While my sleep is certainly not as interrupted as it used to be when WZW was less than a year old, it continues to be affected thanks to him. I think the best time was when he was a year old. He would sleep for 12 hours a night and take 3+ hour naps during the day. It was amazing for us parents! As he got to about 2 years old, his sleep needs diminished and he now sleeps on the order of 10 hours at night and takes 2 hour naps.
During the work week, we are all up before 6 am. But that also means that on weekends, WZW goes to sleep around the same time and still wakes up super early. Even if I have an uninterrupted night, I can count on being woken up in the 6 am range, sometimes earlier. My problem is that I need 8-9 hours to feel truly rested, so it’s hard to get to bed on time. I usually have a bunch of things I need and want to do after WZW goes to bed. Even if I go to bed at the reasonable time of 10 pm, getting up around 5:30 am means that I’m still feeling a little groggy.
Also, more recently WZW has been having nightmares and will start crying at night and need to be attended to. Even though my husband takes care of him most of the time, the interruption seems to affect my sleep.
The result of all of this is that even on weekends, I’m often finding myself still feeling tired. And having that continue chronically is tough. Granted, I usually do get some restful nights here and there. But still, I am tired of being tired all the time. And then in the back of my mind, I do wonder if that is affecting my fertility.
One of the acupuncturists said that maybe 60% of her clients who are trying to conceive are those who have children already. I’ve mentioned one friend from residency who has tried cycle after cycle of IVF and is finally well into her pregnancy with baby #2. But I recently spoke to another friend from residency who is also having trouble conceiving baby #2, and is starting IVF.
Of course, it doesn’t help that we’re all in our late 30s and our fertility is declining. But part of me wonders if the combination of our modern lives with the inherent stresses from work, combined with the stress and lack of sleep of having a young child, then affects our fertility.
I repeated my labs because it had been a year since I’d last done them, plus they wanted updated ones as I get set up for IVF. The FSH, which is typically drawn on cycle day 2 or 3, was still stable around 5 and hadn’t changed since last year so that’s reassuring (lower is better). My AMH, which is a marker of ovarian reserve, last year was 1.64 and now it’s 1.01. Last year it was in the normal range, and now it’s on the low side (higher is better). Many women with an AMH below 1 do still conceive with IVF. I’m not super familiar with these labs since I’m not a fertility specialist, but my understanding is that the labs give us a general sense of the fertility potential. In other words, is it normal, low, or clearly past the point that IVF would work? The change in my AMH confirms that my fertility is declining thanks to age.
Part of the reason I made the decision to move to IVF is that at my particular location, the fertility docs have a backlog and it can take a few months to get in for the procedure. I have my consultation scheduled in a couple of weeks, and from there the actual IVF procedure probably won’t happen for a few months. So I figure I’ll continue the Clomid until then. And if I haven’t conceived, then it’s clearly appropriate to go to IVF by that point.
This month, I decided to take a break from even the Clomid since I was tired of all the appointments and such, plus my husband was supposed to be out of town around the time ovulation was anticipated. I have to say it’s kind of nice not having any ultrasound appointments or taking the medications. Plus since my insurance coverage for acupuncture has maxed out, I’ve stopped that as well. So it’s been nice not having my off days be filled with acupuncture and fertility appointments.
Paleo OB 