DING! DING! The February bus is departing - destination Preggsville!

[PurdeyBirdie]

Are you trying to get pregnant this month? Are you sick to the back teeth of sex? Would you give your right arm for a BFP? Are you spotting symptoms like an anoraked geek spots birds? Then this is the bus for you...FEBRUARY CONCEPTIONS AHOY!

My DP laughs at me post ttc KissingGiraffe as I lie with my legs in the air! Im fairly certain he thinks I've gone crazy!

kissing feeling your pain we've had the same issues for 3 of the last 4 days. I'm feeling awful about it :(

I'm busy checking my CM every few hours to see if it's changed and if my body thinks I'm no longer fertile. It's not pretty or nice this ttc milarky.

Hi all,

I have finally made the move from the Jan bus. My stats are Nomio230, ttc No.1 forever (about 4 years), age 37, round 4 of Clomid, now obsessively buying vitamins, supplements & anything else that might help me get a bfp.

Winter as others have said, please feel free to talk about your loss as much as you need to.

Purdey Dwarves? Seriously?! Eugh!

Sparkly I too am a veggie, but not quite as healthy as you. I eat a lot of fruit & veg, but also love chocolate. (As you can tell by my figure ).

Forgot to put the most important bit! Bfp (or more likely af) due 16th.

Yay for the veggies nomio and Sparkly! Chocolate is also my downfall :(

Fx for you that this is your month nomio :)

Kissing my dh had that problem once last month, although I had made him dtd every day for about 2 weeks!

I think we sometimes forget how much pressure there is on a man to squirt his tadpoles out on the right days!

Sorry for the multiple posts, but I am making up for only just boarding.

Victoria, I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but DH's morphology went from 3% to 21% in the six months before IVF when I force-fed him supps: Co-enzyme Q10 (4 tablets per day), zinc and the selenium from brazil nuts (every day).

I'm so sorry to hear of newbies' mmc's

I'm sorry for being sardonic about sex. After lots of months (years in my case) of perfectly-timed and plentiful sex it can get excruciatingly tedious/scary/pressurised/boring/baggage-laden when ovulation comes around. A month is so long to wait for yet another stab at trying for a baby, and as the months roll on for some it can really impact permanently on your sex life.

I don't want to bring a downer to the bus, but I can honestly say that mine and DH's libidos have been ruined by long-time ttc. That is why, this time around, we are cutting out all the pressure and the 'forced' intimacy that comes with contriving sex at specific times, and I am self-inseminating. We make love at non-fertile times to keep the intimacy going - and, thankfully, we love each other very much and laugh a lot

Purdey I am with you there. No matter how much you love someone, it is really hard when you feel like you have to do it at certain times. Ttc is fun & exciting at first, but after a few years can sometimes feel like yet another chore.

We haven't resorted to the AI route yet, but I have laid the groundwork by mentioning that lots of people on here do it.

Unfortunately I have a nasty feeling I am coming down with a cold & will be full of snot during the crucial few days. We may have to resort to doggy style so that dh can pretend I am someone else!

Nomio I was feeling like shit during my good days. I felt like Monica from Friends when she has a cold and she's trying to seduce Chandler

And I agree with you and Purdey it can feel very much like a chore. Rather than just doing it because we want too! It's difficult to get a good balance.

Ha ha you are all hilarious I'm really not that healthy!! Nomio no no no not AF . BFP due!! I'm sorry you have had such a long journey I can't imagine how incredibly hard it must be , don't give up, you are obviously a very determined individual - amazing! There's always hope! We are all rooting for you and I can't wait to see your big sparkly BFP!

Boris I hear you on the cm watch... Usually I know exactly but as this cycle is my wtf I don't know what's going on

Oh oh possible sign of fertile cm!!! Maybe my body is going back into a routine!!! Def need to push through the AI tonight then!

Purdey of course you laugh a lot...! Id laugh a lot of u was married to you! I'm glad the TTC long term -although hard - hasn't taken that laughter away!

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Sorry to others who have had losses.

Can I ask why so many of you seem to be going down the AI route? Is it because ttc sex can be so tedious, or is there some other advantage?

Hi sorting .. It's prob me and Purdey leading you all astray! Ha ha. I'm doing AI for health reasons as we often have problems with dtd due to those and dtd at specific times In the month is sometimes impossible due to my health so my doctors ref us to fertility clinic as they suggested AI is the best option and takes the pressure off me too. I guess some people do it because of pressure TTC but there are lots of reasons. I think the odds are much the same as dtd though. Id much rather be doing it the other way naturally but got to do what's best and as long as the outcome is the same who cares which route you go down!

