Hey all! I’m back with the post I promised about a month ago 😉 haha!
First, I want to share some insights that we found out during my c-section (and a backstory from my past), then I thought I’d update on life with Brooklynn. So here we go! 🙂
Infertility Insights
So, as I’ve mentioned before, after my c-section I was able to learn a bit more about my infertility. Essentially, my lower abdominal area is completely coated in scar tissue. The reason for this is from my appendicitis in November 2003. For those of you who don’t know that story, I’m going to share it now. If you already know the details and don’t want to read it all, feel free to scroll down to the update section.
On Halloween of 2003, I had a terrible stomach bug. I remember being so upset because I was a freshman in high school, and I was still going to try to get away with my last year of trick-or-treating with a pillowcase with my friends. However, I was at home with a fever and running to the bathroom. I also happened to be on my period during this time (sorry but this is important to the story). I was having terrible cramps (so I thought) which during that time in my life was fairly normal whenever I would get my period. A few days later, the stomach bug seemed to clear up and I went back to school and back to my daily life. However, at 3am on November 6, 2003, I woke up doubled over in pain and dry-heaving. My parents told me they were going to take me to the emergency room. I was lying on the bathroom floor in the worst pain of my life telling them I was fine. Really I was just scared, I was not fine at all. When we got to the hospital, they thought I either had a terrible ovarian cyst or appendicitis. I went for a CT-scan around 7am. I remember thinking they would find what was causing the pain, fix it, and I’d be back home by that night. Boy was I naive. The scan showed that my appendix had ruptured, and I had to be prepped for surgery ASAP.
The next details I was told a day or two later, because I honestly don’t remember the night/morning after surgery. Once they opened me up, they realized that my appendix had actually ruptured about a week before (sometime around Halloween). Somehow, I didn’t realize it (I blame the period cramps) and my body formed a kind of “pocket” around the ruptured appendix. At 3am when I woke up, that pocket had ruptured. My body was filled with so much infection. They found gangrene and E-coli, and it had spread across my entire lower abdomen. They also told my parents that I was probably less than 24 hours from dying when I got to the hospital. Terrifying. Then, a week later they found another small pocket on my left side that had to be removed! Luckily, that was the last of the infection, and on November 20, 2003 I finally came back home!
Needless to say, after all of that, I have A LOT of scar tissue in my lower abdomen. I knew this, however, after my c-section, my doctor told me it’s some of the worst she’s seen. She told me she was not surprised at all that I had to do IVF to get pregnant. She said that my left tube (the only one I have) was completely covered in scar tissue. She also told me that a piece of my small intestine was in the wrong spot (!!) so they had to take it out, clean it up, and put it back where it belongs. So not only did I have to have my right tube removed before we even started with shady grove because of my appendix, but now I found out that it is probably the main reason for my infertility.
However, I am lucky to even be alive – so no complaints at all! Not to mention we now have beautiful Brooklynn 🙂
Quick Updates
So speaking of beautiful Brooklynn, I figured I’d add a little update on how things are going with her. She is about 3 1/2 months old now (just over 14 weeks), and is doing great! She smiles all the time and laughs now, she can hold her head up pretty well for a small period of time, and she pretty much sleeps through the night. We are so incredibly lucky and blessed!
A couple of weeks ago, I started trying to be a bit stricter about a schedule with her. She is getting the hang of it (after a setback from daylight savings). I try to get her to take a morning nap about an hour and a half after she wakes up, then she generally takes a longer nap mid-day, then an evening nap. At night I’ve been sort of cluster feeding her, and she usually takes another short nap before bed. I’ve been trying to get her down around 8-8:30, but sometimes she fights it. In fact, while I’ve been writing this, I’ve had to get up a few times to put her pacifier back in her mouth and comfort her back to sleep. However, she will generally sleep until about 5:30/6am, wake up for a quick feed, and go back to sleep until 7:30/8am.
Once again, I need to mention that we are aware of how incredibly lucky we are. Bobby and I both hope we get this lucky if we have another.
Speaking of having another baby, I will make my next post about our plan to try again. I know it seems soon, but we want to have our kids close together, and we are paying a monthly fee to keep our embryos frozen. So the sooner we have another, the sooner we can have one less bill a month. (Only to have the addition of another child added to our budget – haha!)
Anyway, we are going to try to meet with the doctors at Shady Grove sometime in May to plan for a July transfer (if possible), so I will update more when I know more!
As always, thanks for reading and supporting! We love you all!