Bert Show’s Kristin Klingshirn pregnant via IVF

Bart Mattingly (right) with Kristin Klingshirn in 2013. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Bart Mattingly (right) with Kristin Klingshirn in 2013. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Kristin Klingshirn, a longtime member of the Bert Show heard on Q99.7, announced on the show Tuesday that she is pregnant after more than three years of effort.

Klingshirn, who is 41, has been upfront with the listeners over the years about her desire to have a child and the struggles she has gone through to get there.

She and her husband Bart Mattingly, who got married in 2017, immediately tried to get pregnant on their own but over a span of a year didn’t have any luck. On air, she said her father was also dying of cancer at the same time, adding to the stress.

So they went toan infertility specialist, who told them that they only had a three percent chance of conceiving on their own. They chose in vitro fertilization but waited while Klingshirn dealt with her father’s death in 2018.

The first round of IVF did not work earlier this year. “So Bart and I picked each other up, dusted each other off and decided to go for round two,” Klingshirn said. “That leads us to today. After three and a half years of trying, of hoping, I finally get to say I’m pregnant!”

Her morning show mates, who had not been told in advance, cheered and congratulated her.

“I am sitting here bracing for the worst,” said host Bert Weiss. “It’s been such an emotional roller coaster for you guys. I thought you were going to tell us you were giving it up and trying something else. Oh my god!”

Klingshirn, who joined the Bert Show in 2011, wore a T-shirt that said “Coming soon” with baby feet.

She described how the second IVF round went. She had two viable embryos out of six eggs, which is considered low. In fact, she said she was considered a “low responder” to the meds they were giving her, not a good sign.

Her doctor over the July 4 weekend gave them the option to place the embryo in fresh versus frozen, with chances of her getting pregnant better if she chose fresh. So they did. And it worked.

But early on, when she saw the baby for the first time on the ultrasound, her expectations remained tempered by past disappointments, noting that the fetus at first looked like a gummy bear.

“I was being so protective of my heart,” Klingshirn said. “The highs have been so high. The lows have been so low. I just wanted to maintain the middle as much as possible.”

Now 15 weeks into the pregnancy, she felt comfortable enough to make the news public.

“The baby is healthy and growing accordingly,” Klingshirn said, before yelling exuberantly, “And I’m pregnant!”