Oh boy, where to start. I feel like I need to recap everything we went through to get where we are today. This might take a while...I last posted in January of 2012, it is now May of 2013!
The most exciting thing to announce is that we have a precious little baby boy, Joseph! It took us a while to get here, but we finally made it!
We successful conceived on February 27, 2012. We found this out on March 8. We decided to have 2 embryo placed and everything went as planned until our ultrasound on March 29. This showed that one of the baby's heart rate was very slow for how far along we were. We had to go back in two weeks later to see how things were progressing. I left this appointment more scared than I have ever been. We also got other devastating news this day... one of our friends', Ryanna, husband died tragically in a skiing accident. She was currently pregnant with their second child. I couldn't believe it. The next 2 and a half weeks was honestly the longest out of this entire process. I couldn't help but stress and worry that we might lose one of our babies, but didn't want to ignore the fact that we were pregnant! We knew we had at least one baby growing as he should, and I knew I should be happy about this, but it was hard to be happy when "baby b" was struggling to survive. We found out on april 17 that "baby b" was not longer thriving. There was a sac present, but no visible heart beat. I have never felt such a loss before in my life. I tried my hardest to focus on the fact, again, that "baby a" was doing perfectly wonderful. He was measuring the size he was supposed to be... actually bigger by a few days, with a strong heart beat.
During this time, we had multiple doctor visits and Bill had an MRI which showed he had a pituitary tumor. More news to accept and figure out how to deal with it... we went to see a neurosurgeon, yes, you read that right, a neurosurgeon. Mind you, I was 36 weeks pregnant at this point. The endocrinologist we had been seeing thought Bill's MRI was changing, so she wanted a second opinion. This visit started with the doctor discussing different surgery options. I could feel myself start to sweat and shake. I couldn't imagine, or didn't want to imagine, Bill going in for brain surgery while I was so close to delivering... or at all for that matter. So he goes through all of these options, shows us pictures, etc, only to say that he didn't think Bill needed surgery! Then why in the hell did you go through all of that???? So, we left there a little more relieved, but Bill does have a tumor.
The story of my pregnancy... oh boy, what a ride! Our little guy definitely gave me a run for my money. I vomited until I was 36-37 weeks. I'm not talking just a little bit of vomiting either. I'm talking 10 times a day vomiting. Heart burn came next (or should I say in conjunction). I didn't pass my first glucose tolerance test, the test for gestational diabetes... by like 5 points! Because of this, I had to go in for the 3 hour study.. can you say NASTY! This is where you have to drink the nastiest, grosest drink ever, and then sit there for 3 hours and have you sugar checked at different intervals. Let me remind you.. I was still vomiting like crazy at this time. It took every ounce of will power I have to not throw up this mess, but if I did, I would have to come back and start it over... HELL NO!!! I passed, thank god! I started having tons of back pain the further along I got. I discussed this with Dr Conger at about 36 weeks. I didn't really want to stop working, but thought we might be getting to that point. I made it until I was 38 weeks, but started having some signs of preeclampsia. My blood pressure was trending up, I was spilling protein in my urine, and then one day, while at work, started having headaches and blurry vision... I didn't go back to work!
We found out on June 27 that we were having a boy. I left the decision to find out up to Bill. We went back and forth for a while. I didn't want to find out, he did. On the day of the ultrasound, he said "yes" when asked if we wanted to know. I was shocked, but fine with his decision. We both got tearful when she showed us what made him a boy! This would be the first Schoenheit grandson. No, he is not the first of his generation, but the first Schoenheit. All of his cousins have different last names, or are girls, so will not pass on the name. We invited all of Bill's family out to dinner to announce our news. And of course, the first person I called was my mother.
We went to a few birth classes because I really didn't want to use an epidural for delivery. We were supposed to go to 4 classes. However, these classes were from 7pm to 930pm, and my bed time was closer to 8 than 10 by this point. We made it to 3 of them, the last one was about c sections so luckily I didn't have to have one! I went to a breastfeeding class and loved this one! I learned a ton about ways to make this part work.
We delivered a healthy, happy 8 pound, 9 ounce precious little boy on November 12, 2012 at 718 in the morning! My water broke at home the morning before, so I was officially in labor for 24 hours. I pushed for 45 minutes, so not bad for my first baby. I did end up getting an epidural, but I am not sure it actually kicked in before it all started. I, unknowingly, was already 10 cm when we decided to get it. I felt everything... including the sutures!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
More tests
So I woke up this morning in a little bit of a panic. For some reason, I got super nervous about the trial transfer today... I am always the "prepare for the worst" type of person, so everything that could go wrong started tinkering around in my head.
I had to drink a ton of water and not go to the bathroom, so the trip there was quite fun! You need to have a full bladder for this procedure. The bladder pushes your uterus down and makes entering it a straight shot. Everything went fine! It was easy to pass (for them anyway), not so easy for me. It causes pretty bad cramps. And the doppler ultrasound was normal too! They were looking at the blood flow to my uterus to see if I might need accupuncture or something, but NOPE! It was all good! YAY us!
