When country music artist and broadcaster Chuck Wicks and his wife Kasi learned they were infertile, their difficult pregnancy journey quickly became a family affair.

“It was the best thing about this whole process,” Chuck shared with PEOPLE. “A lot of people have to do this on their own and don’t have a support system, so we’re very lucky.”

And out of all the members of their extended family, no one supports Kasi more than his beloved brother, Jason Aldean, and his wife, Brittany.

“Their attitudes were very positive,” said Kasi, Jason Aldean’s older sister. “They also help us stay positive.”

Of course, the Aldean family’s optimism comes from their successful experience dealing with infertility. Jason and Brittany have been open about the fact that both of their children – daughter Navy Rome and son Memphis – were conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In Aldean’s case, the cause of Brittany’s infertility was endometriosis, an abnormal tissue growth inside the uterus that can inhibit conception. For Chuck and Kasi, the problem was male infertility. Chuck’s sperm count never exceeded 15 whereas typically a single ejaculation contains 100 million sperm. The couple began pursuing the only possible treatment: taking Chuck’s few sperm for in vitro fertilization.

The Aldean family’s initial help came in the form of medical recommendations — “We had the same doctor and nurse,” Kasi said — and then their encouragement continued throughout the process.

Perhaps the most important moment came when Kasi’s eggs were retrieved. The few sperm that Chuck had produced as specimens had been frozen, and on this date, he produced a new specimen, which was considered more reliable. But his small amount of sperm was lifeless and considered unusable.

The couple later discovered that none of Chuck’s frozen sperm had survived the thawing process — a not uncommon outcome, according to Dr. Peter Schlegel, a New York urologist and expert on of fertility is recognized nationwide.

In a last ditch effort, the couple’s medical team injected a stimulant into the new specimen, and the two sperm came back to life. Each sperm was then injected directly into two eggs, and the next day, the couple learned one of the eggs had been successfully fertilized. Their joy was tempered, however, with the stress of waiting days to see if this single embryo would develop.

Kasi said: “Even when we thought ‘There’s only one, we don’t know if it will survive’, my brother still thought ‘Oh, it will survive’. He never Now doubt that for even a second.”

Kasi’s side of the family is very familiar with the IVF process, not only because of the Aldean family’s experience but also because one of Kasi’s three daughters from her first marriage — Avery, now 9 — was conceived. pregnancy through IVF, which was necessary because her husband had had a vasectomy. However, Chuck’s family knew little about IVF and had to be educated quickly.

“It was funny because we told them what was happening,” Kasi recalls, “and I don’t even think they knew what to ask.”

And yes, the couple says, they’ve probably had more conversations about sperm than ever before.

“One hundred percent,” Kasi told PEOPLE with a laugh. “Our family knows so many details about us!”

The mother-to-be, who now works as a pharmaceutical salesperson, said she also helped her daughter Avery understand the in vitro fertilization process.

“We actually had conversations that I didn’t realize we’d start so soon, about where kids come from and how they work,” Kasi recalls. “And it was also interesting because she started to realize that [IVF] was how she got here too, so we had that conversation. It was a really big moment for our family.” I”.