Suck it up!

After several more months of “trying” on our own and a couple handfuls of negative home pregnancy tests (Yes, I was too impatient to wait each month…don’t judge me). Getting pregnant seemed to happen so quickly and easily the first time, so what was the hold up now?  We decided to reach back out to our OB for some advice. He suggested we try some oral fertility medications and surely that would do the trick. So we experimented one month with a drug called Femara…no dice.  The next month with a drug called Clomid which proved to me that hot flashes are in fact completely real, not something my mother has made up over the years to justify pumping the AC up in the dead of winter (Sorry for doubting you Mom. J) But unfortunately still no pregnancy.  The doc did some additional blood tests on me and some tests on Chad. The OB speculated that I might have something called polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The easiest way to explain it is that it’s a hormonal imbalance that can potentially create complexity with fertility.  Even though physically I didn’t quite fit the typical PCOS criteria on paper I seemed to match up.  But no biggie many women have PCOS and go on to have lots of healthy babies.  Our OB suggested we head to an expert aka a reproductive endocrinologist (sounds fancy I know).  So we ventured off to meet our new friends at Toledo hospital. Our RE was terrific! We did some additional testing with him and again everything came back all in the “normal” ranges. So he started us on a fertility plan with a combination of oral meds & injections for a week or so each month followed by a series of ultra sounds to check our progress. Now for those of you who know me you’re probably laughing right because you know I’ve always been the girl that would pass out even thinking about giving blood or getting a shot.  I must admit I did have a few crying spells and a few days where I completely psyched myself out with the needles. Chad would always come in the bathroom, make me laugh and give me a pep talk (and by pep talk I mean like the locker room speech right before the big game kind of pep talk). I still laugh remembering how animated he was giving them. But the thing that really gave me the strength to endure this needle filled routine month after month was my commitment to reading the bible daily, listening to a Christian music station called K-LOVE every time I was in my car, volunteering at the children’s ministry at church on the weekends and the bible study group I joined at work. The more I studied the word the more I realized that if Jesus could suffer the unspeakable agony, humiliation, torture and crucifixion to redeem me, then I clearly had absolutely ZERO right to whine about a little poke in the tummy a few times a month. What was I thinking? I needed to suck it up and I did. I prayed like crazy for God to give the doctors wisdom and Chad & I strength to endure this journey.  Especially since I've heard what a strain fertility plans can be on marriages and we are still technically newlyweds. But no worries this is sure to be short temporary thing...right?