TTC for 10+ months, part 3

[joycep]

The other thread was just about to fill up and so here we are again with a slightly different name now as many of us have been trying for well over 12 cycles now. We had a few great successes on Part 2, with a couple of people getting bfp's on their 17th and 19th month of trying. So let's hope for more successes on Part 3. (Moaning, crying, sadness, anxiety & bitterness is certainly allowed on here!)

We have 4 cats in total. They are 8, 10, 12 and 14, when I took the 14 year old to the vet he said I have to think of her as being an 86 year old frail old lady :( she has liver and kidney problems and has lost 50% of her body weight in a year :( bless her.

sorry to hear about your rabbit Wine and your work friends are stupid and insensitive we have always had at least one pet rabbit here. We currently have three, we did have four untill last year untill one of ours died suddenly, she is still very fondly remembered and talked about. and I still remember all my childhood bunnies and their various little habits and personalities, so yes I definately agree they are just as lovely a pet as a cat or dog
CD18 here and still no ovulation according to the CB.

welcome Florin don't think i said hello to you last post sorry

Nelly I have been pondering your mysterious preg incompatable hobby and have decided that for fun you....... cagefight. underwater. with sharks. OR you are an extreme ironer, and are worried that the bump would affect your balance while ironing up a mountainside!

Popcorn welcome back, glad you had a good pissup and shagging holiday

ooh and whoever mentioned the brooking thread, after talking to my friend who took two years but never for a moment doubted it would happen and couldnt understand why I was getting so stressed about it all, I think positivity IS the way forward so might join. This thread will always be my bestest lovelyest home though

Have you ever thought about adoption?

Aw thanks for the bunny love everyone. Today I grated up and apple and strawberry for him and he tucked in. Well, I've got to mother something!

Karbea are you watching this prog on telly? It's making me feel all sorts of things. Mostly I've always thought no to adoption for lots of reasons and for experiences I've known people to have, including my dhs siblings who are adopted. But I'm not sure how I might feel about that in 5 years time. I wonder where we'll all be then?

Skeleton I didn't ov til day 20 last month. Also i only catch ov in the afternoon which took me a few months to realise. I have to hold onto my wee for ages though!

pout how you doing? Hope you are ok.

Fire breathing nelly

karbea haven't tried preseed. We are using COnceive Plus at the moment on the basis that it was the only sperm-friendly one available in Boots. I think you have to buy preseed on the internet.

wine I am sorry to hear about your bunny. Pets really are part of the family. Non pet people just don't understand.

Haha at cagefighting fire-breathing underwater shark chasing extreme ironer .

I am watching Knocked Up. Someone tell me why???

Morning everyone!

So sorry, I have not been here for ages, we had a wedding weekend (and yes pout the cupcakes were wedding ones, but they had asked a number of us to bake something, so not too much pressure) and then I worked like a demon for the past two days, and had a cookery lesson with DH (which was fab) and went swimming with a friend in the evening and so I have not time wasted on the internet at all, lately! Which is good.

I don't think I can do name checking properly after reading the past couple of pages, but some stuff I need to react to. First wine so sorry about your bunny, hope he stays around for a little longer and at the insensitive colleagues. Oh pout sorry you are having difficulty shaking the AF-blues, I am with the cheering gang S-E-R-O-T-O-N-I-N!! Hope you feel better, soon. On cheering news, one of my RL friends just got her BFP after 15 months, so now I am hopeful for the first time in ages.

karbea yes, we discussed adoption and would consider it, but only after trying IVF at least once. I obviously did not watch telly either so missed the programme you're talking about.

Love the idea of nelly the extreme ironer... :)

Waves at everyone else, and wonders if there are any cycle buddies out there on CD 23 now, of a 25-31 normal cycle length. So if I don't start symptom spotting soon, AF will be here before I get a proper chance. The only symptom so far are less achy boobs, than usual. That doesn't count, does it?

Morning ladies. DP was working from home again yesterday so I couldn't get to the PC and I missed loads of posts!

Thank you for all your pom poms and cheerleading efforts. This thread always cheers me up
I'm sure that I will pick up when we finally get moved out. Spending my days elbow deep in Civit Bang in a vain effort to remove 2 years worth of welded on grease cleaning the oven is not conducive to a good mood!

