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Wow... so much to update!

We Have our baby!! We fell pregnant in Jan 08 naturally, no drugs no iui no nothing!! Well other than good old fashion making love and lots of it!

Thomas is now nearly 13 weeks old and bringing his own set of challenges.

See new blogg http://motherhoodafterinfertility.blogspot.com/

Napro 0 - infertility ??? (lost count!)

Here we are still baby less. Napro has not quite been the miracle that we were hoping for. After 6 months and now up to cycle 6 we are still not pregnant. Yep it is getting heart breaking. It almost gets to the point of thinking "Will it ever happen to us", "Are we always going to be a childless couple" or "Does god think we are really just not ready for a family"??

Speaking with my mum, it seems to be her opinion that I may have missed the boat age wise. All because I waited until I was married to start trying for a baby. I kind of wish I hadn't because I may have been a mother by now. But glad I did because I wanted to definitely be married first.

I have spoken with Gyno finally. He has decided that he does not want me to do have the ovarian drilling done without a second opinion. Which is fair enough in one respect, but he was very keen to do the same surgery 12 months ago with out a question. He has referred us to a fertility clinic (which is also an IVF clinic) for the second opinion. Sort of very nervous about being bullied into IVF. But reading up on the clinics web page they do have a procedure that helps for couples who have moral or religious objections to IVF. I think they call it GIFT. But we will have to look into it.

So right now we have put a stop to the clomid, and will use progesterone to help the cycle be of normal length. I think sometimes it is nice to enjoy being a couple without the pressures of TTC! We enjoyed a nice dinner out, which included some wine & beer. Than some good fun shameless sex when we got home. After all we are a good married couple who need a release of a Friday night.

Napro Round 2 The first half of the cycle.

New battle plan drawn for this cycle. Here it is:

• Clomid 50mg CD3-5
• Green tea every day until Ovulation
• Vitamin B6 every day.
• Robitussin from CD 10 until Ovulation
• BD every other day until fertile CM is highly present. Than BD every day until 4 days past peak.
• Follicle Monitoring via ultrasound on CD 10, 12 & 14 than one post ovulation. (To ensure ovulation has truly occurred.

So far I have had two of my follicle scans. They seem to be growing, but some that were big to start with have slowed a bit, others have caught up. So far I have 3 larger follicles that look like making it to Ovulation. But we will see what the next scan shows.

I have been getting a little frustrated. I have not been showing much sign of fertile CM. I really thought I would have a lot more by now, especially with the green tea & Robitussin. Time will tell.

Round 1 Napro with clomid

This is where many may get confused. Yes I had said no to clomid, but with out it, I just simply do not ovulate. I end up with masses of cysts and that is just not going to achieve pregnancy. But the dose of clomid on Napro is greatly reduced. I started out with 25mg CD (cycle day) 3-5. Yes that is right only three days at half the normal dose. This did work. I did ovulate. I just did not conceive. Not too sure why as the timing was perfect. My Lutural Phase was 21 days. YES 21 stinking days nearly a week longer than normal. So for that week, I was not sure if I was pregnant or not. It was hell!! I had to have major dummy spits at the Dr's office as they would not give me my test results in a timely fashion. It took from 9 am to 4pm to get the results and that was only after I broke down in tears & told one small white lie about medication. The test had been done early the day before and was ready the night before so it was not like they did not have the results.
After all this happened the Dr asked me how I felt about the cycle ending the way it did. I put it as pure frustration. Not sure why I would have a long luteral phase and not be pregnant. So this leads to round two.

My hunt lead me to Napro

After I sat down with my Dr's it was apparent that clomid was not a great idea. The headache alone with out the other complications were bad enough. So it was decided that we would see another Dr who speciality is Napro or Fertility Care. This Dr is also very kind and sweet. He is some what shy, which makes me laugh because John is very shy as well, until you know him.

