@t1dsugarmommas  

Oh my oh my! I'm pregnant!! Again! And I'm a proud T1D Sugar Momma! For those of you who followed me in my last fertility journey (http://type1diabetesfertilityjourney.blogspot.com/) you'll know that there was a point in my life where I thought that I'd never have a second biological child. Why? Because the doctor told me so! "You need donor eggs. They're bad because of your Type 1 Diabetes." said the doctor. WTF?! "Uh, I think I'll go for a second opinion thank you very much." And now let me catch you up to speed. That was the beginning of 2012. I went for a second opinion, found an amazing doctor who said, "Actually, I think you have a diminished egg reserve because when they removed the Endometriosis from your ovaries, they took a lot of good ovarian tissues with it." Now for me, that's an answer I could work with. Shortly there after with the use of fertility medications (injectibles) and an IUI (Inter Uterine Insemination) we got pregnant with our beautiful second daughter who was born late 2012. We were ecstatic!

Then the story progressed....when our 2nd daughter was 8 months old (our first was 3), my inlaws took us on a wonderful family cruise throughout the Mediterranean Sea! Italy, Greece, Turkey...amazing places! We had planned to go back to the fertility doctor after the trip to try for a third. And of course right after we had bought the wine package as we were in port in Athens I had a funny feeling. I took a pregnancy test and boom! Positive! We were shocked! It happened on it's own! We met a fortune teller a few days later when we arrived in one of the ports in Turkey. We said sure, it's fun. Let's try. They told us that famous people all around Turkey came to see this woman. She worked for tips only. We hadn't told anyone the news and what does she say to me? "You will have a 3rd baby, and it will be a boy!" You know what...she was right! We welcomed our 3rd child, a son, the following May. A year later we had another naturally conceived pregnancy, but we miscarried at 7 weeks. We always wanted a big family and over a year later we went to see our fertility doc 1 more time. He told us chances were slim of it working again, but we had fertility insurance so we thought we'd try. FIRST TIME it Worked!! Our 4th, another son, was born the following April, almost 2 years after the 3rd baby was born. It's been an amazing ride and I have to tell you that I truly feel blessed!

Now to why I sit in this chair writing this today. I'm pregnant again! Another miracle! It totally happened on it's own! You have to understand we thought none of this would be possible. My mother in law after the 4th made sure to tell everybody she saw at our family party that my husband needed a vasectomy! My father said when I told him, "Haven't you figured out how this happens yet?! I'd tell you congratulations, but I'm not sure I'd mean it." Geez, thanks dad. But what can I say...it's not something for everybody, to have so many children, but it makes us happy. We give them all time and love, and honestly they kept asking for another sibling too! I don't judge those who decide not to have children or those who decide to have 10 or more. If you have the love to give and the ability to provide, be confident in your decisions.

This pregnancy is different from any of my others though. This is my First time wearing a DEXCOM in pregnancy and this is also my First time LOOPING during a pregnancy! I used to test my blood 15-20 times a day before in each pregnancy. I would try to figure out my trends. Write down every blood sugar, carb intake and basically stress out 24/7.  I can say with each pregnancy the stress for blood sugar control has gotten a little bit less, but there's always some worry there. I should explain too that I'm not of the FDA approved closed loop system (the Medtronic 670g) I'm on the HACK version. The DIY version called Loop. And you know what....since I started loop in December of 2017 it has changed my life! I've always kept tight A1C Control. Last September I was 5.8%, but with 11% lows. Since being on loop I have been 5.7% consecutively with only 1% lows! That's pretty freaking amazing!! I'm sleeping better and what else can I say, but I love it.

So what I plan to do now is document my Type 1 Diabetes Pregnancy Journey with you. Will I be able to Close Loop throughout the entire journey? I don't know. But I'm going to try. I'm going to write about living with Type 1 Diabetes and being pregnant. I'm also going to write about Living with Type 1 Diabetes, being pregnant and looping! You'll have to forgive me though..I'm going to start this process a little late in the game. You see...I'm already 9 weeks today! But I've taken some notes along the way and will fill you in with the back story soon. I wasn't hesitant in starting this because of the loop, but because of the fact that I miscarried Twice before. (oh yea I also have 4 kids distracting me, run a support group for Women living with Type 1 Diabetes (@t1dsugarmommas) who are in family planning stages, pregnant and Women living with T1D who have young kids...and just have my daily life responsibilities...you know how it goes!) Mostly though, it's that I've needed to feel confident that this last pregnancy is going ok. I'm not 100% confident yet...but I felt it time to get something on paper. So are you ready to take this next fertility journey while Looping with me?! Let's go!