Today marks the first day of a new endeavor for the Andresen family. After talks with my husband, we have decided that we are going to not use birth control anymore. I've been on birth control for the better part of 8 years (minus the times I was pregnant obviously). I've tried different methods including several variations of the pill, Nuva Ring, the patch, and Mirena. If you count the "morning after pill" then that would be one as well...however if you use Jaxson as evidence you can tell it didn't control much in my case. :)
Anyway, fact of the matter is, while I've had "success" with the pill, meaning no ill side effects, Aaron and I are both not really comfortable with relying on medication to control fertility especially since long term users can suffer side effects. The Nuva Ring, patch, and Mirena all caused reactions with my body and since I'm trying to be more natural of a person, I'm trying to eliminate all unnecessary medications and substances. For the last 9 months, I've really had issues with my system reacting to medication; first the bleeding and discomfort issues with the Mirena since July, and then the last 2 months (which coincide with the Trinessa), I've suffered with recurring bladder infections which could be tied to the birth control. Before that I never had problems and the last one I had wasn't responding to antibiotics and it was starting to turn into an acute kidney infection. So we decided to just let nature take it's course. I stopped my birth control immediately upon our conversation, and today marks the first day of my cycle ( a week early...yay for me, right?) and a new "era".
I'm both excited and nervous about this new development and the new changes. I've been charting and temping on Fertility Friend for my last two cycles, but since I was on birth control it showed that I was having "anovulatory cycles" so it wasn't really accurate in determining anything since I wasn't ovulating...which kind of defeats the whole purpose. I will resume the charting and temping now that I'm off medication so that I can truly learn more about my body. This is the part that excites me. For the first time, I am taking full responsibility and ownership of my fertility. To me, that's a pretty powerful thing. A woman's body can do a lot, which makes me proud, and I'm excited to learn more about myself in a way I wouldn't have really expected.
For now, Aaron and I are TTA (or "trying to avoid") because we are not quite ready to be pregnant again financially, but this will help us to gain insight into my cycles so that when we decide to TTC (or "trying to conceive") we should hopefully have success in a short amount of time. Not that we've ever had trouble so far; in all fairness, we've actually been most fortunate to have no issues with fertility. However, it's something that is always in the back of my mind as I've seen it happen to people who have initially had no problems and then cannot conceive again without a struggle. This is where the nervous part of this whole process comes in.
As much as we are not ready to have another baby quite yet, we are fully resting this in God's hands (and ours as well). Should it happen despite our best efforts to avoid then it obviously was His time, not ours, and we will work with that. However, I have to admit that Aaron and I are both excited at the prospect of actually planning a child. Both of our boys weren't planned; Jayden was a "trial by fire", not planned but not prevented method and happened the first month, while Jaxson was our surprise child who was conceived on two types of birth control AND during the one intimate time that cycle. Neither of us have experienced what it is like to actually try... and while that would be a wish or hope for some to have it come so naturally and without effort, we would love to wait and anticipate the day where we find out if we are expecting. Are there two lines? Is there only one?
Not to say that we feel robbed or jilted because our two boys were conceived so fast... they are blessings in their own right and we feel so fortunate to be parents. Our boys are our life. We just would like to try a different approach. So we will wait to see what happens on this new journey.
Wish us luck! I pray that a Fall 2011 baby will be in our future!
*** On a side note, I saw a Mirena commercial on TV the other day and I noticed that they added a clause in there which wasn't in the original ads that "if you get pregnant while on Mirena, it can lead to loss of pregnancy and fertility". Yikes!! I'm so glad that I'm not on that anymore. What a scary prospect!***
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