I have some pros and cons to say about Trileptal. First of all, I will say that it worked really well at controlling my seizures. Better than any other med I've tried (excluding Vimpat and Dilantin, since I'm still not sure how well those work for me). I was on Tegretol, Keppra, and then Zonegran before I was put on Trileptal. The others didn't work as well, and I had worse side effects.
I had both my pregnancies while taking Trileptal (monotherapy). My son was born with a slight cleft in the soft palate which required surgery, but no speech therapy was necessary. Otherwise, both children were born completely healthy. I was even able to breastfeed my daughter (I couldn't BF my son because of his cleft palate).
I did experience some of the typical side effects with this drug--tiredness, a reduction in mental quickness, and blurred/double vision and room scrolling when the dose was too high. But the side effects were very livable, especially compared to what I had been taking before.
I've been taking Trileptal for about 8+ years, but I'm having to get off it now because it started causing my blood sodium levels to plummet. Now this has been really awful. It's only been happening for the last couple of years, but the side effects of low sodium are awful. Constant nausea, weakness, exhaustion, etc. I lost weight and could barely choke down anything. I am now on sodium supplements, and soon I will be off the Trileptal.
I have to say, I went a long time on this drug without any problems, and it worked great--only had a seizure maybe once every couple of months. The low sodium only became an issue after my second pregnancy. Not sure if there's a link there or not, but hormones can do strange things.