On a totally different note... I left the Dr's office to find a big crack across my windshield! I got home and measured it... it was 10 inches long, so it has to be replaced, not repaired. Great... more money down the drain.
I had to drink a ton of water and not go to the bathroom, so the trip there was quite fun! You need to have a full bladder for this procedure. The bladder pushes your uterus down and makes entering it a straight shot. Everything went fine! It was easy to pass (for them anyway), not so easy for me. It causes pretty bad cramps. And the doppler ultrasound was normal too! They were looking at the blood flow to my uterus to see if I might need accupuncture or something, but NOPE! It was all good! YAY us!
On a totally different note... I left the Dr's office to find a big crack across my windshield! I got home and measured it... it was 10 inches long, so it has to be replaced, not repaired. Great... more money down the drain.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The Beginning
So I've been debating about starting a blog to document our journey of trying to have a child... I finally decided to start!
Bill and I got married in August of 2009. We started trying to get pregnant in August/September of 2010. We both assumed that this would be one of the easiest things for us to achieve... boy were we wrong. After a few months of trying...we used every method known to man... still no pregnancy. I can't tell you how many times I have peed on a stick. Every month was miserable for us. I was an emotional basket case. I went to see my doctor in May of 2011 and basically insisted that we start some investigation into why we weren't able to conceive. This started our roller coaster of life.
The first step was for my hormones to be checked, which all came back normal. Next was for me to have a "dye study." This is where a radiologist shoots dye into my uterus and watches it go up my fallopian tubes. However, it didn't go up my right side. This was the first time the words (well, initials) IVF were ever spoken to me. She gave me other options such as having it unblocked, retesting later to verify that it was really blocked, and of course, talking to my doctor regarding other options. I, of course, left there in tears and called my doctor immediately. He had not even gotten the official results yet.
The next step was for Bill to be tested. My doctor called me at work and gave me even more bad news. This was now the second time in vitro fertilization was suggested. He referred us over to Oregon Reproductive Medicine for assistance. Over the next few months, I can't tell you how many tests/labs/analysis' have been done on both of us. We still continued to try the old natural way, but still no success. We met with Dr. Hesla many times regarding our options. We didn't want to give up hope because Bill's numbers were improving. Many things were said to us regarding what the problem might be for us. Some of these things could lead to our children having severe problems and/or be unsurvivable, which obviously scared us both to death. We talked about adoption if any of the genetic possibilities came to be the issue... luckily they didn't. All of our genetic screening has been normal.
We finally went to see a urologist in December of 2011 because we weren't responding to the Clomid. The urologist wants to start Bill on TRT which will completely knock out our chances of conceiving, but he needs it for long term health issues, so we went in to see Dr. Hesla on January 5th to start our IVF process.
It has really been a roller coaster since then! We had our first class on January 12th, labs and ultrasound on January 17th (which showed I had 13 follicles on the right and 12 on the left!), second class on January 23rd, and now the trial transfer tomorrow!
Bill and I got married in August of 2009. We started trying to get pregnant in August/September of 2010. We both assumed that this would be one of the easiest things for us to achieve... boy were we wrong. After a few months of trying...we used every method known to man... still no pregnancy. I can't tell you how many times I have peed on a stick. Every month was miserable for us. I was an emotional basket case. I went to see my doctor in May of 2011 and basically insisted that we start some investigation into why we weren't able to conceive. This started our roller coaster of life.
The first step was for my hormones to be checked, which all came back normal. Next was for me to have a "dye study." This is where a radiologist shoots dye into my uterus and watches it go up my fallopian tubes. However, it didn't go up my right side. This was the first time the words (well, initials) IVF were ever spoken to me. She gave me other options such as having it unblocked, retesting later to verify that it was really blocked, and of course, talking to my doctor regarding other options. I, of course, left there in tears and called my doctor immediately. He had not even gotten the official results yet.
The next step was for Bill to be tested. My doctor called me at work and gave me even more bad news. This was now the second time in vitro fertilization was suggested. He referred us over to Oregon Reproductive Medicine for assistance. Over the next few months, I can't tell you how many tests/labs/analysis' have been done on both of us. We still continued to try the old natural way, but still no success. We met with Dr. Hesla many times regarding our options. We didn't want to give up hope because Bill's numbers were improving. Many things were said to us regarding what the problem might be for us. Some of these things could lead to our children having severe problems and/or be unsurvivable, which obviously scared us both to death. We talked about adoption if any of the genetic possibilities came to be the issue... luckily they didn't. All of our genetic screening has been normal.
We finally went to see a urologist in December of 2011 because we weren't responding to the Clomid. The urologist wants to start Bill on TRT which will completely knock out our chances of conceiving, but he needs it for long term health issues, so we went in to see Dr. Hesla on January 5th to start our IVF process.
It has really been a roller coaster since then! We had our first class on January 12th, labs and ultrasound on January 17th (which showed I had 13 follicles on the right and 12 on the left!), second class on January 23rd, and now the trial transfer tomorrow!
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