I gave birth to my youngest. Gosh, it seems like only yesterday I was emailing everyone to let them know i was going to be delayed with their reading as I had a newborn! Time really does go by quite fast.
When we decided to start trying for our youngest, I immediately used my positive thinking techniques that are located in this blog (use the label section on the left side to access this information). I actually got pregnant the first month I tried this. I was excited, but also shocked to learn I would have another child in the same month as my first. If you actually look at my posts in August 2007, you will notice a post about a dream I had. Involving me and my sister and my dad going into a tunnel/waterslide and coming out at the bottom, and eventually going into another area that had two pools. The funny thing is, I remember this dream to a T, and even translated wondering if it meant i was pregnant.. which sure enough it did.
With my pregnancy with my first, I bled off and on during my pregnancy, and found out how common this really can be. So if you are pregnant and experinece bleeding, please dont panic at first. It can be a number of reasons and doesn't always mean a m/c is about to happen.
My second pregnancy was more textbook including the fact I had swelling in my ankles! That was NOT fun!.
With my labor, I wanted the baby to come on her own. Within a few days of her EDD, i used visualizing techniques, seeing my cervix opening and relaxing, and seeing myself give birth to my healthy baby girl. This was about 2 days before I actually gave birth. The fun experinece was, that the night of May 25th, my eldest, had woken me up at 1:30am. (so technically the morning of the 26th) She had to goto the washroom. Not normal for her to wake up, but fine whatever. I goto the washroom myself and notice I am bleeding. Of course, like any other pregnant woman I panic and worry about what is going on. I call the hospital who tells me to just come in and they will check me. My husband, used to me bleeding during pregnancy with my first, tells me to just relax and come back to bed (this is funny now, but was not funny then! lol). I tell him I would rather go in and get checked for piece of mind. My In laws come to watch my daughter and we head into the hospital. I am concerned worried, something is going to go wrong, but on the Radio comes the song "I'm coming out" by Dianna Ross. It was then I felt more comforted. My labor started around 2:30am. My youngest was born (I used the gas for pain relief) at 7:33am. (my eldest was 3:37am - I think its cool that its the same numbers, just backwards).
I love reading birth stories and fertility stories, so please, if you would like to share either, I will draw two winners. One for birth story and one for a fertility storey. Winner to be announced on FRIDAY
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Okay even though I gained a healthy amount of weight and even though my doctor at first didnt think I would have it. I did. I had gestational diabetes.To to be on the safe side she wanted me to have an induction at 39 weeks if I didnt go on my own.
I had been at 1cm for the last few weeks so I had to go in the night before to soften my cervix with something called cervadil. So that night after they inserted it hurt so much, they had to put me on some medication to keep me loopy. I hardly got any sleepfrom the pain and my son would kick them off. Oh yeah and that was the first time I had an I.V and it was done by a student nurse so it hurt so MUCH! It wouldnt be until the next day they would start the pitocin.
My doctor came in. I was in pain. She said they have someone do my epidural sometime soon. But oh the nurse told me a different story. With it being my first child and because I was hardly dilated she said it wouldnt awhile before they would do that. That whole day I whined for the epidural. I had contractions that whole morning. They told me I possibly may not have my son until the next day.Well it wasn't until the evening they finally did my epidural, which they inserted my catherter as well. I still felt in pain on one side. It was excruciating pain as my big contractions were happening. It turned out my epidural was working only on one side. So they had to redo it. They kicked my partner out again so they can do it again. Honestly the epidural wasnt so bad at all. They numbed me in the back, I just felt the weird shock from the numbing shot. And then they carefully inserted the epidural. Of course my head is in a nurse's chest and her consoling me as they do this.
Finally it was done. So I layed back and was able to sleep. My mother came in and my waters broke. Heard the sorta loud popping sound and had waters everywhere. So knew by that night I would have to give birth to my son. I was excited as I wanted to see my little boy.
So anyways my parents wanted to leave for awhile and wanted me to call once I was ten centimeters. My partner and I rested some they woke me up and told me I was at 10 centimeters. I ended up calling everybody that I knew who would want to be at the birth. I had time to wait. I had to wait on my doctor.
