We are all jolly well going to get preggers this month in a nonchalant non-psycho way, and hang onto it, and there will be no brooking of any argument whatsoever!

[ScreamIfYouWantToGoFaster]

Welcome across Rat Smackers! Glad you found the place okay. This is THE MONTH when we get those deceitful pee sticks to own up to the BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS - we are all already preggers! After all; positive people get positive pee sticks!

I hope you all like what I've done with our new home

You'll note the updated title, courtesy of farfalla. Various healthy snacks have been set out on the coffee tables, to ensure our bumps are receiving the appropriate nutritional balance

Also, my personal favourite adjustment, you'll note the strategically positioned peephole, right here, providing us with a sneaky preview of the utopian delights awaiting us in the NO BROOKING vomitorium ante-natal thread.

So let's get to it preggos! Remember: see a rat - smack it!

Morning Rat Smackers

Welcome Piglet how exciting a confirmed BFP in 4 days time.

Have you are most definitely pregnant.

Generic my cycle buddy, how's things going? Has the shagathon finsished in your house yet?

Farfalla Loving the positive thinking, I just know it will happen over the weekend for you.

CD17 here and CBFM is displaying ovulation at last!!!! DH will be relieved, he's not had a break since Friday, I think he was almost crying with joy when I told him this morning he'd only got today and tomorrow left to go.

I shall resume positive thinking shortly however i have just had a letter cancelling our appointment tomorrow at the gynae clinic and telling me to wait yet another month and go to a pre-assessment apointment in mid september. i can't believe it.

right, have finally managed to speak to the right people at the hosp, have brought it forward to v. beginning of sept and was told it was always at pre-assessment clinic but that the choose and book system (of which whenever i have used it have never been able to do either) sends out all letters stating its at the gynae clinic. what a palaver. if i'd have realised back in july that dp didn't need to be at the first appointment i wouldn't have cancelled that one!
right rant over, need to channel some calm. Maybe i should go and bake something.....

Oh no Ninja, that's not on at all. Did they give a reason? I would be mightily miffed I were you too.

On the other hand, they must know that you're already upduffed and know that you won't be needing the appointment anyway. That'll be it.

Anyway you will be pregnant by then, this is your month.

absolutely scarlet i shall need to cancel this one due to my extreme upduffedness.
besides i am happy as its my birthday today! I get to be both 21 and 16!

Happy Birthday Ninja

Are you doing anything special?

Oh Ninja how frustrating for you. Did they say why? A temporary break in positivity is definitely allowed. But with all the general positivity on this thread and nonchalent brooking you will definitely have your BFP this month!

And welcome Piglet - make yourself at home! You are obviously blooming already!

Um, sitting on the sofa drinking tea! I'm going out to lunch with my folks later, which should be lovely and the sun is shining. And i have a new sewing machine which came with loads of freebies so will set that up and have a go.

Hi Ninja poor you! That's so incredibly frustrating. Well, obviously in the end it'll turn out to be for the best because you'll be getting your confirmed BFP this month and then you can cancel your appointment! Still they don't know that and it's ridiculously badly organised / inconsiderate of them to mess you around in this way.

Scarlet glad you are nearing the end of your shagathon. Mine is tapering off - I think I ov'd over the weekend, but not really sure. I'm prob in the 2ww now and am drinking plenty of pineapple juice.

Farfalla sorry to hear that re your DH. Hopefully you will have a lovely, relaxing weekend together and that will make you both feel better.

Ninja that sucks re the appointment - I am appalled on your behalf. Yay re your birthday though and I like how you are looking at it as being 21 and 16 at once! I will be 18 twice next birthday! Enjoy your day and pressies.

Ooh, scarlett, what good news! I gave DH a break from the shagathon last night i say that like it was a choice, actually he wasn't to be persuaded which I am already slightly anxious about in case last night was THE night... He is due for a horrendously busy day at work today, so I'm not even counting my chickens for tonight... arghhhhh!!! having a mild panic. oh I WISH i'd bought some opk sticks... DH would never need to know (he says we don't need them yet...what does he know!?) would calm me down about it. it's all i can think about!!!

ninja, that's such bad news and typical of the NHS. I do agree though, the positivity of this thread and the fact there's time to be pregnant well before then means you clearly will be. This month IS your month!! And Happy Birthday!

so generic, scarlett and little, cycle buddies, hope all plans going well for this month- scarlett, yours clearly are, sounds like you're well on track for your BFP . we sahll coordinate our synchronised bfp's imminently!

and where is little?

The irony is i'm a crap cook (and can't bake hardly at all), but a slow cooker recipe is hard to stuff up- its in the hamlyn 200 slow cooker recipes book, and should you still want it farfalla i shall happily oblige and guarantee it is easy to make

have, 7 days will take ages fly by, and we all know your bfp is only a positive pee stick away!!!

p.s. i'm on cd 19 and still no sign i've managed to find of ov...

Happy Birthday Ninja. Get cracking on that sewing machine. You've only got 9 months till the arrival of babyninja!! Hope you have a lovely day

Have what do you do? I'm a nurse so have been busy helping terrifying new doctors

I didn't manage to DTD last night as DH was too tired & I won't see him until tomorrow after my own 12 hour shift. Being in the house at the same time is proving difficult let alone DTD! Fear not rat smackers I will not let that deter me as I'm off sat & sun and will be making up for lost time

Welcome Piglet and Cat the positive vibes in here are overwhelming or maybe it's all the pregnancy hormones

Dream I never really know when I've ovulated. I bought some OPKs as I (sorry if TMI) seem to have EWCM for about a week and was getting very confused. However used the OPKs for 3 months and never got a strong positive (I heard it's easy to miss the peak so some people test a few times a day). I just guessed my ovulation date was roughly when I got the darkest line. So basically I'm clueless. Am gonna go the doctors after my holiday to demand ovulation blood tests. Just deciding that is surely enough to ensure my BFP

ooh, generic, happy waiting! maybe i'll buy some pineapple juice too

babysade, that is immensely reassuring. I was wondering if i'm just too clueless to pick up on it (was wondering how I could have got through uni being so thick!). If my BFP doesn't materialise, maybe i'll try some opk POAS styling efforts next month! I'm sure I used to have loads more CM but while bf nothing's happening the same!! I got some 'sticky' and was waiting for it to progress and feeling quietly confident i'd work it out but nothing, no signs and confusion reigns. DH just keeps telling me to be patient....

