As I was doing more research today to help my husband and I have a baby, I found several websites that are very helpful and give a lot of information that I didnt already know.
I also found out that there are many fertility drugs that can be taken by men and women and that there are several ways you take those medications. Either with a shot or a pill.
I also learned a lot about fertility treatments that you can have to help increase you chance of conceiving.
If you are trying to have a baby and you think things will never work your wrong, like they say, never say never. Hopefully within the next 6 months you will read in my blogs that I am having a baby.
Who knew that I would have to do all this research to have a baby when I didnt even try to get pregnant with my daughter?
Like they say patience is a virtue. So I guess being patient and not letting the small things in life stress me out, will get me what I want. That and a lot of praying to the lord.
I also found a few tips from therapists as how to help cope with not getting pregnant as fast as you want. Of course the pressure to raise a family can be enormous, and the thought of not being able to have children can make many people feel something is wrong with them.
Recognize that a fertility problem is a crisis. A fertility problem may be one of the most difficult challenges you'll ever face. Acknowledging this is a key to coping.
Don't blame yourself. Resist the temptation to get angry at yourself or to listen to the little voice in your head that's saying, "I shouldn't have waited; I'm being punished for having that abortion; I should have lost more weight or taken better care of my health; I shouldn't have assumed that I could have children when I wanted" or whatever negative thoughts you may be having. People can get caught in negative thinking patterns that only make matters worse.Instead of berating yourself, look forward to how you and your partner are going to manage the situation.
When you start feeling like you "should have" or "could have," remind yourself that your fertility problem is not your fault. Even if you could have made different decisions in the past, they're behind you. Concentrate on your future.
Work as a team with your partner. You and your mate should help each other through this time (and definitely not blame each other for your difficulty getting pregnant).
This doesn't mean you need to feel the same thing at the same time — that's one of the most common pitfalls for couples facing fertility problems. It does mean paying attention to what your partner's going through. If you're taking care of each other emotionally, you can unite to fight the problem.
Educate yourself. Read as much as you can about fertility problems and ask questions of your doctor and other couples in your situation. Staying educated is especially important when you're dealing with a fertility problem because the technologies behind the treatments are complicated and change quickly. You have to understand what is happening medically, so you can make good choices.
Set limits on how long you're willing to try. Some couples decide from the get-go that they won't go to extreme measures to have a baby. Others spend years and thousands of dollars exhausting all of their treatment options.
No one can tell you when to stop trying to conceive — that's a decision you need to make with your partner and doctor — but you'll feel more in control of your life if you start thinking in advance about how far you're willing to go to get pregnant.
Start by discussing your medical odds of getting pregnant, which treatments you're not willing to try, and your end goal. (For more help with this choice, read about making the decision to end fertility treatment.)
Decide how much you're willing to pay. With in vitro fertilization (IVF) averaging $12,400 a cycle, it's no wonder couples feel anxious about money, especially since women often need to go through multiple cycles before becoming pregnant.
To cope with the anxiety caused by the high costs of treatment, sit down and develop a financial plan. Start with your insurance: Find out exactly what it does and doesn't cover. If it covers some or all of your treatments, decide which one of you will monitor the paperwork and negotiate with the insurance company.
Get support from professionals and others with fertility problems. Society often fails to recognize the grief caused by infertility, so those denied parenthood tend to hide their sorrow, which only increases their feelings of shame and isolation.
If you'd like to talk to a therapist, look for one who understands reproductive medicine.
Just say no to baby-focused activities. If certain gatherings or celebrations are too painful for you — if all your siblings had babies in the last two years, say, or you keep getting invited to baby showers — give yourself permission to decline the invitation or at least to have a good cry afterward.
Balance optimism and realism. You need to be optimistic to go through a procedure. But if you're too hopeful — if your hope is unrealistic — you'll be setting yourself up for a huge fall. By keeping current on the technology and your diagnosis, you can get a good handle on what chance of success you have with each treatment.
The array of medical technologies available today leads many couples to keep trying month after month, year after year. But about a third of couples treated for fertility problems won't go on to have a biological child, and often they must make peace with that before they can move on with their lives. Staying realistic can help you make smart choices as you work your way through the emotional minefield of treatment.
Take care of yourself by pursuing other interests. Being treated for a fertility problem can feel like a full- or at least part-time job, so it's important to keep up with some of the activities or hobbies that bring you pleasure.