This Dr has been amazing with us, he has incredible patience. My thirst for knowledge must drive him up the wall. But I still ask questions and I still keep looking to expand the boundaries. This is also a very good time to let you in on a bit of knowledge that may help you to understand why we have not taken the IVF route.

John and I have moral reasons not to. Both interestingly enough are different. John is Catholic and has been raised by a very good Catholic family. I on the other hand have other moral objections. Which relate back to a family issues and very old wounds. But the outcome is still the same. It is not a path we wish to take.

So while we are on the subject of exploring other options, Adoption is not an option and it is not by choice. We live in a country where adoption of baby's is very few and far between. Only about 200 babies are adopted out each year. Sad but very true. Even sadder is that we are not even eligible to get on that waiting list for adoption.

Now back to the Napro method. It is a charting method that explores a woman's fertility health through observation of Cervical Mucus. This method is endorsed by the Catholic church as a way of Natural Family Planning, and fertility health through all stages of life. I do have to say this it is not one for the undisciplined. It takes dedication from both husband and wife. It can require long periods of abstinence from sex at times when conception is not ideal, especially if the woman does not have a straight forward 28 day cycle with ovulation on day 14. (Or something similar.)

But do not fear, it is not all education about CM and away you go. It is also looking at the bigger picture when it comes to infertile couples. It looks at what the hormones are doing through the whole cycle and investigates the causes of the problems. So there is LOTS of blood tests, and other investigations. Luckily for us we had recently had the tests done and so we did not have to repeat them. With the exception of the bloods of course.

In the few short months we worked out that I have progesterone & oestrogen issues in the Lutural phase. So I now have progesterone injections on certain days to combat this. This also helps with the cysts that may form. Very recently we were able to find a large one on ultrasound before it burst. In the past Dr's have only done an ultrasound as an investigation of server pelvic pain, which has been the cysts rupturing. The Napro Dr gave me progesterone in a certain sequence for a week. The cyst dissolved it self with in a week after the last injection and I had started a new cycle.

Bring on the Clomid

My advice to anyone who thinks clomid and summer months mix, think again!! Especially if you live in a hot and humid climent.
I started the clomid in the Mid November of 06. All was well. I ovulated, my progesterone was high, and the side effects were there they were manageable. The headaches would only last a few hours and I only had hot flushes when I did anything that raised my heart rate.

But that cycle was not to be, I got the news a few days before Christmas that my blood test was a BFN. My Dr nearly cried. He was really hoping I would get a BFP for Christmas. Instead by Christmas afternoon my period had arrived. I was devastated, once again we were not telling the family. How do you tell them that Santa was mean and gave you your period instead a growing baby for Christmas. Yep tough going.

The next cycle was just the same except the fatigue hit me hard and the headaches got worse. I was sleeping lots as well. I also was not happy with what was happening with my pain meds. And I was still waiting to hear back from the General Physicians office for my first appointment as part of the high risk management plan. As many know getting the medications right before conception can mean the difference between a healthy baby and devastating birth defects.
This cycle went bust too.

So once again we started with cycle number 3. This time I had a headache (still left over from the previous cycle) that would not let up. It was with me night and day and was making me unable to function. My Dr just kept upping my pain meds, but with muscle relaxants and codeine. Which did not a thing for the headache.

So this leaves me to the night before Valentines day. I had been sitting on a deep couch watching TV before bed. I had some cramping pain (which I was putting down to ovulation/cyst pain), but I was not too concerned about it. But when I got up, I could barely walk. I almost crawled down the hall to the bathroom to get ready for bed. At this point I knew I was in trouble. I tried using my bowels to relieve the pain, whilst my bowels moved it only made the pain worse. I rang my Dr, it was 11:00pm at night. I felt bad because I woke his whole house up, including is young children (one of which answered the phone). He told me to call the ambo's and get to the hospital.

So off I went. I spent the next few days in a short stay unit at the back of the emergency department having even more humiliating examinations, tests and other things done to me. Only to find & fix a blocked bowel.

After that I swore off clomid and went on the hunt for something better.