SJS Pregnancy Diary Part 1: The First Trimester and How I Survived
April 15, 2020
No Comments
If you are struggling at all with fertility or any health issues, for that matter, I would
reach out to Sarah. Her knowledge, expertise, and dedication to this field is remarkable. She is truly a gift and I am forever grateful.
Around three years into that journey, I learned I had stage 4 endometriosis and was told our chance for conceiving on our own was significantly less than 1%. Upon my diagnosis of endometriosis I began to dig, to research all things endo and infertility, to find ways that I could make shifts in my daily life to improve my health and healing.
As my husband and I began to prepare for IVF in order to start a family we buckled down and really put all of our efforts in an all-in attempt to get healthy for conception success. We quite literally did all the things!
It was around this time, after we had already implemented huge life changes on our own in the name of fertility, that I stumbled upon Sarah’s website. As I read through her site, I realized she was preaching and teaching all the things I was already doing.
At the time, I was working with a functional chiropractor who was also coaching me with customized hormone testing and nutritional supplementation with the goal of getting pregnant. While I valued that chiropractor’s efforts and do fully believe they had a positive impact in my journey to get pregnant naturally, I just didn’t click with his personality and really struggled to connect with him emotionally.
I had put all the other aspects of my approach to optimizing fertility into place, even including a mental health therapist, but I really just needed to feel heard and understood by my practitioner that I was putting so much trust in. I had signed on for a six month program with him and around 5 months I really felt like I needed to switch providers. I remembered Sarah’s website, and although I had already been putting much of her plan into practice on my own, I felt like she could understand the emotional, mental, and physical strain infertility puts on a woman. Her website spoke my language and I just felt like she would be able to “get it.”
So, I booked a discovery call with her. We decided to start a one-on-one relationship. In that short, but un-rushed phone call, I felt like Sarah could absolutely understand where I was coming from. I felt that she could provide everything my previous practitioner was, minus the hands-on spinal manipulation, which I continued with a new local chiropractor. She took over my hormone testing and nutritional guidance and I have never looked back since.
Literally just days before our first official session together I learned, against all odds, that I was pregnant!
I immediately reached out to Sarah so that she knew our meeting would be less about TTC and more about maintaining a healthy pregnancy. She went right to work to send me all the resources to help me feel confident in this exciting, yet terrifyingly new territory. She urged me to get my progesterone level tested with my OB-GYN and held my hand through advocating for myself my entire pregnancy.
She was an invaluable resource, from helping me keep my all-day nausea at bay to playing a major role in discovering my hypothyroidism in my second trimester. She helped me navigate all things pregnancy and prepared my body for postpartum. I felt supported the entire way with Sarah in my corner.
Even now, postpartum, Sarah is my go-to nutritionist. We connect every few months to review supplements and dietary shifts, my latest lab work, and honestly, I just enjoy picking her brain on all things postpartum, breastfeeding, and infant/toddler nutrition.
My experience working with Sarah has been a complete blessing, honestly, I consider her a dear friend at this point in my life, we have been through so much together!
She helped me to be set up for breastfeeding success by building my milk supply in the third trimester and she guided me toward great resources to help support me in postpartum, especially in the fourth trimester. She has always been encouraging and is so knowledgeable. Since having my daughter, Sarah has helped me to manage my hypothyroidism and hormones postpartum.
After experiencing a crazy 2020, which for me, included my fourth trimester, awakening to a COVID world, two destructive hurricanes, and a cross-country move with an 11 month old; Sarah even did what she could to support both my husband and I with adrenal support in a very stressful time in our lives.
I may have initiated most of the shifts I have experienced in my infertility journey, but Sarah has been an integral role in encouraging me to maintain those shifts beyond my attempts to get pregnant. I didn’t have a lot of people in my world that aligned with my new way of life and having Sarah in my corner gave me the connection I was seeking when I was new to this world of functional nutrition.
I would absolutely recommend, and already have, Sarah to every woman, in any stage of life. Obviously, any woman struggling with fertility should seek her out. But she is invaluable during pregnancy and postpartum as well. And our hormones . . . let’s just say, she gets a woman’s hormones, and they are ever-changing. I have recommended her to teenage family members trying to navigate hormonal issues, menopausal women, and women suffering from endometriosis and PCOS.
I see Sarah as a guide to getting healthy and really knowing your body and hormones. You have to want it, she is not a magician. But I can tell you, from personal experience, that she will be your cheerleader and a source of information and encouragement along the way. She will meet you where you are at, figure out what your hormones are doing, and then do whatever she can to help you achieve your health goals and feel your best along the way.
Best of all, Sarah is a mama, too! Sarah and I were within six months of each other’s pregnancy and mamahood journeys. It has been so much fun to grow together as women navigating who we are as mothers now. And now that she has experienced pregnancy, postpartum, and motherhood herself she can bring a whole new level of understanding to her work with clients. I am over-the-moon happy for her!
Want to read more success stories from real women like you? You’ll find them here!
Are you ready to begin your journey to mamahood?
Or maybe you’re in the postpartum chapter of your mamahood journey and want to thrive through it?
Or heck, maybe you’re looking to reign in your hormonal chaos and start feeling good in your body?!
I love working with women on an individual basis to deep dive into your specific scenario with all its uniqueness and figure out how we can come up with a plan that works best for you, and your body.
Curious about your fertility health? Take this simple quiz to find out what factors may be harming your fertility, and learn what you can do about it!