It won't be easy. Especially if you're doing something like going in for a blood test every other day, but look for ways to take care of yourself. Some recommend people get a massage, have a manicure — anything that can give them relief from the focus on fertility treatment.
If your old activities are painful — maybe all your friends are parents now — look for new diversions. If hiking sounds appealing, do that. Or take a class — painting, dance, or something else that's always tempted you.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Should I Be Worried About Having A Baby at My Age?
I am 27 and have put my body through a lot of challenges. Could the things I've done in my teenage years effect my body to the point its hard to get pregnant? What am I doing wrong that I haven't been able to give my husband another baby? I ask is it all me, could it be both of us? I have been to the doctor she said to try hard for 6 months, then they could do tests. I am trying to get my husband to go with me but I think we are both scared something will be wrong. If I cant have another child, then where do we go? There of course is always adoption, even though the baby wouldn't be our blood. There are plenty of good kids that need a good home. I wonder if we cant have a baby if my husband would leave me. That worries me a lot, but he is a good man and I am sure he would stick by my side. He already has many times, through thick and thin. So I guess we should just go to doctor and find out and get it over with, so there are no questions, so I can stop blaming myself for it all.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
After all the Research
After all the research I have done I hopesomething will work and soon. I dont want to be too old to have a baby and I dont want to have to use medical procedures to help me.
Why is it so natural for some people and so hard for others? Well I guess that weverybody is different in a lot of ways.
I get frustrated sometimes when my husband talks about him wanting a boy. I know he does and I want to give that to him, but then I ask what if I cant?
Will he leave m and find someone who can? We have talked about it an adoption is always an option as well, but its not the same its not our blood. Even though here are many kids out there who deserve a good home.
Why is it so natural for some people and so hard for others? Well I guess that weverybody is different in a lot of ways.
I get frustrated sometimes when my husband talks about him wanting a boy. I know he does and I want to give that to him, but then I ask what if I cant?
Will he leave m and find someone who can? We have talked about it an adoption is always an option as well, but its not the same its not our blood. Even though here are many kids out there who deserve a good home.
Natural Ways to help you get pregnant
If you and your partner have been given clean bills of health but you're struggling to get pregnant, you should know that some simple dietary and lifestyle measures can dramatically increase your chances of getting pregnant.
Use the Fertility Awareness Method to Time Intercourse:
During your menstral cycle you have about two or three days, during which your body is fertile. The beginning of the fertile window can be detected two ways:
1. Your basal body temperature.
As soon as you wake up every morning,take your basal body temperature orally and record it on a fertility tracking calendar.
as you get close to ovulating, your body temperature will drop slightly before sharply spiking upward- the change indicates ovulation has occured, and should happen within 12 hours of ovulation.
After charting your cycle for a few months, you should be able to notice a pattern to your daily basal body temperatures, and use this pattern to predict your fertile window.
Intercourse should occur from 1-2 days before ovulation to 2 days after ovulation. It's best to have intercourse every other day during this window, and to have the man save as much sperm as possible leading up to this window.
2. The quality of your cervical mucous.
As you approach ovulation, your cervical mucous will increase in quantity, slipperiness, and stretchiness, reaching a consistency that resembles that of egg whites. Ovulation typically occurs within two days of when your cervical mucous becomes like egg whites.
Cervical mucous that resembles egg whites is needed to facilitate optimal movement of sperm toward your egg.
Strive to Be at a Healthy Weight for Your Structure
Being underweight or overweight, can have a big impact on your menstral cycle. There are many reasons for this, most importantly your body fat produces a number of hormones- like estrogen and leptin. Too much body fat typically leads to a fertility-disrupting state called estrogen dominance, while too little fat is often associated with an undernourished state that can't support a healthy pregnancy.
Be Physically Active
Building and maintaining your muscles can help keep your blood sugar and insulin at healthy levels, which is important to preventing disruption of the many hormones that influence ovulation and fertility.
There are 3 types of activities that you want to engage in:
1. Weight training, hiking and climbing, and activities of daily living that involve heavy lifting. These activities will build and maintain skeletal muscles (lean tissue mass).
2. Brisk walking, light jogging, tennis, playing frisbee, swimming, dancing, yoga, and pilates. These activities will keep your heart, lungs, and blood vessels well conditioned (aerobic exercise).
3. Activities that promote flexible skeletal muscles. Such as dancing, pilates, and yoga.
Of course the only regard to exercise is to refrain from intense exercise that will keep your weight low.
