Keeping Up With The Aguinaldos

Documenting our lives one post at a time. Follow us as we become The Aguinaldos.

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01/10/2020

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2nd trimester update

Week 13 and on has been so much easier. I finally have the energy to do things around the house, workout, and even stay up past 9pm. I’m sure this excited William because we weren’t cooped up in the house all day. Because of this new found energy, we decided to book a trip to Europe thinking to ourselves that it would be easy. This might not have been a good idea considering there was so much walking involved. My mind wanted to see so much, but my body definitely held us back. I was a trooper and did as much as I could. It was an amazing trip, but for the next pregnancy, I’m going to push for a more relaxing vacation.

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Grow, baby, grow!

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End of the 1st trimester

Time is flying by! We are 12 weeks today and we just finished our genetic testing. Baby Aguinaldo is strong and healthy. We also got to see the baby in the 3D ultrasound. Baby A waved to us! It was the best feeling in the world.

We love you so much and we can’t wait to meet you!

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Beginning weeks of pregnancy were the most terrifying and nerve wrecking for me. I didn’t know if our baby was going to survive, or if it was even a viable pregnancy. Kaiser and their standard protocol drove me crazy because they can only see you starting at week 9. I tried to advocate for myself by asking the nurse for an earlier date. I explained that I had history of an ectopic pregnancy and that I wanted to know if this pregnancy was ectopic or not. She politely denied and told me to wait until Dr. Lim, our fertility doctor, was back from vacation. Finally at week 7, Dr. Lim agreed to meet with us and that was the day we saw our baby for the first time. 🌈👶🏻

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How I told him. 👶🏻❤️

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05/31/19 - Positive

The two week waiting game was seriously the longest two weeks of our lives. Aunt Flo was supposed to arrive yesterday. I had some discharge but I always do before my period so I didn’t think anything of it. This morning, I woke up and I needed to pee and Aunt Flo still didn’t come. I thought to myself, let’s just take a test today and if it’s negative we won’t tell William.

Bam! POSITIVE! My thoughts to myself: “Wait what?! The first test I took was from the dollar tree. You think it’s a false positive? So I took my clear blue test. Another positive! Can’t be two false positives!” I can’t wait to tell William!! He comes home from work this afternoon. Yay! This feeling is so surreal! Praying for a healthy pregnancy this time around. 👶🏻

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05/15/19 - Recanulization Day

Last month we were given 3 options after finding out my tube was blocked. We picked the first one, which was the least invasive procedure. Today was the day. I was nervous. What if this didn’t work? William kept me calm. Thank goodness for his comic relief.

This time, the procedure was more intense than the HSG test. They had to monitor my blood pressure, my breathing, I had an IV put in, and was given so many pain killers. There was even a whole team of techs, nurses, and doctors in the room. Felt intimidating.

They did an HSG test again just to confirm there was a block. That pain I was used to. He proceeds to do the recanulization and then the HSG test again. Since the block was cleared the HSG test hurt so much more. The pressure was almost unbearable but it lasted 30 seconds. They told me to breathe through it. The nurse asked if she could increase my pain meds but the doctor said “nope, no need we’re done, all clear.”

Oh my gosh, the feeling of relief when he said those words. I couldn’t wait to tell William! Doctor said we could try to conceive after 24 hours. Woohoo! Baby making time!!!

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05/01/19 - Semen Analysis

After abstaining for 3 days, William finally decided to submit a semen analysis to check the quality of his swimmers. It was quite the experience and might be too much to share on here so I’ll opt not to. Results came back quick! Within minutes of him submitting his semen. Looks like his swimmers are good and strong!

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Maui was such a good reset for us. Definitely took our minds off of the stress at home.

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04/15/19 - Results

Waiting for that phone call from our fertility doctor was nerve wrecking. It put us in a funk. I already knew what he was going to say, but a part of me was hoping he had better news. 

He called us as we were boarding our flight to Maui (which was a relief because I didn't want to be on vacation waiting for his phone call). He said good news and bad news. First, that I definitely had a block or kink in my remaining fallopian tube. Second, we had three options on what we can do about it. 

1. Go in for a fallopian tube recanulization. They basically stick something like a straw through my fallopian tube and force saline water through it. This will hopefully clear out whatever is blocking a flow through my fallopian tube. 

2. I go under general anesthesia and the doctor goes in with a camera and looks through my fallopian tube. Upon inspecting my fallopian tube, he can try and fix whatever is wrong with it. 

3. We skip all the testing and go straight to In Vitro Fertilization.

After much thought, we are going to go step by step and start with the least invasive procedure. These tests are done during a certain time: after my period and before ovulation. So we wait for my next cycle again. It’s been a crazy journey and we are still processing things. Please keep us in your prayers and send us positive vibes.  

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04/12/19 - HSG Test

Today was the big test for our remaining Fallopian tube. The HSG test wasn’t as bad as I thought. No pain, just minor discomfort. Felt like a regular pap smear. The dye portion felt like period cramps, but not unbearable.

