Her fertility journey seemed impossible with 1 embryo and 3 years of trying to conceive! Miracles happen, especially to those who hold their vision long enough.

In this episode, Carolina and Kristen Troy dive deep into how Kristen conceived her baby doing In vitro fertilization (IVF) with her ONE embryo. She shares how Reiki relieved her anxiety and transformed her pregnancy experience. 

Looking to know how Reiki can help you with IVF and gain hope for your conceiving journey? This episode will deliver that insight to you! 

What you’ll learn:
00:59 Biggest news from Kristen
2:45 Kristen’s mindset shifted with all the struggles she went through
4:48 How Reiki helped Kristen’s stress
6:45 Extraordinary blessings with Kristen’s fertility journey
11:05 Miracles in Carolina’s life
14:54 Anatomy scan experience
22:21 A big takeaway from Kristen’s fertility journey
24:26 The more you heal upfront, the less that the baby has to heal in their lifetime – Carolina

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Professional bio
The Carolina Sotomayor Podcast is brought to you by Carolina Sotomayor and the Fertility Foundation.

Carolina Sotomayor is an Expert Womb Healer who helps women conceive by removing physiological blockages with Reiki. She is the host of the Carolina Sotomayor Podcast, a show that covers everything from fertility to postpartum to motherhood, and the creator of Fertility Foundation Collective, an online membership that helps women heal at their own pace to boost their fertility.

Carolina has served over 500 women from around the world to heal. She is passionate about helping women create their families. As a result, there are over 60 reiki babies in the world.

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Full episode transcript:

Today’s episode is how to handle pregnancy after trying to conceive for four years and only one embryo. We have a special guest, Kristen. She was on season one of who’s your mother’s podcast. Now we’ve rebranded to the Carolina, so Tama your podcast and you may have listened to her episode. She was going through her I V F journey when that episode was recorded, and we have some news everyone.

Do you wanna give a peek? , do you wanna spill the t? Do you wanna tell people what are the details of your life, Kristen? Uh, you know, like maybe one of the most important things that’s ever happened to me. Sure. Tell I love to IVs One embryo is now a 22 week. 22 week old baby in utero. Yay. You were successful in your pregnancy, your ivf.

So one embryo, three years trying to conceive, taking breaks in between one doctor that you didn’t align with and then. , you found reiki. We got you reiki atuned. You’ve done so many soul healings and just reiki, bloom healings and reiki, bloom blessings and learning to do reiki on yourself and meditating, and now you’re pregnant with your baby boy.

And it all led me to that. I really believe that all. There’s a reason why I didn’t get pregnant on the honeymoon. There’s a reason why I didn’t get pregnant after a year. I had to go through these movements in my life. For this to happen, for this soul of this baby to wanna connect with me. So how to handle pregnancy after all of this.

I can imagine after trying for so long, it’s probably an adjustment going from disappointment and loss and unpleasant treatments and painful experiences like emotional, mental, physical, you know, all the needles and things like that. It must be such a hard transition from like trying so long. Okay, so then, ah, I made it to the finish line and I’m now pregnant.

I got finally what I wanted. So how has that mindset shift? Goodness, how do I describe it? It’s difficult, but. It’s positive in the end. So let me break that down. So, when I became pregnant through ivf, we knew very, very early, like earlier than other people would find out if they were pregnant. And to find out that I was pregnant was the most wonderful out of this world.

I can’t believe this actually happened to me moment. I remember that day also like, oh my gosh, it was just, it still blows my mind, but. You’re like, okay, but I’m only this many weeks. So did you, did you do the, you waited the two week window, like beta, right? Yep. We did the two week. Two week wait. Then you get the blood test, you find out, and, and it’s so wonderful.

You can’t believe it, but throughout the pregnancy you’re like, okay, I’m at five. I’m only five weeks. I’m only six weeks. I’m only seven weeks. Something can still happen. Because you’re so used to challenges coming your way. It’s like you can’t fully celebrate this moment. But on the other hand, being Reiki attuned, I feel like I allowed myself, I made the decision to allow myself to celebrate each moment, every day, every week, no matter how early it was.

Cuz guess what? Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. And I’m pregnant right now in this moment, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna enjoy the hell out of it. , because you only have one embryo. Literally , literally all your eggs. Yeah. Egg are in one basket. So this is your one chance? Mm-hmm. to be physically pregnant with your own egg, like your own embryo of you and your husband.

