🎵 Anyone for a spot of Sunday Evening Xylophone? 🌈 TTC Bus 52 🚌

[polkadotpixie]

Soooo....@Minster2012 is letting the lunatics take over the asylum as she's handing over the driving seat to the passengers and having a well deserved rest after driving us around since June 2020!

I'm sure she'll still be around and you can follow her on Instagram (Minstermusings) where a lot of passengers and ex-passengers have their own TTC or normal accounts too (just be careful not to out anyone on their non-TTC accounts!)

We have a fabulous history of BFPs on this thread since @Minster2012 took over and we need to keep it up...no slacking!

Anything goes and NOTHING is TMI on this bus! Whether you're doing it the old fashioned way or with some help from science, we're all waiting for those 2 pink lines and are here to support each other and try to stay (somewhat) sane along the way

June 2020 24 BFPs
July 11 BFPs
August 18 BFPs
Sep 4 BFPs
Oct 7 BFPs
Nov 7 BFPs
Dec 14 BFPs
Jan 2021 7 BFPs
February 8 BFPs
March 5 BFPs
April 5 BFPs
May 4 BFPs
June 5 BFPs
July 1 BFP
Aug 2 BFPs
Sept 5 BFPs
October 3 BFPs
November 4 BFPs
December 5 BFPs

Still on for the ride are our fabulous passengers:

@Franklydear
@polkadotpixie
@dmb91
@pennysays
@Sausage1990
@MrsBiddy
@manifestingbaby
@chiatta
@Hann91
@LoveQ
@BellatrixK
@JuniperAndTonic
@user1019273703

IVF/IUI/ICSI/Clomid passengers as well as TTC on the side!
@somatronic
@Dollybird89
@pennysays
@InkyPaper

Already promoted to the Bumps list but still hopping on the bus to keep us company:

@clairey844
@blackcurrantqueen
@lucyrp
@Catherinettc
@Ltay2
@BlondePotter
@Clairey844
@Gem176
@kirky658
@justanothercyster
@2020mission
@Hopeful110
@becarefuloutthere
@crazydoglady123
@Haiyaa
@lexber
@whatwonder
@bez91
@DKDK123
@minster2012
@feliznavidad2
@clolo
@gcat16
@paintfairy
@Bea14
@vil10
@juno231
@sunbird24
@kaylsd
@larrythelizard

Apologies to anyone missed...40 pages is a lot!

New passengers always welcome and an embarrassing story buys you a cheap ticket...Beep Beeeeeep!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4464241-DH-wont-cant-get-up Loving this trend, I’ll read those later

Wow! 50k savings? Madness! We’re renovating our house, so most of our savings are gone on that! Whoops. Also that much money on a hen do? People are crazy! Loving the thread recommendations. I’ll look at the last one later.

@Franklydear how’s my cycle twin?

I am really excited this morning. Got my first ever static smiley! I think the previous cycles I was using them I didn’t ovulate/ovulated at a strange time. But today it worked! We have DTD Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and going to today, Friday, Saturday, so it’ll definitely be covered!

@BellatrixK boooooom for static and that's great coverage!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻I know mental right? Also gonna be house renovating here (if the planning comes through & we find a builder that is!)

@paintfairy off to have a shufty at that one!!

I really wanted to comment @lakejupiter & say I hope they aren't all "baby" things as in 0-12 months cos most won't get used then 😂

@BellatrixK had ewcm for the last two days, dtd Sunday and yesterday, will carry on while it's sipping out, that's a nice picture in your head 🤔

Those threads are nuts. The last lady should use my mother's method with her children - fling open the curtains and pull off the duvet whilst loudly and tunelessly singing the theme tune from the Muppets. Every time I hear "It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights" it brings me right back to my being woken up for school 😂

@BellatrixK wow that's great work! You must be tired!

We also have just spent all out money on a house renovation. It had to be done. I'm sure everything will work out 🤨

I was reading that thread yesterday about the baby clothes. I was totally with her (who hasn't done a little broody shopping?) Then read the amount 😲 that's a compulsion! Followed by the waiting until I'm 35 and have saved 50k?? Hope your ovaries comply with that plan.

