was really saying, just get through six months of breastfeeding and then wait three months and then get your mammogram like she wants. I’m high risk breast cancer, so I’ve been getting my mammos since my mid thirties. So that might be an a reason why I stopped breastfeeding,
Jamie: Okay.
Marla: to make sure I am okay in that regard and not let it slide much longer. So that’s also my, I’m one of the factors I’m considering.
Jamie: That makes sense. And what has been your biggest challenge being pregnant over 40.
Marla: I don’t, look, I had a blessed pregnancy as, as far as I know. I think just the unknown maybe for me when, that may seem like a weak answer, but this whole idea that we’re high risk pregnancy ’cause we’re older that sort of would weigh on me, and am I putting, am I being selfish by carrying on my runs, for instance?
For while I’m pregnant. Some people would probably say, yes, but, hey, if I’m clear by the doctor and all my tests are great, and my baby’s growing healthy and all that then I’m gonna continue to do that. I would just say, I think just being categorized as more high risk because you’re older.
Jamie: Okay. Is there anything you’d recommend that would help prepare someone for pregnancy and birth over 40?
Marla: Just, Hey, if you’re going for it over 40, then you’re a strong yes woman. I love it. So just carry that with you. I don’t, that’s all I recommend is don’t give up. Don’t give up and just, feel proud and excited.
Jamie: That’s perfect. What advice would you give yourself when you were pregnant, if you could go back? I.
Marla: The advice I would give myself is just know it’s gonna be okay. Know that everything is happening for a reason, as cliche as that might sound. Know that you’ll, you’re gonna figure it out just like you figured everything else out. Know that it’s okay to not know the answer. Less comparison and just know that everything’s gonna be okay.
Jamie: that’s perfect. We have a lot of listeners who are trying to conceive, what do you say to those ladies Over 40?
Marla: I would I’m a firm believer in, living as healthy of a lifestyle as you can. If you’re trying to conceive and just visualize everything, just visualize you being pregnant, visualize everything happening for you in the way that you want it to work out. I do think that having a healthy mentality about it is key. And then, taking care of your body, I think does matter. For me it did. You could say it did or it didn’t because I had a hard labor, but I have a healthy baby. So I think that says a lot.
Jamie: And where can our listeners connect with you?
Marla: You can find me on Instagram where you and I connected. I’m at Marla and my last name is pronounced Teez. It’s T-E-L-L-E-Z. I’m there. Definitely most active on Instagram would be, I would say the number one place.
Jamie: Awesome. Marla, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.
Marla: Jamie, thank you so much. You’re a wealth of knowledge in this space it’s been an honor.