My parents and Jeff's aunt and uncle came to wish us well. My mother stayed in the room because I wanted her by my side at the birth as well. I remember vomitting badly and my mom helped cleaned me up. Jeff couldnt as he has a weak stomach and started puking too.So finally I am ready to give birth. My doctor is there. My mom by my side and Jeff above my head massaging my head and playing with my hair. Everyone encouraging and telling me to push each time they saw a contraction I believe on screen. By this I still do not know if the epidural wore off or what, but I could what I think was everything. It was painful!!! I know I for sure pooped on the table. Totally gross. I would push with each contraction and listen to my doctor. And it couldnt of been more than 30 minutes or an hour later after pushing my son was born! I didnt rip anything down there so I didnt need any stitching. Super lucky. I didnt think I would tear up after having him, but I did. I remember his first cry. Didnt think a sound like that sounded so beautiful, but it is. His daddy held him and had cut his cord. When they cleaned Aidan up they said he had a fever so they had to rush him out to get him checked out before we could have him again. That upsetted me, but I also had a fever apparently so thats what caused it.
So they wheeled me down to the postpartum section. I still had to get my blood checked to make sure the diabetes went away as it should after birth. For whatever reason my blood sugars seemed high at first. But they went down and seemed fine. They finally brought in my sweet and beautiful little boy. We actually were able to come home on Thanksgiving. My son was born Nov. 25 2008 at 10:23pm
redreila89@yahoo.com
Happy birthday to your youngest!! Man I think I've been following you for at least a year, if not longer now. Actually it's been longer since your first reading said I'd be pregnant or deliver in June and I was going to be due in the middle May, but miscarried.
I wish I could say bleeding is normal, but I had it three times and three times it led to devastation. Speaking of which, did you receive my request for an updated reading? I sent it off about a week or so ago after I had my previous miscarriage.
Let's see... my birth story is always a hoot. February 13th I went in because I was a week late and I was told I'd either be induced or deliver the next day. So they stripped my membranes and sent me on my merry way. The contractions hit me hard and were going on every few minutes, but when I went to L&D at 7 pm they said I wasn't dilated enough to stay there. I was told to walk around until 9 pm and they'd check me again - still 3 cm.
Well, they sent me on my way with some tylenol and ambien (both of which didn't last long in my stomach once we got home). I spent the night with contractions every 2-4 minutes with no relief in site. It was a bad night for my husband and mom since they were hanging out with me until the wee hours of the night. Around 5 am I think I finally fell asleep - on my birthing ball! It was the only place I could relax so I sat on my birthing ball and rested my head on the couch. As you can imagine, it was a funny site. It offered some relief, but I still woke up every few minutes contracting.
Around 10:30 am I decided to take a bath - I was really uncomfortable and felt like I had to use the bathroom but couldn't. In the bath I felt like I needed to check "down there" and realized something was bulging out! A frantic call to L&D they told us to get there and quickly. I think I shocked my husband too since he was still trying to catch up on sleep, just to be yelled at to get up and ready because there was something coming out. LOL.
When we arrived my husband, not thinking parked in the underground parking instead of dropping me off to the doors! So, as you can imagine, when he was parking I already was out the door running. I got there 10 cm dilated!
The only thing that kept me from delivering quickly? A water bag that wouldn't break and his shoulder or something caught on my pelvis. He was born 1 1/2 hours after we arrived.
As for fertility... that's another story. All I can suggest is if any one here is over weight to try and lose at least 10% of your body weight - that's what worked with my success story. The other three miscarriages I've had I've been 20-30 pounds over the weight I conceived my son at. I really think weight loss can help people overall - especially when a lot of us are insulin resistance and pre-diabetic (which can cause fertility disruptions and miscarriages) due to our weight and don't even know it.
Best wishes.
