I married my best friend at our dream wedding in May 2008 when he was 32 and I was 28. We always knew we wanted a family but were waiting for the "perfect" time, since we are both meticulous planners (a trait we will later deem worthless). Our careers had to be moving forward, we had to be in the perfect house with enough money and the appropriate amount of "us" time under our belt before we even would entertain the idea of bringing a baby into this world.
So after a trip to Maui in May 2010, I went off BCP and we began "trying". As luck would have it, I ended up with my first positive pregnancy test in July 2010. We couldn't believe how blessed we were to get pregnant on the first try; we knew so many friends and family members with infertility issues that we thought for sure we would be facing them as well. I scheduled my first doctor's appointment at 10 weeks and just couldn't help but think that was an awfully long time to wait to find out if everything was ok. The day finally came, and my husband & I were so excited to potentially get some pictures of our little peanut! Our nightmares were realized that morning of 8/24/10 when we were told that the baby had no heartbeat and was measuring only 7 weeks and not 10. My body did not yet recognize the m/c so the doc had to place a pill next to my cervix in order to induce the m/c. I was told that miscarriages were very common and that I should wait one to two cycles and try again.
After what seemed like the LONGEST wait in the history of the world, in Sept/Oct 2010 we began trying again. Again, we were pregnant on the first try. Because of my first m/c, the doctor scheduled a 7 week u/s in order to put my mind at ease. We were staying positive and were absolutely sure that the first miscarriage was a fluke, and that this time was for real...but as most of you know that is a difficult frame of mind to put yourself into especially after such disappointment. At our 7 week appointment we saw pictures and heard a 100 bpm heartbeat! It was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard!! We went home that day with renewed confidence and pictures to show our families, and scheduled a 9 week u/s follow up to re-confirm that everything was ok before my first official prenatal appointment.
Unfortunately for us, that follow up at 9 weeks proved to be just as heartbreaking as the first pregnancy. The u/s tech broke the news that there was no heartbeat and I was still measuring at about 7 weeks, meaning no further growth after the first appointment. We were so crushed. I had a D&E later that day and had a very painful and upsetting recovery period, including an infection from the surgery, fever, and vomiting for days. I had to go back to the doctor for antibiotics for the infection and was off of work for about 1 week, which was surprising considering the doc said that I'd be fine after a few days.
We had to get to the bottom of this- why was I having multiple miscarriages? Was this just bad luck or something more?
