what a wonderful story..wishing you a BFP soon :)
3 1/2 years of trying = a beautiful daughter.
October 22, 2008
I've told this story several times in the chatroom and want to finally document it as part of my journey. It’s quite the book…
2001: I met my now DH in May. We decided we would not make love till married since we'd both been in sexual relationships that ended sadly.
2002: So, we waited till our wedding night in May. Since we were older (me 29, him 40 at the time), we decided to not use any protection right from the get-go. That summer, I was (incorrectly) diagnosed with PCOS by the nurse practicianer, Rx for Provera to jumpstart a period and put on Metformin. No response, so I stopped it. In December, I started to notice that my periods were getting further and further apart and pregnancy tests returned negative. At the time, I chalked it up to stress, since my father was terminally ill and passed away in December.
2003: I had about 4 periods all year. At the time, we weren't aggressively trying, so I didn't pursue a diagnosis at that time. I was also embarking on a new career, so I wasn't pushing the issue either. But still, no protection.
2004: Similar to 2003
2005: Spring conversation led us to be more aggressive. We HAD to figure out what was going on and why I wasn't having periods reliably. I was never regular, but certainly not to the tune of 3-4 periods/year. I'd mentioned to my doc that I had had breast discharge for the last few years, but it hadn't come up in previous yearly appointments. She immediately tested me for Prolactin levels, and of course, they were high... not immensely, but she did refer me to endocrinology. Meanwhile, hubby’s semen analysis showed low motility and morphology. But after 4 new s/a’s and visits to urology, they released him, saying that the results did not indicate further observation or treatment. Um, huh?
July 2005: Endo was PISSED that I wasn't referred several years ago when PCOS was suspected. She said, though I had SOME symptoms of PCOS, the hormonal component wasn't there; therefore I did NOT have PCOS. What I had was prolactinemia (high prolactin). So, my body THOUGHT I was breastfeeding and was suppressing my periods. An MRI showed that I did not have a visible (benign) tumor on my pituitary. With the right drug (bromocriptine), even in a very small dose, I had return of my period. And, by October, I had had 3 periods that were 37 days apart. FINALLY, a predictable cycle (first time EVER).
October 2005: Hubby and I were beginning to doubt that God willed for us to conceive, so we signed up for a November adoption seminar. Meanwhile, I downloaded an ovulation tracker, to start tracking so we could start aggressively trying in the spring of 2006.
December 2005: Ovulation predictor software said Friday the 10th was my O day. It was guessing, since I didn't yet know what my luteal phase was. But on Tuesday the 6th, I felt what I thought was fertile cervical mucus. I told hubby, "I think it's tonight". So, we BD that night.
December 15: "Honey, I don't think we made a baby. My boobs are sore". This was a common PMS symptom for me.
December 23 2005: I was thinking, "hmmmm, my face is rather clear and my period was due today". I googled "early pregnancy symptoms". At the top of every list I found was "sore/tender breasts". Ummm. Ok? I had a HPT in the cabinet and decided to test next time I peed.
It was one of those +/- tests. I remember vividly that the - part of the | was vivid, but the - part was faint. I laid the test on the counter and when DH came in, I asked him to look at it. He said, "Missa, are you pregnant?" I said I was confused by the result so I pulled the instructions from the garbage and began to look for examples. Lo and behold, there was a pic of OUR result.
POSITIVE. Oh, how joyous we were. I told him it was the best Christmas gift EVER! We immediately went to Barnes & Noble to buy "What to Expect When Expecting" and "Your Pregnancy Week By Week". On the way home, we went to Walgreens to get a digital HPT. It said PREGNANT! YAY.
Pregnancy: Week 1-16. Nausea, no vomiting. My breasts went from DD cups to GG/H and my bras were poking me to the point of tears. I had NOWHERE to buy bras! I finally called Nordstrom and found out that they carried these larger cupped bras. This was the worst part of the first 1/2 of my pregnancy.
Weeks 18-23: Started showing around week 18 and gaining weight at the same time. Up till then, no weight gain. We found out we were having a girl. I was in denial since I really wanted a boy. We took a Baby Moon.... 10 day cruise on Mexican Riviera in April. HOT AS HELL. Not very comfortable! We packed up and moved... bought our 3rd home. I threw up 3 times in that time period.... presumably from stress!
Week 24-26. Failed Glucose Tests. I had gestational diabetes... I expected it since I was already overweight at the time of conception.
Week 26-32. Felt pretty good. Gestational diabetes was not bad.... just an inconvenience.