Mm-hmm. . So you’re really just relishing in every moment that you can. . Yep. Understood. So with every pregnancy, whether it’s a pregnancy after miscarriage, and now you’re, it’s with Rainbow Baby or fertility. After for so many years, you have stress and you mentioned that you’re Reiki attuned. Does Reiki help you manage your stress?

Absolutely. It’s the number one fool that helps me manage my stress. Stress is like a huge, huge battle for me. In your experience in your pregnancy, what have been the biggest stressors? The biggest stress in the pregnancy is thinking that the worst is going to happen to your child. Thinking that the fear, this is the last of fear.

Yeah. The. This won’t last. So full term pregnancy, something’s gonna happen along the way. That’s the biggest fear, and I think for anyone, not just myself, no, that totally relates to fear, steals so much from people. Mm-hmm. , in so many circumstances, have you developed any rituals for keeping yourself living in the moment and being grounded in the moment?

I bet that it’s a challenge. , I mean with everyday distractions, with like you’ve been pregnant during the summer, so I’m sure you’ve been really active. Do you do anything to keep you grounded and present? Yes. Well, luckily I’m off in the summer because I teach. Hmm. I love that. So this is like a wonderful baby moon summer for me,

But to stay grounded, I’m a huge gardener. I love being outside. I love getting my hands in the. I love. Oh, that’ll do it. Oh, the flowers, the birds, the butterflies. Like I, I could be alone outside and be like so in tune with everything and perfectly happy . I love that. I love that so much. Is there anything that about after trying for three years and now you’re pregnant with your one embryo?

Is there anything that has stood out for you that’s been an extraordinary blessing in your journey? We know you’re reiki attuned. We know that you love all the Reiki, but has there been anything remarkable that has happened? Has. I know. Any miracles, any gifts, any changes in your family that have been brought on because of this sweet angel baby?

Oh, like am I attracting other miracles in my life? Yes, because you’re pregnant, because your aura is 10 times as bigger when you’re pregnant, so it’s easier to manifest. What? How is it sitting in the room? I didn’t know that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a hundred percent true. Yes. I remember one of my Reiki clients, I will keep her anonymous, and she’s a very dear friend of mine, and she’s pregnant actually with her fifth baby.

And on her, Fourth baby. She was like, why is everything coming true that I’m asking for? I’m like, because you’re really happy. You’re living in alignment. You’re making decisions that you feel good and joyful about. But everything came to her and she was also pregnant during the summer. Everything came so fast and easy.

Like she basically wished it and it came through. I was like, dude, it’s an aca. Dra, summer , . I just remember this pregnancy is very different for. , uh, but still a lot of, a lot of clarity and a lot of joy is happening for her here at this pregnancy. But on her fourth pregnancy, it was a lot of like clients and business things that were manifesting a lot of big, like monetary things and things like that.

So is there anything that’s manifested for you or that’s been brought forth because of this baby that’s been really amazing for your family or you. My goodness. I would’ve like started my list of all of my manifestations if I knew that this was gonna happen. , you know what I, I don’t know. I haven’t been clear with anything else that I’ve wanted right now because I just have so much joy with this baby, so I don’t, you know what?

I really don’t know. Just I feel, can I mention what I think has happened based upon our, on our private conversations? I think, I think your baby has made your family grow closer and more honest with each other, it sounds like. Yeah, that’s a miracle. I, I mean, I don’t think that your, I don’t know like what your family was like before, but based upon what you’re saying is like everyone is closer, is everyone’s happier.

Babies tend to soften people, they tend to bring people closer together and. What can we do to be better for this little soul that’s coming through? Absolutely. You know, well, when you say family, I think of my husband and I, because, I mean, my husband is my best friend. He is amazing. But going through.

Infertility is something that I’ve never, you know, two people have never experienced. One person’s trying to help the other, another person needs help, doesn’t know how to ask for help. It’s hard. It’s really hard. But IVF, doing Ricky with ivf, just the process of IVF really helped us learn how we can support each other.

And now that we’re pregnant, it’s just like, Gosh, I know myself better so I know which like I can pick my battles. Not everything is going to stress me out as much personally, and I can’t speak for him, but I feel like we’re ready to be the best parents we can now for this thing. I love that. Your story reminded me of something.

So my dad passed in 2014 and I was grieving really hard. 2015, my horse had to be put down. 2016. We were telling my in-law, Who are very, very good people that we were pregnant. They didn’t even know that we had been trying, they didn’t know anything of our struggles at all, but I really didn’t have much in common with them.

