First Timers TTC. Safe space for brain dumps, questions, whinges and celebrations. Part 2!

[TinyDancer91]

Hi All.

This is a continuation from my past thread, but no need to go read that one if you're new here!

Quick TD;LR from the old post (but with up to date info) - I'm 31, OH is 35. We are TTC baby #1. Been TTC since Jan 2022, now on cycle 14. Haven't told anyone to avoid pressure.

Feel free to post any questions, thoughts, whinges, celebrations, basically anything here!

Going to try to be a bit more positive than I was toward the end of the last thread 😂

Love & baby dust to all. Wishing for BFPs for everyone this year 💖

I am over the moon for you @TinyDancer91 and wish you a happy and healthy pregnancy!

@TinyDancer91 great news, congrats! Glad you are still feeling well too 😊

@TinyDancer91 I am over the moon for you. Congratulations to you and your DH.

Little update from me - we welcomed our little one end of June.
Thank you to all for your support on this thread. It kept me sane while we waited for our BFP.

Thank you all 💕 I'll keep this thread updated for anyone who wants to stick around!

@Ditzydaisychain that's amazing news!! Congrats!! Did you have a boy or a girl? Hope the birth went well and you & baby are both doing ok x

Posting as a new comer. TTC for about six cycles now I'm 34 years old from US. Looking for support , this is my first time reaching out in a forum. My period is due tomorrow so far my pregnancy test strips have been negative, but I had a dream last night that I got a positive. Been very tired and verryyyy sensitive/hormonal/angry. Here to chat with anyone going through the same thing. Congratulations to all the newly expecting !!! <3 please give me a touch of your baby dust.

@TinyDancer91 we’ve had a boy, and he is just wonderful 💙
I had a last minute section, due to some growth scan anomalies, which was daunting at first but my recovery has been very straightforward and I’ve had very little pain. And after all that baby ended up being under 8lbs, he was showing as almost 10lbs on my growth scan 😂.

@Superfudgey i hope you got your positive! If not sending you lots of love and baby dust for this cycle 💕

Hey!

Just realised I've not been on Mumsnet for a hot minute!

Quick update for anyone who is still interested 😂 we are now (almost) 23 weeks!! And we found out we are expecting a tiny princess 🥰🩷👑

Classed as higher risk due to IVF and both of my parents being diabetic so I've been prescribed aspirin daily and additional growth scans at 28, 32, 36 & 40 weeks.

Hope everyone else is doing ok!

@TinyDancer91 I hope tou don't mind me asking, why does IVF make the pregnancy higher risk? We've had IUI and I've seen a few places where fertility treatments make the pregnancy higher risk, but I don't know why!

Congratulations BTW, we're having a girl too. Exciting!

@CatCaretaker I'm not sure why, but the hospital said they deem all assisted conception as higher risk. Although they did also say it depends on the consultant as some are happy as long as baby is measuring ok at 12 & 20 week scans.

Congrats on you baby girl too!

@TinyDancer91 that's exciting! I can't remember when was the last time I updated on here. We're having a girl too, I'm 30 weeks now.

I've also been classed as higher risk because of IVF, although in my case the midwife thought it was kind of borderline. I'm glad I've got the consultant appointments, Doppler and growth scans though as we only had low quality embryos and as my doctor pointed out when I first met her, they want to keep an eye on the placenta and whether she's getting everything she needs as we go on.

Have you done a birth plan yet? I feel quite aware that with the extra monitoring any plan might go out of the window so I haven't decided anything just yet.

Edited to add: along with the embryo quality I have also had late onset OHSS (higher risk of pre eclampsia I think) and slow rising HCG in the early days. So all in all I think it makes sense to have the extra appointments.

@Ditzydaisychain congratulations on your boy. Good to hear that the c-section went ok too.

@CatCaretaker, @LucyLoopyLu and @TinyDancer91 congratulations on your girls. I hope the rest of the pregnancy goes well.

IVF pregnancies are more risky because of the blastocysts being cultured outside of the womb for the first few days. The culture medium makes the embryos more fragile. This is also why IVF embryos are more likely to split into twins; the embryos are fragile.

I am still not pregnant and have not even conceived and had a CP (not that I’d wish for that but I mean I’ve never had an egg meet a sperm). It’s so odd because diminished ovarian reserve shouldn’t necessarily affect natural conception.

Anyway, long story short, I have gone through my first IVF cycle and had the egg retrieval…and they’ve found endometriosis all round my dominant ovary. So the eggs haven’t been getting to the fallopian tubes. That’s the reason I’ve never conceived! I feel relieved to have an answer but pissed off that I’ve sought help for bad periods before but always been ignored. I could have avoided all that pain and infertility if I’d been taken seriously.