Purple You are right in that there is nothing quite like a pubescent child to kill the ardour. My nephew when he was last here was regaling us with intimate details of his bowel habits

wine I'm so sorry that your rabbit is poorly. I get all choked up when I think of anything happening to my doggles so totally understand why you are so upset. It's good that he is eating though.

Joycep How are you feeling? - constant PMT like feelings don't sound like fun. What's happening with the injectable medication?

Nelly I hope that you enjoyed your weekend away and that your SWI pays off.
guesses taxidermy

Karbea I hope that your moggy feels better.
Am seriously impressed by twice a day SWI. We use Conceive Plus which I think is quite good, it's a bit thin but not sticky or fragranced. I am often heard screeching at DP mid SWI not to waste it as he is dripping it willy nilly all over the place.

Popcorn I'm glad you enjoyed your holiday and am rooting for the get pissed and shag plan. I'm working on the stuff myself with Hob Nob cookies and tea plan.

That should be stuff myself with Hob Nob cookies, tea and shag plan The shag bit is obviously quite important when TTC

Hello Lemons I x-posted with you. Hope that you enjoyed the wedding. It's nice to hear about your friend. I suppose we should take heart that for some ladies it just takes a bit longer. At least when we get our babies we can look at them and know how much they were wanted!

pout dripping it willy nilly you are back to true form. And yes, our kids will be more than just a little bit wanted!

I don't want kids at all. They smell and cry and cost money, and will get in the way of my drinking, smoking and crack-taking, innit. Still, you can buy nice stuff for them and I'll get a council house and benefits and shit.

.

Where is everyone today? All scared of by pouts willy nilly?

Damnit - I just noticed a BUS for June 2012. Urrggh

Pout - does your DP know about PoutTrout on MN? haha at Conceive Plus wastage scandal by your DP. it is expensive stuff and a well designed tube does make it drip all over the place. I'm feeling much better thanks. Still very emotional though especially as Just booked in with gynae next week where i will be taught how to self inject. Absolutely horrified by the cost of the drugs i'm being put on though. So much so, I'm umming and arrghing about actually going through with it. I guess IUI is the first port of call before IVF though...

Popcorn - is your friend for real? I can't believe people don't panic when it takes longer than a year...

Wine - what happend to your DH's siblings? Karbea - i have often thought about adoption. In fact I have been hooked on watching The Locator on the Bio channel. This American dude puts people back in touch with birth mothers or other long lost family members. watching these people does make me realise that if we were to adopt , I wonder whether it is highly likely a child would want to find their birth mother later on.

Nelly - me too! I can't stand kids. It would ruin my life if I was to end up pregnant. Fickle gods , do you hear me?.. it would ruin my life...

Heh@the willy-nilly comment! It is very drippy stuff though. It gets EVERYWHERE.

BTW, as we have all been around for a while, I thought it might be a good idea to remind people where we are it. It might encourage any lurkers out there out of the woodwork too!

Me: 35, ttc#1, on 10th cycle of properly trying to conceive but was not really using contraception for a couple of years before that, so far blood tests, ultrasound, HSG all fine; hubby's SA ok but being repeated. Also having acupuncture and taking agnus castus.

Good plan euro! And lurkers, do join, it has helped me a lot!!

Me&DH both 32, I don't count cycles - too depressing as they are short-ish, so TTC for 14months. All tests: bloods, SA, HSG, ultrasounds and even the outdated and somewhat odd PCT came back fine. So we are unexplained and have been told to give it at least a year and a half (taking us into 2012) before any interventions. Then possibly IUI followed by IVF.

Waves friendly at the newbies, that I forgot to mention yesterday. Hi there!

And on other news, only 5 or so rows on the baby blanket that I am knitting for a friend. She is due in October after a fairly rough ride (read multiple MC and a long time before sticky bean) so I manage to be genuinely happy for her. Nice for a change! And TMI I developd thrush. From the virtuous swimming. I am so cross.

What's PCT?

