I want to walk you through our journey and what we experienced and how we overcome. First, I give all the glory to God. All 3 of my children - were His victory and I cannot, and will not, take that away from Him. If you aren't the religious type, that's totally fine, but please know that I won't be able to offer you too much outside of the fact that my doctors still cannot figure out how I managed to get pregnant not once, not twice, but three times completely naturally after 4.5 years of infertility, 7 failed fertility cycles, and 3 miscarriages - so yes, I will be mentioning God.
How we won. I warned you up top, but I'll warn again, this is a long post but it's our story and it will help you understand what we went through and the obstacles we overcame.
Back in May 2012, Erik and I had just gotten married and decided that I should get off of birth control as we knew it could be months before I was regular again. Well, turns out I spent the whole remainder of the year without a single period. Now the thing is, because we were young, doctors would not see us until we had been "trying" for at least a full year. We gave it until April 2013 and that's when I decided enough was enough. I made my first appointment with an OBGYN and showed him my charts and explained my situation. He immediately recommended that we do an ultrasound, some blood work, and an exam.
The ultrasound came back clear - no issues!
The blood work came back clear - no issues!
The exam came back clear - no issues!
His response was shock. He thought for sure we'd find something, but he was excited because it meant that the medications would absolutely work. First, he wanted to give me some meds to start my period. IT worked! I took the meds (Provera) for two months and tracked my cycle via Basal Body Thermometer - the idea is that you should see a dip in temp once you ovulate, but I showed none!
Even though there was no ovulation, my doctor was excited again. He was enthusiastic that the fertility medications would certainly work now that we had a way to start my periods. In August 2013, we started our first round of Clomid. I got pregnant! Unfortunately, we miscarried at 10 weeks and had to wait until October 2013 to perform the D & C.
November 2013 came around and we were moving on to cycle two. Failed
We waited a few months and tried cycle three. Failed
Wait a few more months, tried cycle four. Failed
Wait, tried for five. Failed
Wait, tried for six. Success! Then Miscarriage at 7 weeks.
Wait, tried for seven. Failed
After round seven, we were exhausted. Out of hope. And out of fertility medication chances.
Next step would be IVF but at 20-something years old, IVF with a price tag of $20,000+ was not an option.
We gave up!
I'm going to back-track a little here.
In January 2014, we started attending an amazing church - COF! Around this time I started developing a relationship with God. In this time, I met a man and a woman who were in their 40's and had just had a baby. They explained that they were told by doctors they'd probably not have an easy time conceiving as they were much older. The man mentioned he started researching a vitamin - CoQ10. He said he and his wife took it for a few months and they got pregnant! Fast forward to 2015, and I started listening to God's word more. I figured that he had to have sent that man and woman to me for a reason. So in August of 2015, I start taking CoQ10. I figured spending $10 on a bottle of vitamins verses thousands of dollars on medical expenses seemed like something to try. After all, if it didn't work, it was only $10 a month!
By September 2015, my period was starting on it's own! Huge victory! Before, I had to take Provera every month just to get it to start. By October 2015, I was ovulating on my own! Another HUGE victory!!!
Now, November 2015 rolls around. I prayed, "God, if you just bless me with one healthy baby I will never ask again!" Thanksgiving 2015. We went to Florida to visit my grandmother. I still remember, clear as day, taking the ovulation test in her guest bathroom and running to my husband in excitement that I finally saw a very clear positive ovulation - that was Thanksgiving day. I took another test on the day after Thanksgiving as well, and it was still very positive. Of course we "baby danced," and I thought nothing of it. I prayed. I prayed HARD. I thought "we did everything right - we timed it, God, you've got this!"
December 14, 2015 - positive pregnancy test!
December 21, 2015 - it's twins!
Sadly, January 2016, we lost one of the twins, but baby B was hanging on strong.
Fast forward to August 23, 2016 - we welcomed our healthy Rainbow baby!!! PRAISE GOD!
We spent the next year loving on our sweet baby boy like crazy!
Then in June 2017 I started taking CoQ10 again just to get my period back to regular because my body did not reset after baby one. By August 2017, on the day after our son's first birthday, I took a pregnancy test as we were evacuating our home due to Hurricane Harvey, I got a positive!!!
I prayed.
I told God I would never ask for another baby but since He provided, I wanted to thank Him, so every single night before bed I prayed. I prayed that this baby would grow healthy and strong and that we would get to meet him or her. May 1, 2018 - baby boy two arrived!! He was beautiful. We thought "okay, our family is complete."
Or was it...
I want to pause here.
I want to add that both of these pregnancies were considered "threatened miscarriages" throughout the whole first trimesters. Talk about stressful to read that on every single piece of paperwork at each doctor appointment - and I still have those papers. But y'all...I prayed!!!
Now, this is where things get crazy!
In January 2019, we started discussing another baby - would we? Should we? What if it's another boy? What if it's a girl! We wanted a girl so badly. I started taking Thrive - a 3-step system for health. We filled our time loving our boys and just enjoying their sweetness.
March 2019 rolls around and I started taking ovulation tests. I was still ovulating on my own - yay! I made sure to be careful not to "baby dance" on the days I was ovulating until we could decide if we were really ready for another baby. God has a different plan though.
April 11, 2019 - positive pregnancy! FREAK OUT!!! How?! How is this possible? I made sure we didn't "baby dance" on days I was ovulating.
First doctor appointment - ultrasound showing nothing. Blood work showed low numbers. This was not what I wanted to hear - I prayed, "God, you gave this baby to us, please allow him or her to grow!"
Second doctor appointment - ultrasound showed progress. There was a little black circle.
Third doctor appointment - ultrasound showed more progress. A Sac!
Fourth doctor appointment - ultrasound showed more progress. A BABY!!! There he or she was. Perfect as could be.
Doctor was amazed. He couldn't understand how it was possible. I was measuring 4 weeks but based off my period, I should've been six weeks. Baby was behind, but how?!
Turns out, God didn't care what science thought. I did ovulate on time and we made sure not to "baby dance," but then I ovulated again two weeks after the first ovulation. Amazing! The doctor had no idea how to explain it. Up until 12 weeks of pregnancy, we didn't have a due date. Doctor couldn't even determine when it happened. After 12 weeks, we finally had a due date...December 2019. Then in May 2019, at Disney World - of all places- we found out we were having a baby girl.
WOW! God's promises came through ten-fold.
Fast forward to December 10, 2019 - we welcomed our third and final baby, our sweet girl!
God is so big and so grand! Yes, we took vitamins but our third baby is a testament that no matter how much you plan or try to make something happen, or even try to avoid it, God will do what He knows is best.
I encourage you, if you are going through infertility, first go to God. It can be so hard. Yes, you're going to be mad - "why is everyone else getting blessed with babies but not you?" I get it! But trust me. You need Him!
Second, try the vitamin. Give your body a chance do what it was made to do. Try CoQ10 for a few months and see what happens. If you want to take what I took, then you'll need to take 600 mg of CoQ10 every day.
So, we won! God won!
Now, it's your turn! Good luck and if you need a friend to lean on, let's connect.