Toot, Toot. Calling all dirty chicks! Jump aboard the charabanc with Barry & The Berries. Destination BFP" (thread 26)

[happylass]

The smallprint –
Berries have a strict entrance criteria (TTC #1, over 30, TTC for 12+ months, NO instadiffers, must have a special pot and definitely no mention of baby dust or baby dancing).
Those not abiding by the rules may be escorted from the premises.

Current passengers:

Happylass, 37, TTC since Aug 2012. 2 failed ICSIs. Time to defrost the spare.
Beaky 35, ttc coming up 3 yrs, 2x failed iui 1x long protocol ivf cancelled due to poor response. Awaiting follow up with FC and possibly short protocol IVF next.
Minx, 34, both tubes blocked, 1 buried ovary, appointment with consultant early March.
Nolly, 33, TTC 2.5 years, BFP Christmas Eve, MC New Years Eve. Awaiting "spontaneous conception" before IVF starts, August 2015.
Wild 40 - TTC for three years. IVF double-stimms freeze all embryos cycle started in February - due to complete May/June.
HampshireBlues 36 TTC 3.5 years, unexplained. Cycle 1 chemical pregnancy, cycle 2 abandoned due to cyst, cycle 3 failed. Plan thrombotic profile, scratch and short protocol.
Lumen, 35, ttc since Nov 2011, unexplained, two IVF cycles in 2014, both bfns, waiting for lap&dye and results of numerous bloods, aiming for one last IVF cycle in the summer.
Tigerdog, 34 ttc since Jan 2013. Unexplained. Starting ivf in March.
Gillster, 40, TTC since Feb 2012. Had IVF in Feb 14 and had 6 one cell embies frozen due to polyp. Cancelled FET cycles in Sept 14 and Dec 14 due to more polyps. Awaiting hysteroscopy before commencing natural cycle FET. Hoping to be at least PUPO on the 4th attempt!
Smidge, 38, TTC since Jan 2013. Unexplained. IVF#1 Short protocol July 2014 yielded 1 blasto, BFN. IVF#2 in process - Long Protocol Oct/Nov 2014
Kuma - 40. TTC 2 years. Low AMH high FSH - DH antisperm ABs. Failed IVF June 14 and two cancelled IVFs Nov and Dec 14 due to poor blood results. Hoping for another try at natural cycle IVF end of Jan.
Jelliebabe - 40, Threw the pills away 8 years ago. Unexplained but have a very low AMH, 1st IVF with clinic in Prague, 2 embryo's, chemical pregnancy. 2nd IVF in London branch of clinic - 1 embryo, BFN. BFP Feb '15

jellie are you managing to stay sane while you wait?

tiger I had a very woe is me day yesterday, which is why I was expecting AF as I pretty much wanted to cry all morning - almost cried on the phone to my mum for no reason. (Well, I was upset that she asked me when we were seeing the consultant (two weeks ago, and I'd told her when the appointment was) and seemed surprised I was starting ivf this week - if she'd bothered picking up the phone and asking she'd have known), cried at a birth announcement (and that wasn't a one, that was a proper well deserved post 5 mc win), then cried on DH.

Still feeling woe is me this morning. In better news, AF has finally made an appearance. Scan tomorrow....

Beaky! Its this Friday!

Barking- I'm not even in the same postcode as sane! I'm elated one minute and scared to death the next. More scared now actually.... . This is officially the longest wait of all...

Glass AF is here though and you can get cracking! Good luck for your scan!

Thanks beaky

barking sounds like we're both as bad as eachother. and for you. Everything set me off yesterday, but am feeling a bit better today.

jellie hope you manage to keep it together until Friday and that you get to see your jelliebabies at the scan. Everything crossed for you.

Off out to treat ourselves to brunch

hope you're feeling a bit more positive tiger and barking. sunny weather helping?

Monday just minutes away, berries. how in God's name did that happen.

Good luck for your scan today Barking!

Tiger hope you're feeling better today. Go easy on yourself, it's completely normal to have down days. In fact it's a miracle were all still relatively sane given the circumstances

Turns out there's still no proper AF, just two days of spotting that never got heavier, but came in for the scan anyway. Got here 20 minutes before the clinic even opens and there were already 13 people ahead of me...
Fully expecting to be told to come back again tomorrow...

God how annoying, barking. did you take the morning off in anticipation?

Oo Minx which one did you go with? Pm me if you like. Hopefully you'll not have too long a wait and you can get underway.

Barking do you need to go back then or were they happy to scan eoth the spotting?

Tiger how are you feeling?

I feel ill today, really exhausted! Need my bed I think!

Sack off work, beaky ;) can you?

it's raining all over my nice clean washing, berries. and I"ve started spotting pink on 9dpo. WHY GOD WHY. if this is the start of AF, 5 days early, I'll miss March ttc window as oh is on skiing holiday. oh woe.