Our fertility journey has been a very long and painful road. For three years, before we did IVF, everytime I went to the dr to start IVF, they found another problem. It seems like I had a procedure or surgery after every visit..lol..the story of my life! Finally, when we first started IVF, I was taking the birth control pills and bled extremely heavily for 2 wks. We had to wait again, because I had to have surgery...yet again!
I had 8hrs of endo removal and 3 fibroids removed...oh, don't forget the lil polyp in there too.
Finally, November of 2008 came and we started IVF for real this time! I didn't mind the injections, but trying to do them while at work is hard. I was the only female officer at the time, and all of the guys wanted to know what I was doing. They offered to help me do my injections in my stomach...lol I think they wanted to get me back for something! lol
January of 2009, we did our transfer and our second pregnancy test was confirmed on Valentine's Day - TWINS!! They put in 2 and we froze 3.
It was my first pregnancy and I could not have asked for a better one. No morning sickness, no side-effects, nada! We found out in May that they were 2 little stinky boys!! My husband could not have been happier :o)
Then June 8, 2009 came: Baby A's (on bottom) sack ruptured during the night and I started leaking amniotic fluid. I went to the hospital that day and was admitted. Had to make it to 30wks, and I was only 21wks 6days and already dialted at a 2.
On June 16 I went into the beginnings of labor...but didn't tell anyone. I knew what was going to happen. On June 18, they checked me and I was at an 8. After the nurse scolded me, like a worried mother would do, they rushed me to L&D.
I think the only funny thing about that day, was that the doctor who did my epidural, is a fireman that works with me...lol I was like, "OMG, well, I guess you have seen me to the fullest now and you better not take any pictures!"
12hrs later, Angel was born at 6:29pm naturally. He lived for 2hrs. After he was born, we heard a cooing sound coming from the window. We saw tiny feet bouncing around. The dr told the nurse to lift the shade and we saw a beautiful brown dove staring back at us, cooing. He was there for about 10 minutes and then flew away. We felt it was Angel telling us he was ok.
The dr tried to save Baby B but said that there was an infection and he had to come out. He was a stubborn lil boy and would not turn. Matthew was born at 10:53pm via emergency c-section. Matthew cried when he was born and I will never forget hearing him. I only wish my husband was in there to have heard it. Matthew also lived for about 2hrs.
They were buried together June 26, 2009.
Since then, I have had 2 miscarraiges from the FETs...one the day after Thanksgiving 2009 and one April 1, 2010 with a D&C.
The other day, I was at the cemetery checking on our babies. Well, I have been asking for a sign from them so I could see them and hold them again. All of the sudden I saw 2 beautiful twin black and yellow swallowtail butterflies flying around, as if they were playing together. They landed on the ground and stayed together for a long while...I took pics with my cell phone. One of them flew around me and landed on their headstone. It let me hold it on my finger for a couple of mintues, before flying back to the ground. It then flew all around me and in my face a little bit, as if to play with me. The other one seemed to be scared of me and would not let me hold it, but did let me get close to it. So, I called my husband and started crying. I have seen them one time since then. We like to think that they are our sons Angel and Matthew showing us they are still around the best way they can, for now. Our babies will be a year old on 6-18-10. I take everything a day at a time and struggle in doing so.
I have never experienced the joy of pregnancy or childbirth, but with my faith in God, I know my time is just around the corner...
My husband and I married February 14, 2009... After praying diligently for my mate, God sent me a man, who I had crossed paths with years ago and from our first date we just meshed together... After three months, he asked me to be his wife... 8 months later we were married... I knew in my heart that one thing was still missing from my childhood fairytale.. A child of my own. Through the struggles of infertility, I thank God for my husband and for my twin stepdaughters who are the light of my life... The relationship I have with the girls, most of the time is the only thing that gets me through the rainy days... All the love I have for the baby boy who comes to me in my dreams, I lavish on them, in hopes that someday that son of mine will become a part of all of our lives and complete my dreams.....
