Those rats are jolly well going to be smacked this cycle and AF shall have arrows, hatred and misery cast upon her! No argument shall be brooked on both points.

[SantaAndHisChristmasImps]

Rubbish thread title, apologies.

We're v well thanks Maybe

29 weeks now so kind of getting there. But still feels like forever to go.

I am looking forward to you other rat smackers coming across and joining us though in the vomitorium.

Popcorn hope you can shift that migraine - you poor love .

Now after seeing it mentioned here (I forget by whom) I've just watched the Fabulous Baking Boys - quite odd it's a bit like Top Gear but about baking. Except for when one of them said 'chapatis are super fun to fry' - I don't think any of the top gear gents have even used the phrase 'super fun' . Still it's quite funny to watch them being all manly about their cooking and they are certainly easy enough on the eye (and of course it wasn't after that comment from someone else that I set it to record....)

Oh and Generic - get your arse down to that doctors. Go on! If you're still reading this you shouldn't be. Go! Get yourself better my lovely xx

I've got it taped, biscuits so I can letch over them with a glass of wine one night while DH is at work :o I don't usually tape cookery shows, but I thought I'd make an exception for this one woof :o

29 weeks, gosh the time has flown! Have you a nursery etc sorted, or are you waiting til the wee one's here? And do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet? :)

By nursery, I mean a room of its own, not daycare! :o

Nursery is almost sorted. DH built all the furniture after Christmas so I'm going through doing all the washing of the stuff out of the loft. We're getting there. DS arrived at 37 weeks so my target is to be totally ready by 35 this time (instead of packing the hospital bag what turned out to be the day before I went into hospital!).

And still a surprise on the girl / boy front - or a UBB (unidentified brooking bean) if you will.

Popcorn I'm taking 100mg tablets, which is probably about 100% higher than you should be taking. 50mg is enough to make a difference to migraines caused by hormonal shifts, I think. I take mine with a B complex as well.

Biscuits hello! Nice to see you, and great that you're doing well. So organised too - very impressive!

Fabulous Baker Brothers makes me and DH feel a bit punchy, sorry! Possibly because they remind me of Jamie Oliver x 2. Now, the Sport Relief Great British Bake Off - anyone else been watching that through their fingers?

Smegs I taped last nights, but I saw the one before! I did have to shut my eyes a few tomes

Biscuits 29 weeks where has it gone?

I Need to get my DH some too Pop he is more than happy to take them apparently. Bless his cottons.

I love the baker brothers. Last night was a fest for me on channel 4. Heston, bakers bros, OBEM and then that weird how to be a perfect mother!! all that was missing was wine and chocolate

BTW, Maybe I do have a bump pic up on my profile if you're interested in the answer to your rhetorical question...

Oh wow Biscuits it's beautiful!!! Do you have an inkiling whether it's blue or pink?

No real inkling. DH and MIL think pink because the bump is a different shape to last time. My mother said it wasn't as 'wide' as last time Both bumps seem huge to me though. So I've no idea really.

Haha, Mums have a way with words don't they Biscuits

Hey Pop - well done re' vits for your fella. He needs to join in now doesn't he? You can tell him that my DP has even agreed to needles!!!!

Biscuits - bump looks tidy to me. Very nice bump indeed. So excited for you.

Generic - hope you get checked. We're brooking for you.

And anyone who's up against AF - give her a slap from me.

TTFN everyone.

ps - I feel really upbeat now we could aim to foster if no forthcoming BFP. Even got a + response from DP who surprised me by coming home from work at lunchtime so I surprised him with my thoughts about it. I know it's a steep curve to follow but I really think it's something to put all these strong feelings into and make a bit of a difference... sorry rambling.

tried to write message this morning but my internet crashed grrr

I'm supposed to be cooking so I'll keep this short

stasi hope the visit to the consultant went well

generic hope you've been to see a doctor and are feeling much better

maybe still brooking that its implantation

I'm 12dpo and feeling a bit rough, but i did a test and it lied to me was negative, but the witch isn't due til Sun so plenty of time to find an aggreeable peestick

Oh and bean yeah to the positive thinking about fostering and yeah to mrbean too (is it OK to call him mr bean ?

I think I'm going to post a catch up post then a 'me' post about my appointment. Don't want to do another epic post.

Thank you everyone for all the brooking, and the commiserations. I really am ok with AF turning up, I got it all out of my system a couple of days ago with the meltdown, so today was calm and collected.

