My Story - Part 2 (2018-2019)
Picking up right where I left off…..In the summer of 2018, we decided to visit the fertility doctor. And we started the ultrasounds and the medicines and the shots. Between June of 2018 and March of 2019, we went through 4 unsuccessful rounds of IUI and the doctor pretty much told us that after 4 rounds of IUI, chances of success actually got worse with each additional attempt, so IVF was our next best option.
In April of 2019 we started IVF and in May of 2019 we had our egg retrieval and retrieved 30 eggs, which for those that don’t know the ins and outs, that’s an incredible number of eggs!! Only 2 made it to the day 5 embryo stage and in that time, my body went a little crazy so into the freezer our two little embryos went until I could settle my body and hormones down and do a frozen transfer. I was okay with that though, my research (and doctors) told me that frozen transfers actually had higher rates of pregnancy, so cool! I’d take those odds, be they but small.
August of 2019 was the month. We did the transfer and suffered through the two week wait. The morning of my cousin’s baby shower in early September, I got the call from the clinic saying “congratulations, youre 4 weeks pregnant.” I quite literally told AJ I was pregnant via a smiley face emoji in a text. So cute and precious, right? But when you go through IVF, you don’t get to a do a fun/cutesy pregnancy reveal to your husband. It just doesn’t work like that. AJ knew just as much about my cycle as I did so there was not going to be any way to be super cute about it.
One plus side to IVF, we did get to do a lot of early ultrasounds and heard a heart beat and saw a yolk sac at 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 and 12 weeks. It was pretty darn cool. But truth be told? I hated pregnancy. I was EXHAUSTED and nauseous for 14 weeks. And then as quickly as it came on, it went away. I was waiting for the burst of energy during my 2nd trimester like I’d always heard about, but it never came. I just felt big and bloated. Even early on. But my doctor figured I was showing early because my placenta was towards the back pushing Jack more forward. At 17 weeks, I started feeling his little flutter kicks and it really was cool and made pregnancy WAYY more worth it.
But then at 19 weeks, I noticed swollen feet. I chalked it up to my pants being too tight and sitting at my desk for too long, but I knew about preeclampsia because one of my best friends had had it so my mind immediately jumped there even though, it really shouldn’t have. It was still too early to have preeclampsia. Preeclampsia doesn’t show up until after 20 weeks. At my 20 week appointment, my BP was high and the protein in my urine was through the roof. Two days after that appointment, Jack looked good at his 20 week 3D scan, but was a little small. My blood pressure had climbed again and the next day, I was admitted to NWMH for the 16 longest days of my life in January 2020.
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