How hard you should exercise depends on your current level of fitness, but a good guideline to follow is this: don't get to a point of intensity that makes it difficult for you to have a conversation.
Ensure Nutritional Excellence
1. Eat mainly plant-based foods:
French fries and potato chips
Foods made with white flour
Soft drinks and fruit juices
Beer and wine
4. Ensure adequate intake of folate and iron:
Folate (folic acid) is essential to the process of building and replicating DNA, and DNA is built and replicated rapidly during conception and pregnancy.
Folate is also essential to keeping your homocysteine level at a healthy range; high homocysteine can increase your risk of experiencing high blood pressure and miscarriage during pregnancy.
Healthy foods that contain folate include:
Lentils
Chickpeas
Asparagus
Spinach
Broccoli
Lima beans
Beets
Romaine lettuce
Oranges
Nonheme iron (found in legumes, vegetables, fruits, and plant-based, whole food nutritional supplements) can improve your fertility, most likely because iron, like folate, plays an important role in DNA synthesis.
Healthy foods that contain nonheme iron include::
Goji berries
Spinach
Lima beans
Lentils
Potatoes
Navy beans
Avocado
Work at Feeling Emotionally Balanced
When your body experiences chronic physical and/or emotional stress, it will convert progesterone into the stress hormone, cortisol. In fact, if you experience significant stress while you are pregnant, your body may actually draw upon your growing baby's progesterone stores to manufacture enough cortisol to meet your needs.
The point is, stress can lead to a depletion of progesterone, which causes estrogen dominance, which can disrupt your menstrual cycle and decrease your fertility.
Clearly, there are no easy solutions to transcending chronic emotional stressors. But it certainly can't hurt you to make time for journaling, meditating, praying, spending with people you enjoy, and doing things that you find fun and relaxing.
I hope that you will find thee facts helpful to you and good luck with your baby!!!!!!!!
Use the Fertility Awareness Method to Time Intercourse:
During your menstral cycle you have about two or three days, during which your body is fertile. The beginning of the fertile window can be detected two ways:
1. Your basal body temperature.
As soon as you wake up every morning,take your basal body temperature orally and record it on a fertility tracking calendar.
as you get close to ovulating, your body temperature will drop slightly before sharply spiking upward- the change indicates ovulation has occured, and should happen within 12 hours of ovulation.
After charting your cycle for a few months, you should be able to notice a pattern to your daily basal body temperatures, and use this pattern to predict your fertile window.
Intercourse should occur from 1-2 days before ovulation to 2 days after ovulation. It's best to have intercourse every other day during this window, and to have the man save as much sperm as possible leading up to this window.
2. The quality of your cervical mucous.
As you approach ovulation, your cervical mucous will increase in quantity, slipperiness, and stretchiness, reaching a consistency that resembles that of egg whites. Ovulation typically occurs within two days of when your cervical mucous becomes like egg whites.
Cervical mucous that resembles egg whites is needed to facilitate optimal movement of sperm toward your egg.
Strive to Be at a Healthy Weight for Your Structure
Being underweight or overweight, can have a big impact on your menstral cycle. There are many reasons for this, most importantly your body fat produces a number of hormones- like estrogen and leptin. Too much body fat typically leads to a fertility-disrupting state called estrogen dominance, while too little fat is often associated with an undernourished state that can't support a healthy pregnancy.
Be Physically Active
Building and maintaining your muscles can help keep your blood sugar and insulin at healthy levels, which is important to preventing disruption of the many hormones that influence ovulation and fertility.
There are 3 types of activities that you want to engage in:
1. Weight training, hiking and climbing, and activities of daily living that involve heavy lifting. These activities will build and maintain skeletal muscles (lean tissue mass).
2. Brisk walking, light jogging, tennis, playing frisbee, swimming, dancing, yoga, and pilates. These activities will keep your heart, lungs, and blood vessels well conditioned (aerobic exercise).
3. Activities that promote flexible skeletal muscles. Such as dancing, pilates, and yoga.
Of course the only regard to exercise is to refrain from intense exercise that will keep your weight low.
How hard you should exercise depends on your current level of fitness, but a good guideline to follow is this: don't get to a point of intensity that makes it difficult for you to have a conversation.
Ensure Nutritional Excellence
1. Eat mainly plant-based foods:
- Adding one serving per day of red meat, turkey, or chicken can cause an almost 33% increase in risk of ovulatory infertility.
