3rd Trimester

Yeah, we've made it - for the first time ever!

Lots of kicking now and frequent night time trips to the loo. Tummy growing rapidly!

Can't believe this is happening to us.

23 weeks

All still on track.

Our obstetrician's first words to us today were "you're viable now". 

Our baby nearly weighs 700g, with 500g being average. It has a very fat stomach that is nearly 2 weeks above average (in the 88th percentile), our obstetrician checked it's internal organs and everything is fine. She said it's better to be bigger than smaller, and that the stomach size is a sign I have a good placenta. 

She checked the veins supplying blood to the uterus, which she said was very normal and good. Apparently if they are low then there is a high chance of preeclampsia and premature labour. 

She also told me that from now on it's a good idea to always be close to a hospital that you would be happy to deliver a baby in. So that means no weekends away to our holiday house. 

It was nice to see baby's movements in the ultrasound. Yesterday I didn't feel much movement, so last night I phoned the midwife who told me to come in for a scan with the Doppler. It was late, so I had to go into the delivery ward. Of course the heart beat was immediately picked up and everything  normal. The midwife said that sometimes the baby turns in the uterus and directs their kicks at the spine. 

Seems strange, but the closer we get to achieving a birth, the more upset I feel. I guess there is more to loose with everyday. 

Advised to stop Clexane

I forgot to mention, the other day when I spoke with the naturopath she said she feels confident for me to stop taking the Clexane injections... She said that is because I have a good homocysteine reading. 

She told me if I want to I could take them like twice a week - just in case - so I'm going to do that. But it seems EVERYONE is confident that taking an aspirin every day will stop any blood clotting issues the MTHFR may bring on. 

Really looking forward to not having to inject myself every day - and have a constantly bruised stomach. 

More on flu/whooping cough vaccination and MTHFR

So today I had a really good chat with my naturopath about getting the flu and whooping cough vaccination while I'm pregnant in order pass the antibodies on to the baby before it is born. Here are the conclusions we came to:

I am not going to get the flu vaccination. Reasons why:

1. In the first few months of life, I intend to stay at home, keep warm and not socialise with others or see any one who is sick. 
2. We intend to vaccinate ourselves and grandparents against the flu. There are no other young children in the family to pass on flu. 
3. The child will be born in summer, hence low flu time. 
4. The flu virus changes from season to season so even if we do get flu vaccine, not all flus will be covered any way. 
5. The biggest reason is, because the flu virus changes so often, so too does the flu vaccination. Because of this it is not tried and tested... It's a bit of an unknown quantity for people like me, people with MTHFR and prone to autism. 
6. If the child does get the flu, chances are it will survive. 
7. Later I spoke to the doctor about flu, she said the main reason for vaccinating is to stop the mother getting flu, not the baby. I had the flu vaccination just before getting pregnant - so I should be fine. 

I am going to get the whooping cough vaccination. Reasons why:

1. Unlike the flu vaccination, whooping cough vaccination is a little bit more of a known quantity.  It doesn't change from season to season, hence it's more predictable. 
2. Because I'm taking such good medication and have sorted my methylation system out, it means I should be able to process the vaccination without any problem. My naturopath says my homocysteine levels are great, and that's a good sign I'm methylating. She said if I was not methylating then she would not recommend it. 
3. Whooping cough is pretty nasty and can be deadly for a young child. It's something you really don't want them to catch. 
4. It's probably better I'm the one vaccinated when taking the right medication, than vaccinate a small baby who you aren't medicating. And whooping cough is something you want it vaccinated against. 
5. The doctor also agreed that if you were to choose one vaccination, whooping cough or flu, she'd recommend whooping cough. She also said there is an out break of it here at the moment. 

It's a risk, the naturopath said she feels torn with the whooping cough debate but is confident with not to flu vaccinate.

She also said she wouldn't consider vaccinating a child at 6 weeks - it's too young. She said they should be a minimum of 3 months old, and they should be fit and healthy before it is done. 

Any ones comments or thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated. I've still got time to make my mind up. 

20 week scan was perfect!

Yeah, baby is still alive and well. Heart there, brain in order, and all measurements perfect. Person scanning said baby is 1 day older than it should be.

Wonderful result.

I then spoke to the naturopath who was thrilled. We discussed vaccinations and the fact that I'll need more magnesium as the pregnancy progresses from now. She said to look out for cramping muscles and twitching eyes, a sign of low magnisium.

