WE'RE PREGNANT

 

Conception ain’t that easy 

It took 15 months of trying! To be honest I was ready years ago, however we waited to have a better house, jobs, finances etc and then we got engaged so waited for the wedding. In hindsight I should have listened to the unwanted advice to just “let nature take its course”. We both spent the next year going through ALL of our health problems which seams to be the main thing you can do for fertility. I got my hip sorted (no we didn’t skip that month trying after surgery…) and Damien started the LONG process of finding out why his haemoglobin was SO low at 63, should be 150!! 4 operations later he finally is a lot better, and is like a completely different person in alertness, energy and STRESS on the household!! If it wasn’t for the fertility problems he may not have found the blood results, and just continued to live thinking he was just working a lot being so tired. DON’T ignore any health symptoms is the lesson!

Had a diagnostic laparoscopy after getting in after only 6/12 month waiting list. Had a 5cm cyst removed on left fallopian tube and some bowel unstuck. 

THEN the Dr Giltrap specialist appointment finally arrived. We went back to Albury after only just seeing Dad, Jenny and Stem-Myles in Corowa and saw them again after the appointment. Damien and I were both REALLY sick from Myles the snot face so we were hoping the Dr wouldn’t notice being the middle of the COVID pandemic. The Dr did another sperm check, ultrasound and looked at our bloods, and decided we were slightly low on egg reserve and sperm count though definitely should have been pregnant by now. He prescribed CLOMID a hormone pill that would trick the body into ovulating giving a higher chance of releasing more viable eggs. Damien had his operation the first month after that so we had to skip that month and started the CLOMID the following cycle. No problems taking it, however I happened to be in Albury for Phantom of the Opera that weekend and had forgotten to bring the drug! Freaking out I woke up early and finally realised I had the script in my wallet, PHEW!

At ovulation I had to wee on a stick and have another ultrasound the nurse rang me that day for the “further instructions” letting me know there were 2 viable follicles meaning a high chance of TWINS and would we still like to go ahead… of course I said yes though panicked the first few weeks thinking we’d be having twins!! We went out that night and had a lot of wine with a big group of friends and… 

The suspense during the 2 week wait, as always, was agony. Emily announced her pregnancy which made me think this CLOMID better work!! I had started getting a bit light headed when I laughed too hard, and finally took a wee test at the earliest you possibly can which had the slightest faint pink double line I’d been hoping for for so long. I stared at it shaking for quite a few minutes then waited for Damien to come home and showed him the test!! He said “wholly shit it worked”. 

We were due to go camping for the long weekend that day with the Suvos and I spent the whole time not drinking and asking Amanda about her pregnancy experiences, so was pretty obvious to them, but we didn’t tell them. I ended up with a cold straight after that and had a week off work feeling sorry for myself and not being able to take any medications. Another few weeks of agony not being able to tell anyone, being asked by Mum and Dad over the phone "what's been happening", to which I had to reply “not much”. Meanwhile I felt sick as! 

7 week dating scan- we got to see the tiny heart beat and got a print out picture. The embryo measured just 1cm putting our due date at 21st February. 

7 week scan 

We straight away wanted to tell the close family and set up our work boots with the new tiny addition. The announcement idea I had been wanting to do for the whole fertility journey. Di and Mum reacted the exact same way crying and were extremely happy. Ruby was emotional but excited and wishes she was younger so she could play with it more.

We went to Albury that weekend to tell Dad/Stem as Dad was down helping with the snug reno, another reason we thought it would be a good opportunity to spread the news. Em had to go the gym as soon as we arrived, so we had to spend an hour waiting for her having coffee with Dad. I hadn’t been drinking coffee at all as it made me feel sick. We went to get some lunch and came back to the crew doing some plastering so I sneakily set up the boots and ultrasound. Everyone was in such a mad dash to get the plaster on before it dried they walked past them so many times, meanwhile I stood there shaking with nerves. Everyone sat down for lunch and Steve came in saying “oi, what’s this?”. I told him no one had seen it yet so we made Dad and Em go back into the room and check it out to which they were very excited! FINALLY I could talk about it with someone else besides Damien and ask Em pregnancy questions! Though it was nice to have our little secret for awhile. 

THE ANNOUNCEMENT - 12 week scan 

I've been feeling nauseous, slightly dizzy, lazy, constipated and hungry for 12 weeks and that has finally subsided. We made it to our 12 weeks scan which came back low risk so it was finally time to announce it. It was a pretty fun 1.5hrs of texts/msgs/comments on my socials post. I was so excited to tell a few clients as well.  

 MEANWHILE on announcement night Damien decided to go get a rescue dog!!! Yep, we now own a dog! Much to Ruby's excitement, who I caught at 4am laying by the window next to the dog on the hard cold slate. It will be good for her to have a companion especially potentially being up trumped by the baby, and Damien will take it to the workshop a lot. I've been very sick this week with the worst cold ever, and breathing problems. We are also in a NSW wide lockdown which has been good timing for me to rest at home. And now we wait 6 more months... 

The announcement image

Hospital COVID style

New dog 4am!