The rats are all going to be jolly well smacked, we are going to have lots of festive BFPs and possibly a mince pie (or three)

[Munkiii]

Welcome to all!

Grab a glittery tinsel wrapped ramekin, grab some mulled wine and join our very lucky thread.

Hey Munkii I love the new thread, particularly the festive ramekins

Oooh a Christmas thread, well done Munkii. Though knowing us lot we'll probably need another few before Dec 25th. I had a lovely afternoon tea in Fortnum & Masons today so I'm feeling a bit festive too.

Glad you back brooking Have. I hope you get the Xmas pressie you so deserve this year

Well I've made it through CD25 with no sign of imminent af. Thanks for the positive thoughts solars and cupcakes. Trying to surpress any feelings of excitement about a bfp, as I still don't think this is the month. Still feeling totally positive about the cycle length though. And I will test Wednesday if no af, as that'll be CD28 so I think the result should be accurate by then.

Oh and Happy Birthday Maybe. Hope you got an extra pressie from Otis this year!

Good evening rat smackers!

Thanks for the mulled wine Munkii, I've pinched a bit of tinsel for my old mousse pot (PIAMP) Hope the SWI is going swimmingly and that goes for you too Solars!

Have you tested again Sweetie?

Popcorn I'm drooling at all the yummy food you've been cooking this weekend, sounds delish - I've never tried swordfish, is it one of the "meatier" fishes? Am very excited about you testing tomorrow to confirm the obvious

Maybe thanks for the welcome & the wine, couldn't partake yesterday due to rubbish old work so I've saved it for tonight, I'm enjoying a large glass of red whilst catching up with Strictly - bliss!

Hello Have we are almost cycle buddies, I'm day 3 today so we can both confirm our pregnancies over the Christmas period - perfect!

Beedle soup and snuggling sounds like a cracking evening. I see you will be confirming with Popcorn in the morning?

Little I've had a scan back through the thread and getting to CD25 is brilliant - I'm brooking hard for Wednesday, is it not correct that no symptoms and feeling that you're not pregnant are in fact bona fide pregnancy symptoms!!

Waves to all the other brookers, bean Imps and everyone else I've missed.

Also big waves to Generic, Musical and Biscuits whilst standing right in their personal space quite close in the hope that the pregnancy hormones rub off!

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY maybe, hope you have had a lovely day and have been spolit rotten! x

Sorry happy birthday Maybe!

Hope you had a lovely day xx

happy birthday maybe hope you had a lovely day!
little that sounds like fab news re your cycle length, and tea at fortnum and masons sounds lovely. I am jealous!
Good to see you back munkiii and have

Love y'all - mwah mwah xx

Happy Birthday maybe hope you have had a lovely birthday weekend spoilt by DH

beedle how are things? Any more signs, symptoms?

AF has not shown her evil face yet but I have been spotting so expecting her full blown arrival tomorrow.

bean I have ordered some opk sticks and vits, was going to wait until after Christmas but think I should get on with it as time is really not on my side at 38. On a more positive note I just wanted to share with you I have a friend who just gave birth to her first DD on her 43rd birthday, I also have another friend who had early menopause in her late 20s but went on to have DD through egg donation on NHS. So you just never know what is going to happen.

Solars symptoms-wise, I'm terribly constipated which is really unlike me. It could be WeightWatchers which I have doing for about 3 weeks now (DH, who looks after teens with eating disorders for a living, says constipation can be caused by a reduced food intake), though I have been eating plenty of fibre. I had some fibergel this morning, which didn't help at all. So I went to get some senakot a moment ago and DH's father used some when he visited earlier in the month (I know this because he left the box out so I put it away), and it turns out I put a bleeping empty bleeping box back in the bleeping medicine cabinet which is no bleeping good to anyone and now all the shops are closed. (I am possibly also a little over-emotional, incase you can't tell :o )

Little CD 28, that will be amazing even if it is a BFN (as if!) Have you been doing anything to lengthen your luteal phase? Either way very, very positive indeed :)

sweetie implantation spotting! :o

Olives the swordfish is like a white tuna, if that makes sense? So a bit coddy, but very dense and chewy like tuna steak, so it holds it shape well when you cook it :)

