Well, the statistics of passing it on to a daughter are much higher than to a son (almost 10%). The other part of the decision is how it will affect your health. Did you have gest. diabetes, pre-eclampsia, anything that might happen again?

The statistics for SLE patients are 1/3 stay the same with their disease, 1/3 get worse, 1/3 get better. You have to weigh that risk. Do you want to be well enough to handle your little boy? What if you got worse? How would you feel about that? How stable is your disease? You'll have to discuss all these quesitons with a high risk OB and think about this. Only you and your hubby can make the decision and there is no way to know in advance whether you've made the right decision. The truth of the matter is that you could be totally healthy and have a baby born with problems. Having a baby is always a gamble.

You are still young and I would recommend waiting until your little boy is running around so that you won't have to lift him in and out of car seats, high chairs, cribs, etc. In my case, I felt it wasn't worth the risk of having another. But a different person might make a totally different decision. It's very personal. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Tracy

If you haven't already I would find good articles on this subject and see the exact complications there can be and the risk factors for each. If you have kidney problems holding a baby puts even more stress on them so that is one risk factor. If they are strong now, there is less of a chance for that to occur. I would go and see a high risk OB and talk it through first. That way you can be put at ease about it, and know exactly what your getting into.

What an adorable little guy you have, Amethystchild.

I was diagnosed with lupus 10 months after I had my first son. It took me 2 more years to decide to get pregnant, a year to convince my husband and a year to wean off all of my meds and get pregnant. Plaquenil stays in your body for 6 months after you stop taking it by the way. My 2nd pregnancy was a nightmare from the start. The fetus implanted low, I was bleeding on and off from 4 weeks to 16 weeks, I had placenta previa where the placenta implants in the wrong place and I was on modified bedrest from 6 weeks on. At 30 weeks, I started bleeding again, ended up in the hospital on bedrest until I delivered at 37 weeks. I almost died during the c-section, had a hysterectomy & ovary removed because the placenta was attached to both and couldn't be removed any other way and lost most of my blood during the 8 hour surgery. But I had a healthy baby boy & we both ended up fine. And none of the issues I had were a result of the lupus, my lupus was pretty mild throughout the pregnancy. The only lupus issue was I felt, overall, that the pregnancy was so exhausting on my body and I felt very drained all the time.

Since his birth a little over a year ago, my lupus & overall health has been much worse. I have been flaring more often than not since I had him. I am in the 1/3 category of people whose lupus gets worse after the pregnancy, I guess. Would I do it over again knowing what I know now? In a second, our son has brought us so much joy. And I believe the hysterectomy was God's way of making it clear that it was not in my health's best interest to get pregnant again which I might have done right away instead of starting all the meds back up. I know I would have wanted to try one more time for a girl. But I tell myself that having a girl wasn't meant to be since I also have positive anti-Ro SSA antibodies which puts my babies at high risk for neonatal lupus with heart defects from birth. So I think I was meant to have boys with lower risk of developing lupus and I couldn't be happier with them.

So, I don't know if my story helps you at all except to scare you and that is not my intention. None of my problems were lupus related in the pregnancy, my lupus was very mild during the pregnancy. My doctors advised me to be 1 year flare free before trying to get pregnant. Well, that never happened so I waited till I was off all of my meds and felt as best as I could on no meds. You should see a high risk OB specialist before getting pregnant to review your specific lupus risks as well as the higher risks for all lupus patients like misscarriage, premature delivery, etc. And have a support system in place for the first 1-2 months after the baby is born so others help you either during the day or at night because you might flare right afterwards and also so you are able to get a good amount of sleep to prevent more flares in those first 2 months.

If you have any more questions, feel free to pm me. Good luck!

I had lupus many years before I had my baby. I actually thought I was never going to get pregnant and low and behold, I was. We knew the risks but I knew many people with lupus had children so we weren't concerned. We discussed it with my rhemy and he advised us of all the risks and we proceeded from there.

We went to a high risk obgyn and he took me off some of my blood pressure meds and put me on others. I stayed on low dose prednisone. I had a fantastic pregnancy - hadn't felt better in years. That is until 32 weeks when my blood pressure started acting up and I was admitted. I ended up having a c-section due to some difficutly the baby was having. He weighed 4 pounds and we both were in the hospital for 2 weeks - he in neo-natal.

Everything was fine for about one year and then all hell broke loose. I had a huge flare and my blood pressure went through the roof. They never knew if it was the strain on my kidneys of having the baby or just the strain of everything. I was sick for a long time and eventually my kidneys failed.

Okay, as Shadseeker said, I am not telling you this to scare you. I said before I know many people with lupus have children and they do fine. I just want you to be aware of everything that could possibly happen so you can make an educated decision. By the way my son is 20 now and he's wonderful! And again, as Shadeseeker said, knowing what I know now, I'd do it again.

Good luck to you.

Dale