I didn’t have, not super conservative Christian. I just didn’t have much to talk about with them, but, A miracle about Ali, about having him. He softened me. I used to be, uh, kind of like very stubborn, a lot more than I am now. Pretty rigid, not as soft as I am now. I have to say the pregnancy, a miracle that came from there was all, he taught me that not everything has to be black and.

Literally being pregnant with him gave me something to, because my soul needed more people to love that were close to me. I needed family and my in-laws were the closest ones to us cuz my mom lives far away. So Ali, his gift from that pregnancy as a Reiki baby, cuz he was a Reiki baby and is a Reiki baby, is, he taught me it was okay to love on other people again.

And be close with other people and they, and it was gonna be okay. And even if it hurts that it could be resolved, that conflict doesn’t mean it’s the end conflict’s, not doomsday, a lot to come from a pregnancy, but those are the lessons that came up for my soul. As I started to share my pregnancy, I’ve always been a kind person and I wanted to involve her in my pregnancy, but it made me have purpose and a common ground, uh, to share with my in-laws, and that was a gift that his pregnancy gave to me.

I didn’t necessarily have, so miracles don’t necessarily have to be a new car or a new house. Everything. But for me had coming from a broken state and as depressed, I had been the first two years of my marriage, no fault of my husband, but like losing my dad did a huge number on me. I also was in the very much thick of my spiritual awakening and not knowing what the heck to do with my gifts of seeing spirits, seeing colors and things like that.

So every Reiki baby that I. Encounter in pregnancy. There is some transformation. Sometimes the pregnancy is like what I described for that client. It’s a manifestation of a lot of things that they’re wanting, joyfully, wanting and bringing into their life for whatever it is. This time for that kind’s experience for her pregnancy, it’s.

A lot of internal happiness, internal joy, so it doesn’t always have to be a physical thing, but those things can still be quantified. For me, the closeness that came from that pregnancy was the starting ground of having a really nice relationship with Ryan’s family that I. Really treasure. You know, she showed up to every appointment.

And I also allowed, because of, I loved Ollie so much, I created space for her. You have to create space sometimes for people to show up in your life. You have to allow that to happen. And because my love for Ollie soften me so much, I was less rigid and I allowed her to love on me. So, and if you had known me, Years before I even met Ryan

That is growth. I’m very proud of how far we’ve come. So that is an example of like, miracles are not always obvious, but those transformations are so important because they compound off of each other. You know what? Hearing that story makes me think of a transformation that may be happening now, thinking about it.

Is navigating the fear, like, I didn’t tell you this, but during our, um, anatomy scan, they kept saying everything’s perfect. He’s looking great. We saw everything, but then the doctor came in and said, okay, not anything to worry about, but you do have a low line placenta. I’m like, okay, I don’t know what that means.

Is it something to worry about? So she leaves. Of course I’m Googling it and I’m already start. To freak out about it. So the other doctor comes in and I start asking questions and she said, look, you’re right on the cusp of it being some kind of concern. It’s not yet. As your pregnancy goes on, it’s probably going to rise up with your baby and you’re gonna be fine.

You get an extra sonogram at it, out of it, whatever. In the past, if that was to happen, I would’ve been a wreck for days. I know myself, but. I think because maybe this is one of the miracle transformations that’s happening with this baby boy that I’m carrying. I took it with a green of salt and I’m still like, you know what?

I have seven weeks to still keep enjoying this. I don’t need to change anything. I don’t need to eat something different. I don’t need to do a certain, you know, like the fear isn’t as challenging. Do you feel like it’s a lingering feeling, like it’s just in the back of your head, but you’re just trying to avoid it?

Yeah, like it’s there, but it’s not something to wor. I’m choosing not to worry about it. It’s not something to worry about it. I can actually hear the doctors usually in the past I would hear what the doctors say. I would translate what that means with Google, and I would put that knowledge in my head.

But I’m hearing what they’re saying and I’m choosing. Okay, not, not, not anything to worry about. Right. Got it. That is huge because that shows that you have capacity to make a deliberate, conscious and subconscious decision of this is a boundary for me and I’m protecting my health, and we’re choosing happiness.

That’s an active choice. That was a boundary air implemented. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but that’s, maybe that’s the miracle. That’s a miracle. Maybe that’s it. One thing I’m gonna preference, this is a little bit of a trigger warning. I love the opportunity of anatomy scans, but I also kind of hate them.

When I went for my sonogram for the anatomy scan, it’s an ultrasound, they told me all he had no nose. They couldn’t find him because homeboy was like this. , if you’re watching, if you are listening, he had his hands covering his face and he would not let go. Like he was, they were like fists together and it was like he was.