And demanding blood tests is a sure way to get knocked up, good thinking! can you have them on the NHS if you've been trying less than a year?! I'm guessing not...

Dream - I tried the OPKs for a couple of months (just internet cheapies) to try to find out when I was ovulating. They worked ok the first cycle but the second month I didn't get a strong positive at all and it just messed with my head loads.

Also, the thing that bothered me about the OPKs is you have to restrict your fluid intake for a few hours before you test in the afternoon, and as you test over quite a few days this is quite annoying, especially when it's so hot. I've also read that you should drink lots (non-alchoholic!) when TTC as it will increase your CM and create a happy environment for the swimmers, so I've tried to avoid the OPKs since. Perhaps I'm over-analysing the situation! Although surely it is impossible to go through the TTC experience without over-analysing every single thing.

Probably not Dream but all my doctor friends have told me to either lie or just explain why I'm not sure about ovulation and say that I want these blood tests doing. I have been trying for around 10 months anyway. One of my friends (who is a nurse) went to the doctors after 6 months (she is under 30 btw) they did some tests and started her on clomid, she got a BFP 2 weeks later
Anyway I will not need to do any of this as I'm clearly already pregnant

Gals, if you really want to POAS for ovulation I would not bother with the internet cheapies they are too difficult to read. You need the clear blue digital ones that give you a smiley face :) when they detect a surge. I found I had to do them twice a day to catch the surge though. For example I detected a surge at 10pm but had not got that one in morning, nor was it still there at 630 the next morning. The surge can last as little as 6 hours.

That is why I use the CBFM aka shag dictator, it gives you a bit more warning as it tracks oestrogen rising BEFORE the LH surge. Ideally you want to DTD before the LH surge because you can ovulate 12 hours after the surge. If you do then you could pick up the surge in the morning and by the evening its already too late for example.

Now, all this is very well, as long as you have a DH that shags you, which I don;t at the moemnt. So this is all purely research purposes for me at the moment to get to know my cycle a bit better.

ECWM is a bit hit and miss I find, some months I get it, others I don't. Some months I get it before I ovulate, others after.

Also if you are 'turned on' or you have been DTD a lot and you have your partners sperm floating out afterwards its almost impossible to idetify all the different fluids.

I personally think if you can have a lot of sex for the relevant 10 days its a lot less stressful than using 'equipment.'

I am here dream just as a lurker for a little while. I'm feeling incredibly non positive about the whole thing at the moment and think I'm out of the running for this month anyway. I don't think I've got much to contribute to the thread for now, but am still keeping a check up on you guys. I'm sure I'll feel better in a few days.

Oh little sorry to hear you are not feeling hopeful. Can we help?

Farfalla, Baby, Cat and Dream re the ovulation detection, I got some internet cheapies as I wanted to know if I'd ov'd following mc. But like Cat said they messed with my head a bit and didn't reassure me at all. I've never had a strong line on them and after only one cycle, I've stopped using them. I think what Farfalla said is the best advice - just have lots of sex in the middle of your cycle and try not to think about it too much (easier said than done). In theory that makes it less stressful for our DPs as well because if we don't know exactly when we need to Do It, we can both take a more relaxed attitude. In theory anyway.

Happy birthday! What lovely weather for it! Agree the hospital is annoying but you'll have nonchalantly smacked that rat by the time of your appt so it's all irrelevant really.

Deffo agree with Farfalla re: internet cheapie OPKs - I used them for one cycle and they were a nightmare. I'm back to EWCM spotting and temp taking for egg popping certainty. I'm quite lucky that I get a lot of EWCM so it's easy to spot plus OH doesn't shag me that much either so I can't confuse it with sperm I bloody well wish we could shag more, but I suppose that it only takes one swimmer doesn't it.

CD3 here (lovin' how my cycles seem to have tied in to the calendar month - makes it much easier to remember which day I'm on!). 15-ish days until Ov which is midweek and generally no good for shagging possibilities - like you Farfalla my OH has a stressful job with long hours, plus he travels a lot plus TTC has given him performance issues so managing a well time shag is such a challenge. If only OV could always happen on a Sunday - would make life so much easier!

Little baby Fedex clearly has a sweet tooth as he's making me crave cake - best nip out to the shops to see that he needs for sugar are met...

Cheapo opks even the Tesco ones are crap! Never had any joy which is why I go with charting/cm monitoring.
dream I'm a specialist nurse, all the perks, less of the hassle! :)

Wait sorry baby...short term memory is awful.
ninja I can imagine you being a bit "and to top it all off, it's my birthday!!". Hope lunch is lovely and you.have a nice chilled day :)

Oooooo is Ninja taking sewing requests?!

Sorry to hear you're not feeling positive little, this ttc malarky is far more stressful than people give it credit for! we're all here for you. Hope you join in again soon.

It feels like AAAAAGGGGGGGEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS to our next confirmed BFP! (Although in reality Piglet will be pee stick endorsed very soon!). The first two weeks are really dragging for me at the moment. It's only cd 6 for me, boring!!