The radiologist was very nice. Walked me through every step as she was doing it. I could sense she was getting frustrated because she couldn’t find an obvious flow and the dye kept spilling out. She tried really hard. She repositioned speculum, inserted it higher, made me turn to my side, flushed it out with saline, but still nothing. I could see on the screen that there wasn’t an obvious flow. She explained to me that maybe through a higher resolution monitor she might be able to read a flow output, and to just wait for my fertility doctor to give me the official results. But let’s be real, that was just a nice way for her to tell me that there was a blockage.

William will submit his sperm analysis on Monday. And then we we wait for our fertility doctor to give us our options.... 

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04/08/19 - Ovarian Reserve

Last month, Inay passed away so we had to go to the East Coast postponing the tests to this month.

Today I got my blood drawn to test my ovary reserve. This is how they check if my ovaries are producing eggs and working properly. All these tests are time sensitive because it needs to be done during your menstral period.

The tests results came back quick! My levels are reading normal. Yay!

The next test we need to do is William’s semen and an HSG test. There’s a lot of pressure on this one because I only have one left. Here’s to hoping it’s working properly. 🤞🏼

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03.06.19 - Our Fertility Journey

FAST FORWARD TO PRESENT>>>

It’s been awhile.... and a lot has changed. Stay with me, this is a lengthy post. Lets recap:

William and I finally got married. It took a while and there were plenty of ups and downs but we made it! We finished building our house a month after the wedding and was able to move in as husband and wife. That in itself needs its own post! We might get to that later... This post is about present time. 

It’s been 1 year and 10 months since we got married and in that time, we managed to get pregnant! I shared the news of our pregnancy in June 2018. It was such an amazing feeling! Something that I can’t even begin to describe. We went along as any normal couple would do who just found out they were pregnant; we started speaking to my belly, downloading all the apps, reading all the books, and we even started telling family and close friends.  

On August 20, 2018, it the was the day of William’s graduation ceremony. Something we have looked forward to since probation started. I woke up to excruciating pain and bleeding. I took myself to the emergency room and after 6 hours of waiting, blood tests, vaginal exams, and ultrasounds, I was told I had an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy are rare and very dangerous. Its when the embryo implants itself in someplace other than the uterus. In my case, it was my fallopian tube. I needed to abort our baby and remove my fallopian tube because if I didn't I would bleed out and die (That’s exactly what our doctor said). It was such an emotional day. I called William and he immediately left his graduation and came to the hospital. That healing process was such an emotional roller coaster and we couldn't have done it without the love and support of each other. 

We thought that after we healed and processed our grief, we would be on our way to making another baby. 6 months later, on February 8th, 2019, I found myself right back in the ER with the same kind of pain I felt 6 months ago. 10 hours later, they tell me I need to have another surgery because during the ultrasound, they found a 6cm cyst on my left ovary. The cyst was causing all the  pain. 

This brings me to present time. My surgeon informed me that visually my female reproductive parts looked healthy but she suggested we see a fertility specialist just to make sure. So we had our first fertility appointment yesterday and that was overwhelming. He told us that getting pregnant is easy as long as three major factors are working: my ovaries, my remaining fallopian tube, and William’s sperm count. 

To test my ovaries, he ordered a simple blood test during my next period.

To test my fallopian, an out patient procedure called Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) will be done. The test takes no longer than a half hour. It involves placing an iodine-based dye through the cervix and taking x-rays. These x-rays help evaluate the shape of the uterus and whether the fallopian tubes are blocked.

And lastly, to test William’s sperm, he will need to give them a sperm sample after abstaining from ejaculation for 3-4 days. 

I wrote this post because I wanted to share our fertility journey. I never thought this road would come, but we’re here and it’s very real. Hopefully I can keep up with this documentation and share our journey with all of you. Thanks for reading, and I’ll let you know how the tests go...

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Sneak peak into our engagement pictures. All the wedding planning has been getting the best of us and It's been a wild and crazy journey to get to this place, but we're finally having some fun now!!

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Cannot wait until this day. @archieboyyy

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January 24, 2016: Wedding Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged so I wanted to give you all an exciting update.

On Christmas Eve, William and I took a tour of a potential wedding venue. Little did I know I was going to fall in love with this place. On the drive home from the venue I was speechless, which scared William because on a normal basis I can never keep my mouth shut. Weeks passed and I couldn’t get the venue off my mind. As soon as my family came back from vacation we immediately scheduled a tour so that both of our families could see the venue. That brings us to this past Friday. Both of our families loved it and we finally locked in a date: May 6th, 2017.

In addition to locking in the date, my maid of honors and I decided to take on the challenge of going to a sample sale in Downtown Los Angeles this morning. It was quite the adventure. You only had 15 minutes to try on 4 dresses. It was so chaotic and there were naked women everywhere. My team and I were definitely the most prepared out of all the women, from the beginning to the end. We were complete with mimosas and a picnic blanket while waiting in the cold. And from the moment the doors opened we definitely had the best game plan. Long story short, I bought the dress of my dreams for an amazing price. I know I’m 17 months way ahead of schedule, but if you know me, I would rather be early than late. 

Our day is slowly coming together and we couldn’t be more excited.