Praying, but with fists. And his fists were on his, on his forehead. I’m sorry, but don’t they see that? Don’t they see the fingers in front of the nose? And then they had me drink a lot of water and then they would get him to move, but they said they couldn’t locate his palate or his nose, so they’re like, he possibly couldn’t have a nose.

And I said, what does that mean? They’re like, well, you possibly could have this deformity, but we’ll do another one in two weeks. Guess what? He went back. He had a perfect nose. I ate. How were those two weeks leading up to it? Oh, they were awful. They were awful. I had to eat like really spicy food just so that like that was one of the tips that the tech had told me to do.

Eat spicy food. So baby is really uncomfortable and they’ll move around, especially if yours likes to stick in a certain spot. And I hate spicy. , I can’t handle it. I’m Hispanic. I like flavor. I don’t like spice. And it was a miserable experience. And they’re like, you have to hold your pee. You have to drink so much water.

Guess what? His palate was perfectly fine. His nose was perfectly perfect. Mm-hmm. . So those anatomy scans, they’re really, they can do a number on you. So ask all the questions and ask for more if you need it. One thing that I do love, that’s not a part of this conversation, I had a client in Florida and she again had multiple miscarriages, P C U S, and she was finally pregnant with her baby after nine years of trying, and her doctor let her come in.

I don’t know what kind of insurance plan she had. But she was coming in for like every two weeks. She was doing an ultrasounds just to like check baby’s heart rate and like at a certain point and just make sure like the baby was there and everything was fine and she got pictures all the time. So she had a certain point and it was, it was easier for her to manage her anxiety that way.

Like real anatomy scan, like she was going in all the. Wow. So I was like, dude, those, those scans, I don’t know what it is with the insurance, but I think they’re expensive. And she said, don’t worry about it. I got it. I said, okay. Wow. But it made a big difference in her anxiety going in and seeing pictures of baby, but I don’t think every doctor is that way.

It was the only, out of all the people I’ve counseled and coached, she was the only person that’s ever like told me that only certain times can you go in. A lot of people can adopt. Ler. Yeah. I thought about, you know, the, it’s the machine that you could hear the heartbeat. Yeah. And I was like, you know what?

I’m gonna make myself go crazy. The baby is fine. I’m fine. I like, I need to come up with some other way to make myself feel better because when I can’t find the heartbeat, it, I know it’s gonna happen to myself and I am not a doctor. I, I shouldn’t be doing. I have no knowledge on how to do this. I don’t know how to do it either.

I thought about getting one, and then I just, I think actually someone gifted me one and then I gave it away. I never used it because, I don’t know, he moved a ton. A lot, and I, I was always burping. I couldn’t, like, I was just gross. I was always, always burping and I never stopped burping. And I was like, as long as I’m burping, I think I’m okay.

So I mean t m i. Right. So what’s your number one tip about being present in your pregnancy? I think my number one tip for being present in your pregnancy. Would be just to remind yourself that you have a choice every second of every day. Wow. And your choice is, you could feel, you could let yourself stress, you could feel the pain that is happening in your lower back.

You can look at the positive. You’re pregnant, you’re carrying a baby. This is something that you’ve worked so hard for, hard for. That’s the number one tip you have a choice on. How you think about things. What has been the highlight during your pregnancy in receiving reiki and like in one of our pregnancy circles?

Or for me or from one of the reiki meditations in the membership? What has been a big takeaway or a highlight that you’ve experienced? I feel like the highlight of the biggest takeaway is I’m now in the position where I’m receiving healing for myself, but also for the baby. I love that you’re, you’re hitting two souls right now, not just one.

I’ll take you every day. I’ll work on you every day for the rest of my life. It’s a super big honor to hold space for you and your baby if I’m getting better physically and mentally and spiritually. Someone else is benefiting from that, and Reiki gives me that, and now my baby’s benefiting from that. I always believe that my philosophy on reiki and why I provide like Reiki, bloom healing and reiki services for fertility is the more that you heal upfront, the less complicated.

Your fertility, your pregnancy, your birth and postpartum will be. I know this to be true because I actually. Have lived through all of those phases and all of them very traumatic, some worse than others, but I had realized that a lot of my life’s scars and traumas, if I had been aware that they were traumas, if I had known that emotion and traumas connect to your physical tissue and actually can cause diseases and conditions and actually complications.

