we’re having another baby!

Instead of attempting to create a witty title or intro to this blog post, I will instead just happily explain the reason my blog has been really silent lately: we are having another baby! And as opposed to Liam’s pregnancy that left me shouting to the universe “being pregnant is easy!” this pregnancy has me spending every spare minute face down into my pillow or a trash can. But I wanted to come on here and share our news. Because as it always seems to go with me, and especially when it comes to fertility, it’s a long story. So here is the story of how we got to where we are today:It all started in September of 2017. Ok, no. Lets rewind even further. May of 2017. Liam was 15 months old and still happily breast feeding and I had finally gotten my period back for the first time since being pregnant. So of course this immediately had me thinking “whoooo we can start trying for another baby.” In my head I always go back to these stories of couples who had such a hard time getting pregnant for their first baby but then the second baby comes so easily. As if their bodies now “know” how to get pregnant. So of course here I am thinking this will be us. So we casually started trying in May. In September, I visited my fertility doctor. Purely out of curiosity and to see what she had to say. It had only been 5 months of trying but nothing was happening. But we decided that since we had a frozen embryo already from Liam’s IVF, let’s just make things easy and transfer that embryo. We’d be pregnant by the end of the year. Easy peasy. So in September we started the prep work for our frozen embryo transfer. Step one: I had to stop breast feeding Liam. Of course I know you can get pregnant while breast feeding and many women do, but my fertility office has a policy. They don’t want you breast feeding. Just in case anything were to go wrong you don’t have to look back and wonder “what if.” So I cut Liam off cold turkey on September 15. And it was a rough 3 nights but we both made it out alive and well. October and November I did blood work and took medications to prepare my lining for the transfer. And then on December 18, we transferred our remaining frozen embryo, the one we called “Liam’s twin.” On Christmas Day I took a pregnancy test. It was negative. And on December 27 I got the call from my doctor that my beta test numbers were too low. I was carrying the embryo but it was not going to make it. I got my period two days later.In an effort to move on with this story, you can read more about our frozen embryo transfer from that December here. We meet with the fertility doctor a few months later to talk about our options. All this time, I thought, ahhh my body will remember what to do to get pregnant. Well folks, turns out you can only do some much if the egg count just isn’t there. Turns out, we found out just this year, that I have what’s called “diminished ovarian reserves.” I just don’t make a lot of eggs. I was just “born this way.” Just like how some people are missing a toe or have a third nipple, this is my thing. And this was my issue all those years when we tried to conceive Liam. Only this time I was now older and chances are I would have even FEWER eggs. It wasn’t until she brought up the words “donor eggs” that my heart really sunk. And although if it had come to that, I would of been fine, but I really wanted to give my body and my eggs another shot. And so we did. In February 2018 we started all the prep work, lab work, follicle stimulation and egg growing medications that costed $600 per box out of pocket. And I think we used 6 boxes total. She had me on the highest dose possible to really, REALLY give my body a chance to make some eggs. I got back into acupuncture. I went back on the fertility smoothies (you can read more here about what else I did). And then in April we had our egg retrieval. Five days later we got the call that we had two healthy embryos ready to be frozen. They were frozen in the lab and I got started for the next two months on preparing my body for implantation. 

We had two frozen embryos, both graded fairly high and both “eligible” for implantation. The AMA recommends that at my age, two be implanted in order to give yourself higher chances of a pregnancy. After several long nights of deliberating, we decided to just transfer one. So on June 6, 2018 we went back to the clinic to get our embryo. Both Will and I felt this wave of calmness and smoothness (is that a word?) during this transfer. And everything just felt right. I did my positive affirmations  and meditation immediately following the transfer while still in the chair with my legs up. And then two hours after the transfer had my final acupuncture session. We went home and relaxed. For nearly two weeks. On Father’s Day, June 17, I took a pregnancy test. I had promised Will that I wouldn’t do it, but come on. Father’s Day? It was too good to be true. So I did. And it was positive. I went to the clinic and my beta was 1152. Basically anything over a 6 means you are pregnant. It was official.  
 We told Liam, we told our families, I told my fertility support group, I posted on Instagram. We worried a little that it was so early but we also remembered how broken we felt when we lost the embryo in December and we had told no one about it. This time we wanted a support system. And we wanted to keep our friends in the loop. My beta numbers continued to grow and grow and everything was going great. Around 5 weeks, 5 days I had some abnormal spotting which I begged my fertility doctor to investigate via ultrasound. And although baby looked great and had a heartbeat, we discovered a small subclavian hematoma. We just got back from out 9 week ultrasound this week and not only is baby growing but the hematoma is gone. Just a little scare but it’s gone now. Looks like this baby is already giving us a run for our money.  So here we are. Nine weeks pregnant. I have gradutated from the fertility clinic and have discontinued all the meds, per doctor’s orders. The embryo is now a fetus. And if you look above you can see an upside down baby with little hands and feet. Some days it feels like a blur, like it was just yesterday that we started all of this. And somedays I think “how am I ONLY nine weeks pregnant?” So with that, please be patient if you don’t hear from me or see me around. But I can never be thankful enough to all of you who have reached out to us, sharing your love and thoughts and prayers. So thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts and from deep within my uterus. Many blessings to you all.  Love, Priscilla, Will, Liam, and baby.