Baby #2! Due October 26, 2012

Preconception:

We started trying to conceive Jan 2011.  I believed it would happen quickly, because it did with Annika.  Summer of 2011, I was not yet pregnant so I went in for testing at West End Women’s Health Center, with the Vanderbilt Nurse-Midwives.  My hormones and blood levels were checked, and I had an ultrasound to check for fibroids (I had a fibroid found when I had Annika by cesarean).  I was then referred to a fertility specialist in October, who advised me to have three months of good timing and then come in if I hadn’t conceived.  It turns out, upon looking more closely at my Natural Family Planning charts (which we’ve used both to conceive and prevent conception since we got married) http://www.ccli.org/ , http://www.nfpandmore.org/. I was ovulating a week earlier than I thought.  With Annika my ovulation was a week later than I had been ovulating the entire time I’d been trying to conceive.  I had assumed it was the same, because my cycles were still long (like they were with Annika).  My luteal phase (the last phase of the cycle, after ovulation) had been lengthened, not my follicular phase (preovulation), as it was with Annika.  As a result, our timing was off many months – we never had two months in a row of good timing up to the point of the fertility tests.  Once we had this figured out, we corrected out timing, and we quickly got pregnant.

During this trying time, I gave up coffee numerous times (just in case) and tried different fertility helps, including a disgusting Chinese dessert “soup” consisting of dates, nuts and beans.  YUCK.  Ironically, I also read a huge fertility book “Making Babies” http://makingbabiesprogram.com/ and started to apply some of the principles.  In reality, the only change I needed to make was timing.

February 18, 2012 Journal Entry

It is pretty ironic, last year at this time we were waiting to see if I was pregnant.  Today we are on day 15 of temperature rise.  We will know within 6 days whether I am pregnant!  We discovered in November that we had bad timing several months.  I was ovulations about a week later than I thought.  In December and February we had good timing (we were apart in January).  We are super excited and anxious for baby #2, especially after all this waiting.  Annika has been praying “please can I have a brother God” and we have been thanking God for the baby he is going to bless us with.  I really have a feeling and hope this will be the month, but I don’t want to get my hopes up and be disappointed.