I've got a brand new Story of Hope for you! This amazing woman spent 4 years advocating for herself to get the answers she needed. After not taking “no” for an answer, she was able to bring TWO beautiful babies home.

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Aimee Raupp:

Okay. Hello, everyone. We are here. This is Catherine. Catherine and I are here to do a Story of Hope, which, I mean, all these stories are so beautiful and really do inspire hope.

Yeah, I love Catherine's story, the things that stick out to me, and we'll get into it, is how she really advocated for herself, and pushed, and I think, didn't take no for an answer, which is, you know I preach that.

I want you to share what feels good to you, to share with the audience because I know that at some point, I believe the stories of hope helped you back in the day, didn't they?

Catherine:

Yes.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

They did. I'm not sure if I saw them in the Facebook group, or if I saw them on Instagram, or where I saw them, but I just remember watching some of them and picking up on pieces that other women had that, I was going through.

I was like, “Oh, well, let me look into that because that might be something, of why I'm having issues.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Start from the beginning. Yeah, you were having troubles conceiving, and then wound up-

Catherine:

So-

Aimee Raupp:

… getting-

Catherine:

Yeah. My husband had a vasectomy.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, that's right. That's right. Had a vasectomy.

Catherine:

We knew somebody was going to have some sort of procedure somewhere. We initially checked out to have it reversed. The doctor said, just no. So, we went the route of IVF, and of course, we went in, and I was 30 at the time. We went in, they said, “Everything looks great. You'll have no problem having babies. You'll be pregnant in no time.”

We went through. We ended up getting 23 eggs. Ended up with three embryos, and then we did a transfer and it failed. It was a grade 4AA or AB or something like that. They were like, “I have no idea what's going on. Let's do a hysteroscopy because you, probably have polyps.”

They went in there, no polyps. So I said, “Okay, what's the problem?” They're like, “I don't know. Just let's try again.” Tried again, another failure. Still didn't have a reason. I ended up asking about endometriosis, PCOS, natural killer cells, which the doctor was like, “No, no. That doesn't matter.”

Aimee Raupp:

How'd you learn about that stuff? How'd you get-

Catherine:

So, I always thought I had endometriosis because I have … I mean, my cramps used to make me throw up. I always thought it was something that I had. Then I just started … Because I have hypothyroidism, I just started researching hypothyroidism, infertility, and it just takes you down a rabbit hole of all these things.

I'm like, “Well, y'all don't know what's wrong with me. I'm going to try and figure it out since you're not trying to figure it out.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

So I ended up thinking, “Well, I have hypo, which means my antibodies attack my thyroid, and maybe I have another-“

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, so you had Hashi's too, right? You had hypo and Hashi's.

Catherine:

I had never been diagnosed with it. I pushed my endocrinologist to test me for it, and they're like, “Oh, yeah. You do have this.” I'm like, “Thanks for checking that out for me.” We tested that.

Aimee Raupp:

Great. Yeah. You pushed so hard though. I mean, you've got a lot of information.

Catherine:

Yeah. We tested that and then I ended up, somehow … Again, I don't know how I came across any of this information, just reading, but about an ERA, which it tests whether or not you're in your receptive period, which they didn't want to do, but I pushed. They're like, “Well, we can do it.” I'm like, “Just do it.”

So they did it, and turns out they were transferring the embryo at the wrong time.

Aimee Raupp:

Wrong time, because you were pre-receptive, right? They were transferring that late.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

I needed one more day of progesterone. So we did that. We transferred the last embryo and it failed. I'm like, “Okay, I don't know what's going on.” I asked them, “Okay. Well, what are we going to do?” They're like, “We'll just do the same thing over again.” I'm like, “Okay, no, because that did not work.”

There was a lot of other things that went on with the clinic, with wrong medications and things like that. I was like, “Okay, we need to go somewhere else, find somewhere else to go,” so we found another clinic.

They were also like, “Oh, yeah, you'll have no problem having kids. Everything looks great. Your lining is perfect,” yada yada yada. We were super excited. They did one extra test to make sure my fallopian tubes were open and-

Aimee Raupp:

You didn't have a sepsis. Right?

Catherine:

Yeah, and to make sure the fluid wasn't leaking into my uterus, which everything was fine. We went through, got another 23, 22 eggs.

Aimee Raupp:

Was the HSG painful for you?

Catherine:

Yes.