Week 33. OB appointment was fine except protein in urine and slightly elevated BP. That night, at Breastfeeding class, I was feeling nauseated and generally in a funk. I was VERY uncomfortable that night and didn't sleep. The next morning (a Thursday), the nurse called and said my labs + blood pressure indicated the start of pre-eclampsia. I told her about my nausea and abdominal pain. She insisted I come in that day.
Something told me to grab my pillow, so I did. At 33w, I hadn’t even packed my bag! DH drove me to the doc. By the time I got there, my pain was SOOOOO bad that I was admitted immediately for hospital bedrest. The triage nurse (a real biatch) told me I wasn’t going to be leaving the hospital til my daughter was delivered. This is NO WAY to get a pregnant lady’s blood pressure to come down! I was immediately given the first of 2 shots of beta-methazone…a steroid to mature baby’s lungs. Based on my labs and symptoms, I was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, an advanced form of pre-eclampsia that involves kidney and liver malfunction and a 25% mortality rate for the mother! While in the hospital, the swelling from my liver (causing the gut pain and nausea) did go down, but my kidneys were shutting down (evidenced by not producing enough urine compared to my water intake). Later on Saturday, my labwork was leveling out and the doc on-call from my OB’s practice said he’d consider releasing me to home bedrest on Sunday.
Overnight Saturday, the pain in my gut returned and I didn’t sleep, despite having taken the Ambien pill they gave me. I said I needed the doc, but the nurses wouldn’t call him (wake him up) until my labs were done and returned and that wasn’t due till 6am. At 4:30am, I demanded they pull my labs. At 5am, the doc came in and said that it was apparent that my daughter was going to need to be delivered THAT day. I was 33w 4d. Doc said because of my pain and not yet having dialated at all, I would not have time or strength to attempt a vaginal delivery from induction. So, he called for a c-section at 5am
I called my husband at home (I had him sleep at home, since there was no point in him watching me sleep at the hospital), told him he couldn’t go to church cuz we were gonna have a baby. The c-section was pretty easy and Mikayla Faith was born at 6:49am weight 4 lbs 14oz. She was small, but her lungs were mature and she was breathing on her own.
I was in the hospital another 5 days as my BP was still elevated and they wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to have seizures for the high BP. It took 3 weeks for my BP to drop and for the remainder of the swelling from water retention to go away.
“Mia” was in the NICU for another 7 days after I was discharged, for a total of 12 days. She was healthy…no breathing or heart issues and all her scans were clear. She just had to learn to eat since the suck-swallow reflex doesn’t usually come in till 35w or so.
While in the NICU, we suspended attempts to exclusively breastfeed since she was just too small to have the strength to feed from my large breasts. Once we introduced bottled breastmilk to her, she was discharged just 3 days later.
I continued to pump for 7 ½ months till I had enough breastmilk stored for her thru 12 months…. And it actually ended up being 14 1/2 months worth! Though a small preemie, she’s been perfectly healthy… just a few colds and ear infections, like every other kid! She didn’t make the percentile charts when she was born, but she caught up in weight percentiles by her 2 month appointment! She's now 27 months and is on track with all her developmental milestones!
I’d stopped pumping at 7 ½ months (March 2007) so we could attempt to conceive #2. After having BF for that time, the prolactin suppressant I was on before pregnancy, Bromocriptine, was no longer working for me and was switched to Cabergoline. It took until October 2007 for my period to return. I went nearly 2 years without a period. So, we’ve been trying to conceive since October 2007.
2008: In May/June, we went to my OB/GYN to begin infertility testing. We quickly found out hubby had low motility (40%) due to high white blood cells in his semen. We were referred to urology for DH and were told we were good candidates for Clomid+IUI. We did our first insemination in July, then August, then September. On 50mg Clomid, I produced one good follicle each of those months. 2 visits to urology and 2 Rx of different antibiotics and the s/a was coming back worse than we started.
October 2008: We saw the RE and he said we needed to focus on getting DH’s sample normal, so we’re re-running the s/a with a different lab to determine exactly what’s going on and determine if he should see a urologist who focuses on infertility. The RE said he’ll be putting me on 100mg Clomid + Follistim + Ovidrel + Progesterone suppositories once we start treatment with him. He wants me producing 2-4 eggs per month. So, in one last attempt with our OB, we asked for 100mg Clomid, since he won’t Rx any other fertility meds. My follie study today showed that I have 3 follies at 13, 13 and 15mm. So, my IUI this month will be Sunday or Monday.
