Over the years I have used this blog for a variety of reason, including infertility awareness, yummy recipes, as well a place to document my memories. I told you about my daughters birth story
here and I'm so glad I did because I get to reread it anytime I want. My son was born almost a year and a half ago and I thought I would document how he came to be and his birth before it becomes a fading memory.
I've written a ton about our infertility struggles and journey (
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here and
here) so it only makes sense that I include how baby #2 came to be. I remember so vividly scouring the internet during all hours of the night for any information I could find on infertility and different treatment options. The information that I found most helpful and uplifting were those stories written by real people - not the information that I found in medical journals or on medical websites. So here is the beginning of our story of sweet baby #2.
Peanut was coming up on turning two and I knew that if we wanted to try to expand our family in the next few years we would have to get the ball rolling since the wait times for IVF had increased dramatically due to provincial funding changes. In February 2016 we met with my amazing fertility doctor, Dr. McNaught again, at which time he indicated that our best chance to receive funding would be for him to refer us off to a different clinic. We hesitated at first, but knew that if we had to undergo 3 more rounds of treatment, having some of it funded by the government would be extremely helpful. We waited almost two months for an intake meeting with our new doctor. Because of my original diagnosis of blocked fallopian tubes we knew the process would be a bit easier than before because we wouldn't have to undergo all of the preliminary diagnostic tests. After our first appointment we were put on the wait list for a mandatory IVF education class that we had to attended in order to be put on the wait list for a funded IVF cycle. Our class was scheduled for July 7th, which meant that if we were lucky we would be able to get a funded IVF cycle before the new year. If you haven't noticed by now, there is a shit ton of waiting when it comes to fertility treatment (and any treatment for that matter!).
Rewind to December 2013 when I was 5 months pregnant with Peanut. I was in excruciating pain on the right side of my uterus. So much so that I couldn't stand up, and I felt extremely nauseous. The pain continued for more than 6 hours and my husband and I decided to head to the hospital. Unfortunately, birthing triage wouldn't take me because I was 1 week shy of their minimum requirement so they sent me down to the emergency room where I sat for 8 hours. The pain would subside every now and then which meant that the triage nurses weren't taking me very seriously and kept pushing people ahead of me. Long story short, the doctor who saw me couldn't confirm for sure because their ultrasound machines weren't good enough to see that much detail but he suspected I had an ovarian cyst rupture and sent me home to rest. The pain eventually dissipated and I felt back to my old pregnant self within two days. I didn't think anything of it after that point because I have had ovarian cysts come and go over the years. I didn't even mention this hospital visit to my family doctor nor OB.
Fast forward to the first weekend in July 2016. I had some close girlfriends over for the weekend and I wasn't really feeling like myself. I felt hungover, tired, bloated - all the sure signs of early pregnancy but the only issue was I had been told by 2 fertility doctors that it would be impossible to get pregnancy naturally due to my tube blockages. After running out to the pharmacy to grab a pregnancy test once my girlfriends left, I sat alone in my bathroom and looked down at the test and saw two very clear lines - PREGNANT. I couldn't believe my eyes. My husband had no idea that I was even thinking I could be pregnant, so imagine his surprise when I flew down the stairs crying with the positive test in my hand. I called my family doctor the next day so that we could run blood work to make sure. Turns out she was away for two weeks. Ah well, what's another two weeks - I was apparently already 7 weeks along (*I never paid attention to missed periods because I was suppose to be infertile...). My doctor couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the urine and blood test results. She sent me for an early ultrasound the following week just to be 1000000% sure. The tests were correct - I was pregnant!
Turns out the episode I had when I was pregnant with my daughter wasn't due to a rupturing cyst, it was actually the scar tissue in my right fallopian tub breaking apart. My uterus was stretching so much during my pregnancy that it had opened my 75% blocked tube up. What a miracle! It still makes me cry to talk about - I truly feel so blessed. My daughter was able to give my husband and I our son. It can't get much better than that.
There it is, folks! Miracle do happen.
