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.

smegs if he has no joy, could he transfer to your practise? (of course, I have no idea how easy that would be ) Some GPs just have no clue, do they?

Ladies, when someone casually drops in to conversation something like, "so, Popcorn, are you thinking about kids?" what do you say? I get this a lot and usually stumble through it with something about it not being the right time, while steadily turning a shade of tomato... but this is wearing thin after almost 3 years of marriage, and I don't feel I can say "none of your beeswax" without offending - Christmas season is coming up and I anticipate I'll be asked at least once by each family member and friend/aquaintance.........

DH has barred me from replying "sadly, I'm barren." as he says my tone is sufficiently dry that they won't be able to tell whether I'm joking or not :o

Oh popcorn its sad isn't it. I am pretty open about it all because I have the opposite of a stiff upper lip and just say its taking a bit longer for us. I have told friends about MCs and chemicals.

however, for people I don;t know well I say something like, 'oh yes hopefully at some point, fingers crossed' or something.

smeg that really is rubbish and I agree you should see another GP and insist, things can change in a year or two but obviously there will be nothing wrong with your DH swimmers!!

Hello rat smackers! How's it going? I'm not ignoring you all although I do feel I haven't been about much recently here or on the ante natal thread.
solars I'm so sorry ttc has taken its toll in such a way. I really hope we see you back here soon.
How is everyone else? I haven't had time to read and catch up and am work today so won't get a chance till tonight at least. I've got my scan tomorrow, yikes! I am loving all you festive mane changes by the way, and maybe whenever I see yours I think of the elf on the shelf that people seem to do at christmas.

er name changes not mane changes sorry

Thanks Popcorn and far. DH doesn't want to change practice, his is more convenient for him and he can get appointments there a bit more quickly than I can at mine. I think just asking for a different GP will help. If not, I may resort to calling my GP and asking her to bash out a quick letter - I know it will probably cost some money but I think it's worth it.

Popcorn, funnily enough I think I used that line once or twice! I got some very odd looks. I don't like to tell anyone that we're trying so I just find myself being very non-committal. I think some of our friends have had trouble conceiving anyway, so they don't ask questions like that now.

thanks far. Some people have no shame, do they. Even if it was a troll, I think a lot of the responses were beyond the pale. Really not MN's finest hour.

Smeg: what a rotter. I hope you get a better second opinion. How disspiriting.

We still get a lot of it popcorn, and am anticipating plenty of comments over the hols. My husband has a great anecdote about a teenager being asked by his friend's parents if he had a girlfriend yet (presumably in a bit of a nod nod wink wink way). He said something along the lines of 'yes thanks, how's your sex life?'. Which put a stop to that line of questioning. Maybe we could adopt a similar technique.

Hi ninja. Thanks for the muffin. I hope they're still hot from the oven. I'm freezing. Looking forward to my festive mane change. Think I'll opt for something a bit more leonine this time...

Late!! Hellllooo!! Lovely to see you and am so pleased that this little bean has read the instruction manual properly this time! 15 weeks - I cannot actually believe that that much time has elapsed already! Hope you're able to enjoy your pregnancy now that the 12 week scan has gone well and I bet you cannot wait to see the looks on people's faces when you tell them the good news! I am still waiting ever so patiently for my pee stick endorsement - it is only a matter of time!

Popcorn - tricky and downright rude question isn't it? My answers vary depending on who I'm speaking to and range from:

"Who says that we can have children?" (when the question is "so when are you going to have children?")

"We're not thinking of having any - the world population is unsustainable and I don't feel comfortable in contributing to that particular disaster" (usually said to smug parents)

"Not yet - we're both still so young" (usually said to people who are getting on a bit to rub in the fact that they're getting on a bit)

"Well that would involve having sex wouldn't it and as you know we're not married" (usually said to close friends)

I would love to be open about it but I'm not that open a person really!

Smegs - idiotic GP! So by his logic then, secondary infertility doesn't actually exist (cos surely if a woman has had a child before there should be no reason why she shouldn't be able to again ) Ignore him and ask DH to see another.

Bean thinking of you today - hope the results are tip top.

imps as a kid we always had big dogs but I really don?t have the time to put into looking after a big dog so am going for one I can carry round in a pink diamante bowling ball bag a la Paris Hilton haha! I would love a pug [they look so grumpy!] but they are v expensive so have been looking at cross-breeds and have decided on a jug [pug x jack russell] they are bluddy adorable [a bit like a mini boxer]. What do you have?