Bean not at all ? I think different things suit different people; getting a BFN tomorrow would actually be a relief if that makes sense, because it'd mean I can stop stressing about it for another month... (gawd that sounds nutty even to me!)
But I've had a really good think, and after this month I'm going to put away the OPKs, thermometers and pee-sticks for a few cycles ? esp if I end up getting a rubella jab and have to stop ttc anyway. I am really losing perspective and I'm in danger of turning into even more of a a grumpy, bitter old hag, and I feel it would be healthier for me to get back to ?me? for a bit. Shagging for the sake of it, for example, or seeing a ramekin and thinking of chocolate souffle instead of wee :o

I did read my Zita West book this week, though, ladies. It's absolutely huge, but to be honest she rambles a lot and there was very little in there I didn't already know - except three things that popped out at me and I thought you may be interested in too: the first is that cyclical migraines (which I have) can sometimes be caused by low progesterone. The second is that birth control pills have been shown to actually boost your fertility in the few months after you come off then, and fertility then declines somewhat - to the point where some clinics are actually putting people with fertility issues back on the pill for a few months. The third is that, while you can drink alcohol while ttc (and I do :o ) you should avoid is during the 5-7 days before ovulation and on ovulation day, as it can hinder egg growth and release.

Evening! Just a v quick one to say hello and that I will catch up properly tomorrow. Busy weekend and now I'm exhausted.

Night all.

Happy birthday Maybe! I hope you've had a lovely, restful, relaxing day!

Popcorn, did I read somewhere that you're testing tomorrow? Will be lurking...

Thanks for the hug Biscuits!!

Mmmm! I'm liking the sound of swordfish Popcorn, will have to put that on the shopping list to give it a try. I've been trying to eat a bit healthier recently and to try and add a bit of variety to the meals I cook, was getting very bored of the same old things all the time. V.interesting about the cyclical migraines thing as it's something I suffer from, I do wonder whether my progesterone is low. My gynae doesn't believe in the day 21 progesterone test so the only time I've had it tested was during my ectopic pregnancy where it was only 31 but presumbably it would be lower in an ectopic anyway? Does Zita have any advice for low progesterone?

Evening all. I've had a quiet weekend not doing much, started off shag week (or two) yesterday morning, and now just kind of getting on with things. Starting to think about Christmas. Just getting an idea of how we're going to feed everyone, ordering the turkey and getting some present shopping done.

TTC is sort of on the back burner just now. Even though it's been a long time (14 months), I still find I can kind of relax in the middle of my cycle. 'Just' organising some SWI for every other day seems like the easy bit.

DH still hasn't done his SA, but I've told him he can't do it now till after shagfest. I'm not giving a doctor swimmers which could be put to better use!

Maybe Happy Birthday! Hope you had a good one.

Have Brooking extra hard for you this month, a Christmas BFP would be amazing. This cycle for me will be ending around the middle of Dec, so by Christmas I'll either know I'm pg, or be planning SWI around a house full of people.

Munkiii Thanks for making the new thread. We bought some Gu puddings today (on special offer in Sainsbury), maybe I'll decorate one of the empty pots for my imminent BFP.

Little CD25, that's great! Can't wait for Wednesday your BFP :)

Beedle and Popcorn I hope you'll both be up bright and early tomorrow to start off your weeks with a BFP?

Sweetie Hope AF stays away tomorrow, and indeed for the next 9 months.

Big wave to everyone else.

I woke up early, PIAP, checked for any signs of AF before dipping, dipped, got a BFN and now an hour later she's arrived Oh well, I did my grumpiness yesterday - here's to the pre-Christmas BFP [tea]

popcorn interesting what Zita West says about alcohol, I thought I had read somewhere that alcohol lowered progesterone levels so it was best to drink less during the 2ww. Not that I drink massive amounts anyway, but its worth thinking about once i've got Christmas and New Year out of the way

little that's a really long cycle for you - hope this means a BFP is imminent, and even if its not its still very good

Biscuits thanks for sharing the preggo hormones, hope everything is going well for you

This month 3 friends/relatives have had babies, luckily there was only one [boak] announcement on FB where one of them wrote about the years's journey to get to this point (i.e. it took them a grand total of 3 months to get pregnant) . None of them live anywhere near me so I won't even get to cuddle any snuggly newborns

Anyyway time to get ready for work, have a nice monday morning everyone

Morning all!
Hello green my cycle buddy! Nice to meet you.
ninja how are you? How is ninjaboy?
stasi that swi could be challenging! But of course you're already pregnant so no need to worry
*beed& sorry the evil witch got you :( have some and a door stop wedge of chocolate cake.

Hello lovely ladies.

