TTC 6 mths+ GRADS THREAD

[Biscuitsandtea]

Afternoon.

I thought I'd start a Grads thread for those of us previously on the TTC 6 mths+ thread. I've been lurking on the ttc thread recently to see how everyone is getting on (having only very recently qualified to move off it!) and a few people were saying what a nice idea it would be if there was a grads thread so we don't lose each other.

Anyway, would be lovely to hear from other lovely ladies that were on that thread - or even if you were never on the ttc thread but had a sticky time of it getting your bfp then come and settle down with a decaf cuppa for a chat.

Lovely to see the thread getting busier and with preggo 10+ers! Fingers crossed for some more soon.

It's lovely to read of the babies weening, rolling etc. Our little ones are growing up!

ele poor little H teething. I love the image of him launching himself towards his intended destination. Ginster launches herself back towards the boob once she's decided she's had enough of being winded.

teu weekly Skype sessions sound like a good idea and what we should do with the grandparents. DH is a bit rubbish at keeping in touch with his parents...

Can't believe mini P is crawling already princess! She sounds adorable. Ha ha at her cage and trying to help DH with his DIY. ILs sound challenging... We've not yet had an unauthorised FB pic. Not sure how I'd feel about it . DH doesn't like me posting pics up, esp ones in which she doesn't look cute.

lemon a summer baby! How lovely! I don't enjoy the dark evenings at the mo, nor the early morning feeds in the dark. Bring on the summer.

sea congrats again! Hope you are feeling ok? Has it sunk in yet?

art I'm hearing you on the sleep deprivation! Ginster has actually been a pretty good sleeper at night (despite refusing to sleep or be put down for more than 5 mins in the day), which has been saving my sanity! However the last few nights she's not had more than a few hours. I have no idea how she's survive on so little sleep! Anyway sympathies and hope it's a short lived phase.

euro good luck for the scan later today. Are you feeling pregnant yet at all?! What's your due date?

buzz massive congrats on the birth of your little girl! You are well hard getting through all that with just gas and air, blimey! I totally know what you mean about it being surreal and quite a surprise once there's a real live baby out. Hope you are now recovering well from those stitches. When my mum walked into the delivery room once I'd pushed out ginster, her first words were about it looking like a blood bath! Good luck with the BF. I'm pleased I preserved with it, despite all the problems, although we still do a sneaky bedtime bottle of formula, so I can sleep whilst DH feeds and soothes.

sar how are things going? I know what you mean about people wanting to see the baby. I too feel bad about certain family members ils not seeing much of her, but we have to do what is best for the baby and me at the mo. Mr G has banned any visitors next weekend, as he says we all just need to rest.

Waves to mellow

Apart from the sleep deprivation, all is well here. Ginster has started to smile properly, which is just lovely and her big gummy smile totally melts my heart every time! She's still a Velcro baby in the day, mostly refusing to be put down, but I'm hoping she'll grow out of this as age gets older (but not the cuddles of course!). Can't believe she's 7 weeks already.

Buzz, congratulations. What a gorgeous girl you have. What a birth story, that sounds very intense, cant believe they couldn't give you an epudural. Im another one who was induced and found the contractions intolerable although when my drip was turned off and I felt my natural contractions these seemed ok to deal with. I second arts suggestion of epi at the ready if induction is mentioned. But truly well done to you buzz in the birth of little buzz. Sorry bf is so sore, just try everything you can but if it doesn't work out then you know you tried your best and that is more than good enough. So pleased your beautiful baby is finally here. Enjoy your baby moon, xx

eleth, hope your cold is all better and hamish is not struggling too much with the teething.

Euro - good luck for the scan.

Lemons- so exciting to hear about your summer boy. Thinking about names is so much fun although with that many boys in the family I guess lots of good ones are taken?

Princess - crawling baby sounds hectic but very cute. Sorry things are not so great with the In laws, the stress is not helpful.

Thank you to everyone for the empathy and advice about visitors. The advice has been taken and we are planning a week together very soon when mr s is on annual leave.rWe will pretend we are out of the house if we have to.

waves to all the sleep deprived, milk encrusted, teething supporting lovely ladies.