We had good discussion re flu and whooping cough. She said not to have flu vaccination, but was on the fence over whooping cough. I'll update my vaccination section with our discussion soon.

20 week scan today

I am feeling nervous.

Was feeling quite emotional last night, stressing that I hadn't really felt much movement over the past couple of days. Bad news flashed through my mind, and dread of today crept in. I'd been invited to a friend's place for a musical concert put on by the symphony orchestra, 1/2 way through the concert I felt kicks, including the biggest kick I've felt yet. Relief.

After the concert a friend came up to me and asked if I felt kicking during it. She said it is quite normal as the little baby can apparently hear now. Then I spoke with one of the violinists who said her baby kicked like crazy during rehearsals when she had them. Babies seem to love music. So now I'm thinking I'll take to playing Mozart during the day, surely the sound waves and rhythm will be good for it.

Oh dread, the 20 week scan. It's an hour away! :-(

I can feel kicking!

Yes, baby is kicking. I can even feel it with my hand. It started off feeling like a little muscle twitch inside my stomach, I wasn't sure if they were kicks or not. Now they are stronger, and undeniably kicks, though it hasn't been kicking too much today.

I have my 20 week scan on Monday, hopefully that goes well. Gosh, every stage of this whole process is so nerve wracking. Just imagine if I lost it now. I'd be heart broken. Big breath.

18 weeks - heart beating

Today we had our first appointment with a midwife. We filled in some hospital forms, gave personal information, and had a scan with the Doppler machine. My poor husbands face went white and dropped as the midwife searched for the heart beat, it takes a bit of finding with that thing and 10 seconds of silence felt to him like 10 minutes... The one and only time he's been present with a Doppler was when we miscarried at 17 weeks, but today the heart beat was there - Yeah! We're still on track.

Next time I see the midwives is at 30 weeks.

Next appointment is our 20 week scan. Apparently it is very detailed and takes 1 hour. Our Dr said 2 out of every hundred have some kind of issue, but from what she's seen she thinks we will be ok.

17 weeks - OMG, it's still alive!

I just can't believe it. 17 weeks and it's still alive. Nearly brings tears to my eyes. Am beginning to think it might work this time. After nearly a decade of trying, we've never been this far.

It was 17 weeks we discovered the death last time :-(

Our doctor said everything looks completely normal. It's heart is the right beat, it's head and measurements the right size, brain developing well - everything. Baby was so big, it's now haunched over inside and they have to measure pieces of it rather than one length.

Can't believe parenthood might be an option for us.

During this time of trying my emotions have shut down, and while we've been doing nothing but IVF, special diets, injections, and visiting doctors for scans over the past six years, I haven't allowed myself to visualise a live baby at the end. Now I feel torn, it brings tears to my eyes - the feeling of allowing myself to hope is frightening. Maybe it's best to stick on autopilot and not think.

Here is the latest scan:

And this scan is too funny, it's of Baby's finger... We spent a while working out what finger it had up, for a moment we thought it was the middle one. Dr said she would have framed it and put it on the wall if that were the case. We all had a good laugh:

Flu/Whooping cough vaccination & MTHFR

Our doctor has recommend I get a flu and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination between 28-32 weeks of pregnancy. She said to do this so that the vaccination is passed onto the baby when it is born, hence protecting it.

In the old days I would blindly trust what the doctor recommends - but, now, seeing their knowledge of  MTHFR is so poor, I feel I have to be cautious of everything. Especially seeing MTHFR and vaccinations are linked to autism. So I'm going to research the internet and talk to my naturopath.

This is a pretty good article convincing me that a vaccination maybe NOT a good idea:

http://www.safeminds.org/blog/2014/09/24/physicians-assessment-flu-vaccines-pregnancy/

There's some threads of discussion and information on vaccinations in general:

http://mthfr.net/forums/topic/mthfr-and-vaccinesimmunizations-contraindicated/

http://vaxtruth.org/2014/09/susceptible-groups/

I'll keep updating as I find more information. Please comment if you have any thoughts or ideas on this.

15 weeks - another success

Just had my 15 week scan. The receptionist at the clinic instantly commented on my bump. According to my husband I really do have one!

Was so nervous last night, didn't really sleep, so it was a relief to see the little thing doing sit ups when the doctor scanned.