Have read back (my god we rat smackers can talk!) and am sorry to see lots of you feeling down over the weekend. There's not really anything to say to make this TTC ordeal any better, but I will say the following:

What do we want?
Positive pee sticks!
When do we want them?
NOW!

Had a lovely lovely weekend - went to visit friends with their uber cute 2 year old and even uber cuterer 4 week old - lots of snuggles ahoy. Then yesterday OH and I got LOADS of jobs done which is always very satisfying. Starting to panic a bit about Christmas though - this isn't helped by the fact that I texted our builder yesterday to see when he will be able to come and do some building work (about a week's worth) and his reply was "Before Christmas - I'll let you know nearer time" - errrr, Christmas is only 4 weeks away . Today I will have to write my to do list and then I'll feel much more in control about it all.

Beedle and Bean - sorry about AF You're one cycle closer to your pee stick endorsement though, so that's good.

Happy birthday Maybe - what did Otis get for you?? A lay-in I hope...

Little, I am brooking so hard that you get your BFP on Wednesday! AF STAY AWAY FROM LITTLE, DO YOU HEAR ME BITCH?

The egg has popped here - not sure whether it was on Friday or Saturday though. My temperatures have been all over the place this cycle - I am convinced that it's as a result of stress as usually my temps are quite nice and neat. Fascinating what effect stuff has on your body.

Right I suppose I'd better get up and face the day.

Woke to AF arrival, hardly a surprise but even so feeling a bit glum. Off to work to sulk some more now. Feeling very fat and bloated even in my biggest size trousers saved for extra fat days but that might be more to do with the weekend over indulgence!!!

Popcorn very interesting point on the alcohol front

Laters ladies.

Sweetie and Beedle - sorry to hear your bad news (Beedle - almost exactly the same happened to me last month). Am so hacked off for both of you. But onwards and... into a ramekin (sparkling at that). Which reminds me of a friend who once decorated her Xmas tree with tonnes of ribbon-tied condoms that she had been given for free (dunno why...). Quite pretty, surprisingly.

Sweetie great you are getting some gear - OPK sticks etc - I hope this really does help in case you are just missing your day etc. Thanks for the pos story of 43yo - I do know a few of these myself. If it's any help to you, 37 was fine for me so at 38 I think you're still in good time. However, I wouldn't leave it too long TTC before you get some tests done in case there is only one small issue that needs a tweak. But I'm sure you know all this.

I think TTC without giving up alcohol lessens your chances full stop. Sorry to be a party pooper. I'm sure 1-2 drinks here or there won't matter but in general... (Gawd I am a miserable fooker, bah humbug etc).

Pop - impressed that you might put aside the temping. Hope the little holiday from TTC will do the trick! .

sorry to hear AF has put in an appearance for so many over the weekend.....but i must announce it looks like i may HAVE FINALLY GOT AN AF TODAY :) :) :) :) :)

This is my first since DS was born over a year ago, so assuming it continues as the day goes on (had a false alarm a couple of weeks ago where i thought it might be starting but then it went before it properly arrived! but this seems more like a period now) then hopefully this means i can properly join in with this thread. Assuming it is a proper AF, then from my limited knowledge, i think should end 2ww on Christmas Day, although with DS i got a BFN on day 17, and then got BFP on day 23 (looking back i was very patient with testing, not sure if i could be as patient this time round though!!)

Hope Maybe had a nice Birthday, and that AF stays away from little and anyone else who is due to test imminently!!

got to go, DS just woke up, shortest morning nap ever........ :(

Imps it sounds like you had a lovely weekend. Hopefully now that you know for sure what's happening regarding redundancy, you'll be a bit less stressed? Have you got a definite on the new job yet? :)

Beedle Sorry to hear about your BFN :(
Yes, Zita seems fine with alcohol "in moderation" except for those 5-7 days (she didn't mention the 2ww specifically, that I recall anyway); a glass of wine with dinner was cited as being moderate, iirc. She did suggest that anyone that needs more than that may have dietary issues to do with sugars which make you crave it, and so cut out refined sugar.
A year's journey?

Olives I don't recall what zita said about progesterone - I think she said supplements but only under a GPs supervision and maybe acupuncture? I shall check later. I remember thinking there was a distinct lack of anything I could try at home ;)

BFN here. Gutted, even though I really did expect it. I just feel like asking what the hell we're doing wrong, you know? Sorry - that's not very brooky is it?

