Future Babies and Endometriosis

I had a reader ask me the other day how my endometriosis has been since my pregnancy, as a common misconception is that it'll just go away with pregnancy. In some women this has been known to happen. Of course, for others, it can get far worse. I had a good run. I've had 3 laps (laparoscopic surgeries) so far with anywhere from 1-2.5 years in between. My last surgery was 12/07. Right after that we did our final IVF and got pregnant with the girls. I felt pains during pregnancy but not many "endo" pains. Most were due to me carrying 2 kiddos. I'd say I had a good 6 months after pregnancy before I started feeling some familiar pains. I am now back to feeling something every day, but I've been lucky enough to only have severe pain maybe once or twice a month? All of my GI related issues are back as well, but not quite as bad. Mostly the horrific bloating.

I had my annual GYN appt this week. I asked the doctor that delivered my angels about future pregnancies. We have 3 frozen embryos left and do not want to discard or donate them, so we'd like to try this one more time at some point. This frozen transfer is far, far less costly and less invasive. However, she does not want me to risk a twin pregnancy. What does this mean? It means she only wants us to transfer one embryo to reduce that risk. Every time we did IVF we transferred 3 because our chances are so low. This basically means that our chances of having another child are lower than before. I am so very grateful for our girls and if they are the only kids we can have, we are still ever so thankful and complete. However, if you've ever been told you can't have something, you know how this feels. We will most likely still try with one embryo. I will not risk having babies in the NICU again. I will not risk the pain of not being able to keep my kids safe for the full 9 months. At the same time, I would not be being honest if I didn't say that I kinda figured if we did get pregnant again it would be with twins and besides the actual pregnancy, I thought we 'd handle it just fine! ;) I was really upset about this earlier in the week, and honestly Christian and I really haven't talked much about it again. We'll revisit all of this once our house sells and we are comfortably in a new home and ready for another go.

Onto the endo. My exam hurt. Bad. Like it always has, but this time I actually removed her hands from my belly out of reflex. I told her about my pain returning and some other weird bladder type things that have been bothering me. She's pretty sure it's all endo related and mentioned me seeing a specialist and having another surgery. That would be 4 surgeries since 2004. I just can't see doing that. My pain is annoying but it's not causing me to miss work or take pain pills to often, etc.

So, that's the latest on me!

Use your words!

My preemies are now 18 months old! How did this happen!?

I thought I'd take note of the latest words and phrases we've heard the girls say on their own or hear and repeat. Emma talks and sings all the time with so much inflection, it's hysterical. Mady will watch your mouth so intently while she tries to figure out how to make those same sounds.

Mady:
Bird, Hi, Bye Bye, Mama, Dada, Up, Diaper, Cat, Bath, No

Emma:
Bird, Hi, Bye Bye, Mama, Dada, Up, Cat, Mady, Baby, Bath, Pap-Pap. We swear she repeated back to us "put that back" and then said "shit"!