Double Trouble: A Little More LaRosa

It's hard to believe, but the LaRosa family will be growing in just over 4 months! However, the journey to grow our family wasn't as smooth and easy as it was the first time around (although, as you may recall, the pregnancy itself made me miserable for a substantial amount of time and wasn't without a few surprises along the way).

About a year after C was born, I went to a fertility specialist for imaging of my uterus to get an official recommendation on if the uterine "defect" we discovered when I was pregnant with C would require removal prior to having another baby. So, in January 2019, I had a saline ultrasound and was told that the defect was fairly minor and while there was a risk for miscarriage, it wasn't severe enough to definitively recommend surgical intervention. Just to be safe, my OBGYN advised me to get a second opinion, and in February I had a hysteroscopy and hysterosalpinogram, which lead to a diagnosis of an arcuate uterus (rather then a septate uterus as was suspected), which didn't need correction. With that news, K and I decided it was time to grow our family!

As part of the work up with the second fertility doc, we both had some blood work done and to our surprise, my results came back abnormal. I had a second round of testing done to see if it was just a fluke, but in October were told to stop trying to conceive and I was instructed to see an endocrinologist for screening of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Easier said than done apparently, as the wait time to get into an endocrinologist was 3-4 months time...

In January 2020 I was finally able to have a stimulation test to check my adrenal glands. The doctor suspected that I was possibly a carrier for the disorder since I didn't exhibit all of the classic symtpoms and the ones I did have were fairly mild. But, to everyone's surprise, the test came back indicative of CAH and genetic testing confirmed the gene mutation on both chromosomes. So with that, my journey on corticosteroids began.
The next few months were a blur of frequent blood work and bone density scans. There were several adjustments made to my meds and side effects to manage. Since I had the gene mutation for CAH on both chromosomes, we were instructed to see a genetic counselor so that we could get genetic testing done on K - but the wait time was over 6 months long! Ultimately, we discovered K was not a carrier for CAH and our debate between IUI vs IVF settled on IUI. It was just a matter of when my body would be ready and capable of sustaining another pregnancy.

In July we had our first round of IUI; I had a baseline ultrasound, was started on Clomid, and then had another ultrasound 10 days later to check on how my ovaries were responding to the ovulation drugs. Not well it turned out. So we added 3 days of injectible drugs (luckily K had lots of experience with my weekly progesterone injections with C, so those 3 days were a breeze). A follow-up ultrasound showed follicle growth and we "triggered" ovulation with yet another injection 24 hours before the IUI procedure. After the procedures, I was started on progesterone to aid in implantation and help maintain an early pregnancy. Two weeks later I had a blood test to check for pregnancy - I was convinced the procedure took. I had all the early pregnancy signs! 

But, the beta blood test was negative; turns out the progesterone Rx was just mimicking all the symptoms.

Once my cycle restarted, we began the process again... baseline ultrasound, ovulation drugs (this time we combined Clomid with the Follistim injectable, rather than adding it at the end if the Clomid cycle), another ultrasound, trigger shot, IUI., and progesterone. Again, I had the early signs and symptoms of being pregnant, but I was much more skeptical this time around. And yet, 2 days before the beta blood test to check for pregnancy my belly was poochy - and I found myself asking if I had just eaten really poorly over the Labor Day weekend or if I could really be pregnant this time around? Turns out, our second round of IUI was a success! Actually, it was a bit more successful than we realized, as we found out at my first ultrasound that we are expecting TWINS!!!