Hello whimsical Hmm hadn?t even thought of the virgin birth thing grrr

smeg I would suggest you take along current child to next GP's appointment and bribe them to cry because they are lonely & sibling-less until GP gives in...

Haha ninja I quite like being pictured as that.... How are you? How is minininja?

Smegs there is no chance you have mumps is there? And silly DH's GP. I like the idea of the water works the next time

It's tough Pop isn't it. I just smile and say 'soon hopefully' some people know we are trying, but in a way I wish they didn't

Hola Whims

whimisical they are hot and I have a pot of tea and a pot of coffee on the go too....
I don't know what the answer is to the 'will you be having kids' question, whatever it is it needs to be enough to stop people in their tracks without completely offending them I guess. I like the teenagers response whimsical as it sort of puts the question in context which a lot of people seem to ignore.

We have a Eurasier pup Scarlett I have a few pics on my profile page. Very cute, but having a few behavioural issues, so taking him to see a dog whisperer kind of thingamabob

Imps I love your answers. Especially the no sex before marriage

Oh whim I did not see the reponses just read the OP and thought troll!
I bet it got pretty nasty, I hope for her sake it was a troll though

Oh noes, I've broken the strikethrough! whoops

For the artsy amongst us, I have just stumbled accross a maternity range of sewing patterns!
www.backstitch.co.uk/index.asp?role=product3&c1=Megan%20Nielsen&type=all

Doh got me imps and me elves mixed up, bloody myffical creatures :P

Clearly 4 dpo baby brain hahahahaha I'm quite enjoying spurious symptom spotting this month!!!

No! Phew! I'm pretty sure I do not have mumps. It's my lymph glands which are swollen, not the parotid ones. Also, I don't have a temperature and my sore throat isn't that bad either, so it's not glandular fever. I think it's just a cold/infection.

Mining festive rat smackers

Just nipping in to say hello and to issue a few medicinal gigs to those having a hard time of it all just now. Especially Solars - hope you're back here soon my lovely.

Now Smegs we already had DS and when we went to the GP they sent DH for a SA as standard procedure. And he did have a problem (reduced motility). He subsequently gave up Pepsi and started taking the male conception vits to see if it would help and it did by the second one 3 mths later. Or it may have been that the first one was a funny sample, but nonetheless we got pg after he'd had a better SA.

So my point is just because you have a DS doesn't mean that cannot be a problem with the sperm. Hopefully, if there is a problem it might be more likely to be correctable if you've got a child already (based on no medical knowledge whatsoever).

But anyway, that was all really - 1. It's a standard test that they should run if ttc troubles, regardless of other kids, and 2. An existing child doesn't mean no problem now.

But I think you know all this and hopefully a different GP will talk some sense for your DH.

I have to say it frightens me a bit when you read things like this that GPs say that are just plain wrong - like who's GP said all LPs are 14 days or whatever. If they can be wrong about this I hope they're more right about other things I might see them about!

Bugger - that should have said Morning and I would be issuing medicinal hugs

The shawl maybe is part of the reason for my internet silence. It's going quite well, but sort of at that addictive stage, so rather than chatting on MN while watching telly of an evening, I'm knitting. And unravelling. And knitting again. I am sporting a very enormous shawl I knitted a couple of years ago to try and combat my freezy house. How are the socks?

ninja a colleague of my husband's (male, nearing retirement) said after I had DS1 'how are things, you know, down there?' I was forced to reply (in front of many other male MOD colleagues) 'do you mean my vagina?' I don't think he'd really thought through what he meant. There haven't been so many comments since.

biscuits mine said you ALWAYS ovulate 12-16 days after CD1, regardless of the length of your cycle. I may have sniggered a little bit in my head at that one :o

Smegs Are you feeling any better today? Stay wrapped up and have DH run around after you

Re the wanting kids question, I have been saying 'oh yes definitely, will be next year probably' for about 3 years now...

It helps my OH has 2 young kids already so I can look at them with raised eyebrows and say 'I think they're enough for now' convincingly with ease now.

How do you look at profile page?

Whim!

Thanks popcorn. I think i used to read her blog a couple of years ago. Good to see she's making money from it now! (although bad for those of us that like free patterns on the internet...)

Speaking of which, do you know any good free patterns for fabric door stops? Our bedroom needs one and I thought I'd do one for my husband for Christmas.