Aimee Raupp:

Because that's another sign just for all you guys out there. Vomiting and/or diarrhea with a period is usually a sign to me, of endometriosis. The painful, very painful HSG is another sign, where it's, there's cobwebs, and it holds onto things, and the tubes are really tiny and small.

When pressure is applied and the HSG forces the fluid through the tubes, it can be really painful for endometriosis girls.

Catherine:

I remember wanting … One side was fine and then the other side, it was, it took forever because they were like, “We're not really seeing the dye come out.” They just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. I'm like, “I'm about to fall off this table,” but that ended up fine.

We did everything. We got 23 eggs, 22 eggs, somewhere around there. Then none of the embryos made it, which I was shocked because more fertilized at that cycle than the other one. We went in for our meeting with the doctor after the failure and they told us that my eggs were crap. I needed donor eggs. That they could try another cycle, and they were pushing us to do half my eggs, half donor eggs and then half my husband's sperm, half donor sperm, which my husband was not about any of the donor.

Aimee Raupp:

It's all coming back to me, by the way. Now I'm actually sitting with you in our call. I'm actually seeing where you were sitting. You were at a table, maybe in a kitchen.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

Right?

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

It's all coming back to me as you're telling this story now. It's so funny, I'm like that, where, of course I remember you and your case, but now I'm really remembering our conversation. Anyway.

Catherine:

After that, I was just like, “I think this is bullshit.”

Aimee Raupp:

You were done.

Catherine:

I'm 30 … I was 32.

Aimee Raupp:

I know. You were a baby. Yeah.

Catherine:

I was like, “This is crap. I don't believe this.” I took some time to research, try to see what information was out there because one, they kept telling me that endometriosis doesn't affect IVF. However, they wanted to put me on Lupron. It either doesn't affect it, or I don't need the drug. Why would you put me on something if it doesn't affect it?

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

I did, not an interview, but I just went to another clinic just to see what they had to say. Again, they were saying all the same stuff. They didn't want to do the endometriosis surgery. Now this is three clinics that have not wanted to do the endometriosis surgery.

I went to my OB and they didn't want to do the endometriosis surgery. So, this is garbage. I don't know what to do.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, you were at such a loss.

Catherine:

I was doing that, and then I was researching a bunch of things about inflammation, because if you have endometriosis, you have inflammation. I don't know where down my rabbit hole I came across you, but I came across you.

I started reading all the free stuff. Anything that you would send for free, I was reading and telling my husband about, until finally I was like, “We need to …” I said, “We're wasting all this money with IVF. I really want to do this coaching to see …” I said, “Because she'll listen to your case and tell you what's specifically for you.” It's not like I'm just reading a generalized suggestion.

Aimee Raupp:

Right. That's like, that's the problem with, as I would call it, Dr. Google, right? It's like you're shooting in the dark, a bunch, but you did, obviously learn a ton, and you were on your path to doing all the things right for you.

Catherine:

I think one of the things you had said, and I want to say it was a hot seat on Instagram. You had said something about, “I did the work for you. I did this.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Exactly.

Catherine:

“I've already …” I was like, “Okay, good because I'm done. I'm tired of doing the work. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm tired.” I had my husband watch a couple of things and he was like, “If you feel like this is going to help you, then do it.” I was like, “Yeah.”

Then I remember getting Body Belief and reading through that. I cannot remember who it was with, but I did some coaching with one of your partners.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Probably Michelle in 2000-

Catherine:

Yes, it was Michelle.

Aimee Raupp:

It was Michelle. Yeah.

Catherine:

It was Michelle. I did some of that with her, and I remember … I'm such a picky eater, so it was hard for me at first, and I'm also heavy on the carbs. I just was like, “Oh, I'm never going to be able to do this.” Once I did it, it was not that hard. I noticed so many-

Aimee Raupp:

Yes. So many things changed for you. Yeah.

Catherine:

So many different things. Just random things that I didn't even know were inflammation, like ringing in your ears. I didn't even know that had anything to do with inflammation. I thought that was crazy.

Aimee Raupp:

Then, yeah, because you came before I had written The Egg Quality Diet, which is largely based off of the approach in Body Belief. Obviously, all about reducing inflammation. I was just seeing if I could pull up your red flag symptom list.

I know that my thing is being funky, so I won't do it. You joined the Yes, You Can Get Pregnant E-course. That was in September. You did. You got one coaching session, I think, with Michelle.

Then, so that's September of '21. At that point you'd been, like you said, three different clinics. No one's listening to you, no one wants to give you endo surgery. Were you making changes though, already, like doing certain stuff?