Hi Cheri,
You’ve heard my story before when I’ve ordered predictions but I figured that I’d share anyway since I love to read other’s stories. Right now I’m just a fertility story but hope to soon have a labor story. :-) I could write paragraphs about my story but basically we be really trying (charting, etc.) for exactly 2 years. About 9 months ago after all the customary tests I was diagnosed as unexplained infertility. My insurance as an infertility clause so we went into debt just getting tested so IUI or IVF aren’t really an option at the moment though it doesn’t really matter because my bf is against doing either and I kind of need his assistance, lol. I was prescribed Clomid but don’t feel I need it as I O on my own so I opted to try acupuncture and tcm instead and have been going since November 09. No baby yet but a lot of my other symptoms are improving – less cramps, less painful cramps, no more clotting, less heavy periods, more energy, etc. I go once a week and it’s expensive so I’m not sure how much longer I can go. Most recently my temperatures during and right after my period have been high which my acupuncturist said is a common pattern in women with endometriosis; the only way to know for sure is a laparoscopy. I’m hoping I get my miracle BFP before I have to consider the surgery. In your past predictions you’ve seen both February and June so hopefully this is my month! If anyone has any infertility/acupuncture stories, I’d love to hear them; I’ve been quite down about the situation lately and some success stories would be great. Especially those that don’t involve procedures like IUI or IVF. I’d love to hear from someone who got pregnant through acupuncture alone. Thanks everyone and thanks Cheri; your blog really helps me to stay positive!! Danielle T
I have a labor and delivery story. I have two children. My first child my water broke around 11pm. And of course my doctor was out of town, turned out she was on her way to tell her family that she was pregnant.
Anyway, the doctor that did deliver my child will never be allowed near my body again. he was rude and crude and I was inconvenience to him. But the labor went well, had the epidural, and delivered a very healthy baby girl.
With my second, I knew the time was coming, but I wasn't positive. Sent my husband to work that morning. I was contracting some but nothing I felt was painful. My daughter and I went to Target to do some last minute shopping. I talked to some friends there who later said they had no idea I was in labor. I drove myself to my weekly doctor's appointment where I discovered I was at 6 centimeters. The staff about flipped out. They kept saying don't squat don't bend over we don't want your water to break. Anyway, went to the hospital about 3 hours later had a beautiful baby boy in my arms.
Sorry, I had to tell both stories. I just feel like a horrible mom if I pick one over the other.
With my first we waited wayyyy too long to go to the hospital. I was only there 1 1/2 hours before delivery. I was sitting at home in a chair when my water broke (I had been having contractions for over 24 hours) and my mother started to panic and said we just MUST now go to the hospital. My husband who is a farmer was finishing up chores and then hopped in the shower, and me who was inexperienced with labor said, "Okay, we'll go as soon as DH gets out of the shower." On the way to the hospital the contractions were 4 and 5 minutes apart and I kept telling my husband, "Drive faster!" I think he pushed 90 mph a few times! LOL Our home was 45 minutes away from the hospital. Funny story now, but then I was not very happy with that car ride!
The times your daughters were born is so neat! My son was born on 04/05/06 at 7 pm. When we realized it, we were like, No way! Pretty neat when that kind of thing happens.
