Come on Eros! Shoot your --man fat-- arrow through the heart of this February bus and give us our babbies!

[purdeybirdie]

Do you love being elbow deep in your cervix? Can you tell your cream from your egg? No, we're not talking Cadbury, we're talking vadge juice. Come and join the fingering fillies on our flight of fecundity (see what I did there?).

Yessss Juney they have arrived!! Great news! You are so clever with all the ferning info. Good work! Not long now...!!!

Purdey I hope you are feeling a bit better tonight??

Glittery you may regret saying that ..!!!!

Nomio Mmm well we def can't be friends now - sore loser! Ha ha

Spinning they look fantastic!! I will happily take a few!!!

You're such a font of knowledge! So sorry for all my questions...!

This is my first ever month temping, so that's my only chart.... Also the first month I didn't ov on CD17 and didn't get a positive on opk.

Maybe a weird month? Though to be fair, this is only our 4th month trying so maybe I don't have a 'normal' yet....?

I will make an appt with Dr I think and see what happens.

Thanks again though.... I seriously appreciate you taking the time, my love. Mwah! xx

Ooh it wasn't me doing the ferning....!

mummy I really hope things are a bit improved tonight

Oh sorry juney did I misread?! Stupid me!

Spinning, I've never had IUI but I know it is famously ineffective and generally used to placate us annoying little girls when we are desperate to move up the IVF waiting list.

IVF in this country is successful in only 25% of cases. This is because - and I strongly believe this - this country has rubbish embryologists (except for CARE (Notts and Manchester) and City Fertility, London who are twinned with Gennet in Prague and use the same pool of embryologists). CARE has superior success rates because it is one of the ludicrously few IVF clinics in the UK to have an embryoscope. This costs £750 over here but only £250 in Czech. IVF here is £4k-ish and over there it is £1570. The success rates don't even compare.

Watch this. It will tell you everything you need to know about the genius of this machine. I do not understand women (especially those using their own eggs) who pay thousands for IVF but do not utilise this piece of equipment. It is the best way by far of knowing which embryo is most likely to implant and go the full stretch. Clinics over here that do not own an embryoscope can not afford to rely on the expertise of the embryologist's naked eye (which he uses to scan the embryos only once a day, affording him only a mere snapshot in 24 hours. He cannot risk your embryos going to day five when he doesn't have the technology to watch it's complete video time-lapse development.

The upshot of this, of course, is that, 75% of the time, embryologists are unwittingly transferring embryos that would never be capable of reaching day five. Transferring embryos at day three is a massive gamble, because by day three an embryo has only reached a division of 6-9 cells, which is a long way away from becoming a hatching blastocyst at day five. Only the best will get to day five. So, to be clear: when a 'normal' woman conceives and goes on to have a pregnancy, it is a five day hatching blastocyst that has implanted. No other division of cells will do, which is where the embryoscope comes in. Without it, the embryologist can only go by his best hunch as to what he is transferring at day 3.

I'm sure swimming would be ok?! Right??

Purdey - yep, I'd love a little girl called Nancy. My last baby was going to be Nancy, but DH was a bit :s, so she became Willow... Now he apparently likes the name!

Sorry, I'm going to be horrendous at keeping up with this well established thread! But good luck everyone :)

Ps I am 25 (26 in June) and have never been to prison! Shit, is that a Bus requirement?!

sparkly his heart failed tonight, did cpr and induced a coma, he is breathing on his own now. Family travelling up from Liverpool to be nearby so everyone is at the hospital waiting for them. I've got a 5yr old here asking if her grandad is dying. Really hard. Sorry everyone I know this isn't the place.

Oh mummy sounds really shit :(

mummy massive love. Talk to the five year old, the stuff you say will stay with them for years (remembering all this from personal experience. My grandad had a heart attack when I was fiveish and people said his heart wasn't working properly and so on. I became totally nuts about taking my own pulse.)

Oh Mummy, don't apologise. Thinking of you all, must be thought sat at home. Have you got anyone closely that could have your dc tomorrow so that you can visit?

Sorry tough not thought

Nowt wrong wiv swimming, Juney. It will do you good.

Wool, it is illegal in some countries to make toad in the hole whilst wearing stockings. From whence do you come?

Valentines here was us troughing my world famous spag bol with Booths garlic bread which, in my not so humble opinion, is the dog's testiculays and the garlickiest around. Because we are sad bastard alcoholics we are drinking Yorkshire tea and (for me, Solpadeine Plus in hot water with lemon and honey).

Ooh I do love a spag bol!

CRGW in Wales and Bristol also offer embryoscope if anyone is looking for a clinic in that area. It's included in the standard price of treatment.

Welcome Crazy

Purdey, thank you for all the information and the link. Sadly it doesn't surprise me that they are more advanced in Europe than here in the UK. I am emailing all the info I'm gathering to myself and dp. Have you seen there's a lady on the March bus that's having ivf in Czezh?

It's my niece that's upset just managed to get her to bed. Just said he is poorly and we will know more tomorrow. She found him sat on the stairs this morning saying his legs weren't working. So went and woke her nan & mum up to help before they called the ambulance. FIL didn't want anyone knowing about the cancer so though everyone saw the ambulance, no one knows what's going on and he wanted it kept that way. So as I've got my DS & DN I can't really go up and see him.

Ooh that's spooky Lucie, you were the lady I was referring to in my previous post

Oh, mummy, you will say the right thing because you are quite lovely. You must spout off to us as much as you like, it is tough having to manage your emotions around little ones

Purdey Booths anything is fab! I am a poor deprived North easterner, whose nearest Booths is about 40 miles away, but I adore a mad trolley dash stocking up from there when we're passing near one. We have lovely far shops, but for a posh supermarket, must travel to York or Newcastle (we're about equidistant from both).

Massive cramps here probably heralding AF, due on Thurs. Thinking of temping next month. Can someone give an ignorant yokel an idiot's guide - what do I do and what do I need to look out for? TYIA

farm shops

Yes, Lucie was deciding which clinic to use. Made any decisions, love?

Am I terribly pathetic to have felt a tiny thrill of recklessness when I read: 'Can cause addiction' on the Solpadeine packet?

Hey spinning, thought I would pop in I mentioned to Purdey a few days back on this thread about my Czech ivf and she gave me some very handy pointers about the clinics.

Purdey, DH and I had decided on Gennet until I emailed them and they said there is a 4 month waiting list for the first consultation and then prob 2 months to start after that so I think we are back on Reprofit now. They don't have embryoscope but they offer cgh testing which tests all the chromosomes of the blasts on day 5 to check for defects. It's meant to increase success rates quite significantly. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for our first ivf but I'm definitely going to look into it some more.

Paddington, I am loving 'equidistant' . You are right: Booths is the dog's undercarriage. I do get annoyed, though, that they email us every single time we make a purchase...with the receipt! I also have an infuriating habit of leaving my goods in the bagging area when I have self-served and am wrestling with a recalcitrant chimp and a pram.