So, let me give you my basic stats.
- I am 30 years old and have been a runner since high school, but not competitive. I have run 4 marathons with a marathon PR of 3:15, as well as numerous half-marathons, ten-milers, etc. I love running. It centers me and frees me unlike any other activity.
- My husband and I have been happily married since May 2004 and I am 22 weeks pregnant with my first baby (boy!) that I conceived during my first round of IVF in February 2008. I am (surprisingly) running during my pregnancy...which is wonderful on many counts. First and foremost, that I am finally pregnant and carrying what appears to be a healthy baby. Secondly, after curtailing my running for a year while "trying," I am finally able to run as much and as often as my legs will let me. I feel blessed to be able to have an active pregnancy after having such a difficult time conceiving.
- My journey with infertility began in February 2007, when three months shy of my 29th birthday I could no longer ignore my urge to have children and I finally realized there would never be "a right time" and I would never be prepared enough to say I was ready to be a parent and finally quit the pill after ten years. We tried for a couple of months, but didn't really pay attention to when we were having sex because we were also planning a big trip to Peru in April and knew that I wouldn't be able to take some of the vacines needed for the trip if I was pregnant. My cycles were irregular after stopping the pill and ranged from 32 to 44 days, which suggested some ovulatory dsyfunction. After our trip to Peru, I got serious about wanting to get pregnant and started reading every book on getting knocked up that I could get my hands on. I highly recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility as it was the most comprehensive, educated book I found. After a couple of months of perfectly timed sex, I started to think that maybe something was wrong. I kept putting off visiting my OBGyn because I thought I was just being impatient. In September, after a 44 day cycle, I thought that perhaps I needed Clomid or some other drug to help me ovulate on a regular basis and finally went to my OBGyn. She sent me to a reproductive endocrynologist (RE), who wanted to run a battery of tests on both me and my husband. At the time, I felt silly being at the RE after only really "trying" for four months. I figured we'd run the tests and they would all come back normal and he'd just recommend putting me on something to regulate my cycles and help me ovulate. On October 30th, 2007, we met and he told us something very different. While my ovulatory dsyfunction was definitely a problem, my husband had very low morphology which would prevent us from being able to conceive a child naturally. The doctor suggested that we try 3 rounds of interuterine insemination (IUI) and then move on to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). I was shocked. He also suggested that I cut my running back to 20 miles a week (I had been running 40-50, which I had already cut back from my typical 50-70 when we first started trying). He found that I had some symptoms of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). I spent weeks crying over the diagnosis. I couldn't believe that two healthy young(ish) adults would have this problem and that I wouldn't get to have a natural, romantic conception. We did one round of IUI in November/December 2007, but after doing more research found that IUI doesn't really address my husband's morphology issue. In January, we started a new insurance plan which covered IVF 50% and decided that we would "use the bigger guns" and try IVF rather than two more rounds of IUI. I got lucky...I found out that I was positively pregnant with a very strong beta of 172 14 DPO on March 5th, 2008 which will forever be one of the best days in my life.
Wow. That ended up being longer than I expected. I will likely write more detail later, but just wanted to get everything down on paper.
Weekly Running Stats:
Monday, June 30, 2008: 8.5 miles
Tuesday, July 1, 2008: 8.5 miles
Wednesday, July 2, 2008: 7 miles
Thursday, July 3, 2008: 10 miles
Friday, July 4, 2008: 7 miles
Saturday, July 5, 2008: 13 miles
Sunday, July 6, 2008: 8.5 miles
Total Mileage: 62.5
Happy Running!
I just went through and read this intro post - very interesting. It is sad that you 2, both healthy people, can't have a normal conception - that must have been really hard. I would say that when you are trying though, it is like a chore and not the most fun ever, so you didn't miss too much on that. I wanted to see how much you were running around where I am (4 months/17 weeks) but you started blogging later. I have a feeling you were running lots more since you started off running alot more than I do! What has been your favorite marathon?
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't run that much in the beginning of my pregnancy. For the first 6-7 weeks (this includes my IVF cycle, so the 2 weeks before transfer/ovulation), I didn't run at all for fear that I would lose the baby. I slowly built up to 50-60 miles a week starting at 25 miles a week and then adding on. You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself.
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