We are all jolly well going to smack the rat this month and grow a baby and we'll brook no argument. And probably eat some cake too.

Sorry you have been feeling rough too Raspberry well done on the healthy shop though

Hope the assignment is going well Cupcake

Solars I pretty much taught myself, my friend reminded me of the basics, but the rest I learnt off of youtube and www.knittinghelp.com. Oh, and a brilliant site for all thing knit/crochet related is www.ravelry.com. Totally free, and lots of patterns and help.

I am currently wrapped up in a blanket whilst DH is doing the housework. Haven't heard him in 20 mins though, have a funny feeling he has fallen asleep somewhere

Thanks for sharing the photos again solars, you look beautiful in them.

And whimsical that wedding dress actually looks big on you!

popcorn i've bought some migralieve in case it happens again. I actually feel quite scared about it, it was that awful.

Hope you get your assignment finished cupcakes

And glad you're ok today raspberry.

Have a good afternoon everyone x

Afternoon ladies,

Well I've just come back from town, don't normally go into town especially on a saturday hate busyiness but had a few errands to run, so was up early while it was quiet, don't know what it's like where you all are but the sun has decided to come out here making it quite pleasant :)

I really am envious of you Maybe & Popcorn with all your knitting skills, I did a little when I was much younger, do you think it would be easy to pick up again? You tube, is that the best place to learn?

Whim sounds like timing couldn't be worse for you and lovely photo by the way!

Hey Munkii hope you're ok, look forward to having you back very soon x

Sweetie hope you feel up to your party later, 40 years, wow!

Cupcake hope you get your assignment finished and get some shopping time in.

Glad you're feeling better Little as that migraine doesn't sound like much fun and I have everything crossed for you, hoping it is implantation?? Just for you I'll put my photos back up, but only until tonight.

Waves at Musical and everyone else.

Morning all

good luck with your assignment cupcake. I always worked better if I had something fun to do afterwards :)

Little you have my sympathy with the migraine, I've been getting a few a year since I was 21, they are completely debilitating and very scary. Would second having migraleve with you but the one thing I will say is that for it to work I think you have to recognise the signs that you are getting one. I'm rubbish at that bit, my vision has to go before I realise but I am starting to understand a bit.

popcorn surely if you are now allowed less points it means you have lost lots of weight? That's a really good thing! Although saying that it's been a long time since I've done weight watchers so I may be wrong but 26 seems way to mean. I think it should stay 29 for you

musical I did chuckle at the chocolate finger/ginger house construction I'm not brilliant at cooking, nor am I very creative so I never attempt anything like Christmas cake although I'd love to be able to. Maybe next year when I'm at home on maternity leave

Well, I'm pleased to say I feel loads better. I had a migraine last night too which rumble on into this morning but it has finally gone off and I've been to the supermarket and purchased £95 of very healthy food to get this new healthy living malarky properly underway so wish me luck! Have a nice weekend everyone xx

Morning brookers!

Whimsical welcome back! Where are you up to in your cycle?

Sweetie hope you feel better for tonight

I'm off to work to finish my new uni assignment. I'm hoping to get it done in a few hours so I can spend the rest of the day shopping

Popcorn am thinking of getting the Zita book too. I'll await your review!

Have a nice Saturday everyone

Morning ladies think I have been struck down with the brookers lurgy which has been going around this thread. I about to go back to my sick bed to try get better as parents are having a celebratory chinese meal for their 40th wedding anniversary this evening.

Glad the conference went well whims obviously the new academic blouse worked wonders and you look lovely in your wedding dress, it seems quite roomy!!

Hope everyone else is doing well and enjoying their weekends. Bye for now.

Lovely, maybe! Kids knits are so fun, they are like instant gratification! I am knitting socks and mittens at the moment, and crocheting some placemats too I'm great at starting stuff but not so great at finishing it :)

Really mega cheesed off this morning. Weight Watchers has re-jigged its points system and now I only get 26 a day instead of 29 . Annoyingly they've made the changes today when my weightwatchers week runs Wendesday-Tuesday, so it's fudged my points allowance up for the week

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garter-yoke-baby-cardi and

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-sisters-dress-kjole-til-lillesster

thats better

Morning all!