Man do we need some pick me up news on this thread at the moment! no pressure jellie...:) fx for Fri of course

beaky I'm all go! Start injections tomorrow morning. I was a bit concerned when I explained that I'd had two days of spotting but no proper flow (could have easily caught the lot in a teaspoon) so I might not be ready and the nurse did the scan and said my womb lining was thin enough... Hmm. The progesterone will help my lining though, won't it? And they'll know from the later scans whether my womb lining is thick enough. must not find more things to stress about

Nolly I didn't take any time off work, but didn't arrive until 9.45 after I'd waited for the scan then the blood test then been sent to the main pharmacy (a long maze away in a different building) to queue for my prescription. I start work at 8.15 usually and have to make up the time missed. Not too much of a hassle as I tend to work over my set hours anyway, I worked half an hour late tonight and I'll go in early tomorrow.

Ooh, all systems go eh barking that's great news! So do you start stimming straight away?

nolly bugger to dates getting out of whack. Hope af holds off.

beaky hope you're feeling better

I'm much better today, thanks you lovely lot I worked from home as we had builders in, so less time away this week which is a bonus. Have cheered up, although af is still a pain - every few months I have a murderous af. So heavy, huge clots and the worst proper acne type spots when I'm usually pretty clear skinned. Not sure what causes it but must be hormones going screwy. Also collected all my drugs for stabbing in 17 days time. Got the print out of my AMH while I was there - the reference range on the sheet said anything above 20 was considered high fertility (mine was 22.9) but online I've seen this suggested to be only satisfactory. Still, I guess not worth worrying about as its within the decent range.

Hope everyone else is ok.

Yep, start stimming with the gonal f tomorrow morning!! Annoyingly, I'll be doing the antagonist injection for the first time on Saturday morning, and DH is away on a stag do. Could have done with some moral support with that one given it'll be the first one in a proper syringe I have to do the mixing for. I'm sure it'll be fine, would just have preferred to have someone there saying 'yep, that's right!' As I need to do them at the same time each morning, it needs to be 7.15 so I can do them during the week just before I leave for work, so asking a friend to come round at 7.15 on a Saturday morning seems a little beyond the call of duty!!

Great news that you're getting going Barking. What's this antagonist business though?
Tiger I read somewhere that the average AMH at age 30 is 17.5 and drops to 10 at 35 so yours sounds might fine to me! Are you long protocol IVF? Might we be in for ET around the same time? I think we'll probably be doing the FET around the end of April.
Think we need to project the bat signal. Few Berries missing in action if I'm not mistaken? Lumen? Gil ? HB?. Hope everyone's ok!

happy In the antagonist protocol you don't need to down reg. I am stimming with gonal F for 4 days starting on cd3, tomorrow, then for 4 days I have two injections, the gonal f and controrelix (sp?). This is the antagonist, which suppresses Lh and therefore prevents ovulation. On cd10 I have a scan to see what's happening. After that we either continue with both injections if the follicles aren't ready, or plan for EC. I do the CG injection 36 hours before egg collection then everything else is as any ivf cycle.

Trying to stop myself worrying about OHSS given the 300 dose rather than the 225 I was expecting...

Sounds frustrating, barking. But how exciting that you're off! Congrats. Sure the lining is nothing to worry about - every once in a while a period will be lighter or heavier anyway, so it's probabyl just normal variation. Something that you'd never have noticed if it weren't for the neurosis TTC induces.

Same to you, tiger. I wonder sometimes if it's useful getting all the figures because it is a spur to anxiety if not 200% perfect. Not that I would ever decline, don't get me wrong. But it's a good level, don't worry. Sorry about AF pain. Last one for a while though eh?

Quite a few M.I.A, happy. Where did the bat thing come from bTw? think it predates me.

Overnight road repairs while it's quiet.

I figured we needed more than a wheelbarrow of 'em this time

I'll have it done by morning. I'll set up the bat signal and have a sausage projected in the sky when I'm finished. Let's get the berries back on the yellow brick road!!!!

Nice work barking! This yellow brick road is going to be the one!

The antagonist protocol sounds fab - i.e it's all very quick. I'll be injecting for 5 weeks at least. Yes long protocol happy so expecting egg collection w/c 27 April.

Know what you mean nolly, each result is an excuse to spend hours consulting Dr Google. All of mine have been fine though, so who knows why I can't get pregnant.

Don't panic - I'm here! Things are quiet so didn't have much to post. After sleeping like a log (?) all week last week it appears that I'm back to waking up early. Didn't help that I've just woken from a failed IVF dream - great start to the day. Was actually just about to fall asleep last night and the burgular alarm went off randomly. Given that DH is away all weak I was a bit freaked.

Did a 50 mile bike ride on Sunday in the pissing rain and ended up having to cycle up quite a steep cobbled section which now reminds me off this yellow brick road

Glad you're getting us underway Barking - good luck with the first stabbing in about an hour! Did they give you an idea of your antral follicle count yesterday as that can be an indicator of how many eggs you're likely to produce? I'm sure you'll be fine on Saturday too when your DH is missing.