Sorry this was such a book. I’ve never been short on words!
2001: I met my now DH in May. We decided we would not make love till married since we'd both been in sexual relationships that ended sadly.
2002: So, we waited till our wedding night in May. Since we were older (me 29, him 40 at the time), we decided to not use any protection right from the get-go. That summer, I was (incorrectly) diagnosed with PCOS by the nurse practicianer, Rx for Provera to jumpstart a period and put on Metformin. No response, so I stopped it. In December, I started to notice that my periods were getting further and further apart and pregnancy tests returned negative. At the time, I chalked it up to stress, since my father was terminally ill and passed away in December.
2003: I had about 4 periods all year. At the time, we weren't aggressively trying, so I didn't pursue a diagnosis at that time. I was also embarking on a new career, so I wasn't pushing the issue either. But still, no protection.
2004: Similar to 2003
2005: Spring conversation led us to be more aggressive. We HAD to figure out what was going on and why I wasn't having periods reliably. I was never regular, but certainly not to the tune of 3-4 periods/year. I'd mentioned to my doc that I had had breast discharge for the last few years, but it hadn't come up in previous yearly appointments. She immediately tested me for Prolactin levels, and of course, they were high... not immensely, but she did refer me to endocrinology. Meanwhile, hubby’s semen analysis showed low motility and morphology. But after 4 new s/a’s and visits to urology, they released him, saying that the results did not indicate further observation or treatment. Um, huh?
July 2005: Endo was PISSED that I wasn't referred several years ago when PCOS was suspected. She said, though I had SOME symptoms of PCOS, the hormonal component wasn't there; therefore I did NOT have PCOS. What I had was prolactinemia (high prolactin). So, my body THOUGHT I was breastfeeding and was suppressing my periods. An MRI showed that I did not have a visible (benign) tumor on my pituitary. With the right drug (bromocriptine), even in a very small dose, I had return of my period. And, by October, I had had 3 periods that were 37 days apart. FINALLY, a predictable cycle (first time EVER).
October 2005: Hubby and I were beginning to doubt that God willed for us to conceive, so we signed up for a November adoption seminar. Meanwhile, I downloaded an ovulation tracker, to start tracking so we could start aggressively trying in the spring of 2006.
December 2005: Ovulation predictor software said Friday the 10th was my O day. It was guessing, since I didn't yet know what my luteal phase was. But on Tuesday the 6th, I felt what I thought was fertile cervical mucus. I told hubby, "I think it's tonight". So, we BD that night.
December 15: "Honey, I don't think we made a baby. My boobs are sore". This was a common PMS symptom for me.
December 23 2005: I was thinking, "hmmmm, my face is rather clear and my period was due today". I googled "early pregnancy symptoms". At the top of every list I found was "sore/tender breasts". Ummm. Ok? I had a HPT in the cabinet and decided to test next time I peed.
It was one of those +/- tests. I remember vividly that the - part of the | was vivid, but the - part was faint. I laid the test on the counter and when DH came in, I asked him to look at it. He said, "Missa, are you pregnant?" I said I was confused by the result so I pulled the instructions from the garbage and began to look for examples. Lo and behold, there was a pic of OUR result.
POSITIVE. Oh, how joyous we were. I told him it was the best Christmas gift EVER! We immediately went to Barnes & Noble to buy "What to Expect When Expecting" and "Your Pregnancy Week By Week". On the way home, we went to Walgreens to get a digital HPT. It said PREGNANT! YAY.
Pregnancy: Week 1-16. Nausea, no vomiting. My breasts went from DD cups to GG/H and my bras were poking me to the point of tears. I had NOWHERE to buy bras! I finally called Nordstrom and found out that they carried these larger cupped bras. This was the worst part of the first 1/2 of my pregnancy.
Weeks 18-23: Started showing around week 18 and gaining weight at the same time. Up till then, no weight gain. We found out we were having a girl. I was in denial since I really wanted a boy. We took a Baby Moon.... 10 day cruise on Mexican Riviera in April. HOT AS HELL. Not very comfortable! We packed up and moved... bought our 3rd home. I threw up 3 times in that time period.... presumably from stress!
Week 24-26. Failed Glucose Tests. I had gestational diabetes... I expected it since I was already overweight at the time of conception.
Week 26-32. Felt pretty good. Gestational diabetes was not bad.... just an inconvenience.
