Secondarily Speaking

Rachel's brief word about Secondary Infertility and our story:

Secondary infertility came as a surprise to us, as I'm sure it would to anyone in our situation.  (The CDC's stats from 2002 are that 11% of couples who have one child will struggle to have another)  We sought out the assistance of a NaProTech.nology certified doctor who just happened (huge blessing) to move to our area just at the right time.  If you've never heard of NaPro, here's a little summary:
"NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology) is a new women's health science that monitors and maintains a woman's reproductive and gynecological health. It provides medical and surgical treatments that cooperate completely with the reproductive system." (http://www.naprotechnology.com/) 

NaPro (as it's abbrev.) uses the Creighton Method of Fertility Awareness Charting/NFP.  It seeks to help with all kinds of women's issues.  Infertility is one of those issues.  It sees infertility as a symptom of what's going on with the body rather than a disease in itself and seeks to understand EACH woman's body in great detail and get it to it's maximal health in order to facilitate the natural creation of a pregnancy.  It's a scientific method, 30 plus years in the making and is all morally acceptable to the Catholic faith (in fact it's creation was inspired by Pope Paul the IV).  There have been studies showing that NaPro actually has higher success rates than what is now typical fertility treatments, which doesn't surprise me at all having witnessed it first hand for myself and through friends' stories.  I would be willing to bet that in the world of reproductive health today most docs would have labeled me/us as having "unexplained infertility" and said good luck after a year or less since we weren't willing to go the artificial route of IVF, etc. We're so thankful for our Napro doctor who respected us, our faith and our bodies and stuck with us through charting, appointments, blood draws, hormone supplementation, medications, vitamins, diet changes, exploratory surgery a year ago, biopsies, and lots of prayer!  It was a long road but worth travelling.  There's abundant info about Napro on the internet if you want to find more, or feel free to talk to me :) 

Infertility of any kind is a struggle and a cross and my heart goes out to any other couple who is dealing with or has dealt with any kind of fertility issues.  I have been so, so blessed with family and friends that have supported me in a million ways, especially through prayer.  I started my own blog about having secondary infertility as a much needed outlet and found other bloggers as well as friends in real life also dealing with similar crosses, they were also a huge support as we walked this road together.  I have learned so much having this as a part of my life, please pray for those waiting for children and if you're looking for some good books or blogs to recommend, let me know :)  I'd be happy to talk about what I did, what I've gone through so far, and what I know.  This may be a personal topic but I think the knowledge and support that can be gained is too valuable to stay silent.

Love and God bless,
Rach

So Utterly and Completely Blessed

Our dream for the last 2 years has come true.  We're pregnant. 

I'm still in utter shock that our prayers have been answered.
Please join us in praying for "tiguester #2" :)  I'm 14 weeks right now and happy to be out of the first trimester!

The past couple months have been a tad rough, but thanks to an amazing husband and great little boy we got through the worst, I think, and I'm slowly starting to feel better.

I hope to expand a little on our story and the blessing it was to have my Catholic doctor work with us the past couple years, but for now I just feel like I should get the word out and ask for prayers for this new little one.

Much love to all!