Here is a photo:

MTHFR & pregnant - debate of when to stop Clexane

As mentioned in a previous post, both my obstetrician and my IVF doctor told me to go off Clexane at 12 weeks. My naturopath said to test for folate, homoststine, and thyroid first, and if they are healthy then it's OK to go off. Reading online, and hearing from others online, it seems there is debate about going off Clexane when you have MTHFR.

So I felt in a bit of a pickle, and have continued taking Clexane as it has no adverse affects on the pregnancy. I will continue until 20 weeks.

My blood test results came back, they were:

• My Vit B12 and folate at a good healthy level, which is great.
• My TSH (thyroid) is at 3.8 – My naturopath said "a little higher than we would like it – in pregnancy it should ideally be below 2.0. At the level it is now, your thyroid appears to be functioning on the low side of normal."
  She recommend that I talk to my GP/midwife/obstetrician about it and see if they feel it  important to give a low dose of thyroxine. Otherwise, she recommend taking an extra 100mcg of iodine.
  I spoke to my obstetrician who said the TSH was in the normal range and that hCG are directly tied to the thyroid. So she wasn't worried.
  My naturopath then said, "Holistic therapists do look at  thyroid results differently to most doctors. But if she and you are happy with the results that is fine – I would however suggest you increase your iodine levels to ensure you are having a total of 200- 250mcg per day."

• Homocysteine - 5.2 (The optimal range is 5-7.) My naturopath says this  means I am currently methylating well and hopefully it means less risk to the pregnancy. This makes it a bit easier to make the decision to go off Clexane at 20 weeks. She said if I still wanted a natural blood thinning alternative (without the side effects), she recommends Nattokinase. See http://www.seekinghealth.com/nattokinase-supplement-flow-fx.html

I had heard that folate levels can sometimes appear normal with MTHFR but not be, so I asked my naturopath about that as well. She said, "Yes, it is true that the folate level is not really indicative of the true levels of red cell folate – however, if they come back really high, that sometimes shows you are not absorbing the folate – so at least this is not happening. You could always ask for a red cell folate test next time instead of the usual test that they do." 

She said "it is probably best to take the clexane till 20 weeks. We can also check your homocysteine level at this point to see if all is well before you go off blood thinners." 

So there we have it. I'm still taking Clexane, though I really hate it, so have dropped back to taking it once every 2 days. 

It's really hard with all the conflicting information and lack of knowledge doctors have. Maybe this might help someone out there? 

My whole family has MTHFR

Since we've been on this MTHFR discovery, my whole family has also been tested for it, and they are ALL positive. Every single member of my direct family has homozygous C677, and my husband has compound heterozygous C677T and A1298C.

My husbands nephew has autism, and his uncle has Parkinson's, but they have not been tested.

My sister has had one miscarriage and one live birth. Her successful pregnancy was before she knew she had MTHFR, interestingly, she said she felt sick when taking multivitamins with folic acid in, so she didn't take them. For some strange reason, at the time of the pregnancy, she had started drinking smoothies with kale in them. I wonder if that is why it was a success? She also has her own vegetable garden and was eating vegetables from it.

Both my parents have started taking 5-methylfolate, and there have been some interesting developments. Most significant being my mother's Pompholyx which is a common type of eczema  affecting the hands. She's been in agony with it for years, and previously found nothing that can fix it. On taking the methylfolate it's gone away completely and she's over the moon. She also has lost the pain that was in her joints, and feels she's loosing weight. 

Interestingly, the methylfolate has caused my father gout. It's directly related, the more folate he takes the worse the gout gets. When he stops taking folate the gout goes away. We're not really sure what's happening. 

We are trying to get the others to take the folate, but they aren't really taking it seriously. 

Anyway, thought you might find some of that interesting. 

Recurrent Miscarriage - Coping Strategies

I thought I should write something on my personal, miscarriage-coping strategies and techniques. Maybe they're not for everyone, but perhaps there's someone out there who might gain strength from another person's perspective?

There have been so many times on our journey where I felt like falling in a heap, giving up, and allowing depression to set in. Perhaps that would happen now if this pregnancy were to fail. Let's not consider that!

But, in the past, I knew if I gave in to depression things wouldn't end well. I'd probably have ended up with no husband AND no family.

So I fought, and focused on staying focused.

