Details of my Baby Journey

News: For those of you who didn't hear...baby schaublet will be...

We are so very excited and being the girly girl that I am of course I wanted a girl I could doll up! :)  A little Jeffrey Jr. would have been fun to have around, maybe next time though!!  Jeff wanted to have a daddy's girl, and knew how badly I wanted a princess too, so it worked out. :)


I'm not one to put myself out there on the blog, or share personal feelings but I felt that I needed to share my baby story in hopes that someone could benefit or relate to it.  Plus, it was good for me to take the time to document everything as a journal entry so I could look back on it later.  I know that while I was struggling to get pregnant if would help boost my spirit hearing stories from other friends who could relate or had gone through a similar situation. 


The Beginning...


This is the story of how our little miracle came about, yes...it was a miracle for Jeff and I to find out on Dec 23, 2010 that I had conceived and was capable of doing this naturally! :)  I often considered my infertility as a trial and something I felt that I could not find the strength nor the faith to endure, and at times had given up quite honestly.  Now being able to see the blessing from Heavenly Father's timeline I am so thankful that I had that extra time with Jeff; had I been able to get pregnant sooner I wouldn't have appreciated this precious miracle as much as I do right now. I think I would have taken it more for granted, but I had to really work for this and so with any trial that you have to work hard to overcome the end result will always be more fulfilling.  I do believe that Heavenly Father knows us better than we know ourselves, He puts that faith in us that we can carry the burden placed upon our backs. 


Prior to me getting married I did the quick thing and went on birth control, and actually had my first gyno appt at Planned Parenthood out of all places...it was a bit nerve wracking but I had no health insurance at the time.  I got off bc in March of 2009 and was making an attempt to cleanse my body of this drug! Let's just say that my body didn't react well to taking bc because once I made the decision to stop taking it I didn't have a regular cycle...which resulted in stress and confusion of what to do next!! 


 I knew that I should go to a Dr. to get things checked out and so I made an appt with the Contemporary Care for Women office that a friend had referred me to and met with a Dr. who gave me a lot of vague and generic info on what was "wrong" with my body when deep down I knew my body the best and knew that all these issues had stemmed from be being on birth control, in fact I knew that was the problem.  I wanted a 2nd opinion before I started my long trek of endless tests and Dr's appointments for infertility, so I got referred to Maricopa OBGYN from my friend Liisa Sharp who really liked her Dr, and he was LDS which brought me more comfort.


I was being immature and didn't want to go and see a guy Dr but got over that quick cause I thought they would be more sympathetic to my non-period body.  I went to go and see Dr. Brock Jackson Nov 2009 and after much testing he too said that I had something called PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome) meaning that my periods would be irregular and that I had tiny cysts on my ovaries, not something I wanted to hear.  The only time I did have a period was when I took progesterone which made my body have one, even then sadly enough I was not ovulating. :(  This was devastating news to Jeff and I that I could not be "normal" and just ovulate on my own and conceive when I wanted.


One important thing I want to remember is that instinctively my body always told me to hold off on the fertility drugs, cause the first thing Dr. Jackson was going to put me on was clomid, it's a very popular infertility drug that a lot of girls have to take, but of course it comes with it's risks. I felt that it was unfair that I would have to go through this and didn't feel safe going on it. Dr. Jackson was very thorough and made me go through a list of about 8 tests I had to get done before he would prescribe it to me.  I completed all of them, but took my time while doing it, which once again was a blessing in disguise. All my tests and blood work had always come back normal so it was hard to pin point what exactly was wrong. 

At this time I was getting impatient and had decided to go the route of infertility, but I couldn't stop thinking that this would only "mess" up my body more.  I needed to learn the value of patience, but wanted oh so badly to be in the Parents Club and have a baby of my own. I felt guilty for not being able to give Jeff a sweet baby, he so badly wanted to be a father...and what a great father he would make.


On top of everything some of Jeff's tests were showing minor problems, it was enough to send him to  a Urologist where he too had to get tested.  This was ongoing and very time consuming as we always had to wait for his results to come back and for someone to analyze them and say that something could be wrong.  So, during Nov-Dec 2010 we were in the waiting stages as I had the prescription to clomid in my day planner and was waiting for the green light from the Urologist to go ahead and get on it.


