Monday, July 27, 2015

A Moment with Natalie: Getting Pregnant with Endometriosis

My friend Natalie is one of the sweetest, kindest, most intentional people I have ever met. She is a wonderful listener who asks amazing questions and seeks after the Lord with all that she has. Aaron and I met Natalie and her husband, Dan, at church about four years ago, and we instantly clicked (even before Aaron and I were dating). We've traveled to the Passion Conference, New Orleans, and Cancun together, and they are some of our very dearest friends. While we were in Cancun, they told us they were adopting a snowflake baby, but God had another plan: we are SO excited for them to welcome their little miracle baby at the end of the year. 


So here it is, the first installment in Moments:

A Moment with Natalie: Getting Pregnant with Endometriosis


I’ve been away, basically bedridden for three months with intense morning sickness. That’s right! Morning Sickness! Here is my story about how I became pregnant with Endo.


First, here is some quick background info regarding my infertility journey:
After trying to conceive with no success, I started infertility treatments. Time passed, and I still was not pregnant. We were told our next option would be IVF. The previous treatments had made me feel horrible, they were taking a toll on my body, and we didn’t know the long term effects of the drugs I was taking and would have to take for IVF. My husband and I decided we should stop treatments and start the adoption process. We were accepted into an embryo adoption program and would be able to start the embryo transfer within 6 months. Around that time, my husband started looking into natural remedies for curing endometriosis (posted below). We decided it was worth a try, especially since we still had six months until we would receive our precious snowflake baby. To our surprise, three months after healing my body naturally, I became pregnant! Praise God!


The Natural Plan:
1. Research and take an enzyme that dissolves and breaks down existing “cobwebs". Stop once ovulation starts and resume after period.

2. Use Castor Oil packs to soften and to assist with flushing out the “cobwebs”. Stop once ovulation starts and resume after period.

3. Stopping the use of OTC pain meds. This is a hard one, but after further research, pain meds actually make it worse in the long run because they are hard on your liver. When you don’t have a healthy liver, your hormone levels can become imbalanced, potentially feeding the endometriosis. So instead of pain meds, I substituted different herbs such as turmeric and cramp bark. It helps to take these a few days before your period arrives.

4. Changing the diet. I avoided gluten, red meat, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, dairy (you can have goat cheese and coconut/almond milk), soy, peanuts (you can have almond butter). Processed foods can create an inflammatory response in your body. Inflammation makes endometriosis worse. Try to fill up on organic: green tee, chicken, fish, turkey, dark greens, vegetables, beans, hummus, quinoa, and fruit.

5. The month I got pregnant I took more turmeric than usual. I don’t know if that helped or not, but I remember taking one a day the week before I got my positive test result.

Let me conclude by saying I believe God has a plan for everyone. He decides when life is created. In addition to my diet etc., there were a lot of prayers. I believe some couples are barren because He has called them to adopt. Even if I never became pregnant, I would still follow this diet and regiment because it makes the period pain more manageable over time. Endo does not flare-up during pregnancy (Hallelujah!), but I plan to continue this diet once baby arrives.


Disclaimer: The information on oohlalamaison is for informational purposes only. Oohlalamaison is not to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek medical advice from your doctor first as each case is different. 
xoxo  Natalie 

Be sure to check back for more installments of Moments to come! If you want to be sure you don't miss them, follow Currently, Kelsie on Bloglovin'

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3 comments:

  1. So happy to hear that a baby is finally on the way! How very exciting, especially after such a long and painful road. God knows what He's doing!

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    Replies
    1. It is really exciting and fun to see that God always has a plan! I'm so excited for a new little life to love!

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