The past five years have not been happy ones, but I have managed to hold it together and keep things in perspective. Right or wrong, these have been some of my coping strategies:

• Firstly, I told myself it's ok to not be ok. I accepted the lull point in my life, and while aware of the negative feelings, I tried to always think positive. 
• Acutely aware of my body clock, I knew there was a limited window of opportunity to realize our dreams, so I set about problem solving via doctors and specialists, telling my self 'no time for emotion, only time for thinking'. (Of course the emotion was there, but I just couldn't let it take over). 
• The path I was taking was different to the rest of my social group, who I'd always been close to. This made me feel isolated. The worst of everything for me. Not being part of their 'play group' or 'birthday party click' was upsetting. So I mentally detached. Worrying about feeling isolated, rejected, and lonely was something I figured I should do when I was past the age of having children. I needed all my energy to remain focused in problem solving, and working out what was wrong with me.
• When feelings of depression set in, I fought them off. I tried not to cry, or think bad thoughts. I knew if I let them in, they'd grow, and multiply, and perhaps get out of control. There wasn't time for that. 
• When pregnant, I didn't ever associate it with a child. I thought of it more as a medical condition that I needed to get right. 
• When I miscarried, of course I felt sad, but I also thought it fate. What is meant to be, will be. And at the end of the day, 25% of all miscarriages fail. The miscarriage was probably for a good reason. Again, I never associated it to a baby.  
• I accepted with fertility there are some things you can control, and some things you can't control. I let go of the things I couldn't control, and allowed them to be. Miscarriage is something you can't control. Doctors, medication, diet, exercise are things you can control. 
• Time is something you also can't control. Whilst under immense time pressure, you can't influence how long this will take. So focus, but don't try controlling or being impatient with time, it's out of your hands. Take one day at a time. If and when things fail, start again.
• Doctors are people, and often people get things wrong. So I listened carefully to everything doctors said, but always researched the internet after consulting them. I made sure I saw a wide range of doctors, and got lots of second opinions and points of view. I took responsibility of my own medical diagnoses, and made sure I understood everything that was happening to me. I didn't want to be in a position where, at the age of 50, I felt resent towards a particular doctor for telling me the wrong thing. I do, however, regret not seeing a naturopath sooner. 
• I realized my husband coped differently, and also needed support. We openly discussed the different ways we were coping. Often he wasn't there for me in the way I wanted him to be, I guess I just had to learn to be emotionally tough, and to cope by myself. Trust me, it was s***, but I just kept reminding myself it was temporary. People cope differently. Men are a different species all together... But they mean well, I think. 
• I didn't worry about spending money. I compared having a family to having a house, and asked my self what I'd prefer... Every time it was the family. Just because everyone else doesn't spend money on having a family doesn't mean I shouldn't, besides, what's money if you have no one to spend it on? Letting go of worrying about money is a great feeling, it gives you energy for other things. 
• When I had to have operations and medical procedures I'd tell myself I how lucky I was not to have cancer. Having your health is an amazing thing. I'd hate to have to go through all those procedures then still be sick at the end. 
• Sometimes I thought being concerned over having miscarriages was a bit of a first world problem. There is so much pain and suffering in other countries, we really are lucky to be born where we were. 
• If for some reason we didn't end up being successful, was it the end of the world? Not really. Maybe it would be destiny for my genes not to breed on. 
• I'd never thought of my miscarriages as a loss, just that I hadn't gained. 
• And there was always adoption to fall back onto.
• I just needed to find what path in life was right for me. Maybe it was going to be different to others? But while I was of child bearing age I'd give it my best. One thing for sure was not going to happen, and that's for me to regret in later life that I didn't try harder. 

I think that no matter how bad you are feeling, and how awful the situation is in reality, it's important to try and think positive. The more you tell your self positive things, and the more positive light you look at it in, the better you'll be able to cope.

Hopefully some of these thoughts and feelings might help others.

13 weeks - still alive and wriggling

Another positive scan today. It's growing so much, doesn't look like there's much room for it to get any bigger.

Very happy.

Next scan is at 15 weeks. Long wait.

Understanding your genotype for MTHFR

Recently I discovered you can be homozygous for both 677 and 1298.