_Julie S
Danielle T. I wish my fertility story would give you hope about acupuncture, but I have not had success yet. My husband and I have been ttc since 2007. It has been a rocky period, full of frustration and anger. I have shaken my fist at the universe, I have pleaded with the divine, and I have bargined with the devil (not really, just seems more dramatic). Our troubles began from the onset. My husband had ED and that made it hard to have sex. When we would it was sporadic and unsustained. After 6 mo. of trying, but not really trying due to the ED I decided to go to my ob/gyn to get checked out. I did it to encourage my husband to go to the doctor for his ED. I went Jan '08 to get a check up and blood work. I figured everything would come back normal... My ob/gyn called me within a week and said she was referring me to a RE b/c my FSH was too high. She told me I had ovarian failure. I panicked!! I cried! All I could think about was my desire to have a child of my own, my lifelong dream. Now that was in jeopardy. I hid within myself for a couple of days then I started doing research. I pulled endocrinology and reproductive health articles. I found that my FSH was not done correctly. It was drawn on day 12 and was in normal range for the ovulatory cycle. I still needed assurance and I was scared b/c what would I do if I could not have a child. I went to see the RE. All my blood work came back normal! Instead of the RE sending us home and telling us to have more sex, we were advised to start IUI if we wanted children b/c we were not getting any younger. I was a ripe old age of 32 and my DH was 33. The fear drove me to accept this nontruth as fact and embrace the RE's bad advise. Fertility treatments are harsh. They break you down physically and psychologically. I did three cycles of IUI producing 2 vivable focilles each time, which did not result in pregnancy. The RE upped the dose of clomid and decided to do another round, still nothing. I underwent more testing. The RE thought that I might have a partially blocked rt. tube, but was not sure. I had a HSG and the rt. side did not back fill, but it ran the lenght of the tube. He said it could have been and spasm and said it was worth repeating, but it still might be hard to determine. My options were to undergo exploratory surgery or try IVF b/c he did not want to continue IUI if one of my tube was blocked. I opted to go else where. I began IUI with injectables with another RE along with acupuncture hoping for better results.I had three good cycles on injectables, but no results. I had two cycles where i did not stimulate at all. My RE wanted to redraw my FSH and LH. My FSH came back elevated this was right around the holiday time. To make things worse I had to spend the holiday with my in-laws and watch them coo over my husbands sister who was five months preggo. I decided to try and move on and stop thinking about having a child, but after a year of drugs and IUI I had a dream about twin baby girls (Mar. '09). I thought that this was a sign from God. I went back to my RE knowing that this was it, but it was not. I did not response to the the drugs and they wanted me to try donor eggs.
Continued post responding to Danielle T. Every emotion flooded through me in a moment. I wanted to strangle my RE. I told him that donor eggs was not an option for me and I would not be coming back. I would find someone who could help me or find a way to let go. In May I came across several postings for Brooke777 on a fertility blog. I was told that I would conceive/find out in Jul-Sept. Those dates passed and no BFP. My DH and I discussed IVF, our ins did not cover it. We had to do it the natural way. I researched every herb and alternative treatment that was out there for fertility. I was doing acupuncture, tai chi, massage and herbs. I utilized positive thinking techinques. I ordered numerous natural fertility books and DVDs. The holidays rolled around again and I was still not pregnant. I was depressed and isolated and could not bear to be around my sister-in-law and her baby. My DH went to visit her without me for the holidays. As I sat alone Christmas day I was compelled to surf the web for fertility information, something I had not done in a while. I came across Cheri's blog and readings. I told myself I would accept whatever she told me and if I knew kids were not in the cards for me then I could move on. I got my reading back from Cheri at the start of the new year. She said that I would have a boy and that he related to April. This gave me hope. I also contacted Brooke for and update and she told me Mar/Apr. I told myself I had to get through three months for something good to occur. I resumed my acupuncture again and started my vitamins and herbs again. April passed and no BFP. However, I did find out that my FSH is normal again. I sent Cheri and email asking for an update and she told me that she still sees April for a boy. I joked with Brooke about both her predictions being right that she was a year off. I would conceive in Jul/Aug and give birth in Mar/Apr. , but truly I don't know if this will come to pass or not. I guess I will wait for Jul/Aug and then try and move forward knowing that I did all I could do to become a mom. At this point it is hard to remain positive b/c I feel as if I have been walking in the fire for so long and the dark soot covers and conceals all the beauty that use to show so plainly.
Although, this is not the most positive of post I hope that it helps others going through a similar struggle connect knowing that you do not struggle alone. Also, before you take in drugs or allow doctors to label you forever impacting your psyche make sure that they pay close attention to your partner. The greatest lesson that I learned was that the medical system still discriminates and disparages women. Be the master of your fertility!
Fran K.
My journey started last year. My husband and I decided to start trying in October and I stopped my birth control pills and got to work. I did a TON of research and started charting that month. I was absolutely convinced that I was pregnant that month but was dismayed when I started bleeding about 10 days after ovulating. I figured I had just been hopeful and didn't know what was going on after all.