We had six eggs retrieved, all are mature and all got fertilised. I have my day 3 update today and transfer on Wednesday. IVF will bypass the endometriosis so I should be capable of conceiving now.

@Feliciacat thank you!

That's so frustrating re. the endometriosis. Had someone just listened to you who knows how much frustration and disappointment could have been avoided.

I know exactly what you mean re. a CP. I never had one either, never had an egg meet a sperm. We had no idea what the issue was (still don't) as nobody could find anything wrong, but we tried IUI, and it worked first time. I'd love to know what hurdle the IUI got us over, but probably never will.

@CatCaretaker thank you. Yes, that’s so weird that IUI just worked when everything before didn’t. I wonder what it was. It’s amazing it did work though. Life is strange sometimes!

Do you have any names picked out? I bet you’re so excited!

@Feliciacat we have some name ideas, but not concrete yet. Two months to go, hopefully we'll settle on something.

Yes, it's very exciting. Have got most baby stuff, but haven't set it up yet. Getting woek done on the house, which is nearly finished now thankfully, and then will set up baby stuff. Can't wait for that!

Let us know how the update goes today! How many will they transfer on Wenesday (or does that depend on today's update)?

I have massively hijacked this thread; my apologies. However, I believe I’m the only ‘OG’ who hasn’t conceived so I hope if anyone searches for my post history then they’ll find this story.

My day 3 update is that all six of my fertilised eggs are thriving! They’re all at 6-8 cells (where they should be) or some at even more! The embryologist said it’s very unusual to have had no attrition and that’s it probably is because it was only endometriosis acting as a barrier to the eggs getting to the fallopian tubes. Now I’m having ivf then there’s no problem!

I am also taking Proceive Max sachets, Proceive Omega 3 andCoenzyme 10 with ubiquinol (600mg). I’m making my DH take the same supplements as me (minus the Omega 3) and we’ve both abstained from caffeine and alcohol for the last three months.

@Feliciacat that's fantastic but mysy be so frustrating that you might not have needed the IVF at all if they had just sorted the endometriosis!

@Feliciacat you're not hijacking at all! So happy for you that all are doing well! Hope it continues and that you get your long awaited BFP very soon!! X

Thank you @TinyDancer91! I’m really glad that you’ve got your long awaited dream too!

Out of the six, we have two definite, two borderline and two that didn’t make it. One will be transferred today and if we can have two more in the freezer then that will be a great result I feel! Will update on two weeks with whether a BFP or BFN. If a BFP then I think we’d have a full house on this thread.

@Feliciacat it's been lovely to see your update! Great news. Hope all goes well with your transfer 🤞 hopefully 2 more in the freezer as well will give you a great chance. Keep us updated if you can

We got 2x5AA and 1x4BB. They transferred one of the 5AAs on Oct 30th and I did a FRER today. I will retest on Monday but tbh I had to test now as I thought I was going insane with how I was feeling and acting. I’m so over sensitive and I feel really tense in my head and nauseous. I’m glad it’s pregnancy and not insanity!

@Feliciacat I am so excited for you! So pleased for you and Mr Feliciacat.

Also thank you for your well wishes 💕

@Feliciacat that's amazing news!! Huge congrats, hope you have a smooth journey from here!! 🥰

@Feliciacat very exciting news (sorry for late reply)! How are you doing / feeling? X

Hey @LucyLoopyLu! Thank you for asking! I’m five weeks now and I’m having a viability scan at 7 weeks. I’ve been testing each day and the line has got darker. Clearblue said I was 2-3 weeks yesterday which is about right (embryo created on 26/10/24). Hopefully if I use a how many weeks next week then it’ll say 3+. I’m on knicker watch as they call it because I’m afraid something will go wrong.

I do have headaches, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. Plus my nipples keep feeling itchy. I’m hoping these are all good signs.

How are you guys doing? Some people don’t have long now!

@Feliciacat keeping my fingers crossed for you that it works out 🤞 you can only take it one day at a time.

I'm 34+4 now and doing ok. In lots of ways this stage is the easiest now I've got omeprazole. My only niggles are hip pain / back pain / piles. I felt a hell of a lot worse in first 20 or so weeks to be honest! Hopefully this continues. It's also nice to feel her moving even now she's getting big enough to hurt me in my ribs and hip simultaneously 😂

Just hoping she will be ok and I can bring her home safe and sound. Next growth scan is a week on Wednesday