Can Working Out Improve Infertility?

When I first learned about my infertility I dove myself into working out.  My infertility issue was hormonal.  I wasn't producing the right amount of Lutenizing hormone, which makes you ovulate.  The doctor had a theory that it was due to me being on birth control for so long, 9 continuous years.  

To get my mind off of everything I began working out.  Something I had always done, but for the last year I had only been a runner.  I did some research online to find a good workout program.  I came across something called BodyRock.  It is a free daily workout program using H.I.T.T training (High Intensity Interval Training).   I began their month challenges 5 days a week.  It was great to do and gave me something to look forward to everyday.  I never realized how big of an impacted it would have on me and my life.

After 3 months of doing the workouts I found out I was pregnant.  I had to ask myself, was it the combination of working out with this program and prayer?  I truly believe the answer to this is yes.  Research shows that working out helps to balance out a woman's hormone levels.  I think the key was the type of exercises being preformed with this program.  Apparently, running wasn't enough because I had been doing that for 7 months and nothing had changed.   Then magically after 3 months I was expecting my first child.  I really believe that this type of exercise can impact hormone levels enough to change a women's body chemistry.  

If you are suffering from this same type of infertility I would suggest trying this program.  I will attach a link to their website for those who are interested.  You never know it could change your life too. 

 http://www.bodyrock.tv/

LEEP = High Risk Pregnancy

At this point we were so ecstatic that everything seemed fine with the baby.  The pregnancy was just to early to detect during the first visit.  I was officially 7 weeks, due date Nov. 22, 2012 Thanksgiving Day!  As the doctor went over my records she began to ask me about my previous surgery I had a few years earlier.  I had a LEEP procedure, which is a removal process done in cases of woman that have precancerous cells on their cervix's.  When I had the procedure done I was never told about the side effects, something I should have ask about, but didn't.  My OBGYN began to explain the worries with this procedure and pregnancy.  Narrowing of the cervix that can cause infertility may occur.  Also, after a woman has had a LEEP procedure, she has a higher risk of delivering a baby early due to the thinning of the cervix.  This was a concern for my doctor.  She said that I would not only have to see her, but also a high risk specialist.  I could look at this two ways, worried that I might deliver early, which was a high possibility either way.  Or I would get more ultrasounds and see my precious baby, I chose the second one. 

Our next step was to contact our insurance company, Tricare and wait for a referral.  Those reading this that are military understand the long process of waiting for approval.  It always seems to be a hit or miss of whether it's an easy process or not.  Luckily, for us this time within a week we had our referral.  You might have to jump through loops every once in a while, but overall military coverage is great and well worth the hassle. 

Our appointment was set to see the high risk doctor in 2 weeks.  Now it was just waiting until then. 

Waiting

Those two weeks were two of the hardest of my life.  Not knowing what was going on.  Waiting to see if I was going to start having symptoms of a miscarriage.  Up to that point I hadn't had any previous signs, but never experiencing something like that, how would you know what it felt like?   Spending countless hours on the internet trying to figure out what was going on.  If I wouldn't have had the support of my husband I don't know what I would have done.  All of the experiences we have faced together had made us grow so close over the last year.  He was always so optimistic, telling me that everything was going to be okay. 

The second week was the hardest.  It seemed that the days would creep by.  All I wanted was for our doctors appointment to get here!  I would try to redirect my focus on doing other things, but it was always on my mind.  

On the morning of our doctors visit I was a nervous wreck.  As we were driving we neither one spoke, just held each others hands.  I was trying to hold back tears as I watch the cars pass by us on the interstate.  I was trying to prepare myself for the worst, but mentally I just couldn't grasp it.  When they called us back my heart was going a hundred miles an hour.  It didn't matter if I was ready or not the time had come for us to find out one way or the other.  

When the doctor put the ultrasound up to my belly I remember holding my breathe.  I just couldn't breath until I knew one way or the other.  I was praying to God to let us hear or see something.  After a few seconds we heard what we had been longing for, a heartbeat.  It was hard to make the baby out, but they knew it was in there and that was all that mattered.  Our prayers had been answered, there was our baby, our little peanut. 

Deployment & First Office Visit

Deployment & First Office Visit

This was absolutely the happiest moment of my life!  Knowing that God had blessed me with this wonderful miracle.  My husband left that Friday morning going into work.  Once I was alone I began to thinking about his possible deployment.  Everything had changed now, I didn't want him going anywhere.  I wanted him to be able to experience this with me.  But, unfortunately we wouldn't have that choice, it was up to the Air Force.  I tried to look at the bright side, if he left now, he would get back just in time for the birth.  I would much rather him be here for that instead of the pregnancy.   Later that day my husband came home from work.  He told me the best news, it seemed that they weren't going to deploy after all.

That following morning I began to have denial so I took another pregnancy test, it read positive.  On Monday I set up an appointment on base and got a blood test, a requirement for our insurance company, it came back positive.  After getting these results I called and setup a visit with my OBGYN.  

The morning of my doctors appointment I was so anxious and excited.  What was going to happen, would we get to see the baby, hear the heartbeat?  We had no idea what to expect, but was ready.  After the typical physical exam was done it was now time to get out the ultrasound.  My husband came up beside me and held my hand.  This was it, the big moment of seeing our baby for the first time.  As the screen came on we waited to see our little miracle.  As we set there waiting the nurse looks at us without saying a word.  She turns off the machine and we are so confused, why didn't see show us the baby?  She begins to explain that she can't find a heartbeat or the baby. 