- Adding one serving per day of legumes and nuts provides modest protection against ovulatory infertility.
2. Eat healthy fats; avoid unhealthy fats.
Avoid trans fats, eating trans fats typically leads to higher blood sugar and insulin levels, as trans fats hurt your ability to clear sugar from your bloodstream after a meal. Higher blood sugar and insulin levels lead to reduced fertility.
The most common of trans fats in the North American diet are margarine, shortening, French fries, fried chicken, doughnuts, cookies, and pastries. About 30 to 50 percent of the fat in most commercially prepared French fries, cookies, and doughnuts is trans fatty acids.
- Foods that are rich in healthy fats, and that can be eaten regularly to increase your chances of getting pregnant are:
- Avocados
- Olives and olive oil
- Coconut and coconut oil.
- Fresh, unroasted nuts and seeds (about a handful per day)
- Healthy fish
- Organic eggs
3. Eat foods that are naturally abundant in complex and simple carbohydrates; avoid foods that are rich in heavily processed carbohydrates.
Foods that are rich in heavily processed carbohydrates, and should be avoided whenever possible, include:French fries and potato chips
Foods made with white flour
Soft drinks and fruit juices
Beer and wine
4. Ensure adequate intake of folate and iron:
Folate (folic acid) is essential to the process of building and replicating DNA, and DNA is built and replicated rapidly during conception and pregnancy.
Folate is also essential to keeping your homocysteine level at a healthy range; high homocysteine can increase your risk of experiencing high blood pressure and miscarriage during pregnancy.
Healthy foods that contain folate include:
Lentils
Chickpeas
Asparagus
Spinach
Broccoli
Lima beans
Beets
Romaine lettuce
Oranges
Nonheme iron (found in legumes, vegetables, fruits, and plant-based, whole food nutritional supplements) can improve your fertility, most likely because iron, like folate, plays an important role in DNA synthesis.
Healthy foods that contain nonheme iron include::
Goji berries
Spinach
Lima beans
Lentils
Potatoes
Navy beans
Avocado
Work at Feeling Emotionally Balanced
When your body experiences chronic physical and/or emotional stress, it will convert progesterone into the stress hormone, cortisol. In fact, if you experience significant stress while you are pregnant, your body may actually draw upon your growing baby's progesterone stores to manufacture enough cortisol to meet your needs.
The point is, stress can lead to a depletion of progesterone, which causes estrogen dominance, which can disrupt your menstrual cycle and decrease your fertility.
Clearly, there are no easy solutions to transcending chronic emotional stressors. But it certainly can't hurt you to make time for journaling, meditating, praying, spending with people you enjoy, and doing things that you find fun and relaxing.
I hope that you will find thee facts helpful to you and good luck with your baby!!!!!!!!
Understanding Infertility
So I have heard that there aremany ways to try to have a baby.First you have In Vitro Fertilization. The standard definition of infertility is the inability to achieve a pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse in couples where the woman is under age 35. Because a woman's fertility declines naturally as she gets older, couples should consider seeking medical help after six months of trying when the female partner is over age 35.Age is very important in getting pregnant. It peaks, in a womans mid 20's and bgins to decline around age 27, then drops off more after the age of 35. For women, the ability to conceive is tied to the quality of her eggs. As women age, hormonal changes begin to take place. There is a lot going on but of particular interest are the two main hormones controlling the development and release of the egg each month. These are FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) LH (lutenizing hormone).A rising FSH level is linked to a decreasing egg quality. Decreased egg quality means it becomes more difficult for the sperm to fertilize the egg naturally. There may even be chromosomal abnormalities occurring within the egg itself, which is why amniocentesis is recommended for pregnant women over 35.To illustrate this point, the natural pregnancy rate for women >30 is 20-30% per month but by age 40 the likelihood of conception occurring drops to > 5% per monthTo illustrate this point, the natural pregnancy rate for women >30 is 20-30% per month but by age 40 the likelihood of conception occurring drops to > 5% per month.They say that 85% of couples trying to get pregnant will do so within the first year. And approximately 1 in 6 couples have a hard time conceiving and may require medical help.Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system that inhibits a couple's ability to have a baby. Infertility affects men and women equally without discrimination and for this reason both partners should actively participate in the diagnosis and treatment process.40% of fertility cases are attributed to women, 40% attributed to men, 10% of cases it is both partners, another 10% of cases the cause cant be found.
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