About 10 days later I took an ovulation test. I knew it was probably too soon but I was impatient. It was instantly positive so I took a pregnancy test and lo and behold, I was pregnant! I was overjoyed and wrote off the prior bleeding as one of those things. I called my dr and went in for a blood test to confirm.
The next day the dr called back and told me that my hormone levels looked low and I needed to repeat the test in two days. I was a little worried but was still in a bit of a daze from the positive test. I went in and had my blood drawn and figured I'd have to wait until Monday for the results.
I didn't make it to Monday. Friday night I started bleeding - a lot. I figured that I was having a miscarriage and was sad but something told me that I needed to see the dr. I went to the instacare where they pulled my lab results and told me that my hormone levels were doubling appropriately and they sent me to the ER.
At the ER, they hooked me up to an IV and drew blood and took labs. They sent me for an ultrasound to take a look inside. It was quite uncomfortable and the tech kept it on my right ovary for a long time. Finally the dr told me that they found no baby in the uterus but there was a mass in my tube. I had an ectopic pregnancy. I had to get injections of a chemotherapy drug in my hips to stop the growth of the baby and cause a miscarriage.
I was heartbroken but didn't actually break down until a few weeks later. I feel mostly recovered now, but since I still haven't conceived since then it's getting harder. I am confident that it will happen in time but some days it's harder to remember that.
Hi Everyone,
I know that it has been a few days since last postings, but thought I'd share my story and where I am in my infertility journey. It's true, you/WE are not alone in this. My husband and I have been trying for our first miracle since October 2008. We were married in August of 2008 after being together for almost 5 years. We knew we didn't want to wait too long to start trying for a family. Well, a year passed with no good news. My ob started testing in June of 09. My bloodwork showed fine. I went in in August for an HSG, everything showed normal. My husband finally buckled and went in for testing realizing nothing was wrong with me. He had some sperm issues (low morphology due to a condition he was diagnosed with called varicocele). I decided on my own to go to a RE for a second opionion because my ob didn't seem to be in any sort of rush like I was. The RE put my husband through the same sperm analysis to get a reading on their own. Based on THEIR results which were more strict, he had 0-1% morphology (means normal shaped sperm). They wanted us to go right to IVF, she had all the confidence in the world that this would work in the first shot, since that was our only issue. January 2010 started IVF cycle #1 - Only 7 eggs harvested, with ICSI, only 3 embryos developed. Two perfect embryos were transferred on day 3. Pregnancy test two weeks later - negative. RE had no idea why this happened. She was still confident so we went right into cycle two. Eight eggs harvested but only two fertilized, and they weren't in good enough shape and didn't make it to transfer day. Cycle #2 - a bust. This was easier to deal with in one sense because I didn't have pictures of embryos transferred that I fell in love with like the first time. Went in for follow up to figure out what the heck was going on and it turns out that we are not only dealing with a sperm issue, but an egg issue as well. My body just doesn't produce many eggs. So I've got poor quality eggs and ovarian reserve. As you can imagine, this was devastating to hear. But we are in the middle of cycle #3 giving it one more shot before a LONG break from treatments if it doesn't work. I'm also doing acupuncture and have been taking something called dhea that has been shown to help with egg quality. My angel friend Jess showed the Medium I went to a baby at the end... and I never told him about what I was going through until she said that. Cheri also gave me a reading and she didn't tell me no babies, so I'm not about to give up just yet. As much as I didn't want to do this 3rd cycle and deal with the physical/emotional stress all over again, SOMETHING was pushing me to do it. So I am. I followed my gut on this one and am praying this is the one that's meant to be. I'm trying to keep calm and stay positive. I've read two fabulous books I'd recommend to anyone in my situation. One is Empty Womb, Aching Heart by Marlo Schelansky (sp?). And the one I'm reading now is called Baby Hunger: Biblical Encouragement for Those Dealing with Infertility. The second book has helped me just leave it all in the hands of the powers that be, which is helping to keep my stress at bay.
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