I look at my husband confused and devastated.  What did this mean, I didn't understand.  All the test came back positive, how could she not see anything?  She began to explain to us what possibly could be going on.  I could have miscarried, in the process of miscarrying, or it was just to soon in the pregnancy.  She scheduled us back in two weeks.  Now we have to wait...

Could it be....

Pregnancy Journey

Since the reality of deployment was upon us, my husband wanted me to take another pregnancy test.   I was reluctant because we had just taken one a week prior.  We went out and bought another one, but I wasn't ready to take it just yet.  I told him that I would wait until the morning.  I knew taking it was the right thing to do.  If my husband did deploy then he had the right to know he was going to have a baby before hand.  

The next morning I was ready to take the test.  As we waited for the results my husband looks at me, asking if I'm okay.  I was feeling so many emotions between a possible deployment, never having a baby and feeling so alone in this situation.  It doesn't matter how much friends or family members try to understand what you are feeling and going through, they can't.  Only those that have been in similar situations will be able to relate to you. 

My husband looks at me and says, "What if we are having a baby?"  As he says this to me I see out of the corner of my eye the words we have been longing to see for almost a year, "Pregnant"!  

I jump up and down saying, "We are having a baby!!"  That moment I will never forget.  The overwhelming joying and happiness of knowing I'm going to be a mommy!  

Struggles with Infertility

My Pregnancy Journey

We decided to start trying for a baby shortly after my 29th birthday.  A woman automatically thinks that they will become pregnant as soon as they are ready.  Even though we were both ready emotionally and financially, it just wasn't happening for us.  Here we were 7 months later, still no baby.  I had my annual doctors appointment at the gynecologist that month in December.   I was told that my hormones were out of balance and I was not ovulating.  My options were that I could wait it out and see if things get back to normal, or I could start infertility treatments. The chances of getting pregnant were very slim.  After the initial shock and a week straight of crying, I did the only thing I could do, I prayed.

I asked God to give me the strength and the knowledge to know what to do.  I decided that I would put it in God's hands and what he wanted would happen.  I began to redirect my day into exercising and trying very hard not to focus on having a baby.  That following March I had notice I hadn't had a period yet, it had been 40 some days.  I spoke with my husband and we decided to take a pregnancy test.  As we waited those long excruciating minutes my heart was racing.  As I looked down at the bathroom counter grief filled my heart as I seen the words flash on the screen "not pregnant".

One week later, my husband came home from work.  He had a concerned look on his face and I didn't know what could be going on.  He sat me down and proceeded to tell me that he was told he might be deploying.  Through my mind I tell myself, we knew this would happen, we will have time to prepare for his departure.  I started going through my head what all I would need to do for our first deployment.  Then the shocker came, if it happened, it would be in the next 48 hours.

A soldier's Girl - POEM

I have came across this poem many times and thought I would share :)


A SOLDIER'S GIRL

One night a soldier looked up into the heavens and made a plea to God.
"God I'm so alone down here.
All I do is fight and face the deamons of the earth.
Please send me someone"

So God called forth his angels and asked them to help create a soldiers girl.
"Boss give her strenght!" cried Michael
"So that she can bear the weight and pressure of always packing up and going with her man at a moments notice"
God was pleased and added strengh.

"She must have patience!" called forth Gabriel
"So that she can have the understanding of the stress of the job that is required of her man"
God was pleased and added patience.

Peter thought about it and said
"let her be compasionate, so that she can sooth away the nightmares and horrors that the soldier will see"
God was pleased and added compassion.

Jesus went forth and said,
"Dad give her faith, faith that her man loves her
and that no matter what it takes he will get home to her"
God was pleased and added faith.

All the saints and angels looked and said
"God she's perfect! She is beautiful and she is the one for the soldier"

A small angel took a closer look and saw a tear falling down from women
He looked up and said "God she's crying, why are you making tears for her?"
God looked down and said "I didn't put that there"

To love a soldier is to take on the hardest task in all the world.

Married to the Military

Summary of the last 2 years

I'm going to start my journey from when I met my husband.  He had just enlisted in the Air Force.  We started out as friends, but over months of being together we realized that there was more there than just friendship.  Five months after we met he left for BMT. I didn't know were our relationship was going to go from there.  We knew we loved each other, but as we all know, love isn't always enough.  Of course, when someone you love leaves for the military you always hear the bad.  People saying that they are cheating, it's not going to work, you can't trust him.  I heard it all the time.  I can't say that it wasn't hard to hear.  But, I knew how much we loved each other.  I had faith in our relationship.  After many letters back and forth, I decided I was going to go to his BMT graduation.  Luckily I did, on Feb. 13, 2010, I became engaged.  I couldn't believe after 7 months I was engaged. Logically, it seemed that it was so soon, but I knew in my heart their wasn't anyone else for me.  On July 10, 2010 I married my best friend.

What I didn't know was I not only married my best friend, but also the military.  I up and moved to Mississippi since my husband was in tech school.  Unfortunately, he was not allowed to stay with me during the week.  So here I was a new married woman, in a new place, no car, no friends and a weekend husband.  We made the best of it and enjoyed the time that we had.  Before that we only seen each other periodically, so anytime was better than no time.  We were in Mississippi for 5 months.  Then we were moving again, PSCing, as the military likes to call it.  We were relocated to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma.  

So here we are just celebrating our 2 year anniversary.  We have had a hard road at times, between getting to know each other on a married level, moving twice, missing family and friends, deployment scares and family deaths.  I must say that through all of it, the military has always been there for us.  My husband works a typical 7:30-4:30 job, with great benefits and is home every night.  I'm very thankful for this since we are expecting our first child!