Such as in life events such as pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, even conceiving, I had no idea that all of that was connected. I had no idea my dad’s grief would complicate my fertility and keep me from conceiving. I had no idea that my childhood trauma and things from my past that happened to me that were really severe would actually cause my pelvis to lock up.

I had no idea other things that were very horrific that would complicate my postpartum. I just had no idea that fear could actually cause a lot of the pain in my pelvis during pregnancy, and I feel like that’s what caused my round ligament pain. I just had no idea until it all collected and I got Ricky attuned.

Then the revelations came. I just had really just no idea how it was all connected. This my now life’s works mission is to help. If I can cut. Then also that means the more that you heal up front, the less that the baby has to heal in their lifetime. And to me that So the ultimate gift? No, it’s the ultimate.

Ultimate. So like if we can, if we were working so hard to conceive. And bring in a piece of ourselves to expand and create a family. The more that we heal, the more that we’re breaking ancestral things that are not their burden to bear. Oh, that’s a whole other, other podcast. That’s so cool. That goes into soul.

I know. I know, I know. So, but Kristen, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your journey. Any chance we can see a bump? Oh no, you didn’t . I mean, you can tell me No, and I can cut. Is she gonna slipped that in there in the beginning or the middle? Of course. Of course. Let’s see the bump.

Let’s see the bump. The beautiful baby. Can we, oh, I love it. There’s the cat. Hi cat. You keep that cat. He’s a big boy. Do you have any names picked out? We do. Are you sharing them or are they private? Oh, no, no. I am an open book. We love J names because, Ooh, I love J names, and he would’ve the same initials as my husband.

His initials would be jt. But the weird thing is we, we love the name Jordan. I love that, but I feel like I can’t associate a name with him yet. Like he’s just baby boy to me. And maybe when he is born I’ll, I’ll see. I don’t know. I have this such a strong connection with him, but like there’s no name. That represents him to me yet, you know, I couldn’t find that either until I was actually in the shower and I was convinced OIE was a girl for most of my pregnancy until we did the gender reveal and it was a blue cupcake in the middle.

And then I was like, I don’t know what to do with all this. I didn’t have a name picked up for a boy. I didn’t have any names at all. It was my husband. He pulled a shower curtain and I was like, hello? He goes, I have the name. I was like, no. He goes, Oliver Pendel, isn’t that a writer’s name? And I said, it’s so formal.

I was like, I’d be down if we could just call him oie. And he’s like, okay. And then, but we didn’t have a middle name. And then one day we were leaving Olive Garden and I lived at Olive Garden when I was pregnant. I hated meat. But Olive Garden. Oh, are you really serious? Well, I think it’s middle of the road.

Italian food, Italian American food. It’s not true Italian, but. Anyway, sorry, my, the salad’s nice. The sweet’s nice. , we walked out of Olive Garden. It was the only meat that I could keep down. Like I would eat the meat sauce and, and that would be it. That was the only meat I could survive during my pregnancy.

And we were talking about my dad and we were talking about how my dad had like this little boat, and my husband goes, what was the name of the boat? And I said, C. . And then my eyes went like this and I said, that’s it. And he goes, what? I was like, that’s the middle name. Aww. And so we named Ali Cilo. So to my penk, some people say it, it means heaven or sky.

So it was a little homage to my dad and. OIE is so polite cuz some people will say, okay, Oliver, like, especially now he’s started kindergarten, he’s like, do me a favor, please, can you please call me oie? That’s my real name. And , I just love that he corrects people and that, and I only, you know, if he gets in trouble the traditional Hispanic way, Oliver Ci.

So . So it just comes together when it’s supposed to and you’ll know when it’s the right one. I thought. Also, it’ll come and you’ll know you’ll have conviction and like that’s the right name. And when we saw him, he was oie. It was perfect. Hi. I almost said, hi puppy. Hi Kitty. So what you’re saying right now, I love that.

So thank you for the Bump Pick. Thanks for doing this podcast. We’re so grateful for you. Well, thanks for having me. Maybe we’ll do a third episode in the third season on your postpartum. Yeah, let’s do a meet and greet with the baby boy. That’s right. We can do a meet and greet. Do a meet and greet, do so little bit of reiki, a little bit of postpartum and yeah,

I wonder what a traditional Norwegian name would be. I’ve, I’ve done my research. But they’re just so, they’re just, I don’t know. I don’t know if I could picture it. I like Jordan though. It’s a good name. It’ll come. It’ll come. Thank you so much my friend. Thanks, and I hope you have a good day. Same to you.