Happy - I think the antagonist protocol is just another name for the short protocol.

Hope AF is easing off Tiger, sounds like you've taken Barking's quota for this month too. Can't believe you'll finally be starting in a couple of weeks.

My hysteroscopy is just under 2 weeks away and hoping that AF will show shortly after then I can start those hormone patches and hope that we can finally get some embies in the womb of doom boom on the 5th attempt! Until we get the go ahead to defrost the kids, I just can't get excited about the process

On the plus side it looks like I may have a couple of FET buddies joining me

Come on April/May clustdiff (no sneaky early March testing from you Barking - I know what you're like!)

Ha ha gill, I don't intend to test early this time, I'm not ordering any in who am I kidding but even if I did it would still be April .

Antagonist protocol and short protocol are different (I asked the consultant). The main thing about the antagonist protocol is the antagonist injection for 5 days that suppresses LH and prevents ovulation rather than downregging before the FSH injections start.

And stop kicking the yellow brick road, show some respect woman! You'll need it when the kids are defrosted!

I'm pretty sure antagonist and short are the same, just checked my IVF info booklet from the FC and it's listed as "short antagonist" protocol. I was using Menopur and cetrotide but basically started the cetrotide a few days later to stop premature ovulation. It's weird that on something as simple as this, there is still some disparity of medical opinion. They should all have a meeting and get their stories straight!

To top off faulty burgular alarm, the heating hasn't come on. No doubt the boiler will need repressurising but it's in the garage so will have to go outside. Will have to grin and bear it. Grrr.

Can I brush the YBR vigorously Barking? That way i can do some good but still get my frustrations out.

I agree with Gill that antagonist is just the proper name for short protocol. (And, btw, Agonist is the proper name for long protocol). It's just the different ways they prevent the body from producing LH. In one version we're injecting something with a similar chemical compound to LH so the body doesn't think it needs to produce any, and in the other it's some sort of blocker that attaches itself to the brain receptor. (That's my interpretation of what AliG said anyway!). Long protocol is more successful at ensuring LH isn't produced (in fact can overly shut some women down sometimes if they've had a very long cycle of down regging) - whereas, as I've probably told you a thousand times when I did short/antagonist protocol my body still started producing LH so I had to trigger early.

Either way I reckon short and long are easier to say!

Nothing to report at my end. Oh, except we've just signed a contract to buy an investment property - as we've completely given up on being able to afford something we'd actually like to live in!! Process is so quick here. Saw the apartment on Saturday and have signed the contract already. (This includes having the solicitors on both sides review and agree amendments to the contract in the space of 3hrs this afternoon!). Have to transfer the deposit by Tuesday and we complete in 6 weeks! Bloody hope it rents out as quickly!!

Hi all,
Sorry for the silence recently, I am definitely turning into an ostrich and burying my head in the sand especially with Mother's Day approaching! And my anxiety is back so I'm just trying to keep it in check and not let it get on top of me like it did over the summer (I can't go through that again!). I have been keeping an eye on progress but will catch up properly in the next day or two and will then pull my head out of the sand and crack on.

However, I have had my bloods for the thrombotic risk profile done and am awaiting the results, and am waiting for AF so that I can book in for the scratch.

It’s great that you have got stabbing underway Barking. I hope the first injections have gone ok. I was also on antagonist protocol and I found injecting the antagonist drug much less of a faff as mine came pre-mixed in the syringe. I even stabbed with it in the train station toilets a couple of times because, as you say, you have to stick to a strict timetable. With any luck yours will be just as straightforward and your Saturday injection will be fine.

Tiger I hope your hellish AF has eased and you are feeling better. It’s exciting that you are close to starting too! You’ve waited ages to get any treatment and now it is finally here. I found it hard to accept the fact that we would need fertility treatment and hoped against all rational hope for an FUFC. It’s totally understandable to hope you won’t need treatment and to feel a bit sad at having to go through it all when not everyone has to in order to get their baby. Once the treatment started though I was happy to be doing something proactive —so caught up in obsessing about every little detail and result— and I just felt glad it was all happening at last.

Gill I cannot comprehend how you have managed to be so enduringly patient while waiting to get your frosties on board. I am seriously in awe of you lady. You should get a sainthood. I can quite see why you don’t feel excited after so many let downs. You will get there though.

Smidge that is super exciting about buying a place. Is this what they call ‘renting-to-buy’, where you live in a rental property and buy another one to let it out? Sounds like a good way to keep your foot on the ladder while you can’t afford somewhere you actually want to live. And that is one quick transaction turn around!!

Hello HB good to hear from you. Definitely wise to try to keep on an even keel as much as possible. If you've got any tips for how to do it then pass them on!

By the way, did anyone see this Guardian article yesterday?