Jen’s long road to pregnancy

I was definitely in two minds about writing this pregnancy blog and putting it out there for the world to read. One part of me is scared shitless, it definitely leaves me feeling very vulnerable and truth be told I had a few tears while writing it! However, the other part of me knows that there are so many other women out there struggling with conception and if this resonates with and just one person and they choose to give natural therapies a go then it’s worth it! So hey what the hell!

Pre-pregnancy

Call me naive, but I thought getting pregnant was going to be as simple as having unprotected sex, and that a positive test would show up! Turns out I was completely wrong. Isn’t it crazy how we spend so many years trying to prevent pregnancy then when we are finally ready it can be one of the hardest things for many to do. I’ve always been very fit and healthy and thought it wouldn’t be too much of a problem falling pregnant. Although I was always active and fuelling my body with nutritious foods when it comes to my ‘time of the month’ I’ve never been too regular. Turns out it’s super hard to pinpoint ovulation when you don’t exactly know when your periods are going to come.

We had been ‘trying’ for a long time when we finally decided to go see my doctor. He said I should have no trouble getting pregnant, I just had to continue doing what I was doing and be patient. He said if I wasn’t pregnant within a year I had to rebook and we would look at taking the next step (drugs to help with ovulation, IVF etc). A whole year seemed like a lifetime on top of how long we had already been trying.

It was coming towards the end of that year and still no luck. The thought of having to put chemicals into my body to stimulate something so natural didn’t sit well with me so I decided to look into natural treatment options. After lots of research and chatting with a relative who happens to be a midwife I decided to give acupuncture a go. I hadn’t tried it before but thought hey what’s the harm in trying!

Natural therapies

My first session started with a good old chat. He looked holistically at my health, lifestyle and asked me a bunch of random questions. Do I get tingly hands, do I get cold hands/feet, do I like hot showers, do I eat lots of salads…. I was thinking what the hell, where is this going! It was quite bizarre! But through all these questions we were able to pinpoint exactly what was making my periods so irregular. A lot of it was to do with my body temperature, turns out it’s a struggle to grow a human if your insides are like a freezer! Who would have thought?

I really wanted that bun in the oven but had to work hard on getting my internal oven roaring. This took months of weekly acupuncture sessions, moxibustion (heat therapy), eating warm foods, taking my temperature every morning and believe it or not soaking my feet in a bath each night. I will never forget one moment lying on the garage floor, my husband lighting moxa cups (google it!) on me whilst I lay there on my yoga mat with burning herbs all over my stomach and tears streaming down my face! (Chinese medicine sounds crazy, but man it’s amazing!)

Worth the wait

These months definitely tested my patience. It felt like everyone around me was falling pregnant, close friends, my brother and his partner. Don’t get me wrong I was over the moon for everyone and super stoked for them all but at the same time, I was having a wee pity party in my head. Along with this I consistently had people asking me when I was going to pop one out! “You’ve been married a few years now when are you going to start trying for kids? You don’t want to leave it too long!” I found this time VERY hard, it definitely tested me and I hid my sadness from so many.

6 months into the treatment my periods were back to 30 days, I couldn’t believe it. Still, no positive test but couldn’t believe they had gone from anywhere between 55-65 days to 30. It was working! The next month came around and my temperature stayed elevated. I was waiting for them to drop but they didn’t. Something felt different, some people say some women can sense their pregnant. Over the past few months I had become so in tune with my body I knew something was different and the pregnancy test proved my thoughts right! 2 lines! They were faint but they were there! I was pregnant! I couldn’t believe it and neither could my hubby.

We didn’t want to get our hopes up so waited for the blood test to confirm the pregnancy! This all took place over a long weekend so you can imagine how long that wait was! Come the next week the Doctor confirmed it, we were officially pregnant and over the moon!

Trimester one

The first trimester was a good one. I was lucky to escape the dreaded full blown morning sickness. I got away lightly only having a few weeks of not knowing what exactly I felt like eating. My body definitely went through a stage of not wanting anything healthy. I had a few strange looks in the office when ‘healthy PE teacher Jen’ was smashing back left over greasy mac and cheese for lunch! Haha! I’m currently 22 weeks and have been feeling baby move lots over the past few weeks. Such an amazing feeling! I definitely look forward to my downtime after work where bubs seems to do all the moving!

Long road ahead

It’s still a long road ahead and I know it’s never safe until the baby is out and in my arms. Until then I’m focussing on fuelling me and bubs with loads of nutrients while sneaking in a few sweet treats to kerb the cravings. After all, it’s all about balance. I’m also trying to stay as fit as possible. Although my workouts have definitely slowed down (loving pregnancy yoga), I’m doing my best to workout at least 3-4 times a week and keep my stress low.

Although my journey to getting pregnant was a tough one, I know there are always people out there doing it harder!!! All I can say is hang in there and make sure you talk to someone about things, it definitely helps!

Jen x