My husband and I knew we wanted children and I always had that thought in the back of my mind that it might not happen for us. Well, a week ago I gave birth to my first child, a girl we named Lillian Grace. She is wonderful. I'm on the verge of tears writing this, but I want other hopeful moms to know that it IS possible to have a successful pregnancy with IBD and a j-pouch.

I've had Crohn's for about 9 years, had j-pouch surgery in 01. Been on all the drugs, had all the flares, the usual "crap". But I went off all meds and birth control pills about 2 years ago to get myself in gear for having a baby. My husband and I used the Fertility Awareness Method and conceived Lily after about...hmmm...3 days!

My pregnancy was very uneventful. I didn't flare at all, only had a partial obstruction once due to my own stupidity. Towards the end i had alot of very loose diareah, but it didn't up my frequency - it was just annoying because if I tried to pass gas, I 'leaked' a little - probably because of a baby's head sitting right there and the fact that I had diareah. Thank god for pantyliners!!!

I had a scheduled c-section on 11/2. The surgery was EASY. Especially compared to having the j-pouch surgery! I don't know what all these regular women whine about with c-sections! Just goes to show what women with this disease learn to tolerate! We are tough chicas! I stopped taking any drugs for the pain 2 days later (mainly because I discovered (after having exorcist-style vomiting) that me and percocet do NOT get along!

The only thing I would advise to women who have c-sections with IBD is TAKE IT SLOW ON THE FOOD. With our type of bowels, the gas doesn't pass through as easily and the trapped gas was the most painful part of the whole deal! I would have had 10 incisions to guarantee I wouldn't get that gas pain!!! Although my obgyn was knowledgable about bowel surgery, I still had to be my own advocate and take it easier on the food than they allowed me. So use your willpower - even though you are allowed to eat regular food, do the right thing and take it easy until you're sure you can handle it.

Other than that, I'm recovering like a normal person. The incision is healing wonderfully, and I only feel pain when I laugh (which happens alot when you see the weird variations of poop that shoots out of your precious little bundle!!)

I hope that this story can give women hope that even though there's never a guarantee that you'll have success at getting pregnant, it is certainly possible, and you have every reason to think that it WILL happen!!!

Take care everyone! Sending you lots of baby dust!!!

congratulation!


i have heard that a lot of people who have j-pouchitis ,use medicine like"Flagyl", did you use it while pregnancy?

i am really worried about the effect about this drug"Flagyl" to my pregnancy!

hope to hear from you soon!
congratualtuon again!

linda

Congratulations! I love your name choice, Lilly Grace, so pretty!
I hope you are feeling better each day and enjoying your little one!