Popcorn that is so cute I am knitting these at the mo:

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garter-yoke-baby-cardi and

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-sisters-dress-kjole-til-lillesster

I love knitting!

Glad the conference went well Whim

How you feeling now Little? I have only ever had a migraine once, and it was horrific

Lots of love Munk can't wait to have you back x

little I highly recommend Migralieve - you take a pink tablet when the migraine first appears and it has some anti-nausea drug in it (godsend!). Then you take migralieve yellow (or own-brand cocodamol, which is all the yellows are) over the next 24 hours. It's really good stuff, if a bit pricey.

I bought Zita West's Guide to Getting Pregnant last week, as coincidence would have it. Can't tell you if it's any good yet, but it's the weight of a small child :o

I am dying to knit this , though I have too much other stuff to do for work and will never finish it.....

I really admire anyone who adopts, or is thinking about it. In my heart of hearts, I'm just not sure I'm a strong enough person to deal with a drawn out, invasive and emotionally gruelling adoption process, never mind the baggage some kids sadly come with :(

Like bean, my closet's a bit cobwebby - not to mention DH's family is a load of nutters - so I expect it would be a rather unpleasant experience all round :o

Hello everyone
I'm back from my conference. Had a lovely time, and feel like my research is just starting to garner interest. Clearly this would mean it would be poor timing for a pregnancy, and therefore I am guaranteed this month?

I've enjoyed looking at your photos! Although some I don't seem able to open which is making me very cross.

I will put one up of me, last weekend in my 8 year old wedding dress (if there was smug face, I would totally have one. I've put on and lost 4 stone with each pregnancy!)

Hi everyone

Ok, well I'm not as poorly as I'm making out anymore, but I was knocked sideways yesterday with my first ever migraine. I seriously have never felt so ill.
Anyway, so CD16 here and some more spotting. Had some on CD13 & 14 too. Not sure if af coming, ovulation or what. We haven't SWI since CD9 though cos of all the illness, so I'm just chalking this month up as a lost cause and thinking to next month now.

Sorry for not having messages for everyone, I really want to but it's hard to catch up!

scrambled so sorry af got you. I know how gutting it is to have such short cycles.

stasi really sorry she got you too x

munk I hope you are ok, thanks for popping in. Big love to you xx

And finally. Everyone who has already taken their photos down (generic, imps, solars I'm looking at you), put them back!!! It's not my fault I was too ill to come on and look!

Just dropping in to say hello, sorry I am behind with all the news.

Love to you all, looking forward to being back soon! Hopefully next week x

ohhhh Zita West is supposed to be very good and she has a book. Im umming and ahhhing over whether to buy it. I bought one on alternative therapies a little while ago and haven't really got into yet but that has a lot about meditation and accupuncture. The lady I saw last night explained how the relaxation stuff helps you to get pg, something to do with the adrenal glad that is on the ovaries

Cor blimey, you rat smackers talk a lot!

So sorry to hear about beastly AF Stasi and Smegs.

Imps, so sorry to hear about you not being made redundant (what an odd thing to say!). Hope the other job opportunity comes to fruition :)

maybe, sorry about your experiment. How rubbish.

Far - I've probably missed you now, but hope you have a wonderful, SWI-filled holiday! Look forward to hearing all about it on your return :)

Enjoying the christmas cake discussion! I'm not a fan of christmas cake, nor is DH, so we won't be partaking in any.. I have, however, just bought a huge christmas tree tin, and will make a 'Christmas' cake in that (i.e. a Christmassy cake, rather than a traditional one). Hoping it can become a family tradition one day.. my last attempt at one was a gingerbread house a couple of years ago that sadly collapsed, despite my best attempt at propping it up with chocolate fingers...

Just a quickie - try to find an acu practice with fertility experience. I go to someone who was trained in China and treated a lot of women and couples with a lot of success and good stories. Try to go every week and remember it's benefiting u in many ways (unlike meds which can have risks attached - I'm thinking of IVF...)

