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'm contemplating trying crochet... I have seen a beautiful blanket optimistic that i want to make. I can knit (basics/anything involving round needles throws me and i get bored easily) and have crocheted (sp?) as a kid. I got all excited about it but then realised that my crochet hook was used to do up the buttons on my wedding dress and i haven;t seen it since Ah well, I will probably have gone off the idea by tomorrow.
I'm settling in for OBEM (i'm one of the weird ones that likes to watch it) and googling pregnancy symptoms on day of conception/fertilisation as i am mental despite knowing it's physically impossible! So at least you will all feel much more normal now in comparison. Bet you can;t beat that for a dull evening!

Can I ask what is probably a stupid question? Do all normal people ovulate every cycle? I suspect that I don't (although that could just be the sticks I'm using) and I'd just like to know how weird that makes me.

I have a spare crochet hook Merkin! I bought a kit a couple of years ago intending to crochet a lovely baby blanket for my then pregnant friend. I figured as old ladies with creaky joints manage it, how hard could it be? I soon realised! Tried to tell myself that it is extra hard for me because I'm left-handed, but really it was just way too complicated for my stupid clumsy fingers.

I know it is hard from previous attempts but this blanket is just so lovely. Can I trade some OPKs/HCG's for a hook??
And no, not everybody ovulates every cycle. If you're not sure here i go again wittering on about it temping will help you pinpoint it

Evening all, what's occurring?

powder I know what you mean about the royal bump, I'm a big fan if hers but I don't wanna see her happiness at the moment!

sidney I know how you feel, if we'd gotten it right first time I would have just had a baby, hitting the 9 month mark is pants!!!

Based on a quick google it appears that 1 or 2 anovulatory cycles a year is classed as 'normal' (ie it's common) whereas more than this is something that should be investigated

I knitted a scarf once when I was 18. I understand completely the idea of how to crochet but just don't have the patience. I do however spin my own yarn and have no way of using it up after that. I'm a real fabric and fibre nut.
Oh, I do have a crochet hook, but I use it to thread my spinning wheel!

I'm ignoring the royal stuff, all I want to know is if her sickness is still happening and they'll never tell the public that if they can help it.

Grrr at all you people with crochet hooks!
I have just found out about something called Early Pregnancy Factor (EPF) which is produced within 48 hours of fertilisation. Therefore seems there may be some symptoms caused by this hence I can mentally symptom spot from today onwards (where is Viv when needed to slap me with a sausage?)

I'll slap you if you like, merkin...

I think I need it

Right.

Shhhhhllllllaaaaaaapppppp

Thanks for finding that out Merkin. Hope your ears have stopped ringing from that slap!

back later... off to the obem thread!

There's a obem thread?!!

Hee hee. Thanks for asking merkin, hope you can still read this after the bratwurst treatment! No I've not summoned up courage yet to go back to the doctor. Lovely acupuncturist is keeping me sane though and things are definitely happening. According to her my pulses are way better, my temps are up on my charting and I've got more CM in a pattern that looks like I'm trying to ov. My skin which was suspiciously clear is now definitely on a wobble in line with all this too so i'm taking it all as encouraging signs.

I do like OBEM but I have to record it and watch it when DH is out as he can't bear the screaming and the trauma!

Good news cherry FX it happens soon

Thunder hell yeah! We moan/praise the midwives and hide behind cushions

Bunny and Powder argh with the royal bump thing. Front page news because of the 'd' slip up. Really?! There's been way too much pregnancy chat at work because of it. I even got accused of eating for two today just 'cause I went in for a second piece of cake. They obviously don't know me well enough. One olleague actually replied 'OMG you could be pregnant, imagine if you were?!'

How would you even respond? I cut them the most drop dead look i could muster when caught short like that and for a second considered listing the biological reasons I knew it couldn't be possible but refrained. The second slice of chocolate cake helped to calm my demeanour some you'll be glad to know.

Cherry every time I hear a story like that i'm because i'm sure I must have unknowingly made some stupid comments pre TTC to people who were TTC without my knowledge. I think there's a whole world out there I never knew existed until I started trying, so people say things unintentionally. I would like it more widely known that it's not easy to get pregnant for a huge amount of people... sex ed makes everyone grow up thinking it will happen the first time you try (or have an accident!). Either way situations like that are crap and can really catch you unawares.
Barking what was the verdict on your pee stick after all the issues??

