Pregnancy & Hashimoto's Disease

The Bubble I Have Been Living In 

This morning I wanted to take some time and put some things out there that I have not shared all that much about my pregnancy but I just feel like it's time. 

If you follow me on social media you probably follow me for fitness motivation, healthy recipes, or possibly because of my openness about infertility and miscarriage. Whatever the reason you know me as the fitness coach and since becoming pregnant you might have noticed less and less fitness. 

Maybe you are wondering why. Because during the first trimester there was very little fitness happening. 

Shortly after learning that I was expecting I had an appointment with my endocrinologist whom I respect very much. 

I have worked with a lot of different doctors when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, but she is my go to girl. What she says goes in my world. Yes I really trust her that much. She has been trying relentlessly to help us get pregnant during the last year. From extensive testing, to putting the breaks on my fertility treatments, to dealing with what she thinks was PCSO and even hypoglycemia. You name it, shes been my person working on it for me. 

When I found out the end of the summer that I was expecting she was one of the FIRST people who knew. Literally even before my mom knew. I knew that not only my health, but the viability of my pregnancy depended on my thyroid health and I was going to need some close monitoring by her to make this happen. 

We met right away and made a game plan for how we would approach the pregnancy if it lasted. While that was a hard conversation to have, we knew the outcome of the pregnancy I had in the spring and we knew the struggle so we wanted to be proactive. 

One of the first things we talked about was my exercise. She knew I was very into fitness and she knew how hard I worked out. Her request was that I stop. Entirely. I about fell out of my chair when she said that. She said no cardio, no weights, not even pilates for now. She said I could walk and a few weeks later agreed on yoga. I was terrified what taking a break from exercise would do to my fitness business that I had worked so hard to build.

More than anything though, I wanted this pregnancy to work. So I followed her wishes. No exercise. She said my body has a hard enough time keeping up with all of the stresses that I put on it on a day to day basis not being pregnant. She insisted that I needed to be resting and only worry about growing a baby. If you are not familiar with what Hashimoto's disease is, it is an autoimmune disease where your bodies antibodies attack your thyroid treating it like something they need to "kill off." This in turn causes your thyroid not to function properly which is your control system for most of the internal functions of your body. Basically if your thyroid levels or antibodies are off, your in trouble. 

My gynocologist decided at 8 weeks that she wanted me exercising. My endo still did not. While I trust and respect both I needed to go with my gut and I needed to still not workout just yet. Not exercising was tricky. It made me feel like part of "me" was missing but I still sat it out. 

I managed to not gain much weight so far like I had in my pregnancy with Carter and I really contribute it to my lifestyle. Other than a few off the wall junk food cravings that I have had, I am eating very clean, drinking a ton of water and being mindful of portion control. Last time I took eating for two literally and managed to gain 57 lbs. So far 18 weeks in I have only gained 13 lbs. While I really could care less about the weight gain, it is a sign to me that I am having a much healthier second pregnancy. 

The second trimester brought with it lots more energy and a desire to exercise. While it has not been daily and it has been modified, it feels good to be back in action. Some sacrifices are worth making and for me it's the health of my baby. Lots will argue that it's perfectly fine to exercise during pregnancy and while the answer typically is yes it depends on each person and their own circumstance. For me pregnancy combined with a pretty severe case of Hashimoto's disease means I have to take it easy. 

I guess you could say that I have spent the last five months in a bubble. Lots of sleep, little stress, little exercise, healthy foods and I have been trying my best to stay away from crowds to avoid germs. The pregnancy has been nothing like the first and so so so much harder on my body. I am learning that an autoimmune disorder while pregnant means your playing an entirely different ball game than everyone else.

When you wait as long as I did to be pregnant you treat your body with a lot of respect for what it's growing. Even if it means taking a break from things that you love. 