Bloody hell Buzz medals for you! That's sounds like an ordeal. I hope you're feeling better today and bfing is improving. But if it isn't and as others have said, formula isn't poison and she won't hold it against you when she's older.

Sar I'm glad you're going to take some time with Mr S and mini Sar.

No news here except that I had the best night sleep since going into labour last night... She slept from 10 til 6...praise be there is a god! That or cosmic ordering has finally found my order

Waves and hugs xxx

gin my EDD is 28 August - our wedding anniversary (aww). And to think that when we started down this road, we delayed ttc for a month because I really didn't want an August birthdate... I do have some symptoms now - on and off nausea mainly. Oh and fatness. My waist seems to have gone awol and I have a lovely belly bloat. I wish it was possible to go from normal to bump, skipping the fat stage. I've been here since about 6 weeks and I reckon I have several more to go.

buzz I second the advice to get bee checked for a tongue tie. It really can make a huge difference. A few of my friends have been affected by this issue.

I'm loving hearing the tales of crawling/rolling/launching babies.

The Harmony bloods have been taken and the quick viability scan was all fine. We even got a little wave! I still can't believe it is real. If the Harmony results and main scan in two weeks are ok, I'm going to force myself to start thinking like a preggo.

Aw Euro lovely, lovely news :) I'm glad that you're fat and you're only going to get bigger!! I think my bump popped out at about 15 weeks. Until then I just looked like I was exclusively eating pasties and cream pies (I wasn't. I was too busy hurling and suffering from terrible constipation that led to mega bloating - not helped by an insatiable hunger for boiled eggs and dry crackers...!) I really am so pleased that everything is going so well for you. It's really, really fab news xxx

Massive congrats buzz. I hope the persevering (and tongue tie snipping) will pay off with BF.

YAY euro, here as well. Just keeping stuff crossed for good news next week and then, my dear, you might need to accept it's real.

My bump popped out this week. I am no longer just fat but definitely diffed. And SB felt the baby move this morning as well. A big emotional moment for us.

[delurk] bloody hell buzz, i was crying by the end of that story. great, if scary description. well done you on getting through it.

I told work last week as I don't see them that often. They were lovely and positive, and just asked for a handover proposal by end of March all being well. We haven't told inlaws yet. not looking forward to it to be honest as they don't really react normally to good news. e.g.

US: we're getting married!
THEM: silence...then "in which church?"

ME: I got promoted!
THEM: To what? More work?

They don't mean it badly, they just are different to my family who know how to trot out the "well done! congratulations! that's great news" that one wants to hear on these occasions. Actually my mother took our engagement announcement/MrFree asking for their blessing very demurely, only slightly choking on her tea. Then later (privately) gave me a massive grin and did a double handed fist pump - hilarious from an over 60 year old.

[relurk]

free ha don't get me started on inlaws, I'm ready to commit murder with mine, I hope it didn't scare you, the more I think of it the more I realise establishe labour wasn't that long 6-7 hours to when she popped out. Love the sound of your mum

lemon when is your EDD feeling them move is great, babybee and I used to play a game with her feet

well this morning we had boob licking and a little latch, tonight we had 3 mins of boob latch but it was bad and made me cry out , freaked Barry out, but progress none the less :)

Buzz - Congratulations on getting through it all. I have been using a nipple shield because my boy hurt his jaw during the delivery and he was having trouble getting a good latch. He is now doing about half his feeds without assistance. It's been a godsend for our household.

Euro - Yay! I am so happy that your scans looked good. The fat stage will pass soon enough, my bump popped late like 22-24 weeks. On a separate note, we have the same wedding anniversary.

Lemon - I remember the first time my Mr felt the baby move, it was really special, I am so happy for you. Looking diffed is more fun than looking fat, congratulations.

gin - glad to hear you're enjoying gummy smiles.