PCT = post-coitus test and it does what it says on the box. It involves DTD at roughly the right time and then an inspection of the CM twelve hours later to check the structure of the CM and the presence of live swimmers... It has been discredited, as it has low correlation with (natural) conception one way or another. But I did enjoy the fact that it was PERFECT. Lots of happy swimmers (and I got to peer down the microscope at them). Ok, I guess I have now scared off any lurkers. Don't mind me, I am not that often here... Honestly

pout love the thought of the hob nob and tea plan. If only. As far as I'm concerned though I may as well be doing that given my success rate with plans involving shagging.

joycep ugh sorry about the cost of horrible drugs for you. I can totally see why you're having second thoughts but equally there is this need to be doing something rather than nothing.

lemon fascinated about the PCT test. I have heard of it but I think you're the first person I've come across who's actually had it. Must've been quite encouraging to see all those swimmers.

I like it when we have a blind-date style 'our Graham with a quick reminder' about our stats. Im 32, DH 33. TTC #1 for 12 cycles/months. Potential sperm problems - poor morphology 2% (waiting on results of second test, should get them Monday). I have my first nhs consultant appointment early October so not long to wait now.

Well, I went to see the fertility acupuncturist this week. I was there for two hours and had a very thorough chat about mine and DH's history, plus the actual acupuncture which lasted 20 min. She was very positive, saying there was a lot that we could do to increase both of our fertility, and that my age meant there was plenty of time. She mentioned that most of her clients were aged 38-42 and that 50% of them were currently preggars. Also said that if there were any major ('scary monster' as she put it) problems, that the NHS would pick them up and even then the worse case scenario was IVF which is not actually that bad for a worst case scenario.

Ended up talking a LOT about DH's sperm results and she said it was not good at all for a man to have 2% morphology, and was annoyed that the GP had brushed it off. She said that the reason we havent conceived could realistically be down to that factor alone. On the positive side she said there is a lot that can be done to improve it, with supplements and nutrition (which we'll get to at future appointments).

So....generally it was good...the acupucture itself was mega relaxing (slept like a log for 10 hours that night) and I really liked the fact that she was very much looking at the whole picture of both of us and everything about us.

The only thing is I suspect that a lot of the advice she has about nutrition, timing, lifestyle etc etc will not be news to me or any of you guys. When you've been trying for a long time you already know this stuff inside out. Also, I am slightly worried that my mind is not really on board with the whole thing-the whole time I was sat there in the appointment I was still thinking 'Im never going to get pregnant'. But, I'm hoping that's something she can help me work on.

So the plan is to have 3 cycles of getting into optimum shape, with acu, nutrition and lifestyle (which makes my heart sink a bit TBH, but if Im going to pay for the acu I might as well give everything else the best shot), and then starting TTC again from scratch. She said we have to do everything we can and then 'put it out to the universe and trust that it will happen'. Hmmm.

Oh god, I've really gone on - sorry. Hope everyone is having a nice evening. to everyone

haha at Joycep and Nelly's fate tempting. I , like TOTALLY agree, I did want one of them baybees but then I redecorated my lounge and they wont go with the colour scheme, and of course they cry when your tryin' to get high! so its just a no no really.

good luck with the move pout and hope the err, willy nilly situation resolves itself maybe you could show him lots of videos of waste not want not propaganda wilms from WW2 not that there will be any for lubricationg product frugality,well I hope not ?

One thing I have been thinking for a while about is all this talk of people using fertility accupuncture (not just your post Popcorn just thinking about it in general as I have seen it mentioned a lot on the conception boards). When I walk past these herb and accupuncture shops they make me feel quite annoyed with the pictures everwhere of the same cartoon woman with a bump and 'infertile? dont give up? get your dream!' (and then some stuff about magic weight loss on the other side of the window.) I
A lot of the posts on this board also seem to follow a theme of the woman being told there is somthing drastically wrong (that doesnt corrilate with what her doc has told her) or that if they conceive on a particular month they will misscarry. Added to all this, I know an accupuncturist socially and some of this things she says I find totally preposterous (shagging too much will make you deaf anyone? or if you get a prolapsed womb accupuncture can cure it and you dont need surgery.) So what I'm getting at I guess is, 1. have studies been done on it's effectiveness in infertility 2. do we know anyone who has attributed their BFP to it? 3. are their some great practitioners out there and I am all jaded from knowing a rubbish one, just like some people get great NHS fertility treatment experiences and others get fobbed off? I might go off and google

Nelly is it Rugby League?