@Franklydear, @BellatrixK I'm not a cycle buddy but similar timing at just the start of the tww 1dpo/2dpo

Planning out inseminations for this cycle. I know the first tick is outside of my fertile window but the ticks = all the days I will physically be able to inseminate (ie. me and coparent will be in the same place). Any feedback appreciated - not sure if we should be going for quantity (try on all four days) or quality (once over the weekend and once again on the Wednesday) tbh.

Not sure why it uploaded three different pictures 😳 first two are Ovia and last one is FF which gives cycle days as well as dates. But both seem to predict the same fertile window

Congrats on the static smiley @BellatrixK - do you use OPK strips as well or just clearblue? Can't decide on my tactic this month. Though I am v excited about BBT tracking (do others bother tracking BBT during AF or just start tracking pre fertile window?) Also: in awe of your coverage during this slippery time 💦

Oh yes @Manifestingbaby a little shopping is perfectly reasonable. £2-3k when you have a weird savings & time plan in your head is not. And yeah I hope her body gets the memo when she wants the kids eh?!

@Somatronic that sounds both delightful of your mum and hideous 😂

@Franklydear sipping out 😝🙈

@lakejupiter I shall take a look in a bit just gotta placate MIL

@lakejupiter I honestly don't know. My OH's SA results were really bad and I still can't figure out best timing. Everything I read gives contradictory advice. I loosely aim for every second day but do consecutive days O-1 & O if we can 🤷‍♀️

We are just trying everything this month 😂. Three more days is the aim anyway. Tbh, I’m just so pleased that I have a static, I’m on it!

I’m really not sure @lakejupiter. I think I’d be tempted to just do as much as possible, but I’m not sure if that’s a terrible tactic? Others will certainly know more than me.

@Manifestingbaby and @Franklydear 🤞🤞 for us all.

Personally @lakejupiter I would try do the Monday or the Tuesday as opposed to the Friday it seems FF thinks OV on the 9th? (And CD12 would be early) so think the Friday if the dates are vaguely accurate is the less important one, & it's better to cover off more than I think. In theory every other day gets the best sperm quality but I think until you know that needs to be optimum & you never REALLY know when OV is it's prob best to try have more quantity. When I've got BFPs we've done both OV-1 (this time twice) then OV-3 OV-4 & more before. In April we did OV, OV-1, OV-2, OV-3

Thanks all! @Minster2012 the ticked days are the only days we are able to be in the same place so we can't inseminate Mon or Tue 😭 but hoping if we do Sat, Sun and Wed we stand a chance of covering it.....

Ah sorry @lakejupiter I thought you meant he could do "4 days over your fertile window" def covering it anyway and no one really knows the optimum so it's all a lottery to us isn't it!! Are you using OPKs as well to track? I usually started doing my temp around day 8, I OV'd between day 16-26 🙈with an average cycle length of 38 days

Thanks @Minster2012 and oh I see what you mean! No it's ye olde geographical separation/pesky jobs getting in our way rather than limited number of tries. Though in general with amount of times he leans towards less is more and I lean towards more is more 😂

I do track with OPKs though they drive me a bit bonkers. My peak tends to be on CD15 but this month was CD17 🥴 thanks for the temping info - might treat myself to a few days off from it if AF/post AF data isn't important x

There should be a healthy number of times in between for you both then @lakejupiter, oh god I got driven nuts with the OPKs as k wee so much and have to drink over 3 litres of water a day so it was a REAL issue for me, hence i used of the CB & the cheapies, I'd say if your peak tends to be 15-17 then you can have a little break on the bbt, once I got my head round it it was ok

That's really hard @Minster2012 - I find holding my wee in the afternoons quite hard even without 3L of water!! Trying to cut down on caffeine which is helping with constant weeing. I will prob use both CB and OPK sticks because I get paranoid about missing my peak, though tbh it's also a bit stressful because I often won't be able to change insemination days anyway....last month I didn't get my peak until after we had done our three inseminations and I was so sad!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4465335-Its-an-inheritance-one-who-is-right-here Oh my.....

