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This is gonna be long, so strap in for a wild ride. I have told part of his story before, when I was hospitalised last fall, but here we go again :x

TLDR; I am finally pregnant :x , after years and years of trying, infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss (17 miscarriages and 3 ectopic pregnancies).

I never wanted children when I was a kid. But at 2, I got pregnant; an ectopic pregnancy, which luckily, my body fixed by itself. This triggered something in me, and I wanted nothing more than having a big family. When my son was born, the plan of me and my (now ex-)husband was to have many children. Our "starting point" was 4. So we started trying for number 2 when my son was 9 months. The first 6 months of trying, I lost 3 pregnancies. Over the next 4 years I lost 3 more, and had an extopic pregnancy where I lost my left fallopian tube. We also did three rounds of IVF and a total of 6 transfers, but we had no luck.

I live in Norway, where you will get 3 "free" rounds of IVF through public clinics (not totally free, but you pay a very small fee, and cover up to around 1800 USD for the meds). After that you have to seek help at a private clinic, wich will cost you around 5000 USD + any medicine cost. I wanted to keep trying, but my (now ex-)husband did not - he wanted to foster. During the courses you have to do to foster, we split up. My choice, and a long story, but the fact that I still wanted more biological children was a small part of the decision.

Me and my now husband get together around 6 months later (a little quicker than I was planning, but when you know, you know). We had already worked at the same place for around 6 years at this point. We were never close coworkers, but we knew enough of each other to know what kind of person the other was. And we knew that we both had longed for children for a long time, and that my body would likely not make this very easy. So after the initial dating period, when we desided to make our relationship "official", we also desided that if it happens, it happens, and we would be happy.

The next month, I was pregnant. I lost the pregnancy less than 2 weeks later, and over the next 4 years I got pregnant 8 more times, and lost them all. We got married in 2016, and 3 months before the wedding I was pregnant again. This turned out to be another ectopic pregnancy, and seven weeks before our wedding I was rushed to hospital and had to remove my last fallopian tube. So now we had no chance of getting pregnant on our own, and our only possibility was IVF.

With a new partner, I could have 3 new rounds in a public clinic, and last august we did our first round. We had a way to low dosage, and only got 6 eggs retrieved, but one of them made it to be transfered on day 3. I got pregnant, but lost the pregnancy just days after a positive test. Our second round was in october, where we got 12 eggs retrieved. We transfered one on day 2, and got one on ice for a later try. I got terrible Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), which basicly mean the follicles you have emptied to get the eggs out continue to fill with fluids, and, because they are punctured, those fluids will leak into your abdomen. This causes high blood pressure and can be life threatning if not kept under control. The problem is, if you get pregnant, it gets MUCH worse. I was admitted to hospital with a blood pressure of 165/120, but I also tested positive that same night. I got daily saline IVs, and after a few days I got a drain in my abdomen. After 10 days in hospital I went home, after having drained 10 liters of fluid (more than 2.5 gallons).

After being released from hospital, I had to keep coming in to check on the pregnancy. My HCG (the pregnancy hormone), was low, but rising as it should. But the week after I got home, it started slowing, and it was obvious I was losing another one. It took weeks before it was finally gone, and months before my hormones was at a place where we could transfer our one remaining embryo. When we finally got that far, the transfer was a negative.

During all these years, I have gotten so many tests done. All the testing the hospitals and public clinics offer has been done over and over. We also did a test that was sent off to Greece, where they found a hidden infection. We were so hopeful after treating that infection, but it still did not help.

Now, the "free" rounds of IVF works like this:
- You get three round of IVF at a public clinic of your choice. Here, you only pay around 150 USD for each retrieval, and around 40 USD for each transfer.
- You have to pay your meds up to around 1800 USD, and after that you will have to cover them, but then you get the money returned. This only coveres hormones though, so any other meds are not covered (blood thinners or immune supressors are most common)

But these two are not dependant on each other. So you can do public rounds and pay your own meds, or use a private clinic and get returns for your meds. We had done 2 rounds, and spent just over what you have to pay yourself for meds, so our next round we would not need to buy the meds. We had heard that a private clinic near us had very good success rates, and they also did, as the only clinic in the country, this one test that had very good results with recurrent pregnancy loss. We desided this clinic would be our last hail mary.

We did the test in febuary. It is basicly a biopsy of the uterine lining. Hurt like a mofo, but thankfully quickly over with. The test is sent to Germany, and they count plasma cells and uterine natural killer cells (uNKC). Natural killer cells can be found in the blood too, but the uterine ones can not be counted through a blood test. The normal range for these are 0-300, 300-600 are increased amounts, and more than 600 are significantly increased. Mine were 776, meaning my body was pretty much attacking any embryos that tried to implant, and killed them off almost immidiatly.

So we made a plan, for our last retrieval. We were hoping to transfer 2 embryos, and hopeful we would be able to do at least two transfers from this retrieval. So we were very hopeful when we retrieved 25 eggs. But sadly, they dropped off at an alarming rate. 23 fertilised. 15 was still growing on day 1. 9 was still growing on day 2. Only 5 was left on day 3. They are not checked on day 4, but on day 5 we got the last report. One single embryo was good enough to freeze. Since I was at risk of OHSS we had to wait untill the next cycle to transfer.

At this point we lost all hope. I don't know why, as we still had our one little fighter, but we were absolutely devastated. We transfered our one embryo, and at the same time we did an intralipid transfusion to slow the response of the UNKCs. I started blood thinners and prednisone. Four days later, I had a positive pregnancy test. 6 days after that, we did a second intralipid infusion. Still pregnant. 10 days later, new intralipid infusion. Still pregnant.

I am now 9 weeks 3 days. Still pregnant. I never get this far. We have had ultrasounds at week 7, week 8 and yesterday. Still pregnant. Baby is measuring perfectly. A squiggly, happy gummi bear. My son turned 11 years old a month ago. He has asked for siblings from the moment he knew the words to do so. He knows we have struggled, and that mommys body is making it hard for us, but he does not know the particulars. When he comes back from his dads in 2 weeks, we will hopefully be able to tell him that his wish is coming true.