Olives I would love to do a water birth, they always seem like the nicest way to me. Hope you manage to get your afternoon SWI in.

Smegs of course you will have a calm, pain free water birth next time!

Imps I'm thankful of my regular cycles every time. I think it's kept me sane, as I never really have any false hope build up with a late AF. I've had AF be a day late 2 times in 18 cycles. That's alot of mentalling to have escaped.

Generic I hope you went back to the doctor today, you don't want to suffer all weekend, or have to use emergency/out of hours support. Though, if you are having pain still consider calling NHS 24. They're very good, you could get a Dr calling you back, and they can even make you an appointment at A&E if they want to see you.

Popcorn Hope your migraine goes away and stays away. The B6 sounds like a good thing to try. PG and BF will keep you contraception free, right? Though babies are their own form of contraception.

Imps Stupid Amazon! They should have some kind of a filter on those facebook things, or better still, remove them all together. If I want to tell my friends I bought something, I will.

Cakes I just like general positivity. It will happen, one way or another. However it happens is the way it's meant to be. That covers adoption and fostering too though, I would still consider myself the parent of a child I adpoted. Indeed, I want to adpot either way - DH is adamant no more than 2 children (population worries) but adopting doesn't count! Also, I'm 30 and ttc#1, started at 29 though.

Bean your water birth sounds wonderful, perhaps you should be my birth partner when the time comes and show me how it's done :) Also, well done on the fostering step. I think it's a wonderful thing to do, and definately worth looking into if you've got some extra love to give!

Maybe sorry if it really is AF, go demand that sofa, tea and carrot cake off your DH (but nicely, perhaps stick out a soft lower lip and do puppy dog eyes).

Biscuits your bump is lovely, and you sound very organised. Would be mildly funny if this one decides to hold on and come late.. Can't wait to find out what you're going to have, though I think birth is the right time to know.

Waves to everyone else. Uhoh, this looks like an epic post on it's own!

So my consultant appointment. They went over my blood tests with me and told me everything looked fine. All the various hormones and levels were good, including some I didn't know they were testing for. He didn't give me any of the numbers, but given that it's an IVF centre they were probabaly looking for things in the correct ranges, rather than what the GP looks for.

He also looked at DH's SA results, for both last time and yesterday. Both were very similar results, so it's unlikely the low motility was due to 'debris in the sample'. There were two low numbers, motility and count. Neither drastically low, he called it "mild male factor". Apparently they multiply motility by count to get a number - that number was 30. I tried hard to remember the numbers I saw, but there were so many there I now don't remember what lined up with what.

He won't put me on any kind of medicated cycles, he's happy from my blood results that I'm ovulating, so doesn't think there'd be any point putting me on stimulants. He also doesn't think it's worth the risk of over stimulation.

His steps going forward are a referral for a HSG, which will take about 3 months to come through, then another appointment in 4 months to discuss the results/next steps. He basically said we should try a bit longer and wait and see, if the HSG shows a problem we'll be referred for IVF. He wasn't worried that it had been 12 months, and quoted the "95% of couples get pg after 2 years" statistic.

The IVF waiting list here is 18 months, if we went private it's about 8 months and £4k. There are other centres quite local that have shorter waiting lists and higer cost. We'll get 2 rounds on the NHS, but if we self fund we 'use up' a funded round.

The centre here doesn't do IUI. They took part in a study recently comparing IUI with couples just trying longer. The difference in pg rates 'wasn't statistically relevant'. That was with unexplained fertility couples mainly, but included some with mild male factor. Therefore they class it as a poor investment. We could self fund IUI somewhere else without affecting our IVF funding though.

I also spoke to him about vitamins. He recommended taking vitamin D - there are studies been done and on going showing it is good for conception, and during pg. Can reduce the chance of pre-eclampsia and some other things. For other mentioned supplements - including man and lady combo vits, he said don't bother. A decent diet should give you everything you need. Vitamin B complex isn't something they would suggest for LP deficiency or anything, so again he just said he wouldn't bother. However, he also said there's no harm in it.

Sorry for 2 epic posts in a row!

Hello ladies,

Well Smegs and Generic, it sounds like we all had a fairly similar experience last time. I spent most of my active labour in the birth pool and it was all really calm and hippy like, then I had to get out as I was failing to progress due to DS's shoulder dystocia and ended up with him being dragged out with a fucking massive pair of forceps with 100s of panicking people in the room deviating slightly from my original birth plan So next time ladies we WILL have a birth like bean or the lady from OBEM and I'm brooking no arguement at all on that front In fact as Maybe mentioned just being on this thread guarantees that all of us will have PERFECT births!!

