the story

First of all, thank you so much for sharing in mine and Keith’s joy over the pregnancy. I am beyond excited (still slightly nervous) but just trying to enjoy the moments! I have been quite open about our journey so I will gladly share our story with you as well.

After our second miscarriage last April, the doctor told me that I once again needed to have two normal periods before we could start trying again. I had my first one in June and my second cycle in July. Like clockwork…32 days apart. Those were the last 2 periods I ever had. In August I just stopped having them. Just *poof* stopped. I  took a pregnancy test (negative), panicked (obviously), and waited. By September I still hadn’t started so I called my doctor. I went in and did a slew of blood work and all my hormone levels were totally normal. My doctor chalked it up to stress of the new school year starting and told me wait it out another month. I did. By October still nothing so my doctor put me on a round of Clomid. This is a commonly used fertility drug to induce ovulation in women. If you do not get pregnant then you should have a period. Since I was just trying to have a period, my doctor told me NOT to have sex on certain days and once I ovulated and didn’t get pregnant I would have a cycle within 2 weeks of finishing the medication. Then hopefully my body would recognize what it was supposed to be doing and start having regular cycles again. I took the Clomid, didn’t have sex, and didn’t have a period. It did nothing for me. My doctor was stumped. He told me that I was out of his expertise and I really needed to see a specialist especially given my history of recurrent miscarriages. He referred us to the Texas Fertility Center (TFC).

We called TFC and could not get an appointment until the end of January. In the meantime, Keith went in to see his doctor for his annual check up. He mentioned my problems to his doctor and he asked us if we had ever thought of doing acupuncture. It apparently had a 80% success rate with fertility challenged women. Keith came home asked me if I would be open to trying it. I would have tried ANYTHING! So we found an acupuncturist who helps with fertility and made an appointment. I started going once a week. After two treatments (i.e. 2 weeks) I had a period. My first one in over 6 months. I was a believer. I kept on seeing her once a week for months and I started having regular-ish cycles (meaning they were coming 42 days apart). I also started drinking Chinese herbs formulated for fertility.

In the meantime, I saw Dr. Kaylen Silverberg (AMAZING DOCTOR) at TFC and before he could recommend any course of action he wanted to do full testing on me. We did chromosomal testing on both me and Keith, I was also tested for certain genetic markers, and I was also tested for every autoimmune disease under the sun. Everything came back 100% clear! Dr. Silverberg also did a cervix culture and found I had an infection in my cervix called Ureaplasma. He said it was a common infection (actually it’s an STD) that is harmless in women unless they want to have a baby. Ureaplasma left untreated can cause miscarriages and fertility problems. He said there is no way to know how long I’ve had it…it could have been years. Considering Keith and I have only been sleeping with each other  for 10 years now who knows how long this little infection was sitting there. Keith and I were both treated with antibiotics and when retested it was gone. The last step was to take a dye test. This is where a dye is inserted into the cervix and through an ultrasound the doctor watches where the dye goes. It checks for structural integrity of the uterus and makes sure the fallopian tubes are open. The stinker is you have to have a period, finish the period and have the test done before day 10 of your cycle. Well…seeing as I still wasn’t quite regular this test was holding things up. I was on day 40 and my doctor said if I didn’t have a period by the 42nd day he was going to put me on hormone inducing drugs to force a period.

The next day, I went to Chanelle (my acupuncturist) almost in tears begging her to do whatever she needed to do to make me start. We did an intense treatment that day and the next day…BOOM…I started. Thrilled I called and set up the appointment for the dye test. When I made the appointment the nurse cautioned me that I could NOT be pregnant when I took the test because the dye would be life threatening to the baby. I assured her I wasn’t, made the appointment for that following Monday morning, and didn’t think a thing about it again.

Monday morning I woke up and I felt off. I can’t explain it. I was out of breath, my boobs were really sore. I just felt awful. I did a crossfit workout that shouldn’t have been as hard as it was. I was just struggling. All the sudden I thought….am I pregnant? No way. No freaking way. I just finished a period on Friday there was no way. Was there? I couldn’t shake the nurse telling me that I couldn’t be pregnant when I took the dye test. To ease my fears I took a test fully expecting a negative result. I peed on the stick, and went about my morning routine. I had almost forgotten about it by the time I needed to leave to work. I ran back into the bathroom more worried now about being late for work and saw the words “PREGNANT” staring back at me.

HOLY CRAP!

I immediately called me mom.

I went to school, taught my kids, and when they went to Specials at 10:30 that morning I called TFC. I told them what happened. They canceled the dye test and had me come in that afternoon for a blood test to confirm the pregnancy. The next morning they called me back…definitely pregnant and could I come in that afternoon for an appointment? According to me HCG levels I was about 5 weeks pregnant. Tracking back it seems we conceived about 4 days after finishing the Ureaplasma medication. (Around Valentine’s Day…hehehe) I asked about the period I had just had quite literally 3 days prior and the doctor said maybe it was implantation bleeding, or a false period brought on by the acupuncture. We’ll never know. From that day on I had weekly sonograms with Dr. Silverberg and weekly blood work done to check my progesterone. I took (and still take) a progesterone vaginal suppository because my body isn’t the best at producing progesterone on its own. I also still see the acupuncturist once a week. Instead of doing fertility treatments she does pregnancy support and hormone regulation treatments. She also switched my herbs to be for pregnancy support versus for fertility.

After 12 weeks, Dr. Silverberg sent me back to my regular OB doctor. He sees me every 2-3 weeks right now (more frequently than normal) simply to ease and reduce my anxiety. I feel very blessed that I did not have to do invasive fertility treatments and really credit this pregnancy to 2 things: The treatment of the Ureaplasma and the acupuncture. I believe those two things were what got me pregnant.

So that’s our story. It is a story I will always love because it is the story that come November will make me a mama.