Reviving the dead blog...

Okay - this time I mean it. I want to revive this blog. There needs to be more stories of people my age (gonna be 30 next year!) who live with RA everyday!

So, what's happened since October of last year? I got pregnant and had a beautiful baby girl who is now 3 months old! I do wish that I had kept this blog going during my pregnancy - but looking back, my RA did go into semi-remission.

 After my last post, I pretty much 'gave up" on actively trying to conceive. I remember going to the store to buy the first pregnancy and ovulation tests after my miscarriage, and I just couldn't do it. So I figured the month of November was going to be a wash. My RA was acting up, I was taking prednisone tapers every 2.5 weeks. I literally had sex with my husband twice during the month of November - both times around ovulation, but not really on purpose.. The only thing I did do on purpose was to time a prednisone taper with ovulation - apparently RA can cause inflammation in the uterus, causing the embryo not to implant. People who use IVF are actually prescribed prednisone to reduce inflammation to increase their chances of implantation (inflammation occurs due to the procedure in their case). So I figured, what the hell? What could it hurt? A couple of weeks later, I was working from home and realized that I had been due for my period a few days before. This, however, was nothing new for me, considering that my cycle lasts anywhere from 26-39 days without being regulated with birth control. I decided to go out and buy a pregnancy test within minutes. I remember walking into my house with the bag in hand thinking to myself "I don't know if anyone out there is listening, but I could really use some good news right now." (Note: Neither I, nor my husband, are particularly religious). I took the test, and got my good news. I called my husband at work crying and laughing. I got to tell my parents that night because they were on their way for a visit - I couldn't have been more happy or more scared.

My doctor decided to get me in for an ultrasound early this time around (as we found out about the last mc at an ultrasound at 10 weeks). I remember sitting in the waiting room of the ultrasound office freaking out - it was early (like 6-7 weeks) and I knew I couldn't handle another let down. We go in - and there it was! We go to see the flickering heartbeat of our little baby.

My first trimester was a breeze  - other than the nausea (and the fact that I couldn't eat vegetables...). My RA came back in my second trimester, but I was teaching 5 classes, taking 3, and was 4-6 months pregnant. I was prescribed prednisone by my doc to take as needed (in 9 day tapers). We had our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks and saw my little Spawn (this was my pet name for the baby, as we decided to keep the sex a secret). My third trimester was spent at home, because it was summertime, and my RA went away again, although I had the worst sciatica ever.

On August 15th, my beautiful baby girl, Kaley, was born, after 7 days of early (prodromal) labor, 1 false alarm trip to the hospital, lots of walking, a trip to the ER for sudden onset carpal tunnel literally hours before she was born, 4 hours of active labor, and 25 minutes of pushing...I'll have to tell that story in the next post.

Heather