I'm a recorder of OBEM as well, so I can watch it on my own and weep freely. There's always one story each week that gets me!!
I'm a knitter. Can't cope with circulars but like dpns for hats. I go through phases where I take my knitting everywhere including to the pub.

Right, another POAS question for you lovely ladies where's Merkin she always has the answers. Last cycle I had four 'high' snigger days cd16-19 followed by 2 'peak' days cd20-21 and another 'high' day cd22 on the CBFM. My temp went up above my midline on the second peak day cd21 but down the next day cd22 and consistently up again after that. FF had my O day as cd22 and I started AF on 9dpo, which for me was one or two days late. If I did O on cd22 then cbfm was right to say my peak was cd20-21, and the high the days before it.
However (bear with me, there is a point) I am currently on my third 'high' cbfm day of this cycle, and the opk came out negative. If the cbfm is the same pattern as last cycle I'm due to O in 3 days. Should I therefore expect a positive opk tomorrow? I'm guessing the benefit of the cbfm is that it identifies all your high/peak fertility days, so you can identify the 5 days before O rather than just the 24-36 hours before?

Ugh cherry poor you... I really cringe when anyone asks if we're trying, try to laugh it off breezily but suspect I end up looking a bit manic.
Hooray for cake.
Merkin I did it too - can't be helped eh

Sounds like really positive steps with the acupuncture though cherry, that's fab.

coconut excuse my ignorance, what is 'd'?

merkin took me so long to type my last post on the iPad I cross posted!

barking d was evidently Kate Middleton said "i'll take that for my d..." then stopped abruptly when accepting a teddy from a member of public. The mumsnetter verdict is that she was going to say dog not daughter...

Personally (trying to picture your temps is hard) the last day I would have picked for your O last cycle was CD22. I would have CD21 at best guess and assumed the CD22 temp drop was just one of those odd ones. OPK's take a bit of reading, I do recommend doing what I did for the first few cycles and writing the date & time on them and taping them (in order) to a sheet of paper. That way you get a feel for what they're telling you and you have a comparison in later cycles.
Anyway regardless of that, around O on an OPK I would recommend using them twice a day at least. Personally my O pattern goes pulls out sheet of paper with them taped on line very faintly visible 7 days pre surge (8 days per O) (and when I say faint I mean only distinguishable vs a totally blank OPK) and gets gradually darker and darker over the next 7 days. On the day I get my surge I will have a negative (ie a visible 2nd line but not one that is quite as dark as the control line) and then a positive generally 4 - 6 hours later, and 4 - 6 hours after that it will be a faint line again. Hence why I suggest testing multiple times a day near O. This cycle I went from faint line on morning of one day to a very visible line on the morning of the next dat, then within the next 12 hours got a positive (very dark) line and then a very faint line again 4 hours later. Your O is generally 12 - 48 hours after your surge. So I expect after my positive OPK that I will get my temp rise the next day. Long explanation but does that make sense? They take a bit of getting used to and need a bit of interpretation but after a couple of cycles you will get used to them, and will be able to recognise your fertile days based on your own pattern. I know it sounds complex but you need the practise at peeing in a pot but you will get the hang very fast and they are cheap!
On a side point somebody on here said their OPK's go from entirely blank (negative) to positive virtually overnight so don't take my experience as the holy grail!

Barking, from what I understand I think the answer is yes. Someone on another thread told me that cbfm gives you 'high' in 5 days before what would be a smiley, or positive on opks. Then then 'peak' would presumably be the two days that you're advised to get to it if youre doing opks- the day of positive and up to 48 hours after.

So if cbfm says you're due to O in 3 days then from what you say it sounds likely you'd get a +ive on opk 2 days before opk. Which is today.

Phew

Hello ladies I'm on hol and just checking in briefly. Havent caught ip with all the chat but see more new names - hi there lasses [waves]

I can't join in symptom spotting sadly as af arrived nearly a week early last fri before I left for hol- meaning I had a 24 day cycle and to top it off I had a bad reaction to the prescription painkiller for af cramps the Gp gave me &spent most of sat chundering...

So just trying to get on with enjoying hol this wk! Hope others are having a better time and really hope for more bfp's soon

Thx Merkin and Powder fingers crossed indeed. I am totally rational really and know these conversations would be totally harmless under normal circumstances. Aaannnd relax, let go of the cake!

So much to learn about POAS - do you think it's useful if you chart to do this too? wonders whether DH would cope with a new TTC obsession that involves real bodily fluids