Well heres our Graham with a quick reminder' about my stats, I'm 37, dh 38, ttc#1, been trying since oct last year, but 12 cycles due to some very short cycles. My results were ok, waiting for dhs results...
I'm having acupuncture. It is relaxing and he is concentrating on lengthening my cycles...

Popcorn i don't think I'm very healthy really, nutrition and lifestyle... I'm quite happy to be your healthy lifestyle buddy!

Skeleton, yes there is lots of evidence that shows acu assists fertility especially wit ivf ( but that's coz most research has been done with ivf).

nelly wing walking?

Oh god now I feel so boring . OK I'll 'fess once. I have a horse (plus a super-cute shetland pony :)). My "sport" is eventing - you know the one where you gallop at speed over solid obstacles that don't knock down. The plan is to try to ride for a bit through my never going to happen pregnancy, but I'll have to give up for a few months and then not sure what happens after. I'm pretty keen to keep going if I can. I may need to give up sleep though.

Right - we shall never speak of this again.

I'm 37, OH 33. Trying for our first, for about a year now, but about 15 cycles. Frankly I'm pissed off now. Had initial bloods from GP and all seem ok, OH SA also normal. Need to do another SA before we get referred, although time (age) is against me so we'll probably end up going private,

Ah nelly I ride too. Don't have my own horse but hopefully in a few years. Eventing is super scary though, am v v impressed, it's way too hardcore for me with all those huge solid fences :) please don't get a face transplant!

Karbea yes let's try and keep each other on the healthy living straight and narrow. Biscuits and wine are no longer my friends :(

skelly your acu friend sounds like a nutjob, am now wondering what I've got myself into!

I tried to book an accupuncture session at my dentists and they looked at me like I was a moron and snottily said "it's only for sports injuries" Kind of put me off.

Joycep It is scandalous how much drugs cost. My GP where we used to live used to go on and on about expensive I was as a patient because of my migraine prescription & used to try and only prescribe me 3 tablets at a time! Glad that you are feeling better though. Have you decided whether you are going forward with the drugs?

Nelly Not mentioning your horsey thing because we don't want you being whisked away in the back of a blacked out SUV, but all I will say is it sounds a very glam hobby. Makes my card making look a bit shite!

popcorn It's interesting what your accupuncturist was saying, especially the part about a healthy lifestyle helping - not what I wanted to hear! I was happily labouring under the belief that having seen the apparently uber fertile specimens on Jeremy Vile lifestyle wasn't that important - damn

Skeleton I wonder whether just being proactive & seeing a "professional" whether that be an accupuncturist, dietician, consultant or snake oil pusher is helpful because it gives you a positive frame of mind and therefore might help get you updiffed. I'm starting to err towards the idea that positive thought is the way forward and I keep picking up on little phrases that I hear (unrelated to TTC) like having faith not fear. God I am turning into a hippy & will shut up now.

BTW a baby most definitely has to go with the colour scheme of a house, after all a baby is just like a scatter cushion isn't it. Tempting fate I don't want a baby because I don't want my house cluttered up with prams and moses baskets and all that stuff that I can't wait to buy tat.

Lemons Okay I'm actually beginning to wonder whether you are actually Martha Stewart in real life what with your baking skills and now knitting too! I am very envious of your creativity Any developments further to your spotting incident?

The good news is we have the house, bad news is we will have a 2 week delay between moving from here and moving in there. I'm now pinning all my hopes this cycle on successful SWI several days before expected egg pop time. Much as I am devoted to the TTC cause there is no way that I am attempting SWI on a blow up mattress in my sisters dining room. Given DP's lube aim I'm not sure how I would explain away my sister slipping over on a puddle of Conceive Plus.

My stats are I'm 35 very almost 36, DP 40. TTC 19 months but now into 17th cycle (how does that work???? Long cycles or bad record keeping I'm guessing!). Had referral to consultant but been discharged. Had blood tests, HSG, ultrasound all fine. DP had SA, morphology not brilliant but good enough. Only possible issue identified was mild PCOS but I have ovulated every time I've had the blood test. Diagnosed with unexplained infertility and were advised to have private IVF because of my age being against us - can't afford that so am hoping that nature will do it's thing.

Waves to everyone else