Catherine:

So, CoQ10 was something I had done. I had, also clean beauty products, like changed my deodorants, body washes. I didn't really wear perfumes, nail polish. Just whatever I came across and I thought could help, I did.

Then coffee was, I tried to tone down the coffee. That was a big battle between my husband, was, “You drink five to six cups of coffee a day. We need to … Can we do two? Can we do a decaf? Can we do …”

Aimee Raupp:

Right. Right.

Catherine:

That was a big thing for him. Then you gave us the E3 with something that he was on, the fish-

Aimee Raupp:

I have your notes here.

Catherine:

Yeah. The fish oil was something that he was on.

Aimee Raupp:

Your big red flags, just so everybody knows. Cold hands and feet, fatigue, overweight, stomach ache, bloating, belching, constipation, depression, insomnia, restlessness, low libido, irritability. Those were what you were complaining of, at the time. It was actually, yeah, October 2000 … I have 2020. Does that sound right?

Catherine:

I don't know. Maybe. I took a break. I don't know how long that break was.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Exactly.

Catherine:

But I took a break.

Aimee Raupp:

Then with your period too, your stomach was a mess. Cramping, all these things, too. It was like … Yeah, anyway. Just sharing all that. Then, you did. You told-

Catherine:

2020 is right.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, we called it back then, it was before The Egg Quality Diet, but we had a PDF that we were giving everybody, called The Fertility Purify Eating Plan. That's what you dove into.

I'm looking at the follow-up email and it was like, “We'll put you on liver pills,” or you were already on them, continue. We put you on a prenatal with methylfolate, not folic acid. We said, “The prenatal you had, had soy in it, so please switch that out.”

You were doing cod liver oil already, collagen peptides, D3, and then, yeah, you were in the E-course. Then I think you were already on CoQ10, right? You switched over your bath and beauty products, like you said. Then we were working through a lot of, some of what the homework was for you, of unpack some of those beliefs, begin healing-

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

… of this process, dig into the E-course, especially modules one and module five for the emotional support. Then you were fairly active in the E-course too, as far as in the Q&A. We called it Office Hours back then, but now we call it Q&A, just less confusion.

Then fast-forward, so you do the coaching, you're changing the diet, but then you hear me talk about Dr. Vidali, right?

Catherine:

Yeah. You had talked about it, and a couple of the other girls in the group had talked about having surgery with him. I'm in Virginia and he's in New Jersey or New York. I was like, “I don't know. Well, I'll just see.”

We went and we had a consult with him. It was funny to me, he just did one look, just examined and was like, “Oh, yeah. You have PCOS for sure.” I'm like, “How do you see that?” I've been to three other … First of all, I've been to the OB every year and nobody's seen that. I've been to three other clinics and they didn't …” You're counting follicles as you're doing IVF. The follicle count is how you know you have PCOS. So, how did you guys not know that?

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

How did that not come up? That's what I think is crazy.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. No one addressed it because that's why you were getting so many eggs, but the quality was crappy. It's like, it's really about regulating hormones and blood sugar for PCOS. Then all those eggs, you can improve the quality of those eggs, basically.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

Now we know that. We have proof of that.

Catherine:

We went there and I decided I just wanted to go through with the surgery. In April of '21, I had the surgery. Shortly after, he had told me to get on …

Aimee Raupp:

Metformin?

Catherine:

Metformin. He said, “A couple of months on that, it should be good.” I waited until August to do my next egg retrieval. It was that-

Aimee Raupp:

At that point you were doing all the supplements, were you still, pretty much on the diet?

Catherine:

Kind of. I mean, with the Metformin, it jacks your stomach up, so I was, kind of, sort of eating whatever I could keep, but half-and-half, I would say. I lived off sweet potatoes, I think.

Aimee Raupp:

Protein. You were so conscious of the protein and the veg-

Catherine:

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

… in that way. I think the macros are probably still there, but maybe some more carbs. Yeah.

Catherine:

Yeah. I did that. Then I also found a doctor who believed in reproductive immunology, and she-

Aimee Raupp:

Who was that, because you're in PA? Was it Main Line, or no?

Catherine:

No, we did it in Virginia.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, in Virginia. Right. Sorry.

Catherine:

Yeah. She ended up testing me for natural killer cells, which I ended up having a higher level of. I mean, everybody has them, but some people just have more. We included that in the transfer protocol, or afterwards. I went in-

Aimee Raupp:

Was it IVIG or was it intralipids?