Now Generic, have you made that doctors appt yet? I definitely think you should get checked about before the weekend lovely, like you say that womb of yours needs to be in tip top order for the bean it will be growing very soon!

Maybe I'm still hoping that it's an IB, was it musical that thought AF had been and gone and turns out it was IB? I'm sure I remember it happen to one of the Brookers so it ain't over yet

X-posts with Stasi. Appointment sounds positive but I'm sure I've read probably on here somewhere that male supplements are really useful in improving sperm counts? And maybe acupuncture too. Might be worth a go? Really good that all your results are ok so it may just be a matter of time until you get that well deserved BFP - really hope it's soon.

Also meant to say that I did indeed squeeze in another afternoon shag today so the SWI is over for this month and we can just shag far less frequently for fun now!

Hello everyone
What a lot of epic posts! I'm reeling from having 6 children here for the afternoon, and bracing myself for a spot of decorating. Up the ladder I go.

Lots of brooking for everyone who needs it, Stasi for your hosp appt, bean for the fostering, popcorn for the migraine, maybe if it was you having a wobble in Tesco, or was that pop? I can't scroll back and check.

My groin hurts from running. Fortunately tonight is a wine not sex night.

Just popping in to distribute wine, chocolate and hugs.

An utterly shite day today, am exhausted.

No news here, cd29 I think. Nothing to report.

Xxxx

Stasi that all sounds really positive. Do you feel you have had your mind put at rest a bit now? And how was your DH after the results? You so realise you won't need that appointment in 3 months time though don't you?

Whim boo the the groin strain. Hurrah for the wine though

Munx sorry you have had a rubbish day. When is testing day?

Ooh Munx poor you. But cd29 is good, no?

Olives so what cd are you? Ie, when do you think giving up SWI is a good idea? I think I'm ahead of you a bit on this cycle (I'm cd20) and I think we've missed our window at Bean towers... Not too bothered somehow. Feel that I have a way forward as previously mentioned.

Stasi - sounds v positive. And mild male factor isn't so bad. Just save up his spermies a bit for the day of ov (so no swi 3-4 days beforehand) and get him to a chinese doc for herbs and a bit of acupuncture, if you can.

Yes, apparently a waterbirth can slow things down but it was around 7 hours for me so that's fine in my book. Any faster sounds a bit traumatising (my friend has had 4DC all in under one hour - - last one had head out in the hospital lift). Maybe a bit of water then a bit of swaying, crawling around and mooing for good luck before you jump back in the pool for the big push?

Night Brookers. Sleep the sleep of the fertile. xxxx

Evening Ladies
Internet Virgin say it will be fixed by 14th Feb being very slow so need some time to catch up on all the posts.

See you are talking about water births, presume from OBEM last night. I am not watching next week after the poor blonde woman from last night. I felt so sorry for her but I am now ok I was before terrified. DH has said he would leave me to get on with it if I was like that. Until you are there you have no idea what it will be like for you.

Right am off to catch up - see ya all laters xxx

I will be testing next weekend, if I get that far.

Due to my early miscarriages I don't want to test early, better a heavy late period than hopes dashed.

Sore boobs, aching behind my pubic bone and nips gone White [hmmm]

We'll see.

Maybe, meant to say earlier that I also watched the Perfect Mum thing after OBEM - at the stomach of the woman expecting her 7th child and at elimination communication

bean I'm on CD17, have had EWCM and ovulation pains in earnest since Monday and got my on OPK yesterday. We've SWI on days 12,13,14,15 and 17 and may have another go tomorrow if I can muster up the energy although I think it will probably be too late by then. I'm definitely a massive advocate of water in labour - it was so relaxing and comfortable, I'd be really keen to try it again next time and to actually deliver in the water would be perfect.

Sweetie please don't be scared, speaking personally I was discussing having our second baby within an hour of DS's traumatic delivery so in my experience you really do forget all about it when you look at your beautiful baby My favourite thing when watching those type of programmes is watching the mum's face go from being etched with pain and exhaustion one minute to being filled with joy and adoration when they are handed their little bundle, it makes me fill up everytime

Have just seen Discussion of the day and realise that the Perfect Mum programme was actually called How to be a Good Mother just in case anyone is confused