Purdey I meant if I was married to you...! Silly phone x

Ha! Ha! Sparkly, my DH is the most quick-witted and intelligent man I have met. He has an astonishing talent for mimicry, which can be a double-edged sword when he does his Jimmy Savile impression during sex He has this incredible range of accents and voices he can carry off which delights the baby no end

Sorting, DH has an erectile dysfunction problem around ovulation. Even before we ttc he more often than not needed to masturbate vigorously at the end of love-making in order to sustain the erection until ejaculation. This became a permanent feature as the ttc journey became more tedious and arduous. We went on to have IVF abroad using a donor egg (I am 43) and our tot is ten months old. I want a sibling for her and we have no option but to ttc normally.

AI means I can demand more of DH around ovulation. More and more on these buses I am seeing women getting pregnant from lots and lots of sex. It makes sense, doesn't it? But, it is utterly futile to hope my poor husband can ejaculate from lovemaking every night for days on end (and yes..three years on it is simultaneously boring and baggage-laden). At least with AI I can send him off to watch some porn (he denies needing this but I encourage him) and he can jizz in a pot without so much pressure. From my vantage point, it cuts out the forced foreplay (who needs an orgasm? Just gimme the spunk, man!) and the horrid fretting and panicking leading up to ov.

Sorry for the waffle

Purdey he sounds ideal! My dh is much the same...cracks me up! Always say to him he can make me laugh even when I'm not in the mood to smile.. Definitely they key- laughter! Although... I'm not sure saville popping up mid fore play sounds so appealing!

Sounds like you guys have a couple of keepers.

My dh is great too. It is a cliche, but he is my rock. We are complete opposites in just about every way, but we somehow work. He makes me smile when I feel like crying & holds me if the tears still come.The way he looks at me sometimes still makes my stomach flip, even after 10 years.

He is also absolutely convinced that we will get our baby soon & cheers me up when I go into one of my 'I am cursed, I will never have a child' moods.

Sorry for getting all soppy.

Sorry to hear lots of you have had long and frustrating ttc journeys i feel privileged that you share so freely on here for all of you. I have only been trying for a while and even though there is no desperate rush (apart from my impending doderidge - mom went through the change at 39) there is nothing more life consuming than ttc. It is my waking thought every morning and the last thing I think of at night. Poor dh who is normally a complete sex fiend, is not enjoying performing on demand at all!
On another note, I kicked off symptom spotting today (cd 18 of 28-crazy I know) the smell of disinfectant when I dropped lo off at brownies nearly knocked me out!

Rrr Nomio - your post very nearly made me cry!
I don't think I give dh enough credit sometimes, he is amazing really and is always there to comfort me when ttc gets me down ????

tessie dh's tests were April '14, Aug '14 and Jan '15. We abstained 3 days before each time.

purdey I looked at q10 in the shop Yesterday and it says nothing about spermies on there. Where did your info come from? His wellman tabs have selenium and zinc in already.

nomio sorry to hear your journey has been so long so far. My goodness, twice as long as us. Another 2 years of this would drive me mental!

winter don't feel sorry for me. I'd rather never be preg at all compared to experiencing a loss. You're a strong lady x

As for intimacy. We have sex mainly to ttc. We were never big shaggers except right back at the start of our relationship (2006) just lots of snuggles and kisses. That was alright. So having to dtd multiple times a month is very different. I just wish we could get preg so we never have to have sex again!

victoria we also mainly have sex for ttc purposes only. We both have relatively low sex drives so it does feel like chore already. Our 3rd child took a couple of years to conceive and I really think it started to chip away at our relationship towards the end. That's why we've decided to try for 6 more cycles (5 after this one) then we are giving up and counting our blessings for the 3 lovelies we already have.

sparkly and purdey I really think AI would be good for us but OH won't even discuss it

Thanks for that Victoria My DH is also taking Wellman vits in the hope they will improve his morphology and he will have another sperm test in April.

Well, I have been having really strong ovulation pains from right ovary all day so much so they have actually been making me gasp whenever I stand up or sit back down! Plus I'm absolutely swimming in EWCM - sorry tmi!!! I wonder if the Guaifenesin has worked...

I got my first peak on CB this morning and also did another cheapy opk this afternoon at 5.30pm and comparing that with the one I did yesterday at 11am they are indentical in terms of how strong the second lines are...wtf?!!

What result did your dh get in his first test tessie?

Victoria, A 2004 study in the journal Fertility & Sterility looked at the effects of a 200 mg daily CoQ10 supplement on the sperm counts of 22 infertile men with low sperm motility. Before the start of the study, the men had lower than average levels of the co-enzyme Q10 in their seminal fluid. After six months of taking the supplement, the men showed increased levels on co-enzyme Q10. The research also found that the men’s sperm motility increased as well.

This research was supported by a 2009 study which was published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation. Researchers conducted two distinct studies of men with infertility, one with 22 men and the other with 60 men. The study examined the CoQ12 concentration and distribution in patients with varicoceles and azoospermia, both before and after fertility treatments. Researchers found that CoQ10 increased in both sperm count and sperm motility after treatment.