Catherine:

Intralipids. I looked at both of them, because Dr. Vidali was like, “Well, you can do IVIG,” but it was just a lot because-

Aimee Raupp:

It's very expensive.

Catherine:

Yeah. I was like, “Ah, we'll just see.” We did the last retrieval, and I got 42 eggs, and I was like, “Holy moly.” Then two made it to embryos.

Aimee Raupp:

That's just day five. You didn't test. They weren't genetic-

Catherine:

They didn't test. They were like, “Well …” They say it's just a beauty contest when they grade them.” Mine were 2B minus or something like that. They're like, “We don't want to … They're a little fragile. We don't want to just play around with them.” I was like, “Okay.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. They were day threes or day fives? They were day fives.

Catherine:

Day fives.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

Then after my retrieval, I went on Lupron because we knew I had the endo, because when we did the surgery, he was like, “I wasn't positive we should have done the surgery, but I'm glad we did because it was everywhere.” They had to-

Aimee Raupp:

Wasn't it? You were-

Catherine:

Yeah, he had to call in a general surgeon to get it out of other places. I apparently had it in my bowels and my stomach. It was everywhere.

Aimee Raupp:

Did you feel and even still … I know I'm jumping around, but did you feel a big difference from the surgery?

Catherine:

My periods are so much better.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, that's amazing.

Catherine:

I was a little nervous because with the suppression with Lupron and then being pregnant, I didn't have a period for so long. When it came back, I was like, “Oh, this isn't bad. I can't live with this.” You know? So much better.

Aimee Raupp:

That's amazing. A lot of your red flag symptoms too, have been at bay, or at least-

Catherine:

I mean, right-

Aimee Raupp:

… how to manage them too, better, right?

Catherine:

Yeah. I was glad I pushed to do that. I was like, “Anything that could be an issue, let's just-“

Aimee Raupp:

Solve for it. Yeah.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

Okay, so I keep cutting you off. We get two embryos, then we do Lupron for what, two months?

Catherine:

We did Lupron for … We did it September, October, November. Then I just wanted to wait a little bit more. We did it and then I had my transfer on December 20th of '21. We put two in because she was like, “The quality. We'll just see. One, probably won't take, so let's just put them, but you have to be okay with having two.” I was like, “Just put them both in. God-“

Aimee Raupp:

You're like, “I've been at this for four years, so I'll take it.”

Catherine:

God will give me what I'm supposed to have. You know?

Aimee Raupp:

100%.

Catherine:

We put them in, and we did the mindset piece with … I had made peace with, “Okay, my body is doing what it can do. If this is something that it can't do it, it can't do it. I've done everything that I can do.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, exactly.

Catherine:

I have, I mean, researched, I have put my body through everything. If it just can't do it, it just can't do it, whatever. I had made peace. I was feeling good, going into it. I'm like, “Okay.” We had our transfer.

Then Christmas morning, I don't know why, but I was like, “Wouldn't it be cool if I woke up Christmas morning and I was pregnant?” My husband's like, “Are you going to test?” I was like, “I don't know.” For some reason, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and I could not go back to sleep. I was like, “Why not?” I took a test, and I remember sitting there and I was like … I just remember, “Okay.”

Aimee Raupp:

Wow.

Catherine:

“Is that a line? I don't know. Am I trying to see something that's not there?” because I don't know. I took another one, and I think I took a FIRST RESPONSE. At the time, they had an app. You could take a picture of it and it would tell you pregnant, not pregnant.

I was like, “Let me just see. I need somebody else to look at this. It's 4:00 in the morning. I don't know what I'm seeing.” Okay. It kept saying pregnant. It was saying pregnant, pregnant, pregnant. I was like, “Ooh. Okay. Ooh.”

So I remember going upstairs, and I was shaking, and I woke up my husband. I handed him a cup of coffee and I'm like, “I need you to have a couple of sips of this, put your glasses on. I need you to look at something.” He was like, “What?” So I turned on the lamp and I was like, “What is that?”

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, my …

Catherine:

He looked at it and then he looked at me and I was like, “I took two and it said there were two lines.” He was like, “Oh, my God.” Christmas morning, we were dying because we meet family all-

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, yeah.

Catherine:

Because we didn't even tell them that we did a transfer because we didn't want it to be like, everybody … I was like, “Ugh.” He was like, “Take one.” Every day, he was making me take one. I was like, “You're going to stress me out. Can we not do this?” But no. Then we started getting a dye stealer, where the test line was darker than the control line.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, yeah.