If your in the same boat that I am, expecting and dealing with a health condition but still wanting to have a healthy fit pregnancy please get in touch with me. I would love to work with you on creating a modified way to include exercise and healthy eating into the remainder of your pregnancy.

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When Things Don't Go According To The "Plan"

Difficult Roads Often Lead To Beautiful Destinations 

If you have been following me on social media, you know that this past year has brought a new reality that my husband and I had to face. Our reality was that even though we had no trouble at all getting pregnant with our son almost four years again, our chances for another have become very slim on our own. It's funny when you have one, you always just assume there will be more. We always have talked about "the next one" we saved all of our little guys baby things for "the next one" and had anticipated that our family would grow at least by one more. Then two years down the road after there was no next one month after month of trying, we decided maybe something was wrong. After lots of testing, regulating my thyroid,vitamin d levels, unblocking my tubes and taking several rounds of fertility drugs - we found ourselves in a dark place this summer. It was a place of hopelessness and sadness. We feel very very very blessed that God gave us our son, but we also are very very sad for the little brother or sister our son does not have. It has been a hard road to walk and one that luckily we have walked together as husband and wife. As hard as this struggle has been, it also has really brought us even closer together. While I don't like the road we are on, I wouldn't want to be on it with anyone else. 

When our last round of the fertility drugs did not work in June we decided to take a step back and spend the summer trying to accept what might be our reality that our family may be smaller than we thought. We took in every moment of the precious life that is growing up before our very eyes. We stopped talking about "the next one" and simply have tried to just be present and enjoy our summer with our blessing we were given. We decided that we would take a break from all the trying, the medication and the stress of it NOT working every single month. 24+ months of trying with no luck gets to be defeating after awhile. While I wear a big bright smile every day, some days that smile is hiding sadness that only my husband knows about and understands. However, I can honestly say we are in a different place now than before. I would be lying if I said I wasn't still sad some days. It's still hard but I am better, stronger and even more grateful than ever before. 

Our steps from here if we want to continue this difficult journey requires some science and gets to be a lot more expensive with no guarantees. We are still praying about that decision. Quite honestly, we have been praying about this for months. My heart tells me I have to at least try once so I don't spend the rest of my life wondering what if. It's more so now that the timing has to be right and right now the timing is not right. My body is still under too much stress with all that I have going on.  In the meantime, I decided I wanted to try a more holistic approach. I had read tons of articles and books and talked with people who dealt with infertility and many had suggested I try acupuncture. I felt like at this point I had nothing to lose so I went for it and loved it.

I signed up for four weeks in a row worth of hour long treatments and will decide from there how often I plan to go. I was absolutely amazed at how much she was able to tell me about my body by feeling my pulses and meridians. Right away she was able to tell me she knew I was there for infertility just by what she was feeling from the pulses. I was amazed and my tongue also told her that I had recently been dealing with something stressful and traumatic (umm yeah 24 months of this struggle I would say is a bit stressful.) The treatments may or may not work but what it has done for me is helped me to feel more balanced and less stressed which is important because the hormones secreted during stressful situations can significantly decrease fertility. While I cannot promise it will work, I would highly encourage anyone who is trying to get pregnant to give it a try. Actually I would encourage everyone to try it. There are SO many other health benefits as well aside from fertility help. To answer the million dollar question - NO the needles DO NOT hurt!! 

So why do I share all of this with lots and lots of strangers? Because the scars that you share become lighthouses for other people who are headed for the same rocks you hit.  Someone out there is reading this and needs this it. Somebody is in the same boat as I am, and if that somebody is you; I want you to remind yourself that just because it's not happening right now doesn't mean it never will. You are in your own little storm right now and it's changing you and it's testing you, but it will not break you.  When this storm passes you are going to come out of it a different person than you were when you went into it. Keep up the faith, keep your chin up and keep us in your prayers. We could use a miracle. Feel free to reach out to me for support if your standing in this storm, I get it and would be glad to talk with you. S.Griffith27@gmail.com