Early Loss

This past week, we lost a baby in an early miscarriage at 3w2d.

This is two days before I had any chance of getting a positive pregnancy test, so I suppose I should say "suspected pregnancy." However, I am 100% sure - both the early (and, unfortunately, severe) pregnancy symptoms that followed an exact symptom picture with exact timing, and a nice (for those of you who chart) tri-phasic thermal shift, showed that we were expecting a new little one (baby #7).

I also know (within reasonable certainty) why we lost this baby: although I am now in my sixth postpartum cycle, I still have dysfunctional luteal phase length. My first three cycles were anovulatory (LP = 0), and the next two had luteal phases of six and eight days (LP = 6, LP = 8). I had assumed that my next cycle would kick things up to at least a ten-day luteal phase (LP = 10), which would be at least marginally workable for sustaining a pregnancy - but, alas, no. My cycle started at (LP = 8), which is, of course, far too short to sustain a pregnancy.

And so, barely nine to ten days after entering this world, our newest little one went home to God. We are mourning, but we have hope that we will see our baby again in eternity.

I'd like to take a few minutes to discuss things from a morning sickness perspective - as this is, of course, a morning sickness blog.

So, morning sickness.

It was bad.

My first inkling that I might be pregnant came at 2w5d, when I woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold, even though I was well-covered with several blankets. This proceeded to chills, and following that, nausea.

The second night, 2w6d, was very similar.

The night of 3w0d, I went to bed and then woke up at 11:20 p.m. with incredibly strong nausea that kept me up for the rest of the night - quite literally, until I gave up trying to sleep and got up at 5:00 a.m. Upon trying to eat, I found that I was having a hard time swallowing, and was seriously considering throwing up instead.

By this time (3w1d) I had nausea coming and going all day, in greater or lesser amounts. That night, I again went to sleep and woke up several hours later with intense nausea that kept me up for most of the rest of the night.

We miscarried the evening of 3w2d, and my nausea was strong all the way until my cycle actually started (another reason to show that this was a luteal phase defect, and not a chromosomal problem with the baby himself). Most of my nausea faded over the next three or so hours. Oddly enough, it came roaring back during the night (weird), but was mostly gone by the next day. In the week following the miscarriage, I had mild pulses of nausea that have mainly faded out. Ditto with the nocturnal cold sensitivity.

One interesting side note: In the third trimester of our last pregnancy, I sustained identical wrist injuries in both wrists, one each on subsequent days. (The double-nature of these injuries led me to believe that this was a pregnancy hormone-related occurrence). Those injuries healed slowly, and aside from residual soreness have not since caused any serious problems.

However, in the week following this loss, BAM - One wrist was re-injured, and the other is also sore. I'm really guessing now that this truly was pregnancy-related, and also that these wrist injuries may follow me during any future pregnancies. That will be interesting to see.

My main concern is, of course, nausea: Not only did I again beat my previous first-nausea record by a full day (previous record: 2w6d, this pregnancy: 2w5d). but it was severe and somewhat debilitating by 3w0d.

Yowza.

There is, of course, the fact that I tend to have extremely rough reactions to the initial surge of pregnancy hormones. I have noticed now for several pregnancies that the initial pregnancy hormones hit me like a steam engine, and then sometimes back off a wee bit and stabilize before beginning to build again.

But I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

If symptoms were going to get that severe, that fast, then goodness knows where it would have led, even by now (we would today be at 4w5d).

Unfortunately, I have been extremely faithful with my pre-conception pregnancy preparation plan, so I don't have a bunch of ideas to add on.

However, dear friends, I would love to hear your input. (Those of you who are left, that is; I know that my absence from blogging has wrought havoc upon my reader numbers. I'm so sorry, everyone!)

However, I will list below the basic things that I am doing, and if anyone has any input, please, feel free to chime in! (I have put the brands I'm using in the hyperlinks.)

Gluten-free/wheat-free/grain-free

Dairy-free

Lower carb
Increased protein

No sugar

Whole-foods diet

Supplements: Vitamin B complex, magnesium, multi-vitamin, alpha-lipoic acid, glutamine, 
Fish oil

Acetyl L-carnitine and CoQ-10

Liver cleanse supplement and milk thistle (done only pre-ovulation)

Lacto-fermented foods (raw sauerkraut, raw pickles, kombucha), several times daily, plus probiotics

Epsom salts baths, once weekly
Magnesium spray

Apple cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp., 1-2 times daily

Turmeric/Colloidal Silver 10-day regimen, once yearly (done recently)

Coconut oil, 2 Tbsp. per day

As I've said, I've kind of maxed out my pre-conception prep ideas. But here are a few leads I plan to follow:

(1) I will get super-strict about taking my supplements. No more "I'll get around to it every three days or so."

(2) I am increasing my magnesium to minimum 600 mg per day.

(3) I am going to pursue starting to take raw liver again.

(4) I am going to research cold sensitivity (since this symptom has only arrived in my last couple of pregnancies) to see if there is anything I can work on, with hopes that improvement there might also improve pregnancy nausea. 

(5) I am cutting back further on carbs, since my pregnancy doing a very-low-carb diet was my main success story in HG-prevention. I am keeping my carb intake minimal now, limited to small amounts of sweet potato and winter squash. (No more fruit or beans.)

Please feel free to give input - I would love it!

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Dear friends, thank you for your prayers for our family and your kind words when we are able to interact. I do plan to check in, when I can, to do a year-end update, a supplement-update, and a brief post on the adventure of going dairy-free. (It's been amazing, and I'll tell you why then!) And of course, I do my best to answer all comments.

Merry Christmas, dear friends!!