Hi Geeky Readers!
My name is Chelsey, and I blog over at The Halbert Homestead I am a stay at home mom of Curtis and Evelyn. Today I wanted to share our journey to our daughters pregnancy, the struggles we went through, and how we came out on the other side. My hope is our story might encourage you if you are in the midst of trouble trying to conceive, or help you understand what someone you know struggling might be going through. I am by no means an expert at baby making, or have dealt with the extremes of infertility. However with a son born prematurely, a chemical pregnancy and a miscarriage, I often wondered if a second baby was even in the cards for us.
From January 2011 to February 2012 God tested us. Because our son was a "honeymoon" baby it really shouldn't be that hard to get pregnant? right? Well as it turned out, God has a different plan for our journey to baby #2. If you've ever experienced a miscarriage, then you might understand the need to get pregnant again. When we were pregnant with our angel baby, he/she wasn't planned. We knew we wanted our kids spaced 2 years apart, and we were planning on trying in a few months. The pregnancy was an awesome surprise and one welcomed with open arms. Unfortunately we didn't end up with a baby in our arms at the end. After the MC we started trying again as soon as we got the "ok" from my midwife.
My need for a baby grew each month, and each month I would hear comments "just let go, relax, it will happen" please do me a favor, if you know of a couple that is trying, or going through infertility, or a miscarriage... please.please.PLEASE. do not utter those words to them. It's not because you are saying them meanly, we know you care. But in that moment of wondering "if you can get pregnant, keep a pregnancy" you really don't want to hear all the reasons why you aren't pregnant, and the biggest annoying one is because you aren't "Relaxing or letting go"
We did every trick in the book, including relaxing, breaks, letting go, charting, etc... My prayers have been more fervent this past year and 1/2 then ever before. Not because I "wanted" something, because I was having deep conversations with God.. asking Him, seeking Him, telling Him the hard stuff, and giving over having anymore children to Him. Those are hard conversations to have with God and my husband.
Finally after 9months of TTC {trying to conceive} we went to see our Midwife Diana. We would have waited the "Recommended year" before seeing her, but I was nervous/anxious because of the miscarriages and complications with Curtis's pregnancy. She is super sweet, motherly, and is willing to help. She said we should wait until March (1yr of ttc) before she would do anything drastic regarding help getting pregnant. That wasn't our goal, we wanted to try and go as natural as possible, and not use medication. She wanted to have a few tests done, and highly recommended Acupuncture to us.
Before this appointment I had just read an article about Acupuncture helping fertility, She told us she just had a couple in a month ago, that on paper there was no way they could get pregnant, unless they went straight to IVF/IUI. She told the woman to try our Acupuncture to help relax and reduce stress {They were trying for several years} She went and within 1 month of weekly acu she was pregnant. They didn't do anything different, just added in acupuncture. I thought that was a pretty cool story. Since we were coming up on our Thanksgiving trip, and the holidays we decided to look into acupuncture after Christmas. {if we weren't pregnant by then}
Now I am by no means saying Acupuncture is the cure all to infertility. Our faith was in God to direct us were we needed to go, if we needed to pursue help. After the holidays and still not pregnant, after praying and asking God for direction we felt lead to give Acupuncture a try! My midwife recommended Fertile Grounds Wellness Center After our first appointment I was hooked, Cecily was so genuine, was on the same thought process that I was (meaning natural, looking at my whole body, nutrition, health) We did some blood work, all my tests came back normal. She told us to give her 3months, and we would re-evaluate and go from there.
After being a human pin cushion, (I kid!) all the sessions were super relaxing. After 2 months of acupuncture, 13 cycles trying, on February 13th, 2012 we saw this:
I believe God pointed us in the right directions this whole time, knew what he was doing, and ultimately lead us to Fertile Grounds where they helped us get pregnant. I HIGHLY suggest going to acupuncture if you are struggling TTC. You don't even have to be a year of trying, a few months or even the first month. There are so many benefits to acupuncture and so much more then just infertility they can help. I saw results within the first week, I use to get hormone headaches and now I don't. Plus many other results.
If you have any questions about acupuncture/our journey feel free to contact me, and I can answer the more personal questions.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Chelsey!