Stasi I have not read any of those books but I have heard of Zita West, a lot of people seeam to rave about her and I have visited Marilyn Glenville's website a few times which has a lot of information on there.

Stasi I too have thought about adoption from quite a young age, before even marriage. DH & I have talked about it on numerous occasions and more so now because I do feel now that if clomid doesn't work for us then we would need to decide whether we want to go down the route of IUI or IVF at our own expense, still not entirely sure we want to go down those routes or whether we start to seriously think about adoption. I think our consultant said they will put us on clomid for 6 months so I guess it's a decision we make then. I have an older cousin who adopted an 8 month old baby about 3 years ago, I would love to have a chat about it with her, I never did at the time, but I know it was a gruelling time for them.

Thanks Bean I don't want to sound ungrateful but in work looking young does me no favours. Several times I have turned up at meetings with a graduate colleague and the client has assumed the colleague is in charge of the project rather than me!

Generic I hope you don't mind but I am feeling quietly confident for you, I would agree with Imps and say save your fiver, roll on wednesday!

I've decided to start looking at acupuncture.. Reading another thread has inspired me to try it. That an people on here, and the 10+ month thread mentioning their successes with fixing issues such as light AF, heavy AF, short LP etc.

There's one site I've found looks good, they also have a recommended reading list here. Wondering if any of you also recommend some of the books?

sweetie we are wedding day twins! I got married on 26th August too. It rained on us nearly all bloody day but was lovely all the same. Elvis was officially not in the building at ours either :) But I did have three very drunk friends pretend to be destiny's child if that counts.

Interesting to see so many who have given thought to adopting. I have discussed it briefly with DH a few times. My aunty and uncle were foster parents and we were one huge foster family really, as soon as a child arrived they had ready made cousins, aunties/uncles/nan & grandad, brothers and sisters and by and large many of them stay in touch now as they remember their time with us as being the nicest they had before adoption. I'd love to adopt but it's a long old invasive process that I just don't think I could deal with at this point in my life. That makes me sound selfish but I dont mean it too. Adopted children have already had so many issues in their life, whoever they go to has to be 100% A Ok and able to cope which is why the process is so gruelling. Some adoptions fail and the impact of that on the child is just simply awful. So, long term it's something we would like to do but at the moment I just don't think we are right. Only 28 though so many years ahead of us yet!

Stasi what lovely words. I don't think we should close any doors. I would be very open to adoption, we have discussed it too but DH wants to progress further just us for now.

2 colleagues have both adopted, one fairly recently. the other adopted her DS a few years ago and since has adopted two siblings of her first as they have come along. She has a lovely brood who she loves to bits.

Stasi and Bean I used up all my internet cheapies over the last few cycles and swore I wouldn't buy any more because testing all the time was doing me no good. So I have done like Bean and bought a two-pack of Superdrug tests. Actually, I did it last cycle to keep me from peeing on anything until I was late. Somehow knowing I've spent £5 on the tests enables me to hold back!

Stasi you're very philosophical and I admire that. I'm sure you will be a great mother when the time comes.

Yes - Stasi - you have many years to grow your big family. xxx

I actually wrote about adoption in another post - maybe you read it, or linked from my 'recent talk' on my profile page?

However I've thought about adoption since I was a child, I remember how certain I was that I would have children, one way or another. I think it was my sister probably being 'mean' that put the idea of maybe not ever having a husband to have kids with. Well, my very logical conclusion then was that I would adopt.

I've talked to my DH about adoption and fostering a few times, it's something I would love to do even if we do have our own DC (which of course we will). DH is adamant we will only have 2 children, he doesn't want to add to the world population gain! So I'm hoping we'll be able to adopt DC 3 and 4 :)

We've got lots of options open to us before going down the adoption route. DH really would like a child that is genetically his, but my sister has offered to do both egg donation and surrogacy for us if we need it. That gives me a pretty good insurance policy if the problem is on my side. We've also not even started looking into all the various forms of assisted conception. Long way to go yet, and very little of the road actually travelled. We walk slowly :)