On the bright side, DH is thoroughly onboard with actively ttc now (until now, he'd been happy floating along and thought all we needed was more SWI and it would happen). He's cutting down on booze and caffeine (he confessed how much he had been consuming the other day, and it was truly shocking), he's going to break out the man vits I bought him about three months ago and is eager (very eager ) to try SWI every other day for the whole cycle. I'm going to go to the GP about testing my rubella next week (AF due Thurs) as I read that sometimes just the first half of the mmr jab is enough to make you immune, fx. And if I look really gloomy maybe she'll agree to do a day 21 (she is lovely).

Yay for AF Loopy!

I should add to my previous posts that binge-drinking alcohol was a biiiig no-no, especially when it came to men, and smoking was an absolute no-no as well.

Popcorn - am sorry about your BFN as I was convinced that your funny ov was actually a really good thing. Are you sure though? AF hasn't arrived and it is a bit early to test.

I am v chuffed that DH is taking it all seriously now. That will be a huge help is so many ways. I think a lot of this can be put down to our brains, booze, stress interfering with mama nature.

You aren't doing anything wrong - but I have heard myself ask the exact same question over the last year. Or 'Is something wrong'...?

Enjoy SWI and enjoy taking a break from temps etc: even if it tells you that you're happier taking temps it's worth a change.

Things have gone nuclear in the Bean household. It's grim - I think DP is just sick of my AF/TTC misery and wants to immerse himself in work and complained that he'd had to look after DS on his own too much this weekend (1.5 hours while I cleaned the house on Saturday - cleaner couldn't make it - and yesterday afternoon when DS was supposed to be napping but wouldn't go down as is teething; I was out - v rare - having a lunch with a friend). Looking after DS - which I do all week long with the help of a childminder for just 12 hours per week (and I pay her btw) while I work - should be a privilege. Since when did lining the pocket of a business become more important than your family?

I guess neither of us thought starting a family would lead to this level of tension and that's why I hate myself for not just accepting a 1DC family and moving on. I do that woman-thing of wanting him to feel the pain as strongly as me but he just doesn't. He's more contented; and I envy him. ARGH.

Well Loopy - on that happy note - enjoy TTC. May your dreams come true.

that's not particularly reasonable of your DH bean, it sounds like he's quite stressed out though, and maybe didn't know how to deal with a teething toddler? Does he get some time off work over Christmas? I wonder if some leisurely time off with you both would relax him a bit?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's accurate. There wasn't even a whisper of a line, and coundowntopregnancy.com reckons 75% of pregnancies are detected by 11dpo (with 10% still be undetected at 30dpo, which I think means they can be disregarded as having gotten their ov dates wrong? But I digress...)

Well Pop - I think the jury is still out and I really hope that you have just tested too early. Also - I think you are going for fert tests in January aren't you, so you will be armed with more info'? I'm dying for you to crack this as I can tell what a gorgeous mum you'll be.

Our teething toddler is fine he just doesn't nap sometimes because of his teeth but it doesn't really affect his good nature. Lots of slobber though - v cute.

Yes, DP is stressed and I feel quite desperately upset about everything so we are not working as a team, and we do usually do that pretty well. DP is also dreading Xmas at his mother's and - as he pointed out yesterday - another visit from AF/TTC misery for me on Christmas day by his reckoning. He asked if we should go away at all for Christmas. [hmmm] He would like me to see a counsellor. I would like to agree but I can't see that this will be relieved by counselling, unfortunately. I'll look around for a nearby support group instead. I feel like I'm being a misery on here too, which isn't in the spirit of brooking. Apologies Brookers. I'll head off and try to get a grip.

Yay for AF Looopy at last you can start smacking that rat

Really sorry about AF Beedle and Sweetie

Pop boo to the BFN this morning, I had a BFN too. Stupid stupid pee sticks. I'm feeling very AF like, including the usual rage and craziness .

Bean am sorry you are feeling so down and that this ttc lark is affecting your relationship with DH. I think a lot of us have been there. Hopefully it will get better with time. Ive been really fed up with my DH at times when he hasn't been as upset as me. The past few months however he has been distraught when AF arrives. I honestly don't know what is worse as I feel like I'm letting him down now.

Try to focus on something positive (should be a relatively easy thing to do at this time of year!). I love being organised so im giving myself the morning to be miserable then later on I'm going to get out all my Christmas decs and sort through them while listening to some Xmas music. I'm already feeling better just by thinking about it.
Please don't feel bad for your lack of brooking spirit. The best thing about this thread is everyone will brook extra hard for you. You have not left it too late, this will happen for you. Be kind to yourself (& DH!) , you sound like you have a great relationship normally. You will both get through this