How We Got Pregnant – Maybe

If you have seen my latest post on here or on social media you know I am pregnant. Honestly, sometimes I am still shocked and can hardly believe that I’m currently seven months pregnant.

In my last post on pregnancy I was very worried about infertility issues. Not because I’ve experienced fertility issues firsthand when I had written that original post, but I was bracing myself for them. When we got our positive pregnancy tests this time, I had appointments scheduled for two different fertility clinics within the following few weeks – this was in August.

I had been off most of my CP meds for several months by this time and, honestly, getting negative pregnancy tests month after month was depressing on multiple fronts. Not only did I not have an end date to look forward to for when I could get back on my medications, but my body was in pain. I also felt like my body was failing me each time we didn’t get pregnant.

Additionally, I had experienced a chemical pregnancy in July 2020. This is when a fertilized egg fails to implant into the uterine lining. Most women don’t know they have chemical pregnancies because they are usually detected with early pregnancy test taking. I had been taking pregnancy tests a couple days before my scheduled period since I was still taking a low-dose of two of my CP medications.

You get what is called a very very very faint positive line on a pregnancy test when you have a chemical pregnancy. I had two days of the faint positive pregnancy tests before my cycle started. Although I tried my best to not get excited with those faint line positives, starting my period that day was emotionally excruciating.

After that is when I made appointments with the fertility clinics and scheduled an HSG test for late August and early September. By this time I had also been drinking Pink Stork fertility tea daily – I believe I had been drinking this kind of tea for two to 3 months before we got pregnant.

I had also been taking the following supplements:

In addition, I had also read a good portion of the book It Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett. I will be honest, I did not finish it because I got tired of hearing how everything in this world is terrible for my reproductive health. However, I did implement a few things from the book into my life.

We threw away a bunch of plastic Tupperware and I bought stainless steel, BPA free Tupperware. I started taking CoQ10 because the author explained how this supplement helps make your eggs and reproductive system healthier. I believe she also suggested Maca Root but I can’t remember why. Either way I would highly suggest reading this book if you are looking for ideas on what might help you get pregnant.

My husband, Greg, was taking Fertilaid for Men and Maca Root supplements for about two to three months before we got pregnant. Fertilaid for men is supposed to increase a man’s sperm count, the motility , and overall health of the sperm.

Now, we did not test my husband’s sperm before he started taking the supplement but while he was taking it we did have his sperm analyzed and my OB reported back that his sperm count was “huge!” Yeah. Greg now believes he has super sperm.

I usually just shake my head at his excitedness, but I will say this: the average sperm count ranges from 15 million to 200 million. At the time of the analysis Greg was at 349 million. I think the Fertilaid helped, but guess we’ll never truly know how naturally gifted Greg is in that department.

Aside from trying to eat better and exercise along with taking the supplements discussed above, I was also tracking my ovulation cycle with this kit:

I liked this kit because of how interactive it was with my phone. When it was my ovulation time, within three days prior to my ovulation day and one to two days after, we would BD (baby dance = sex) once or twice a day. If that seems like a lot, I feel like it was. Haha. Trying to have a baby can seem not very romantic and can become exhausting pretty quickly.

As an Alternative to BDing, I bought this kit for us to use, as to not put too much pressure on either of us during these baby making times.

I bought this kit because, obviously it is a home insemination kit, but it is also fairly similar to the procedure a lot of fertility clinics do as their first steps in treating fertility (according to my midwife/OB). I believe it is called IUI (Intrauterine insemination — a type of artificial insemination). So I figured, instead of paying hundreds of dollars to do this in a doctors office, why not just spend less than $100 and do it at home?

So, I can’t tell you exactly which one factor helped us get pregnant when we did but I believe it was a combination of everything we were trying. I also believe the month that we got pregnant, August, I had already convinced myself it was a wash and I was just biding my time until the fertility appointments.

In other words, and I know this is going to be annoying to a lot of people but, I left it up to God that month. I honestly did not think we were going to get pregnant that month (particularly after experiencing a chemical pregnancy the month prior) but I just told myself to relax and if it was going to happen God would make it happen. Otherwise we would get help making it happen in the following months at the fertility clinics.

Perhaps taking the pressure off myself also helped. No matter how it happened, I am so beyond grateful to be pregnant with our first child.

I wrote this post to share our journey with fertility in hopes that it would help people struggling with infertility. I am amazed at the strength of women who have experienced infertility issues for years upon years and continue to move forward and try. But I think it is also important to remember it takes two. So if the woman is getting tested for fertility issues then so should her male partner (if you are a heterosexual couple

Please note that I am not a medical professional in any sense and all of the ideas or options I listed above worked for us but I am not sure what works for other women or couples. Please also speak to your medical provider/midwife/OB/doula before taking any of the supplements listed above (particularly if you are on medication already).

Until next time.

Lorraine

© 2020 MYWONDERFULLYRIDICCPLIFE.COM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED