Falling Pregnant
I fell pregnant at age 26 and became a Mum at 27 to our beautiful baby boy Levi. Jason and I had been married for 3 years by then but together much much longer (12 years now!) we entered into parenthood excited and ready- or so we thought!
Let’s take it way back, since the age of 17 I had been on the pill, initially to help schedule my periods but then for contraception reasons, so for 6 years total.
I made the choice to go off the pill at the age of 23 (2 years before trying to conceive) as I wanted to see what would happen to my body without it, and prep my body for the day we decide we want to start a family. I then discovered I had progesterone issues, basically my body doesn’t make near enough!
Signs of this are seen in headaches/migraines, tummy bloating, hormonal acne, struggle to shift weight from thighs, belly, upper arms and chin, as well as many emotions fluctuating around ovulation and menstruation. All of which I was showing.
It took us 9 months of actively trying to fall pregnant, I was emotional, frustrated and stressed the entire time. Focusing hard on ovulation tracking apps, drinking smoothies filled with pineapple core and maca powder, exercising 3-4 times a week, taking prenatal vitamins and more, but my issue was stress.
I was told by my doctor that if your body doesn’t make progesterone naturally then when you're stressed your cortisol levels rise and counteract any progesterone that is in your system (this is not medical lingo or advice, but it’s how I understood what my doctor was telling me).
With my work getting more and more stressful and the desire to have a baby taking over my mind I was self sabotaging my chances of falling pregnant.
On top of that my pop Ron had been very sick, and anyone that knew me back then knows how close I was to him so this was always on my mind.
One day I was getting ready for work and got the phone call to say my Pop was in hospital and had only hours left to live, so we were advised to come and say our final goodbyes.
Fast forward a few hours we were at hospital as our beloved Pop took his final breath. I had ovulated that week but my husband who is FIFO (fly in fly out) was away at work so that month was a write off. Well he flew home to be with me and we thought we would give it a shot just in case the stars aligned. To our surprise they did, that was the month we fell pregnant! I’m not a huge believer in reincarnation but I think my boy Levi “Ron” (his middle name) has the same spirit as my beautiful Pop did and that fills my heart with all the warm fuzzies!
My Pregnancy
My pregnancy was pretty straightforward. I found out the day my period was due because I was always too eager to wait for the suggested “5 days after missed period'' to take the test.
I made a cute little “we’re pregnant” box to give my husband when he flew home the next day, then I called the private midwife my sister had for her babies that week to organise an appointment.
Ironically we had just sold our beautiful newish house and bought a little shed house to renovate on 3 acres land, when I say renovate I mean basically make it livable as it really wasn’t (no lights even just 2 power points with extension leads to lamps in every room!), and make it non “shed” like. All of which went through the days before I took the pregnancy test- que freak out, I had numerous melt downs, regret, fear and breakdown phone calls to Jason asking WTF have we done?
Pregnancy emotions are wild let alone changing all your creature comforts by choice at the same time.
I started to feel the expected fatigue and nausea in the mornings, I couldn’t handle coffee or anything really except maccas hash browns (which I conveniently happened to pass on my drive into work).
The worst symptom by far was that I suffered with migraines almost daily for the first 16 weeks. I was no stranger to migraines as my hormone imbalance means I have struggled with them previously, however this time was harder as I couldn’t take my usual medication and was trying to stretch out telling my workplace that I was pregnant as long as possible (I’m sure they were delighted to know that all my sick days and early knock offs were for a good reason when I did tell them at the early mark of 8 weeks).
After the 16 week mark my symptoms backed off and my belly grew and grew, as did my need to go to the toilet! Other than some sciatica which the osteopath really helped with, I did enjoy the second trimester. It was definitely the easiest.
(Photo above, 18 weeks pregnant on holiday in the northwest WA)
I did PT sessions with my friend who was also doing further study at the time to become a pre/post natal personal trainer and that kept my body moving and my stress levels down for sure.
Now for the most unexpected part of my seemingly “normal” pregnancy. I had heard of this strange thing that happened to my sister's friend where her hands and feet would itch like crazy at night. It ended up being a liver disease called Obstetric Cholestasis and guess what… I got it.
At 37 weeks it came hard and fast, I couldn't sleep I was so itchy so I told my midwife and got blood tests done the next day, the blood tests showed I was OK but was on the verge of being in the danger zone, scraping very close to having it, so I needed another blood test in a few days. I got another blood test done at 37+5, and the dreaded call from my midwife the next morning saying I had developed Obstetric Cholestasis and would need to organise to be induced in the next day or 2 as the risk of having a stillbirth increases after 38 weeks gestation with this condition!
We headed to our midwife's house for a cry, cuddle and check up. She suggested a stretch and sweep in case my body was in fact ready to get things going naturally to avoid induction, so we did that, well we attempted. It was excruciating, the best I can explain it was that it felt like she had a knife scraping around up there! Even though she wasn’t able to fully complete the stretch and sweep, she did say my cervix felt very soft and ready and that it could happen.
I went home to “relax” and get ready, and my husband rushed through the renovations we were trying to get done before we bought our baby home. I didn’t sleep a wink that night, had a panic attack at midnight fearing the impending birth, and the unknown of induction. I managed to get a couple hour’s sleep after that release and then off to the hospital that was an hour away at 5am.
Birth story to come…