Hello my friends! I know it has been several years since I posted something, but I have had some significant life changes in the past few years. Not only did we add two beautiful daughters to our family, but I also have been through some significant medical challenges as well.
After we were married in 2016, I went off of all of my major medications for Psoriatic Arthritis (Cimzia, Methotrexate, Diclofenac and Tramadol) to try to get pregnant. We had to wait 3 full months before trying to conceive while the drugs left my body. During that time, the pain was unbearable and I could barely function. We were very fortunate to get pregnant right away, because I then had another 9 months without any medications to help with the pain, swelling and stiffness. Luckily by middle of the second trimester I was in remission from the arthritis (which is very rare!) and I felt like Superwoman! I was able to enjoy being pregnant and preparing our life for our new little girl.
During the pregnancy, I was considered “high risk” because of my autoimmune disease, my heart history with Wolf-Parkinson-White (WPW Syndrome), and an MTHFR mutation which has to do with how your brain processes folic acid (which is extremely important for the growth of a fetus). So we had ultrasound appointments every week, checking growth and doing echocardiograms of the baby’s heart as it grew. It was stressful, but I also knew I was in good hands with all the monitoring they were doing just in case.
But in September 2017, I had some significant contractions that sent me to the emergency room. I was in preterm labor 6 weeks before my due date, so they monitored me for several hours in the labor and delivery department of the hospital. After that, I was told to stay mostly sitting or laying down for the next several weeks…until my little Liesl Louise was born 3 weeks early on October 11. Labor was only 7 hours, completely natural…thank goodness it was so quick or I may not have had a desire for more babies lol.
I stayed off all medications for another 8 weeks while I tried breastfeeding and pumped as much as humanly possible to save. The remission wore off after Liesl was born and I could barely lift my tiny baby out of the crib, so I knew I had to get back to my medication regiment. I had a lot of new mommy guilt over the fact that I had to give up breast feeding to go back on meds…it was really hard. But we all got through it and my beautiful daughter is already 2.5 years old now! And she is happy and lives to sing and do puzzles and explore outside on walks. It has been quite the amazing experience learning and growing with her.
Okay, I feel like that is enough for my first post back…I will tell you about my second daughter next time.