The Elderberry Sausage Wangers (thread 5) and the hunt for immaculate conception - a frightfully good thread for the over-30s TTC their first baby.

[Bunnygirlie]

Our new home, hope we will all be very unhappy here and leave soon ;-)

I asked the fertility consultant about spotting and he said it was fine.

Looks that way, Bunny! I've been on the sofa all evening, watching telly, drinking wine and eating cheese! I am living the dream...!

Hi Mother! B6 never made much a difference for me, but I've bought some progesterone cream to try this month.

That's interesting, Pip - surely spotting that leads into AF can't be a good thing though? When I told my doctor that I spotted, she immediately decided to do swabs. Nothing came of that though!

boodle sounds like most weekends for me!

If no CM is obvious maybe that's my problem!

Well one of our problems, the main one being not DTD enough obviously!

Thanks for the lovely welcome all!
cats I was a bit surprised by how blasé the Dr was about total lack of AF but instead of insisting I walked sheepishly away back to lovely acupuncturist! I probably should steel some courage and go back. Cringe.

In the meantime lovely acupuncturist has said my chi was stagnated and I am blood deficient with cold tendencies which comes from having burnt myself out. Oops. All these things help to explain lack of AF. After 3 sessions although I've not ov'd yet I've a ton more energy, my BBT has risen slightly to hit the low 97's and I have more CF so all good signs. We're working on building blood which also means eating lots of red meat and leafy veg and resting plenty. Maybe I should add in some raspberry tea Soph ?

I've never had an electro current with my needles tho. Eek! I guess it's finding what suits you. Maybe not that?!

Bunny, have you tried much to try to increase your CM? Nothing much has worked for me, but then again, I get impatient and give up after a couple of months.

Perhaps we should just go all out one month: pints and pints of water, robitussin, grapefruit juice, evening primrose oil...it'll be torrential!

I've always had a problem with spotting leading up to AF. This month is the first where I have has no spotting.

Pip, how many dpo are you? Have you tried anything to reduce spotting this month? That sounds quite interesting!

Oh my god, I need to go to bed. My eyes are burning. Night all!

Boodle exactly the same here. LP between 7 and 9 days and EWCM blink and you'll miss it. Hence the preseed....

Oh, and another ff user here, but because I'm ridiculous I back it up with a second app and put it in woman log pro as well...
My bbt is between 35.1 and 35.49 before ovulation, then goes above 35.5 after ovulation. Quite often dips back below for one day which I read was not a good thing so I'm choosing to ignore that.

Morning!!!

boodle I haven't tried much for CM other then increasing my water intake and started drinking full fat milk like one of our lovely ladies suggested, haven't noticed any change really although I think the milk may have helped with another problem so that's good!

Welcome cherry hope your cycles sort themselves soon! It took months for mine to settle down and it wasn't till I had reflexology that I think I started having healthy periods.

I don't use ff, is it only for temps? I use a few apps, Pink Pad and My Days to track my days!

Morning all,
I'm reading The Baby Making Bible by Emma Cannon atm. She suggests jelly, egg white omelettes, aloe vera, honey, sesame seeds, sea weed and oily fish for CM???!

bunny that's fab to hear you've had success with reflexology. How many treatments did yours take to regulate? How long is months lol! I'm so impatient and yet until I get my cycles sorted, I'm not even in the game!

I use tcoyf software for charting.

Bunny fertility friend tracks pretty much everything. Bbt, symptoms, cbfm and other ov tests, pg tests..... I only use the free one but that has plenty.

Morning all, playing catch up as was babysitting nephews last night. Hi to newbies.
barking a dip below baseline temp after O is not a bad thing, is normal, and can be an indicator of pregnancies. You can find stats on FF about it but don't worry, most people get it.

Ooo, thanks Merkin .

We are moving house and i cannot find my OPK's. Knowing my luck they'll be buried at the bottom of the last box i unpack.
Haven't tried raspberry tea, what does it do? is there a magic tea i can drink to get me upduffed?
I've been toying with the idea of reflexology and accupuncture, i reckon that even if they don't work it would give me some relaxing me time.

