Thought I would share my story with you all. Not a regular poster, but a very regular lurker! Very occasionally I have posted questions on here and always received great support. Lots of posts lately have had me thinking “oh that happened to me”, etc. so thought I would share my story with you all. I always had a feeling I couldn’t get pregnant, so after coming off the pill in 2005 we thought we would just see what happened. Never really actively tried though.
I fell pregnant in July 2006, aged 39. I had been married two years and the pregnancy was a complete accident, but a very welcome one. I didn’t really realise how much I wanted a child until I fell pregnant that summer. As we were unsure of dates I had a scan at 8 weeks to date the pregnancy. This was great, saw the heartbeat, got the pictures, etc. and came away full of hope and dreams. Two weeks later I started bleeding, not much but very pink/red. It was a Sunday, we went to A&E who weren’t much use but they did book us into the EPU for first thing Monday morning. We went to EPU were the sonographer gently told us that the baby had died and there was no heartbeat. We were absolutely devastated, but were duly booked in for an ERPC on the Thursday afternoon (the first available appointment). By Wednesday, the bleeding had got much worse with crippling cramps. Cut a long story short, I was taken to the local hospital by ambulance where they put me on a drip. Four hours later I asked to go to the toilet and was aware of passing something big – but I was too frightened to look. Immediately after this I felt much better and went home. All the same, the doctors still operated on me the next day to remove anything left. After this episode I had realised how much I wanted a child and was aware I wasn’t getting any younger. I started to read up on ovulation, intercourse timing, etc. (had no idea previous to this!). Started taking folic acid and tried again.
February 2007, another positive test. Great joy all round. Just told our mums but secretly thought this would be it. Six weeks later, miscarried again. Over the next few months I started to have really, really bad periods where I would be passed out in the bathroom with the pain. I had had a couple of episodes of this in the past, but it was becoming more regular. Mentioned it to my GP on a routine appointment and she immediately thought it could be endometriosis and referred me to a specialist in the local hospital. Over the next few months I had further investigations, a hydroscopy which confirmed I did have endometriosis, and then a laparoscopy. January 2008, I had what I thought was a short period. Five days later I happened to do an ovulation test which was extremely dark. I knew from experience my tests never went that dark, so did a pregnancy test – positive. Couldn’t really understand what was going on, but did tests over the next few days which became progressively darker. Five or six weeks later, miscarried again. The hospital did loads of tests and the only conclusion was that it was a twin pregnancy. Absolutely devastated by now.
It was around this time I was referred to the Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic at the local hospital. They were fantastic. Did loads of tests on me and my hubby which unfortunately all proved inconclusive. We tried and tried, all to no avail. The Clinic had put me on a much higher dose of folic acid (5g) which is only available on prescription and advised me on some other meds to start if I got a positive test. By the end of the summer, nothing had happened and I was now 41 years old. The consultant thought I may not be ovulating because my cycles were getting longer. He prescribed Clomid which I was to start taking on day 2 of my cycle. That month we only DTD twice as we were just waiting for my cycle to start so we could start the Clomid – it never came. I was PREGNANT naturally! We were obviously so frightened and never believed it would lead to anything. We had a scan at 7 weeks pregnant at which we saw a heartbeat, but of course this meant little to us as we had seen this before. The doctor then signed me off work for a month (until I’d reached 12 weeks) and they advised me not to lift, hoover, etc. I’ve never been so bored in all my life. Anyway, four scans later I am now 27 weeks pregnant and can feel my baby moving at the moment. We found out it was a girl which has made everything extra special. The pregnancy has not been easy, we’ve both been complete nervous wrecks and still are a bit, if I’m honest, but I’m finally beginning to realise that this is actually going to happen. I am due another scan next week to check growth, etc. I feel so blessed and wanted to share the story to say, don’t ever give up trying. xx