Worry Wart.

When I was still ttc I used to get annoyed at pregnant women moaning about their aches and pains. As far as I was concerned these women are just plain ungrateful and I had not a tiny bit of sympathy for them. They have been bestowed with a great blessing yet, here they were moaning about it. Oh, how wrong I was! These women weren’t complaining because they were pregnant. As I’ve learnt in the early stages of pregnancy, complaining/moaning is the only way of affirming the pregnancy.

According to my last scan, Bob should be just over 4 centimetres long yet I wake up everyday feeling like the top half of my body had been run over by a truck and by the end of the day I’m feeling as if I’d been hauling sacks of beans about all day. When you are not showing, and your body plays all sorts of tricks on you, you just have to find a way to keep sane. When something so tiny turns your world upside down, weird as it sounds, complaining is really the only form of pain relief. Dh is handling the complaints very well so far. Though when I over do it he doesn’t hesitate to tell me to shut up. Which I know I deserve…

Anyway, I promised myself not to worry and that’s exactly what I’m not doing. I caught a cough from my 3 year old cousin last week and I had a particularly bad bout of it while lying on my stomach which put pressure on my lower abs and caused me to double with pain. Now I’m worried something has gone wrong. Is it possible to cough out a fetus? I’m just wondering…

I haven’t had any cramps lately which I used to get a lot off initially and dutifully moaned about. My bb pain has significantly alleviated while as of yesterday my morning sickness has now become all-day sickness and I'm always hungry even though I still have zero appetite. Being the worry wart I’ve attributed all these to something being ‘wrong’.

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Had my first appointment with the midwife last week. Dh was happy to tag along. He’s been coming with me to all the visits so far, which I think is cute and had better enjoy while it lasts. They asked a shitload of questions and took like 5 vials of blood. She asked if I had a problem with needles, I said not when you’re infertile. I’ve lost count of the number of blood tests I’ve done in the past 4 years. You kinda get used to seeing your blood being drained out of you. It’s all good!

The funniest thing was when they asked if the baby belonged to my partner. I hesitated to answer because I just thought, with Dh sat right next to me, if it (God-forbid, I-would-rather-die-than-have-that-happen, damn-you-Satan!) wasn’t his, would I have said no. Then of course we all burst out laughing… and the midwifes said, well, on a serious note, they’ve had patients who weren’t carrying their spouse’s child. Eeks!

I still can’t believe this is happening. I keep expecting to have someone tap me on the shoulder and say, oops, you’re having someone elses dream. Next scan is in July – counting the days! I’ll be praying hard for a healthy baby and hope everything goes well.

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7 Foods To Avoid!

Source

Our food supply is not as healthy as it appears. A vital part of your quest to overcome PCOS is to improve the quality of your diet. To a great extent, "you are what you eat".

The Natural Society (naturalsociety.com) reported a survey of farmers that asked them what foods they avoid. Their list is below. If a farmer won't eat them, neither should you.

1) Canned tomatoes. Many cans are lined with a resin containing BPA, which is a hormone disrupter suspected of causing of PCOS. Since tomatoes are acidic, they leach the BPA out of the can and into the contents of your can.

2) Conventional beef. Most beef cattle are fed corn, soy or grain in order to make them gain fat weight. The fat makes the meat taste good and it is more tender. But the saturated fat may contain accumulated pesticides and other chemicals. Go with organic or grass-fed beef if you possibly can. Besides a better quality fat, it has a higher nutritional value.

3) Microwave popcorn. Don't be fooled into thinking microwave popcorn is a healthy, low-fat snack. The popcorn bags contain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which may interfere with fertility.

4) Conventional potatoes. Potatoes are among our commercial crops sprayed with pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Go with organic potatoes.

5) Farmed salmon. Farmed salmon is cheaper than wild. However, farmed salmon are fed with food pellets containing questionable substances, including chicken feathers. Farmed salmon tend to have higher levels of pesticides.

6) Conventional milk. Dairy cows are fed growth hormones and given a variety of other pharmaceuticals in order to maximize milk production. These substances carry through into their milk. 

7. Conventional apples. Our orchards are routinely sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals, for the purpose of producing maximum amounts of cosmetically-pleasing fruit. Once again, you are much better off with organic apples. Please remember that there is no "safe" amount of pesticide, just like there is no safe amount of cigarettes you can smoke. Pesticides are not easily flushed out of the body. They are stored in your cells where they do their damage.

