Our Pregnancy Journey

I am currently about 18 weeks pregnant, and I have yet to post any updates since our initial announcement so it is definitely time! 

We started trying or "not preventing" in May 2013 around the time that I turned 28. I had been on birth control for a while, and they say that it sometimes takes your body a while to adjust. However, I was always irregular prior to being on birth control, and I had never had routine monthly cycles. For the rest of 2013, my body was out of whack. Around January, I went to my OBGYN for an appointment. She wanted me to go ahead and take an over the counter supplement called Pregnitude twice a day (which my fertility specialist later said was pointless). She also went ahead and ran all the routine blood work, including having my thyroid checked. My results came back saying that I had a slightly low thyroid. I was referred to an endocronologist to get my levels regulated. The endocronolgoist said that I did have Hashimoto's. However, she said that my thyroid was only slightly low and that if we weren't trying to conceive, she would just keep getting it checked rather than treating it. Since we were trying though, she put me on a low dosage of medication, and I had to follow back up in March to recheck my levels.  Once that was regulated, I had to see my OBGYN again. Of course, the initial steps in fertility were making sure everything was ok on Colt's end. After he was checked out, it was proceeding with me. These next few months my specialist said were interesting and seemed to puzzle him a little, but I will go ahead and write about our little process regardless. Around April, my doctor put me on progesterone to basically force me to have withdrawal bleeding. The logic was supposed to be to trick my body into regulating itself I think. At this point, I wasn't having cycles at all. After the progesterone, I followed up with Clomid, and then I had to have my blood drawn around the middle-end of May to see if I had ovulated. When I hadn't, we started over with the same process around the end of May which put me taking my second round of Clomid right after our move at the beginning of June. This round, rather than getting blood drawn, I was supposed to do an in-home ovulation test. I did get a positive, and of course, I was excited. However, I had to follow up with getting my blood drawn on June 26th, and my results said that I actually hadn't ovulated. When I talked to my doctor, she said the ovulation test must've been a false positive because it didn't appear that my body was reacting to Clomid at all. They didn't see the point in trying another round of Clomid, and they referred me to a fertility specialist. I hadn't really been emotional or worrying about anything the whole time, but for some reason, that day I got upset and ended up having a little crying session.

Colt had said at the beginning that if we had trouble getting pregnant and that if I started becoming a crazy person about it or it ever started affecting us, we were done trying. He said regardless it wouldn't be the end of the world, and it wouldn't help to fret about it. I think he just told me this to make me feel good and make me feel like he was ok with whatever happened. Regardless, he's been supportive the whole time! I will tell you though that when you are trying, it seems like everyone is pregnant, and it also seems like everyone asks you ALL THE TIME when you are going to have a baby!

All the referrals for specialists that my doctor gave me were in Dallas. Since we were already living in Temple at this point, we didn't want to go that route so I started looking at options at Scott and White. There were only two fertility specialists. Colt asked around a little to see which of the two were recommended. We went ahead and set up an appointment, but it was going to be a couple months before we could get in for the initial visit. I was due for my annual regardless and needed to find a doctor here in Temple so I went ahead and scheduled just a normal appointment with a random doctor here in July. When I saw her, she told me that both specialist were great and that I could probably get in a little sooner with the one that I wasn't scheduled for.  I rescheduled and got in with the other specialist, Dr. Wincek, on August 25th. A quick side note... going to the doctor in Temple is very different than what I was used to in Dallas. I was used to a fancy private office and here, it's like going to a clinic. My first visit with the normal doctor was at the Belton clinic, and I was in a waiting room with every other type of sick patient you can think of. Now going to the specialist and my current doctor at the main hospital I share a waiting room with urology, and it's just very different and not near as private as what I was used to! The care has been great so far though so looks can be deceiving.

Before I could see the specialist, they made me see a financial counselor to discuss all the out of pocket expenses that could be incurred with fertility treatments and go into the details of how much IVU and IVF costs. 

I got to see Dr. Wincek on August 25th, and luckily I really liked him. During his initial exam, we discussed my history. Then he of course examined me. He said that I had plenty of eggs but it did appear that I might have PCOS. He said it seemed odd for someone my size. In the end though, he said he couldn't see any reason why I couldn't get pregnant and he was ready to fast track it. Since I had previously tried Clomid and didn't have any negative symptoms or reactions, he wanted to go ahead and go that route first. However,  he said there was no reason to do progestone or have a regular cycle when trying Clomid. I immediately started a round of Clomid on August 26th. I had a follow up appointment with him on September 8th. In addition to Clomid, we also started Ovidrel trigger shots, and Colt had to give me my first Ovidrel shot in my belly on September 11th. Then I had to go get labs ran to check my progestone on the 19th. My results were high, and it looked like I had indeed ovulated. I then followed up with going to get more labs on the 26th to verify if I was pregnant or not. The results were negative. However, I had my first menstrual cycle on my own in forever right after that. The doctor said that he didn't think I had ever actually ovulated since I had been off birth control. Luckily, I live close to the hospital with all my trips to the doctor and to the lab!

Since my body seemed to react to round one, we started another round of Clomid on October 1st. I had an appointment with Dr. Wincek on the 13th. At that appointment, he took measurements and actually printed a picture for me of two follicles that he thought had potential. 

Colt said I'm probably one of the few that have a picture of our baby when it was just a follicle! 

Colt gave me another Ovidrel shot on October 14th. I then had to follow up with labs on the 21st to get my progesterone levels checked. The results came back even higher than last time. They didn't automatically schedule pregnancy labs this time so I just took an at home pregnancy test on October 28th when I got up at like 5:15 to go work out. It was positive!! Colt had just left for work when I took the test. I had always pictured that I would tell him someway special but that didn't happen! I was a little shocked and I couldn't wait!! I just called him and happened to catch him right before he was starting work. When I was telling him, I cried a little (happy tears of course)! 

That day, I contacted my doctor, and they set me up for labs around lunch.

It usually takes a few days to get results.  I actually started spotting that day. I was clueless and didn't know that it was sometimes normal to spot a little. I just assumed I was starting my period so I text Colt and told him that I didn't think I was pregnant after all and that it must've just been a false positive. He said, "Well, we'll see." In the meantime, he had accessed my labs that day. Did he call and tell me? No! He waited until he got home late that night and showed me the results! 

We feel lucky to have had success just after seeing the specialist here in Temple for 2 months, and we feel blessed that our journey wasn't longer and that we didn't end up having to pursue any further fertility treatments or options. I have another post on when we were newly pregnant, and I have been taking weekly bump pictures since week 9 so more to come!