Grr. I'm only managing to find the negative stuff still. Like this:
Typically, after you ovulate your BBT will stay elevated for about 12 days. If you notice a dip in basal body temperature after ovulation, this may indicate a problem. You may have a short luteal phase or a luteal phase defect. This may cause problems if you are trying to have a baby

Hi barkingfrog I was just browsing through threads and saw your post about temp dips post Ovulation...I had a similar thing and read this on FF - thought you might find it useful....

"My temperature has dipped below the coverline during the luteal phase. Does this mean I didn't really ovulate? Could I still be pregnant?

The coverline carries no physiological meaning. It is just a visual tool to help you see your ovulation pattern. Whether or not your temperature rises or falls below this line does not necessarily indicate anything significant. Individual temperatures can fluctuate at any time of the cycle, for both hormonal or non-hormonal reasons. A single dropped temperature usually doesn't mean much. You want to look at "the big picture" and see a pattern of temperatures over time. As long as you can see a biphasic pattern and a trend towards elevated temperatures after ovulation, there is no need to worry about a single dropped temperature or two.

If, however, you have so many lower temperatures that you can no longer see a biphasic pattern on your chart, (and you are taking your temperature accurately) this could mean that you did not yet ovulate and should consider yourself potentially fertile so you don't miss an opportunity to conceive"

Thank you greenlizard makes me feel a lot better :). I'm paranoid enough about my short luteal phase as it is!!

Boodle. I'm on CD 4 now. No real spotting this last cycle. However that is most likely because I had a lap and dye last cycle. Rather extreme measures! I used to take vitamin B complex 100mg and found that made a little bit of difference but it didn't get rid of it entirely.
I asked the consultant if all the rest of my uterus, ovaries etc were in fine working order, and it seems they are. So I can only assume that the spotting means nothing.

barking and these stats www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/Implantation-dip-study.html

Good afternoon, Elderberries!

Ah, I see, Pip - I missed that your AF had turned up. Well, maybe I should worry less about the spotting, but I suppose it's just another thing that I can talk about with the FS (when my flippin' appointment comes through).

Barking, are your temperatures always in the 35s?! Surely that's really low? I'd be wanting to speak to a doctor about that; I've been worried about mine occasionally dipping below 36!

qazxc, some people think raspberry leaf tea helps strengthen your uterine muscles. However, I've read quite a lot of conflicting information on it. The main bone of contention is whether it is safe to drink once pregnant, as muscle contractions could cause miscarriage. Others say that's a complete myth. Obviously, I have NO idea, but I quite like it, so I tried it for a few months, just leading up to ovulation. It made no noticeable difference to me.

So far in my obsessiveness I've held off taking herbal or vit supplements as I'm paranoid about not knowing enough about what they'll effect. I read somewhere that as well as helping CM, B6 lowers estrogen levels and can delay O or cause annov cycles. Minefield ahoy...

For my life. I have just been googling to see if I can find some statistics to show likelihood of conception based on cycle day. (Think I'm going to ovulate the day DH comes home - probably going to be too late though. Humph.)

Anyway, that's beside the point. During my search, I found some very helpful advice on the Boots Web MD site:

Sufficient lubrication, the secretion of fluid from the vaginal walls and glands, is an essential part of enjoying sex. Having a moist vagina when trying to conceive does not just feel better, it might actually improve your chances of getting pregnant. Artificial lubricants have been found in several studies to have a negative effect on sperm. Here are some suggestions for doing without an artificial lubricant:

- Foreplay should be an essential part of your interaction every time you have sex. Allow for sufficient time for foreplay.
- Start with a romantic evening.
- Massage each other.
- Talk sweetly to each other.
- Touch each other's body parts, except for the genitalia.

Clearly this is why I am not pregnant. My method is squirt a bit of conceive plus up there, then lie back and think of chocolate England. I should have known that the best way to get knocked up was by whispering lots of sweet nothings in his ear.