Jeff's last test was on 12/23/10 and that is the same day I saw those 2 blue lines on the pregnancy test which meant that I was pregnant!!!  Me...Elisa Schaub was going to have a BABY...FINALLY it was my turn and I could not believe it.  Well here are more details that led up to me even taking a pregnancy test...


For a while I had been told and convinced myself that since I didn't have a period I could not ovulate, and come to find out that was not true because I was able to conceive.  My last period was at the beginning of Oct 2010 and the only reason I had one then was because I went on progesterone.  I had been reading fertility books and they always said it was important to notice what your body was going through...I had noticed some changes, but not enough to think that I had been ovulating...and I wasn't even taking ovulation tests at this point either to confirm it.
  
When I did have my period in Oct 2010 the ovulation test came back negative...:( I had been feeling dizzy a lot and had a horrible cold so I was sick pretty much all of December.  Well Jeff and I had gone out to eat on Dec 22 at Red Robin and of course I ate a lot of their endless fries and plus their food is pretty greasy.  I woke up the next morning terribly sick...like I said I had a cold, but right when I got out of bed I felt like I was going to throw up!  I went to the bathroom and sat by the toilet for a couple of hours and would not let myself throw up for some reason.  Another thing that I felt was very off was that my breasts hurt so badly...they were sore...and it was not from working out!!!  With that I also woke up about 4x to go to the bathroom that same night...very odd! 


I had packed away all my pregnancy tests a long time ago figuring that I would not need them anytime soon, but I dug through all my bathroom stuff and found a cheap one that I had bought at the Dollar Store a while back.  Jeff was on his way back from his Dr's appt and I had called him letting him know I would just take one cause maybe, just maybe I too could be pregnant...


I peed on that stick and it showed those 2 blue lines that every girl wants to see...especially one that had been trying to get preg for over 2 years.  I didn't know what to do...I sat back on the floor and every emotion ran through me, of course I wanted to call Jeff and tell him.  I did...I called him and let him know that the results were positive...he said, "Elle, how could that be? You weren't even ovulating... well...it's a miracle and you can take another test tomorrow just to make sure!"  Of course we were both overjoyed to have received such a blessing, but I think shock overcame us as well so it was just a jumble of different emotions.


We didn't want to tell anyone our news cause we just were so unsure, I thought maybe the antibiotics I had been on might have triggered the positive results on the pregnancy test?  That night Jeff and I went out and bought a more advanced digital pregnancy test and I took that one the next morning on Dec 23, 2010 and it too came back positive. I was off work during this time and this all happened right before Christmas which ended up being the best present we could have ever received!!!  Things had been hard on us financially, so we weren't going to do much for presents that year, but knowing that I was pregnant was brought enough Christmas joy for us both. 


That following Monday after Christmas I called my Dr's office and made my first pregnancy appt for Jan 3, 2011.  I actually left work early that day for it so that Jeff could come with me, the Dr had also wanted to do some other tests. I met with a nurse and not Dr. Jackson who did an ultra sound and before that I took another pregnancy test and they too said that it came back positive. It was hard for them to pin point when I conceived because I didn't have a period, but from the ultra sound and after measuring our baby she figured out that I had been 6 weeks along already and this tiny pea looking thing in my tummy even had a little heart beat!!  


In the first ultra sound it looked like a baby butterfly trying to spread it's wings!!  I'm so glad that Jeff got to share that moment with me cause we both were so thankful and humbled for the opportunity to be parents.  He was so cute and kept asking the nurse all these questions!  I never wanted her to turn the monitor off, at that point I wanted to watch my baby grow right there and make sure that it was safe. I asked Jeff to purchase an ultra sound machine and he said I was crazy! Ha ha! 


The start to a new adventure...


Well that leads me to being 24 weeks pregnant and I'm feeling great! :) In sharing the details of my story I hope that I was able to touch someone's life or even just offer hope to a situation that can be so sensitive and overpowering.  I share my story knowing that there are many girls out there who have been trying to conceive for a longer period of time, but each situation is different for every couple.  I would say trust your body and give it the time it needs to run it's natural cycle, but most important do what you feel is comfortable for you, and hopefully at the end you will see that Heavenly Father does have His hand in all things and wants to bless us.