Waves to everyone from the land of sleep deprivation and back to back growth spurts. Thank you to everyone for the well-wishes I didn't respond to earlier. Sorry for the poor name check.

gah - I am such a twit. You'd think after the amount of time it's taken to get this far I'd be better informed. I didn't want to go for amniocentesis as not prepared to take even smallest risk so I am having a nuchal scan tomorrow. But upon further reading, what is the point of doing this if I am not prepared to do amniocentesis if the results are inconclusive. Only just got in on time if going by my doctor's calculations. It's not free, only amniocentesis is covered here in foreign lands. Just read it requires an ultrasound. Great. Another stranger poking at my bits. I am sure you are all more up on this than me but in case you don't know what I am talking about, I am having the "combined screening" - www.mumsnet.com/pregnancy/nuchal-scan

probably a good thing I only just looked it up otherwise would have worried about this in advance. has anyone had this done?

Hi free - yes I had the combined screening when I was pregnant with Hamish. It's no big deal (honest :-)

You have the normal 12 week ultrasound but during the scan teh sonographer takes a measurement of the nuchal fold (if they can - not all babies are helpful in this area) they then combine this with the blood test results you get and they give you a ratio of the likelihood of it all being okay. I was aged 40 when I had mine so started with a 1:100 risk, but after having the combined test I ended up with a 1:650 risk, so I was happy to just leave it be.

Amnio has about a 1% miscarriage rate so unless my combined risk score was less than 100 I wouldn't have considered one (and even, I'd have had doubts about going ahead, as the idea of losing a healthy baby freaked me out). However, my friend had 3 boys and with each one she got a risk of less than 1:100 so she had three amnios - all fine and no hassle - apparently the risk is less than 1% depending on how often/skilled the person doing it is.

Not sure if this helps - but good luck!

free i had the scan and blood tests, i thought it was standard, I had still had even though I used a 25 yr olds egg, I don't know if I would have had the amnio

buzz ele thank you so much for replying. I had a chat to MrFree and felt a bit less panicked and I feel even better now I've read your replies. Thanks a lot. I hope you are both getting on ok.

sorry free my reply was a bit rushed, for me the risk of miscarriage wasn't worth taking, I'm not really sure how Barry would feel about it, I'm sure at some stage we have talked about it but can't remember what we had decided, the scan and blood test at least gives you an idea of what is going on, I'm not sure how old you are as to what the risks would be.

We are ok so far, things seem to be as I thought they would be, not too sleep deprived yet but that could all change :) I just find myself holding her realising how bloody lucky I am to have her and how precious she is

buzzy it is an amazing feeling isn't it, holding a real live baby that (in your darkest thoughts) you never thought you'd have (the novelty of that has never went away for me and has really helped me through the sleep deprived hell that has been teething for the last few weeks...)

How is her feeding going? Did she get the hang of boob or stick to the bottle? (or both?)

We're doing fine here, Hamish slept well last night (only up twice) which was amazing, esp when last week it was 20 minute naps for most of the night (which was a killer). So, all is good (although the wee soul was constiapted again this morning - I really don't understand it, most of his diet is watery/juicy fruits, by rights he should be having the trots not constipation). I took us out to the local toddlers group today (I mean to go every week, but in reality, I've only been about 6 times since he was born...) and I left early so he could have a nap before picking up DS1 from nursery and that actually worked (I was amazed!) so feeling quite good, although my house is a tip and my sister is coming to stay for the weekend on friday (yay!) and I'm not sure how we're going to get some of the rooms habitable (the bathroom springs to mind....)

free I hope you had a good scan today. For all there are so many benefits to having scans and tests etc, I sort of think pregnancies were much more stress free when they didnt have all these tests and scans - nicer just knowing your pregnant and freewheeling until the baby arrived.

Hope everyone else is doing fine - been a wee bit quiet here the last few days...

free the combined test is the standard thing to have in the UK. I can't believe amnio is the norm where you are! The scan should be a tummy one rather than an internal one by this stage, so no additional bit fiddling. :)

I'm having an ARGH moment. My midwife wanted my treatment summary from my IVF clinic and details of my colposcopy, so I just wrote her a covering letter to send her. I printed the letter at work, bolted to the printer and IT WASN'T THERE. Something has gone wrong with the machine. I'm now worried that it will come spooling out whenever it is fixed. FFS.

