Fast Forward - 49 Days to GO!

It's hard to believe it has been ~7 months since I found out we were going to have a baby - and ~4 months since we found out we were having a baby girl :-)

The first 12 weeks/1st trimester seemed to pass by slowly but after that, everything has been moving at the speed of light.

I am so grateful that this has been a "boring" pregnancy; no complications, healthy vitals for me and the baby, and minimal symptoms. I guess we went through enough on the front end which now in hindsight doesn't seem so bad, but at the time felt like some of the biggest challenges I'd ever gone through.

The 3rd trimester is officially in full swing and since I am scheduled for a C-section no later than week 39, we have 49 days until we meet our sweet bundle of joy! 

We are currently accepting name suggestions ;-)

My Journey - Part VI

Sooooo...I've been MIA for awhile and I know I am way overdue for a post.

To pick up where I last left off here, I was finally able to regulate my progesterone levels and in about 3 months we found out we were PREGNANT! Praise God! Yes..surprisingly enough, it was a shock that it happened, when it happened. That month was a challenging month for conception. Between my husband traveling for work, us both getting sick with the flu (recovering with Tamiflu), traveling for the holidays, not to mention the typical holiday stress, I thought we up against too many odds. But that really confirmed to me that when God speaks and confirms something to your heart, no obstacle...no insurmountable odds.... nothing, can come against it. 

When I started questioning the whole fertility journey and became really discouraged back in October of last year, I cried and prayed about it and heard God say that we would conceive by the end of the year. So I remained hopeful, but of course wavered when the circumstances didn't seem to add up with His word. Sure enough at the very last possible moment, He revealed His perfect timing. At the end of December, after returning home for the holidays, I noticed some changes in my appetite and energy levels. I figured it was probably due to the fact that 2-3 weeks prior, I had recovered from the flu and my system was still off. But even after a day of recuperating from traveling I still didn't feel like celebrating New Year's Eve - which was out of the norm for me. So I took the plunge and pulled out a HPT (Home Pregnancy Test), even though I had become pretty skeptical about their accuracy. On the very last night of the year, we were ecstatic and humbled to celebrate the new life God had promised.

Psalm 113:9

He maketh the barren woman to keep house, And to be a joyful mother of children. 

Praise ye Jehovah.

My encouragement to others on this reproductive journey is to keep looking and watching for God's word, and not your circumstances or obstacles. If He has ordained it for you, it will come to pass at the perfected time.

My Journey - Part V

 

So my myomectomy was a success and three months later my doctor cleared us to start trying to conceive. I knew I had some irregularities that started after the myomectomy but I figured that was just my body re-adjusting. Well the symptoms didn't go away and we hadn't conceived 6 months later so I went back in and found out that I had a cervical polyp...which I've had in the past. I figured since the doctor was able to remove it with no issue, I didn't have anything to worry about. My symptoms stopped after that, only to return a month or so later. I thought maybe it was a hormonal imbalance issue and started looking at a couple of different natural remedies. I found out Maca was suppose to work to balance your whole endocrine system as well as your hormones, and since it was a naturally occurring, root vegetable in powder form, I figured it was worth a try. When I started using a teaspoon of the powder in my veggie/fruit smoothies or yogurt in the morning, I noticed my energy levels increased right away, and my complexion even started to clear up. Additionally, my cycle which was coming every 25/26 days, came on day 28 the next month. But, I read that you are not suppose to take Maca more than 6 weeks at a time, so I took a break only to have my symptoms and irregularities return.

Well I finally decided it was time to make another visit to the doctor. Deep down I knew there was probably more to the story than just that one cervical polyp he saw. He suspected that I had uterine polyps so he scheduled a HSG. During an HSG, the doctor inserts a saline solution into your uterus and simultaneously uses the transvaginal ultrasound to see the inside. This will reveal any structural abnormalities that's aren't visible with a regular ultrasound. Well sure enough, there was a nice, round polyp hanging out in there...so my next course of action was a D&C. I was especially anxious to get this done because I had read that polyps can indeed prevent pregnancy and he also confirmed they can cause miscarriages. I scheduled the outpatient procedure that same week. It was a very simple procedure (they are literally just scraping the polyps/lining of the uterus off) and took about 10 minutes total. I woke up with minimal discomfort and was on my way home. I didn't have any major side affects and my next cycle was much lighter.

I was still determined to make sure my hormones were balanced so I finally decided to consult with my naturopathic doctor again. She mentioned that she knew a lot of women who were deficient in progesterone and who had similar symptoms. So I started using a natural progesterone cream. The dosage took some tweaking initially - you are suppose to gradually increase the dosage after day 7 and day 14 of your cycle. However, I soon realized that my dosage was too high because I had an abnormally heavy cycle the first month, and then the next month I am pretty sure I had an annovulatory cycle (no ovulation), which too much progesterone is known to cause (i.e. birth control pills). So after about two cycles I was relieved to have my cycles return to normal and I was also confident that the correct dosage would help minimize any further fibroid growth.