Apparently, you can be any one of these possible, common, combinations:

• Normal/Normal for both 677 and 1298
• Heterozygous 1298 / Normal 677 (i.e. one parent passed down a single 1298 mutation)
• Homozygous 1298 / Normal 677 (i.e. both parents passed down the 1298 mutation)
• Heterozygous 677 / Normal 1298 (i.e. one parent passed down a single 677 mutation)
• Homozygous 677 / Normal 1298 (i.e. both parents passed down the 677 mutation)
• Heterozygous 677 / Homozygous 1298 (one parent passed down the 677 mutation; both passed down the 1298 mutation)
• Homozygous 677 / Heterozygous 1298 (both parents passed down the 677 mutation; one passed down the 1298 mutation)
• Heterozygous 677 / Heterozygous 1298 (Compound Heterozygous: one parent passed 677; one passed 1298 mutation)
• Homozygous 677 / Homozygous 1298 (Compound Homozygous, meaning you have two 677, two 1298 mutation)

Deciphering  genotype for MTHFR C677T

CC = a normal C677T MTHFR gene
CT = a heterozygous mutation which is one mutation of C677T
TT = a homozygous mutation which is two mutations of C677T

Deciphering  genotype for MTHFR A1298C

AA = a normal A1298C MTHFR gene
AC = a heterozygous mutation which is one mutation of A1298C
CC = a homozgyous mutation which is two mutations of A1298C

MTHFR 677CT + MTHFR 1298AC = a compound heterozygous mutation which is one mutation from two different parts of the gene.

MTHFR 677TT + MTHFR 1298CC = a compound homozygous mutation which is two mutations from two different parts of the gene.

12 week scan a success!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Our 12 week scan was successful. Everything looks normal, just how it should be. The lady said the fold measurement at the back of the neck was the smallest measurement possible, which is good.

So relieved. So happy.

When to stop Clexane?

So both my IVF doctor and my gynecologist have told me to stop taking Clexane at 12 weeks, which is what I am today. They told me the Clexane was to help with the implantation of the placenta and that taking baby aspirin would help thin my blood if that was an issue.

I'm conscious that both these doctors don't really know about MTHFR, and don't 100% subscribe to it. So today, on a phone consultation, I asked my naturopath what her opinion of going off Clexane was. She hesitated, then told me I should check my homocysteine levels. She said if they are between 5-7, that's good, and going off Clexane is ok. Otherwise I should stay on it.

To be honest, I trust her over the doctors.

So tomorrow I'm getting my homocysteine levels checked, also my B12/red folate, and thyroid THS levels tested. The naturopath said I need to fast before taking the blood, so before breakfast she said.

Big scan tomorrow... Will keep you posted.

Hurry up Tuesday

Tick, tick, tick... Feels like forever we have to wait.

On Tuesday we have our big 12 week scan. At it we find out if the baby has all its internal organs, and if they are working properly. They can tell if the heart has formed properly, if the bowels are working properly, if it is swallowing. They look closely at the nose, and the width of a tube at the back of it's back, this is to see the likely hood of Downes Syndrome, which we already know it's not likely to have.

I've only made it to the 12 week scan once before. Shame, everything was perfect then. But it only lived to 15 weeks (discovered at 17). Strangely, I do consider that pregnancy a success because it had a valid reason for dying. I had contracted toxoplasmosis!

Frustrating, cause not only do most people not know what toxoplasmosis is, most don't know if they're immune, and don't know how to prevent. I had studied up very closely on the topic, and knew I wasn't immune. Everything in my power was done not to contract, yet I still got it. What are the chances? Bad luck.

After speaking with my naturopath I wonder if everything happens for the best. She told me that if the child had lived it could have been effected by the lack of folate it had been getting, causing ADD, or learning difficulties, that type of thing. She said that all the vitamins I'm taking now will have such a positive effect on this pregnancy.

So now I am immune to toxoplasmosis, I'm on methylfolate, taking the right vitamins, organic. Will that be enough?

Fingers crossed.

I'll report in on Tuesday.

Wonderful news - low risk for syndromes

Yeah!!!!!!! Feeling so happy, today we had our 11 week scan - all still on track, heart ticking and baby is right size. Results from the syndrome test hadn't come through, but tonight at about 6.45pm our doctor called to tell us that she got them in the afternoon and everything is 'low risk'. Yeah!

Apparently the test is 99/98% accurate, so very happy.

She also told us the sex of the baby, but we're keeping it a secret. Don't want the world to start thinking of it too much as a living human yet... Not until it really is.

So hope this works.