Catherine:

He was like, “Is that good?” I was like, “I don't know. I think so.” Then I remember, we went to the clinic, we did our baseline or whatever. That whole day, I was telling him. I was like, “You have to answer the phone because I can't take another call, where they're like, ‘Sorry,' whatever.”

I was sitting at my computer and I got a email from Labcorp, and I was like, “Why is Lab …” I hadn't had labs done? I was like, “Oh, shit. Oh, it's … Oh, my God.” I was like, “Should we open it? Should we wait? Should we … What should we do? Should you open it? I don't know.”

We went through, and I remember, I had him do it because I was like, “I'm too nervous to look at it.” He's looking at it and he's staring at the computer and I said, “Do you even know what you're looking at? Just give me … What is the number?” because I was thinking I would be pregnant, but it might be a low number. He was like, “I think so.” I was like, “Give that to me.” I looked at it and it was 1564. I was like-

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. That's very pregnant. That's twins. Yeah.

Catherine:

I said, “Oh.” He's like, “Is that good?” I said, “Um, yeah. There are probably two of them in there.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, two.

Catherine:

You know, we went to our next baseline, and again it doubled. They had called me after that one. They're like, “I think you want to come in, and let's do an ultrasound because I think you might have twins.”

Oh, my God. I can't believe it. So we went in there, and I remember, she wasn't even doing the ultrasound yet. She just put the wand in there and it flashed across the screen. My husband looked at me and he said, “Did you see that?” I said, “Mm-hmm.” I was like, “We have two feet,” and just crying.

Aimee Raupp:

They both came home?

Catherine:

They both are home.

Aimee Raupp:

They're both keeping you from sleeping?

Catherine:

Yeah. We just got a sleep consultant. That is the best thing I have done. They're sleeping through the night now, thank God, but yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

How was the pregnancy? I mean, obviously I know you went on bedrest, or-

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

… 28 weeks.

Catherine:

My pregnancy was fine. I had no issues. They were growing great. Everything checked out good. The only bad thing was, I was so sick my entire pregnancy, I literally could just eat. I remember crying while eating mashed potatoes because I was so nauseous.

That was the only bad thing. Then I did get some sciatica, but that was it. Then at 27 weeks, I had to go back in for … Because they say IVF babies, supposedly have a high risk for heart issues, so I had to go back in for a ultrasound of their heart. We noticed one of my boys, his amniotic fluid was low.

Then I got switched over to the high-risk doctor. Then a week later, his water broke. I was admitted at 28 weeks and lived in the hospital until 31 when I delivered them. I remember the neonatologist telling me, “They look great. You did a great job, mom. They're nice and big,” and whatever.

I just thought. “Okay,” because that was my worst fear. God finally gave me these babies and then something-

Aimee Raupp:

Going to happen now.

Catherine:

Yeah. I was like, “Oh, man.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

I mean, I kept them in a couple of weeks.

Aimee Raupp:

There you go. Well, that's it. I mean, that's probably all they needed to. Especially, I think twins tend to come out smaller than singles anyway, but they're great and healthy now, right?

Catherine:

They're fine now. One of them … I'll never forget the lady, one of the nurses, when he would cry, she was like, “Oh, I kept thinking he was one of my full-term babies because his lungs are so good.”

They just had doctor's appointments. Everything looks great. On some things, they're right in line with term babies as far as growth.

Aimee Raupp:

That's great. That's very cool.

Catherine:

Their milestones are right on where they need to be.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, and that's that, behind you, right, over your shoulders?

Catherine:

Yeah. This was one of my favorite pictures, one where I could hold both of them in the hospital.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, God. So sweet. Aw.

Catherine:

It was a big moment because Locklan, one of my boys, we weren't able to hold him for a couple of days because-

Aimee Raupp:

Aw, it's so hard.

Catherine:

… they just said he was fragile. What ended up happening is, they put me on magnesium so many times that, it affected his GI tract. He just couldn't go to the bathroom. That's why he was-

Aimee Raupp:

Poor baby.

Catherine:

Yeah, I know. Once he finally went to the bathroom, they're like, “Oh, that's what it was.” I'm like, “Okay. I'm glad it was something easy as poop and not anything crazy.”

Aimee Raupp:

Wow. Life on the other side of, four years of trying. How's that feel?

Catherine:

I'm just thankful it worked. I am proud of myself for just having to be my own doctor and making people test for things. I mean, it sucked. It was hard, but if I didn't do it, nobody else is going to do.

