Pregnant at last!

June 2011 I found myself pregnant - finally!  After 5 years of trying - we had done it!  I clearly remember Crystal (the acupuncturist) telling me to live it up and eat whatever I wanted until I hit 6 weeks pregnant, because that's when the morning sickness would hit if it was going to.  I hate when she's right.  The day I turned 6 weeks, I woke up and had to run to the bathroom puke.  Strangely enough, I was almost happy to finally be experiencing this - it meant I really was pregnant.  But that lasted about a day.  I stayed sick - really, really sick - until about 20 weeks.  And I absolutely hate being nauseous and throwing up.  Who does, right?  I tried every morning sickness remedy out there, and ended up taking prescription meds and chinese herbs along with acupuncture.  My job requires a lot of driving and being in strange, sometimes smelly, places - which doesn't mix with morning sickness.  Luckily I only puked on the floor once, and I never did throw up when I was away from home.  Phew. 

Once the morning sickness passed, I noticed a sharp pain under my right rib cage.  I thought it was just things stretching, but the pain just got worse and worse everyday.  Turns out my gallbladder decided to shut down.  Every time I ate something not gallbladder friendly, I would be in terrible pain.  Imagine a hot knife stabbing you repeatedly through and through.  The pain would actually take my breath away sometimes, and I spent a lot of time crying over it, or curled up on the couch or in bed with my trusty heating pad.  So much for eating whatever you wanted when pregnant, I was on a STRICT diet.  And there was only Tylenol for the pain.  It was really hard, but I was determined.  Once you're in the middle of it with nowhere to go, you don't have a choice but keep going.  Plus I only gained 8 lbs while pregnant, so it was a great (although twisted!) way to stay in shape!

I also had some spotting at the beginning of the pregnancy that really scared me.  We never did find out the cause, but I had to take progesterone supplements for the first trimeter.  They probably didn't help the morning sickness, but I wasn't going to chance anything going wrong especially after waiting 5 years for this chance. 

Other than those two (major) complaints, pregnancy was great.  I had the normal aches and pains (lots of things stretch - inuding things you didn't think stretched or could stretch!)  I enjoyed watching my belly grow, and I absolutely loved feeling the baby move.  It's an amazing feeling you just can't describe until you've experienced it for yourself.  It felt so surreal to finally be experiencing pregnancy - it still seems strange that *I* was pregnant and had a baby.  Did I really do that??  We took weekly pics of my belly, even when I was feeling like junk.  I had a belly cast made, a henna tattoo done, and we had maternity pics taken (thank you Crystal!!).  I didn't want to miss out on anything - who knows if I'll ever get to do this again. 

Overall, pregnancy was hard but it was an experience that I am so beyond grateful to have.  It taught me that I am even stronger than I could have imagined.  I will always cherish the time when it was just Dillain and I in one body, when I carried him with me everywhere I went and felt his little squirms, wiggles, and kicks, knowing that we had created life that I would bring into this world.  Absolutely amazing!

Getting Here

In June 2006, Randy & I decided to try to start a family.  We had been married about 2 years and were ready to have our own little one.  Getting pregnant didn't prove to be as easy as we thought.  After about 2 years of trying on our own, we started seeing fertility specialists.  We underwent all sorts of tests that all came back normal.  We tried 4 cycles of intra-uterine insemination (IUI) without success and were then told we needed IVF.  I tried everything "natural" that I could think of or that Dr. Google recommended.  Nothing was working.  In short, we were devastated - we wanted a baby so badly.  During this time we also moved, changed jobs, and our life together kept moving forward.  Throughout all of this our relationship grew stronger and our desire for a family of our own never changed.  We finally turned to acupuncture in August 2010.  I was skeptical, but figured that I would have to go to acupuncture for 2 years straight to equal what one cycle of IVF would cost and I wasn't ready to put my body through what IVF required.  My acupuncturist, Crystal, immediately set my mind at ease and we have become good friends throughout this journey.  I truly believe we couldn't have done this without her.  In June 2011 we found out that I was pregnant.  Amazingly, I didn't even feel pregnant!  There were probably 30 other cycles where I felt more pregnant than when I actually was.  I was so happy that I had the "surprise" pregnancy that I had always wanted - not the "wait 2 weeks after the procedure to see if it worked" pregnancy.  Pregnancy wasn't exactly easy on me though - I'll write more about that later.  But we finally had what we worked so hard for - a baby... OUR baby... on the way.  This blog will be full of little glimpses and updates on our life with baby boy Dillain so that our friends and family can share this journey with us.  Hope you enjoy!