[SOURCE: http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/pcos-news134.html#sec1]

Response

Thanks for your comment Sede, I sincerely hope your prayers are answered too. It’s really hard for us culturally because of the pressure from family and friends. This is where you just have to be strong and make sure you and your hubby are on the same page; knowing also that at the end of the day, what will be yours, will be yours. I used to tell the nosey ones that Gods time is the best, it is Him that gives/blesses and that they should just pray for me. That usually keeps them quiet. Don’t let them get to you and add to your stress.

Before I launch into a spiel, let me just say that PCOS affects everywoman differently. Two women can have the exact same hormone profile yet present totally different symptoms. So it’s important to ‘understand’ your body and know what works for you. What works for one cyster may not necessarily work for another. For me it’s always been a trial and error process. Secondly, before you begin tearing your hair out, I hope your Dh has been checked out just to rule out the male factor.

To answer your questions (And I’m more than happy to answer them), we didn’t do anything particularly different. When we BD for TTC purposes, we always used PreSeed which helps because if you’re ovulating but don’t produce EWCM you might think you’re not ovulating. Afterwards I always raise my feet up and prop up my hips for about 20minutes to nudge the little swimmers along (the de facto post-coitus position for serious minded TTC'ers, lol...)

I’m going to theorize and say that I do believe the Metformin ‘helped’. Because I’ve been doing the Low GI diet for over a year and while I was ovulating regularly, my ovaries were still polycystic. Meaning I may have had sufficient hormones to ovulate but not just enough to cause the egg to be released. I’d lost about 20kilos prior to starting Met, which was either in January or February. If you don’t know when exactly you OV it’s a good idea to BD every other day, but I always knew so we did it on that day.

I’m not sure if you’ve had an HSG done yet to determine if your tubes are fine. This is usually done if you’ve been ovulating and BDing but still not conceiving or are about to start any form of fertility treatment. I was told I had a blocked left tube and that was the tube I OV from. I remember feeling disappointed when I felt the ovulatory pain on my left side I told Dh that if he’s up for it we can BD otherwise we should just wait till the following month when I would hopefully OV from my non-blocked tube. I really wasn’t expecting it to happen, and when it did I feared it was ectopic. But everything turned out to be okay.

Miracles do happen Sede. I know it’s depressing when nothing seems to be happening. You just have to motivate yourself and take it one step at a time. You may have seen the flowchart for TTC with PCOS on my blog. It’s always been my guide. It really helps to have a plan and a sense of direction so you can evaluate what you’re doing at every step and make the necessary changes. For instance, you may want to try the natural approach for a year or 6 months, then move on to Metformin, then Metformin+Clomid, or you may just want to start Metformin right away if like me you were already pushing thirty with no bump in sight despite all your hard work, lol… it’s totally up to you.

If you’ve been trying for over a year, the first step will be to establish if you’re ovulating. If your periods are regular you can easily determine this, if they are not FertilityFriend is a great place to start!

If you’re not ovulating, and you’re overweight, losing as little as 7% of your current body weight is enough to jumpstart ovulation and restore fertility. I remember getting a positive OPK the second month of my low GI Diet. The Low GI diet not only helps with weight loss, but it also helps to balance out the hormones. Regular exercise also helps tremendously, so do multi vitamins and various herbs out there if you’re willing to give them a try. I have a friend with PCOS+Endometreosis who swore by DIM supplements and aloe vera juice. I never tried them personally, but it worked for her.

There are online communities for women with PCOS such as SoulCysters.net which I found invaluable in my TTC journey. There is so much information and you’ll always find someone who understands, a fellow cyster, to answer any question you may have.

I genuinely wish you all the best in your journey, and lots of baby dust. Always remain patient, and never lose sight of your goal. Like I never believed I could rid myself of sugar addiction or stop eating white rice and white flour, but I did and it was worth it. I remember being made fun off at a naming ceremony because I only ate the salad, but I didn’t care because I knew why I was doing it. If you’re resolved the strength will come. And it’s great if your Dh understands too and supports you. Good luck and I hope to hear your good news soon, :)