Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Our Journey to Conceive

I have thought very hard about sharing this story with others. I have never had a problem with talking to people and sharing our journey. However, it seems a little different to share online. It takes away the personal aspect of things for me. Here we go anyway.

It all began about 4 months after Walter and I were wed in 2004. I messed up with my birth control pills and ended up pregnant. Easy as that! Bam! There it was. It was a big surprise, but we were both extremely excited. We have always talked about wanting children and not waiting a long, long time before beginning. We wanted to be young. We told our parents about us being pregnant and soon everyone knew! At 7 weeks pregnant, I knew something was wrong. I was having horrible cramps that had me doubled over. I couldn't get it to stop. Being young and inexperienced, I didn't want to call and bother Dr. Garrard. After a while, I called and they asked me to come in. I went, they did an ultrasound, and didn't tell me anything. I had to wait on Dr. Garrard to come and tell me... I had miscarried. He acted as if it was no big deal. Women miscarry all the time. I, however, was devastated. When I told Walter, he was too. He didn't want to talk about it. Instead, he wanted to be left alone.

Fast forward about 6 months later, pregnant again with no problems conceiving. I went to Dr. Garrard and he confirmed it. Surely, this time nothing will happen. We didn't tell anyone, just in case. At 8 weeks, while taking a final at Alabama State University, I knew something was wrong again. I called the doctor and he told me to come in immediately. Same routine. I had miscarried... again. What is wrong with me??? Again, Dr. Garrard stated it just happens. Just happens? Twice? Come to find out, I have O- blood and Walter had A+. They don't mix. If they baby's blood is A+, my body sees it as a foreign object and fights it off. Therefore, I am considered rH negative. I had to have a rhogam shot in my hip within 72 hours of miscarrying to "save" the next baby. I decided it was time to change doctors to someone more compassionate. I chose Dr. Martin because I heard great stories of him having so much concern for women with complications. He ran all kinds of test and made me feel comfortable.

In August of 2007, before Natasha and Chris' wedding, I found out we were pregnant again! I think I must have been the happiest matron of honor ever! Of course, we didn't tell anyone. We prayed that this would be the one. Everything would be okay. We passed 8 weeks, then 9, and so on. Finally! We made it to 12 weeks pregnant and told our parents, then everyone else. We were having a little BOY! Not just any boy, a miracle baby named David James Quinn. We were overjoyed! Pregnancy was great. I worked 4 days a week at Peyton's Place as a server and went to school 2 days a week. Around week 34, I began swelling. Come to find out I had preeclampsia. At about 35-36 weeks I had to go on bed rest to bring my blood pressure down. It didn't work. So, at 37 weeks, on March 23, 2006, David was born weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. He was perfect.

When David was a little over 3, we decided it was time to have another child. Walter didn't want David to be an only child and I had always wanted 2 children. We thought it would happen pretty easily. We had been trying for about 9 months when I had my yearly appointment. I mentioned it to Dr. Martin and he decided to do some tests. I was not ovulating at all and had PCOS... imagine that! I am in my my mid-20s and I all of the sudden do not ovulate anymore. WHAT??? Over the next several months, he tried us on different doses of Clomid, a fertility drug. Take the pill for a certain amount of time and come in for blood word to see how it was working. Never worked. Bummer. He performed a laproscopy surgery on me to drill my ovaries so they would release hormones. That didn't work either. He referred us to an infertility specialist in Mobile. I did some research. Mobile was just too far. We opted for ART of Birmingham.

July, 2010 was our first appt. We were nervous and didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be lots and lots of blood taken, an examination, and Walter had to be tested. We were there for a while. Dr. Houserman talked to us about options: 1)We could try clomid again with her, 2)clomid- this time an IUI (insemination) would be done during ovulation, or 3) skip to injections called Gonal-F. We chose to try clomid with her to be on the safe side. There was a very small chance of multiples with this. We couldn't believe when they called and told us we were pregnant the first month! Finally... only to miscarry about 2 weeks later. Not this again! NO! NO! NO! Here we go again. From July-December we made almost weekly trips to either the Birmingham office or Montgomery office for blood work, ultrasounds, injections, or the IUI. If anything had to be done on the weekend, it had to be done in Bham. Same with all IUIs. It was draining, emotionally, physically, and everything else. We often wondered if we were doing the right thing. Is this what God wants us to do? Eventually, we started injections with Gonal-F. It took 2 months of that and two days before Christmas 2010, we got the phone call that we were pregnant again. This would make the 5th time for us overall. Happy and cautious is how we felt. On Christmas, I started having trouble breathing and my chest hurt so bad. Turns out, I was overstimulated from the fertility drugs. I had very large cysts! They had to watch them carefully over time. They shrunk slowly, but surely. Two weeks after finding out we were pregnant, we found out there was more than one! OMG is all I can say! Then I had some bleeding and the ultrasound showed a blood clot behind one of the sacs. Now I was on light duty and had to sit down as much as possible. The clot was watched closely to. At 11 weeks, we were turned over to my regular doctor, Dr. Martin. Things were pretty smooth from there on out until Mother's Day, 2011. I was 22.5 weeks pregnant with twin boys and having preterm labor! Great... this part of the story will be finished at a later date...

1 comment:

  1. Oh girl! What an experience!! I'm so happy for y'all! You are going to be so busy with all those boys:).

    Your experience with Dr. Garrard brought back many horrible memories for me. He was my doctor when I had my miscarriage and he treated me the same way. I'll never forget when he said to me "so you had a miscarriage. It happens. Life goes on." Not what I wanted to hear right after I lost my much loved and anticipated baby. I,too, found another doctor.

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