Aimee Raupp:

Well, that's it. I mean, yeah, you spoke up for yourself and you pushed, and you got what you needed.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

I think, too, you … I don't know why I'm so emotional, but it's just a great story. Really, endometriosis left untreated and even polycystic left untreated, they can turn into some significant things down the road. You were suffering every month. Even that alone, in Hashimoto's.

I mean, all the things. You, literally were your own doctor. These are significant inflammatory and autoimmune conditions that will affect your health long-term, babies aside, you know what I mean? It's negligence on the doctor's part, and that's shameful. It's terrible actually.

Catherine:

I'll say, the crazy thing was, is when … While I was in the hospital with them, my body kept trying to go into labor and I didn't feel it. It just felt like normal, like oh, little … Because I'm so used to-

Aimee Raupp:

Such intense cramps.

Catherine:

… I didn't feel it. The only time I felt it was … Birth horror story. I went into back labor at 10:00 in the morning and didn't know. I just thought my back hurt. I just kept telling them, “Oh, my back hurts, my back hurts.”

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, my gosh.

Catherine:

They were like, “Oh, we'll give you some muscle relaxers.” They were giving me all this stuff, until finally I was like, “I can't take it anymore. Somebody needs to help. It's 11:00 at night. I'm dying.”

Finally, because the doctor had told me, “Pain isn't a reason to deliver,” because they were trying to keep the babies in, but I was like, “You need to help me.” Finally, they checked me, and I guess I had been sitting at 5 centimeters for a week, maybe.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Okay.

Catherine:

Then, I guess I finally had progressed. I guess, once you get to six, they're just like, “Well, there's no stopping it now.” I guess I had progressed, but yeah, I handled back labor like a champ, apparently.

Aimee Raupp:

Did you vaginally deliver both of them?

Catherine:

No. One of them was breech. I had already told them. I would have preferred to do it that way, but I was like, “Whatever the easiest way to get them out is what I want you to do. Whatever's less stress on them, do it that way. Cut me open if you need to. I don't care. Just whatever is best for them.”

So they were like, “Okay, we'll just do a C-section.”

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, love it. I love it. No. Thank you so much for coming. You emailed, it was in January, and it's just such a nice email about, “Just wanted to say how you helped me.” I was like, “Oh, do you want to come and do a Story of Hope?”

Thank you so much for sharing that. Do you have any, I don't know, any words of wisdom or anything for all the-

Catherine:

I guess, I would say just trust your gut. If you feel like, if something's off, or … Doctors know a lot, but they don't know it all.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah.

Catherine:

If you feel like something's off, or you feel like you might have this issue, or there's something going on, don't be afraid to push, or find somebody who will help you. Like I said, I went to four different fertility clinics and finally found somebody who believed in what I had going on. Just advocate for yourself.

Aimee Raupp:

Yes.

Catherine:

I mean, it's hard, but it's worth it.

Aimee Raupp:

It's worth it. Yeah. You'll never look back and regret.

Catherine:

No. I would've regretted it, had I just taken their …

Aimee Raupp:

Advice. Yeah.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

Well, I think that's it, too. There's nothing wrong with going the donor route, and a lot of women do it-

Catherine:

No.

Aimee Raupp:

… for sperm or for eggs, but I always say, it needs to feel like a hell, yeah. You know what I mean? Like you're on board with it, and you had a, “No, that doesn't feel right.” You knew that something was missing, and like you said, you trusted your gut, and you kept pushing, and here you are.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Aimee Raupp:

You did it. I love it. Well, thank you so much. We'll let you go and get back to those nuggets.

Catherine:

They're down there with daddy.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, good. I'm sure he's doing great. Yeah, I mean, keep us posted on them and on you. Yeah, maybe we'll see you back in the group if you decide to go another …

Catherine:

Yeah. Everybody's like, “Are you going to try for a girl? You have two boys.” I'm like, “Ah, hmm.”

Aimee Raupp:

“I'm good.” Yeah.

Catherine:

I think four years is long enough to get those two.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. That's it, but you-

Catherine:

You never know.

Aimee Raupp:

You never know, and you can change your mind at any point. That's the beauty of being in the E-course too, is I never kick you out. You can come back for number two, number three. Yeah. I'm so grateful for you to come and share this story. So, thank you so much.

Catherine:

Thank you for inviting me.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, of course. Gosh. All right, guys. Thank you. Oh, sorry. My … All right.

END TRANSCRIPT.

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