Week 33. OB appointment was fine except protein in urine and slightly elevated BP. That night, at Breastfeeding class, I was feeling nauseated and generally in a funk. I was VERY uncomfortable that night and didn't sleep. The next morning (a Thursday), the nurse called and said my labs + blood pressure indicated the start of pre-eclampsia. I told her about my nausea and abdominal pain. She insisted I come in that day.
Something told me to grab my pillow, so I did. At 33w, I hadn’t even packed my bag! DH drove me to the doc. By the time I got there, my pain was SOOOOO bad that I was admitted immediately for hospital bedrest. The triage nurse (a real biatch) told me I wasn’t going to be leaving the hospital til my daughter was delivered. This is NO WAY to get a pregnant lady’s blood pressure to come down! I was immediately given the first of 2 shots of beta-methazone…a steroid to mature baby’s lungs. Based on my labs and symptoms, I was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, an advanced form of pre-eclampsia that involves kidney and liver malfunction and a 25% mortality rate for the mother! While in the hospital, the swelling from my liver (causing the gut pain and nausea) did go down, but my kidneys were shutting down (evidenced by not producing enough urine compared to my water intake). Later on Saturday, my labwork was leveling out and the doc on-call from my OB’s practice said he’d consider releasing me to home bedrest on Sunday.
Overnight Saturday, the pain in my gut returned and I didn’t sleep, despite having taken the Ambien pill they gave me. I said I needed the doc, but the nurses wouldn’t call him (wake him up) until my labs were done and returned and that wasn’t due till 6am. At 4:30am, I demanded they pull my labs. At 5am, the doc came in and said that it was apparent that my daughter was going to need to be delivered THAT day. I was 33w 4d. Doc said because of my pain and not yet having dialated at all, I would not have time or strength to attempt a vaginal delivery from induction. So, he called for a c-section at 5am
I called my husband at home (I had him sleep at home, since there was no point in him watching me sleep at the hospital), told him he couldn’t go to church cuz we were gonna have a baby. The c-section was pretty easy and Mikayla Faith was born at 6:49am weight 4 lbs 14oz. She was small, but her lungs were mature and she was breathing on her own.
I was in the hospital another 5 days as my BP was still elevated and they wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to have seizures for the high BP. It took 3 weeks for my BP to drop and for the remainder of the swelling from water retention to go away.
“Mia” was in the NICU for another 7 days after I was discharged, for a total of 12 days. She was healthy…no breathing or heart issues and all her scans were clear. She just had to learn to eat since the suck-swallow reflex doesn’t usually come in till 35w or so.
While in the NICU, we suspended attempts to exclusively breastfeed since she was just too small to have the strength to feed from my large breasts. Once we introduced bottled breastmilk to her, she was discharged just 3 days later.
I continued to pump for 7 ½ months till I had enough breastmilk stored for her thru 12 months…. And it actually ended up being 14 1/2 months worth! Though a small preemie, she’s been perfectly healthy… just a few colds and ear infections, like every other kid! She didn’t make the percentile charts when she was born, but she caught up in weight percentiles by her 2 month appointment! She's now 27 months and is on track with all her developmental milestones!
I’d stopped pumping at 7 ½ months (March 2007) so we could attempt to conceive #2. After having BF for that time, the prolactin suppressant I was on before pregnancy, Bromocriptine, was no longer working for me and was switched to Cabergoline. It took until October 2007 for my period to return. I went nearly 2 years without a period. So, we’ve been trying to conceive since October 2007.
2008: In May/June, we went to my OB/GYN to begin infertility testing. We quickly found out hubby had low motility (40%) due to high white blood cells in his semen. We were referred to urology for DH and were told we were good candidates for Clomid+IUI. We did our first insemination in July, then August, then September. On 50mg Clomid, I produced one good follicle each of those months. 2 visits to urology and 2 Rx of different antibiotics and the s/a was coming back worse than we started.
October 2008: We saw the RE and he said we needed to focus on getting DH’s sample normal, so we’re re-running the s/a with a different lab to determine exactly what’s going on and determine if he should see a urologist who focuses on infertility. The RE said he’ll be putting me on 100mg Clomid + Follistim + Ovidrel + Progesterone suppositories once we start treatment with him. He wants me producing 2-4 eggs per month. So, in one last attempt with our OB, we asked for 100mg Clomid, since he won’t Rx any other fertility meds. My follie study today showed that I have 3 follies at 13, 13 and 15mm. So, my IUI this month will be Sunday or Monday.
Sorry this was such a book. I’ve never been short on words!
October 22, 2008
good luck!!