@Franklydear not someone I'd want to marry. But neither should the mother be allowing that (no matter what he says) to be a risk at all. She can leave the whole house to the kids if she wants (they just couldn't kick him out until he died). But what an arse?
@lakejupiter there are varying degrees of thought. Saved up sperm (probably more than 5 days) might be more quantity but its poorer. And once some sperm starts to degenerate, it takes others with it. So to speak. If the man has an issue then this can happen sooner. Good quality might be ok for 7 days even.
But doing it every day can be bad too, if sperm quality isn't the best. Has he had it checked? Basically the sperm hasn't had time to sort itself out, so there won't be much. Which is why they say do every other day. We actually played about a bit with the timing of our samples and it was interesting to see the difference. The best one we had (all round) was at 4 days strangely. But one we did at 3 another time actually wasn't as good and that made no sense. But one we did at 1.5 days, (so 36 hours) which was purely badly timed for iui and the hospitals fault, the quality was no better but there wasn't really enough quantity wise either. So they say you are better putting more good ones in together than trickle feeding them in, so to speak. It really does hinge on the sperm quality a lot though.

Hi @paintfairy no he hasn't had it checked yet, and struggling a bit with that tbh - he says he's going to but trying to get the balance between nagging and letting him do things on his own timeline....have noticed I can get quite anxious and when I leave him to it he does tend to get stuff done but in his own time. He is nervous about his age I think. That info is useful - thank you - and hoping to have some clarity on sperm quality soon which I guess will help us decide how often to inseminate.

Yeah that's a tough one @lakejupiter cos you want to track so you know when it is but frustrating if you then can't change insem or get him over for a quick fap 😂but I'd def still want to track to know, and also I guess if you miss your peak then least you know why it didn't work that month IYSWIM? Have you lined up the SA & chat with him?

@BellatrixK I think you've done brilliantly to cover that static 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

@Franklydear oh god I'm cringing at that thread. She needs to sort her will out put the house in lifetime trust for her kids if she won't kick him out

Had a chat w him last night @Minster2012 and was a lot more honest w him about how I felt during TWW and he was very empathetic but also very heavy on the old "don't overthink it/try not to worry". Which is a) good advice and b) impossible 😂 but as has been said here I don't think anyone can know how weird it is to be waiting for something your body either is or isn't doing and you have very little control over until they experience it. And he did say he knows he should go for SA but he's worried about results I think, and is sort of preoccupied with the idea they will judge him for his age (he's very much a late in life potential dad with grown up nieces and nephews and a lot of friends with adult kids). I told him they definitely won't care and that it will just be useful to know what his sperm is like so that we can take the best approach for us and adjust timings, supplements etc if necessary. I'm also trying to remind myself that he does want this to happen - why else would we be doing this whole thing - and that it's early days. I will def let him know about sperm dying off after a few days and may suggest a three/four day hold before first insemination and then also between the weekend and Wednesday. That way we will have a variety of shorter and longer periods of abstinence during insemination week and hopefully at least one of the "deposits" will be brimming with swimmers lol.

I was just looking at the prices for private fertility checks and wondering if we might benefit from a couples package - £500 for SA plus an ultrasound and blood work for me. I've already had some blood work but this might give me more insight into PCOS, thyroid etc.

@Franklydear that's so fucked up!! Hope she leaves the bastard!

@lakejupiter tell him you wouldn't be so worried if you had more information about what you're working with- just do the bloody semen analysis. It's not a lot to ask. Might be no harm for him to take a supplement too. My DH's semen is fine but the fertility doctor told him to take one anyway.

Why did I go out drinking on a school night? And I smoked 2 cigarettes and I don't even smoke! What's wrong with me 😅

@Somatronic thanks - it's taken a lot not to just scream DO ITTTTT this last week. He's on some supplements and a special sperm diet so that's good 😊 I think he's scared but I've been v patient. And it's not like we're shagging anyway so it's sort of good for us to know what we are working with otherwise we are potentially just fapping and syringing in the wind so to speak

I quit smoking pre TTC but smoked three of my friend's Marlboro lights the day I got my AF 😬 - hope the hangover isn't too bad!