Hi all,

I just wanted to post my experience in case it helps someone out as reading about others' experiences has certainly helped me throughout the years. 

My first daughter was born in 2006 before my surgeries. I had a colectomy in 2007 and my pouch constructed in 2008. I was, of course, incredibly sick for nearly a year before my colectomy and lost a lot of weight very quickly. It affected my hormones so much that, even post-surgeries once I regained the weight and returned to pretty good health,, I never regularly ovulated again and we were told I was infertile. I was told I was a good candidate for IVF as my tubes weren't blocked and my ovaries responded to medication; however, we decided we were happy with our one daughter and didn't want to pursue IVF.

Fast-forward to 2014 and after years of not even thinking about babies or birth control (as I wasn't menstruating so not ovulating), I was scheduled for a consultation with a specialist for women dealing with hormone issues and early menopause when I discovered I was pregnant - you can imagine our shock! My family doctor was shocked too It was a happy, but very unexpected, surprise. 

Although I was convinced there was no way the pregnancy would take (I just turned 40), it did, and my second beautiful daughter was born in June 2015 via c-section. My high risk doc was fine with me trying vaginally if I wanted, but I decided not to take any chances with pushing and my pouch and went with a c-section. My c-section went smoothly and I recovered well. We are all happy and healthy!

I had a few issues while pregnant - my pouchitis acted up more often, so I took antibiotics intermittently, and I was more susceptible to obstruction and had to go to the ER a couple of times, but fortunately both passed without incident. I also find that I'm more susceptible to obstruction even now post-birth and have to be a bit more careful with what I eat.