About > Allison’s Story > IVF, Continued (SURPRISE?)
IVF, Continued (SURPRISE?)
We finally got to a place where we decided we would eventually give IVF one more go, but would first do a full 90-120 protocol of healthy eating supplements, like really go for it. Up until this point, I had been doing most of the things, but because this journey had gone on for 3+ years now, I knew there was probably more I could do. So starting January 1 of 2020, we both fully committed to doing everything we could over the next few months and to give this one more shot. So we kicked off the year committing to zero caffeine, alcohol and sugar (not that we had ever consumed a lot of any of these, but we also allowed for occasional indulgences). I also had some reset/ Whole 30 style meal plans through my meal planning company (PrepDish.com) and we started using those, meaning also no grains or dairy.
A quick note on these changes- up until this point, I have always been 100% gluten free, I’d gone through a 6 months of being dairy free, and while I never 100% gave up all sugar or alcohol, we eat very clean, mainly Paleo diet, when we do drink it is Dry Farm Wines (which are low alcohol, no sugar added). I have never been a coffee drinker and have gone off an on green tea over the past few years. My husband has always been a coffee drinker (anywhere from 1-3 cups per day). So I don’t want you to think these diet/ lifestyle change were drastic fo us, but basically wanted to be all in, especially knowing I was getting very close to my ending point.
Another key piece was that I was also making adjustments given my husbands sperm DNA fragmentation. I found research that simply ejaculating before trying to conceive could decrease the fragmentation on the sperm. So every month, we followed this protocol, just in case. We also decided we wouldn’t do anything to prevent getting pregnant and we would continue to try just in case. Again, I felt like with my age, I didn’t want to miss a potential month. And honestly, deep down, I still wasn’t convinced IVF was the best solution for us. At this point, we had made several adjustments based on testing results (even beyond the APS and DNA fragmentation diagnosis), so I was confident we were doing things differently now than we had been doing on day 1 of our journey.
Towards the end of January, not even 1 full month into our decision to go all in on the healthier lifestyle, I got yet another positive pregnancy test (#6 if you’ve lost count)! I immediately jumped in with my APS protocol of lovenox and was already on a daily baby aspirin as part of my supplement routine (which, btw, was now up to 19 different supplements/day!).
What Helped Me
1
Going “All In” on a Healthier Lifestyle
My husband and I both committed to going all in on a healthier lifestyle, including-
– no caffeine
– no alcohol
– no sugar, gluten, grains or dairy
– a strict supplement regimin
Now, we were always 80-90% of the way there on the above, so I’ll never know for sure how much this helped. I also hesitate to put this as I know first hand that doing the above is not realistic or helpful long term… It’s important that a healthier lifestyle not also be stressful, it’s a fine line!
Prep Dish Meal Plans
We used these meal plans from Prep Dish
(if you have autoimmune issues, you might want to try these).
2
Following APS Protocol
I continued to follow the protocol for Antiphospholipid Syndrome, including daily lovenox injections.
BABY #6 (VANISHING TWIN)
At this point in my story, we are caught up to the current year of 2020. It has been an interesting time to be pregnant!
A few things to note about pregnancy after going through recurrent miscarriage. The first trimester was HARD for multiple reasons. Of course, it is difficult to believe the pregnancy will actually take.