September 28, 2013: Kory and I got married! We knew we both wanted kids, preferably sooner rather than later. We both wanted to be young parents and knew we wanted multiple children, but we also wanted some time to just be married! We decided to postpone the baby-making for a while. (Disclaimer - while we weren't actively trying to conceive, our birth control methods were less than stellar, and my older sister commented multiple times on her shock that we hadn't had a "surprise" miracle).
December 2013: Well that lasted long. How fun would an anniversary baby be? Plus it takes most healthy couples 3-12 months to conceive, and considering our lack of surprises, maybe it will take a bit longer for us? Maybe we should just stop "preventing" and see what happens!
May 2014: I downloaded Glow, an app that tracks your cycle, fertility, provides tips for conceiving, and has a community function that allows you to ask questions, make polls, and get support from other app users. "This should help, at least with the timing."
Please note, while our parents are incredibly loving and supportive, and we are extremely grateful for all they've done for us, we chose not to inform them of our decision to start trying. They all thought we were still quite young and needed to be more stable in our careers before thinking about a child. We, on the other hand, were in the mindset of "there's never a perfect time to have a baby, but people make it work with much less than we have".
September 2014: Well, obviously no anniversary baby for us. But a trip to Chicago was a wonderful anniversary treat for us. Just keep trying...
November 2014: Hmmm, that's weird. I haven't gotten my period since September 9th. I didn't get my period at all in October. And negative pregnancy tests ruled that option out. And now it's mid-November, still no period. That's it, I'm calling in the professionals!
November 26, 2014: Dr's appointment summary: Blood-work drawn to run a pregnancy test (negative), Prolactin check, and TSH check. Prolactin and TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) both come from the pituitary gland and are important for fertility. Prolactin check was normal, but my TSH level was 2.69. For a normal healthy person, TSH should be 0.4 - 4.0, but for someone trying to conceive they want it to be below 2.5, so mine was slightly elevated. Lack of a period (amenorrhea) is a concern if it's been three months, so I'm instructed to report back for another blood pregnancy test and a Progesterone challenge if dear Aunt Flo doesn't show by December 9th. The Progesterone challenge just means I'd take some high doses of Progesterone to kick start my period. I'm also told that due to my slightly higher TSH, if we don't conceive in 3-4 months, I can come back to have it checked again and potentially start further testing for the scary "I" word (infertility).
Normally Dr's won't refer young, healthy couples to a fertility clinic unless you've been trying to conceive for over a year, but due to my uncooperative uterus we get to jump-start the process! Yay?
Did I mention I HATE having my blood drawn? So this was fun. Little did I know it was only the beginning. To be continued...
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