Paralympian MALLORY WEGGEMANN 'Our Little Miracle'

AFTER A LONG IVF JOURNEY, PARALYMPIC SWIMMER AND GOLD MEDALIST MALLORY WEGGEMANN AND HER HUSBAND, JAY SNYDER, WELCOME THEIR FIRST BABY, CHARLOTTE ANN SNYDER: "SHE FOUGHT HARD TO JOIN US IN THIS WORLD"

- STEPHANIE EMMA PFEFFER

Paralympic swimmer Mallory Weggemann locked eyes with her husband, Jay Snyder, in the operating room as he sang their favorite song, Beautiful Day by Josh Radin. They'd arrived at the hospital two days earlier to induce labor, and now, on March 16-following a failed epidural, a spinal tap and an emergency C-section-their dream of having a baby was finally about to come true. At 3:31 a.m., Charlotte Ann Snyder came into the world, and minutes later the nurse placed the 7-lb.

newborn into her mother's arms. "We felt our heart expand beyond what we ever thought imaginable," says Weggemann, 34. "It was magical." Indeed it was the happiest of endings following an 18-month IVF journey that took the couple through 707 injections, two ovarian stimulation cycles, two egg retrievals, two months of supplemental hormone treatment for suspected endometriosis and two embryo transfers. Now, with everyone home and healthy, Weggemann and Snyder, 40, are sharing their baby joy to support and inspire other families going through IVF and erase the stigma around mothers with disabilities. "Young women in wheelchairs need to know that motherhood is possible," says Weggemann, a three-time Paralympic gold medal winner who became paralyzed from the waist down at age 18 after an epidural injection went wrong. "When I look at our sweet little miracle, who fought so hard to join us in this world, I see every ounce of love Jay and I put into protecting our dream and our fight to grow our family."