2011 wasn't our best year, We have been trying for a child for a few years now, and the start of 2011 was of mixed feelings. We found out Vicki was pregnant, overjoyed we told the world, only for her to have a miscarriage a few days later. It's not great having to tell people the bad news and watch them try to give you some positive thoughts.
We battled on after that, we have been seeing a Gynocologist regarding this, I'd had my sperm test (Top Marks, Apparently) and Vicki had numerous tests done, She was put on Provera and Clomid and we were told to live like Rabbits, At 29 I found this quite difficult, we have been together 10 years and during them years things change, When we were first an item this would have been easy, I could literally do it all day.
Time seemed to be flying by and before we knew it we had exhausted the NHS and our options were becoming limited. We were referred to Manchester for IVF/IUI, an option I wasn't too keen on as all they kept saying was, If you smoke, they wont give you anything, The pressure was put on regarding my smoking and I knew I'd let her down, pretending to Nurses etc that Id quit. I'm a regular visitor to the Smoking Cessation clinic and am on first name terms with many of the advisor's, due to the amount of times I have TRIED to stop. My best chance was using the wonder tablet Champix, that basically turns off the receptors in your brain that make you crave nicotine. Unfortunately I started these just before the Christmas break, Which interfered with my routine and I kept forgetting to take them. In no matter of time I was back to the normal 20 a day.
I was told not to continue with Champix as Its still under tests and shouldn't be used when trying to conceive. This left me to re try patches, chewing gum, inhalator's etc. I've done Hypnotism, well I gave a man £100 while I sat in a chair and he read a piece of paper to me.
A letter arrived and it was the form for IVF that we needed to fill and return so that they could assess our options, again I lied regarding my smoking, promising that I would quit before we would see them. A few week later a letter returned asking us to book in for tests. I was dreading this day.
Through a little bit of coincidence Vicki came down the stairs with the look of amazement in her eyes, She had done a test and was pregnant, It was a cheap tester so we weren't fully sure, So we proved correct by doing a few more.
I have never been so relieved in my life, not only that the quitting smoking pressure had been taken off my shoulder but Vicki was happy. I'm still working on quitting and have started the Champix again. Today is my first day of the cigarettes and I haven't done too bad, I've had a couple but its a step in the right direction. I just hope this pregnancy goes better than the last.
Chris
