My Life as a Mom with PCOS

Today I am happy to introduce my friend, Aimee, as our guest blogger. I have known her all of her life (I'm just a tad bit older ;) and she is a faithful friend. She signed up right away to share her story with us and I'm so glad she did. Take it away, Aimee ...

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To begin, you should know that I have been struggling with how to write this and where to start.  So, with that said I suppose I will start at the beginning, of how I became a mom.

My husband and I struggled for about four years trying to get pregnant.  At first, it wasn’t a big deal but as time passed, I couldn’t understand why.  I kept thinking “is there something wrong with me?”  I would frequently have irregular periods which sometimes would last for up to two weeks.  I never really knew if I was ovulating and as time went on I was getting really frustrated.  After three years of trying to have a baby I finally found out that I have a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS.)  In talking with my doctor, I had come to find out that some of the symptoms of PCOS are irregular periods, weight gain and, sadly, infertility.

Once we discovered that I had PCOS I couldn’t help thinking to myself that if maybe I had found out sooner, we could possibly have had a baby by now.  At the time, it was really hard for me to see all of my friends having kids, and it hit me especially hard when my sister-in-law gave birth to my niece.  I hate to admit, but I was jealous because I felt everyone was having a baby but me.  I just knew that someday we would have a child and it would all be in God’s timing.  I really had to trust Him because He knew when we were supposed to have a child.

Getting back to infertility; upon the discovery of my PCOS, my OB referred me to a fertility specialist.  My husband and I met with him and he shared with me me some things I needed to do that would help us have a child.  For starters, he told me that I needed to walk two miles a day to help me lose some of the weight I had gained from the PCOS.  Additionally, I was put on a drug called Metformine which is actually a drug used for diabetes, but is also known to help with infertility caused by PCOS.  I began to do all the things my fertility doctor had told me to do, walking two miles a day, working on losing weight, and taking the medication.  After eight months, however, it seemed like the new regimen was not helping.   As time went on and I kept not getting pregnant, it was the opinion of my fertility specialist that our next steps would likely need to be some more drastic treatment, like IVF.   At this point, after some frustration, my husband and I decided I should take some time off from taking the medicine.  We wanted to spend some time praying for God’s plan.  About a month and a half later, I got pregnant!

Finally getting pregnant was a miracle from God.  He is the only one who knows when the time is right. Somehow, Russell knew I was pregnant before I even knew for sure.  I was so excited when I found out (shocker, I know.)  It was a Friday and I had just gotten home from work and decided to take a pregnancy test.  My father-in-law was at our house replacing the sink in our bathroom, so I had to take a test after he left to get some parts at the store.  As soon as I saw the positive result of the test, I texted Russell.  He was in a meeting giving a presentation, read the text and told his boss “sorry but I’ve gotta go!”  He showed his boss the text, gave him a high five and left.  When Russell got home, we went to get my blood drawn and we received the positive news the following morning.  As soon as we knew it was a positive blood draw we went straight to tell our parents.  It was really hard not to tell our friends right away, but I wanted to wait until we saw the Dr.

After a few weeks, we finally got to go to the doctor and see our little baby’s heartbeat.  What a miracle our baby was, and I don’t know what my life would be like today if he was not here.  A few months later, we found out this child growing inside me was a boy, and we were both overjoyed. 

The only part of the story that is missing is how we came upon the name Cullen Matthew.  Cullen means “handsome” and Matthew means “gift from God.”  He truly is our handsome little gift from God!  Cullen means more to me than anything in the world and I thank God every single day for the life he has entrusted me with.

I hope this will give hope to those who have may have similar trouble with infertility.  Always remember, if you put your faith and trust in God ANYTHING can happen.  I am glad that I can share my story with you!

Love,

Aimee

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Thank you for sharing your story with us, Aimee! We are so glad God blessed you with little Cullen Matthew!