ARGH indeed euro have you told work anything yet? what a pain. Did you get your print out back, perhaps by lurking by the printer doing emails on your phone?

The ultrasound part of the test today seemed fine, the heart is ok, nose bone and NT part of the scan did not show signs of any abnormalities and my standard age risk of T21 - 1 in 200, is lower (better) when scan results taken into consideration. The blood results come back next week which will give me the overall abnormality likelihood. I know it's not 100% but decided that I will probably leave it be with the amnio - MrFree and I are against it anyway for same reasons ele and buzz mentioned. I found out that Cell-Free Fetal DNA Testing is available here, I had not heard of that before - at a cost of at least 800 Euro though. The baby is measuring 14 weeks. It also looks schockingly baby-like considering I am just a bit heavier, feel nothing and can still fit into my fat-day clothes.

shit the bed euro i hope you get the letter back, typical that the printer would play up

Oh bugger euro that's not good - fingers crossed that the silly printer just hadn't gotten to your job yet and didn't print it out.

Hurrah free for a good looking scan. We debated about it lots as well, as I am was unwilling to do an amnio. We'd agreed to do the blood test (harmony=cell free?) if the risk was too high for our liking. It came back at 1:5000 so we assumed the little one is fine.

Waves at the rest of you!

Well the letter never seems to have appeared, so hopefully that panic is in the past now.

My scan and Harmony results were both good. My age related risk of Down's was 1/131 , but the combined result takes it to 1/2,600, and the Harmony result to 1/10,000.The results for Edward's and Patau's were similar. So I can breath easy, on that score at least. Now I'm going to let myself order some maternity clothes, as I am sitting in here with my zip halfway undone, which isn't a good look.

Free - hurray for baby like scan. What great news. Still trying to get my head around all the testing they offer.

Euro - what fab fab news. Have fun shopping for maternity clothes. I actually bought something already because my ohss made it impossible for me to dress smartly for work. I found some nice work dresses at seraphine. I asked about FMC on our 10 plussers thread which I should probably have asked here.

Buzz - how's mini bee? Is she taking to the boob yet?

Sorry for the radio silence here. Morning sickness has been really awful here and screen time seems to make it even worst so that's why i have been a bit quiet. Trying hard to eat but it's v difficult to keep anything down.

I ordered some things from Seraphine and jojo last night. I will see how I get on with them.

I was reading my pregnancy book this morning and it said that you should not put on any weight in the first tri. I have gained 9lbs! For someone who always had a very stable weight, I find this pretty alarming. I haven't been massively troughing either, although I have been snacking a bit more than usual to keep the nausea at bay. The big difference is exercise - with being sore from EC this time and then having a 3 week bleed, and also just being knackered, my usual exercise regime has gone completely out of the window!

How did the other 10+ers do with weight gain early on? Am I some kind of outlier who will end up the size of an elephant?

Euro I think exercise makes a big difference. I put on about 7kg during ohss. My weight has gone back to during ivf level maybe even a bit less ( morning sickness) but I def look rounder because my clinic told me no exercise whatsoever during ivf and up to 12 weeks. I can't wait till I can go for a swim or a yoga class.

I think it all balances out in the end. I wouldn't worry about putting on weight. Your body is working hard to grow a baby so it needs the energy. Anyway, my understanding is if you are slim to begin with you need to put on more weight!

euro I am also worried about weight gain purely as I am worried that heavy me = heavy baby and getting it out will be harder. My mum also told me to watch myself as she got taking in for her last month to lose weight before giving birth. That was 40 plus years ago though. I have put on 11 lbs by today at 15 weeks. I was not slim to begin with, only just in the normal BMI range at 73kg to a height of 5foot7. I am walking an hour a day but it is just not enough but not risking running or anything high impact. I am looking for yoga and pilates and aqua aerobis and trying not to stuff my face. The classes are all prebooked out. Still looking. I'll ask the doctor about it at the next scan on Thursday this week. Then telling the inlaws on Friday all being well.