Time to give you some background about me and my pregancy journey. I think understanding the background will help understand why I am the way I am!
So, I've been with my husband for nearly 9 nears. We got married 4 years ago and I came off birth control soon after (Been on it since I was 14 due to severe period pains). I told husband if he didnt want kids then it was his turn to take responsibility! So in a way we were Not Trying Not Preventing (NTNP) for a year. Then we decided to properly try. After a few months of nothing, I started to read up about things like ovulation, timing etc. I had also visited the doctor to get booster injections etc. and he said to come back in 4 months if nothing happened. SO I did and he gave me a referral to a fertility specialist, but husband and I decided to give it a bit longer before we went down that path. I eventually made the appointment but lack of available appointments meant it was going to be 3 months wait. No worries that gave us another 3 months to keep trying.
Bingo! I got a positive test after thinking I already had my period which was very light. So off the my GP who said not to worry about the light bleed and all was god. Cancelled my Fertility appointment and started to get excited about being preg for the first time! But sadly a week after I got the positive test, I started to get severe cramps, pains and bleeding. Assuming it was a miscarriage, I went home and husband and I decided that as it was late I would wait till the morning to see the doctor. But the pains got worse. I rang the health phone number and spoke to a doctor who said get to emergency immediatly. Husband threw me in the car and went at breakneck speed to the emergency department which luckily was only about 15 minutes away. (think we did it in about 5 though!)
They took me straight through and after a while I was diagnosied with an ectopic pregnancy on my left fallopian tube which was close to rupture and needed to be taken out immediatly. I was stablised and surgery was planned for the next morning.
The hospital were trying to locate me a bed till the surgery so I could get some sleep and some bright spark thought the best place for a woman losing her pregnancy was to be placed in the maternity ward with 6 new born babies! Not hard to imagine that that bright spark was a man! But the angels that were the nurses refused to let me leave saying I was in too much pain and just had extra morphine so couldn't be moved! I owe those ladies so much! I was eventaully allowed to remain in emergency until I was taken for surgery (thankfully emergency was quiet that night).
During the surgery, it was discovered that I had endometriosis (explains the severe period pains from the age of 10-14 years until I was put on the pill) and that the scarring had twisted the tube so much that the fertilised egg couldnt descend into the uterus and just attached where it was.
So, back to the drawing board! Back to months of nothing. Back to the appointment with the fetility specialist! I went into that appointment with all sorts of things that I wanted done in my head. Came out with a totally different plan! Which was fine with me as my specialist took the time to explain why she wasnt going to do anything that I was thinking of and all made sense. She is the expert after all!
So, after establishing there didnt seem to be anything wrong with my hormones (or husbands bits!) but a possible issue with my ovariuan reserves, we tried...
- timed intercourse: nothing
- 2 IUIs: nothing
Went on to IVF. Very sucessfull egg pick up, too successful in a way as I went into hormone overload and suffered from Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome after the egg pick up. Because the clinic suspected it, my fresh transfer was cancelled. I was angry at first as I felt fine but so glad they did as by day 5 when the transfer would have been, I was soo sick! But all 8 fertilised eggs were frozen.
So, onto Frozen Egg Transfers (FET). Had my first one ad got a positive blood result! so happy! but the hcg was quite low and sadly the second blood test showed it didnt increase and it was classed as an early loss.
Thankfully my doctor allowed me to do back to back transfers so I was back in the clinic a few weeks later for my second transfer and...
BINGO!!! Here I am 10 weeks pregnant!
But its still not an easy ride. I stress so much that its all going to leave me again. I try and concentrate on the positives, the symptoms and just not to stress too much but its not easy!
Thankfully I have a very supportive husband, family in the UK and in-law family here in Australia.
This baby may have been a long time in the making and expensive, but it just goes to show how very much wanted it is and there are lots of people very excited for its arrival in July!
I know that compared to some people, I have had it tough, but I also know that compared to others its been a breeze!
So to those struggling to get pregnant either naturally or with assisted reproductive technologies, dont give up hope! Its hard, its tough, its emotional, its heartbreaking. You will want to kill many people and poke eyes out with blunt implements, but its worth it when you get there.
Now that I am there, there are all sorts of other worries!! Eating the right thing, not allwoing myself to get too sick. Then not eating too much and allowing myself to get too fat! So that is where the 12WBT comes in. I am hoping that by kick off, 1st trimester exhaustion and nausea are behind me and I can use the meal plans and exercise plans to help me stay on track for a healthy pregnancy, healthy birth, healthy baby and not too much work later to get rid of excess baby weight!
So, as I said before
BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!
