TTC January 2024 miracles ✨️ 💖

[Floralsandsmiles]

Hi everyone, welcome to those joining and hello again to my soul sisters from the December thread. I saddened to see you still, but happy to have company.
May this thread bring us all luck xxx

@Vil this is so lovely and gives me hope!

How strict were you with the diet? I hope everything goes well for you!!

@BB2023 sadly I’ve just gone through cycle 7 of testing so consider myself a pro now 😂

id really recommend the easy@home strips - very cheap - on my peak or expected day(s) I sometimes do 4 a day to see what’s going on 🤣

I also look at the clear blue strips once I pop them out, but I find the LH line (on left, nearest wee end) only changes a tiny bit so is hard to read. The one on the right (closest to reader) is the estrogen line which actually gets lighter the more estrogen is defected. Just to confuse us!

It's honestly a mindfield!! Thank you for replying, really appreciate it - this is very much a learning for me!
I knew this month my body would be a bit all over the place, just need to get through it really and have a proper AF then I'll feel a bot more like things are as they should be x

@BB2023 the first reading on a CB digital is always an empty circle regardless what day of your cycle you’re at and that’s the baseline for testing. I’m not a huge fan of these ovulation tests, find they’re expensive and don’t really add anything to my knowledge. Easy @ home OPK are good and recommend them.

@Angelselevenx fingers crossed for you this cycle. I’m taking positives where I can with this CP, my body can ovulate, my tube is open and working, and an egg can be fertilised. It’s just this baby wasn’t quite right, and hopefully will open the door to another successful pregnancy very soon 🤞🏻

Thanks. Yes, that's what I found so difficult because I didn't know when I should start testing (because I don't know my cycles yet) so I just started randomly and then it immediately went to Peak the next day.
It's frustrating not really knowing what the hell is happening inside my own body but it's only month one and I knew it wouldn't be a proper ttc month really.

@Mushroo

i was pretty strict on it tbh but IVF is expensive so I just did everything they said so I wasn’t looking at multiple rounds!

Hello, I’m 37 and ttc no.2. I had been hanging about the conception posts earlier in the year but I find it just makes me think about it more so tried to take my mind off it.

My cycle has been a bit irregular and I also wonder if my ovulation came late. It wasn’t completely clear with ovulation sticks. The last cycle was 17 days which is the first I’ve had such a short one but hopefully it’s just an outlier.

According to the Flo and Premom app my period is due today or tomorrow which would be cycle day 24. I’ve had cycles as long as 27 days in the past year so I’ll just need to wait and see if I’ve been fortunate this month. I had some cramping yesterday but no period. Due date would be start of January. I’ve got just one pregnancy test so will wait a week longer in case of late ovulation. 🤞

@Vil wow congratulations! So wonderful to hear positive news you must be over the moon 😀 wishing all the best for your pregnancy

@Mummyme87 so sorry to hear about your chemical. Hope you're being easy on yourself and taking time to relax 💭sounds like you're thinking about it positively, is really good to know you were able to get to that stage with egg and sperm meeting! Onwards and upwards 😊

Sounds like I need to give the easy@home ovulation tests a try. Used the boots half price ones last cycle which seemed good too.

@ThomasinaLivesHere do you track your cycles? Once you know your LP length that should always stay the same, then you can pin point period due date from ovulation date.

@jessie92 definitely trying to be positive, my work mug says ‘put your positive pants on’ ☺️ definitely recommend easy @ home OPK. Find them super reliable

@Mummyme87 Yes, I've used the Flo app for over a year to record my cycle but it seemed ovulation never came on the days the app said it would despite testing multiple times during the days before, on, and after the supposed ovulation day. I have been testing for ovulation every day as I worried I wasn't ovulating and wanted to see if it came late or early. I got the strongest result (though not definitively) about 6 days after when the app said it would be so that's why I said I wondered if the ovulation was late.

@TurnLeftAtTheBakery yeah the apps aren’t great for predicting ovulation are they. For the first year I tracked this time round my ovulation day was changing between CD11-CD16 so obviously cycle lengths were differing quite a bit. It’s all settled down now though, hoping this chemical pregnancy doesn’t mess it all up again

@Mummyme87 Maybe that's where I've gone wrong in the beginning as I just trusted them and assumed they'd calculate things well.

Sorry about your chemical hopefully it doesn't mess things up or if it does that it gets back on track quickly.

(Also I just realised that I'm posting on a different account - it's just because I was too lazy to find login details on another device so just created a new account)

Absolutely done with the clearblue ovulation tests now. Got a peak reading today but then there was no bloody control line when I took the test out the digital reader!
Just want this cycle to be over so I can start again and put these stupid tests behind me. x

@BB2023 there is no control line on CBAD - the one on the right is estrogen which gets lighter when it’s detected

Maybe I called it the wrong thing but I meant the line to the right as that has always been consistantly there everytime I've tested previously. It's showing a very faint line there now (couple of hours later).
From what I was aware there should be two lines, but the left will be the same/darker if ovulating so I was surprised to see nothing there at all.
I'm just not sure the testing & line spotting life is for me. It's just caused me issues and doubt this cycle. I'm just concious at nearly 36yrs old I can't really afford to just wing it.
Feeling frustrated today - sorry to rant x

@Floralsandsmiles hope you are doing okay lovely, I totally understand staying off the threads when you need to, I hope you get your BFP during this chill time and don’t need to come back. Sending you lots of love & luck & baby dust ❤️

I’m CD4 and onto my 9th cycle of TTC baby #1. Not gonna lie, it’s becoming really hard. I tried to stay off threads during last month, I’ve been very active previous months but not many people know we are trying to conceive in my life, and the ones who do are people who luckily fell pregnant straight away so they don’t understand how difficult it really is - I realised how much I needed you ladies for the support, having people in the same boat going through the motions. I really do need people who get it around me!

i appreciate there are many ladies who have been trying a hell of a lot longer than myself, and my heart screams out for you girls

does anyone have any tips at all what I can try this month? Does diet really help move things along? I could do with shifting 2 stone I would say to be a good healthy weight, but I read that losing weight can alter / affect your cycle and trying to conceive but I know staying overweight is no good either. I’ve been holding off putting my all into losing weight while trying to get pregnant but maybe it’s time to get my arse into gear…. Any opinions are welcome / needed!

I also have another question, I seem to have 12 day LP (between O time and AF arriving). Is that classed as short or normal? There is conflicting information on google 🥺

sending baby dust and luck to everyone

is anyone else around CD4? Xxxx

@BB2023 I struggled with the Clearblue advanced so I feel your pain: I preferred the other pink ones which pinpoint 2 days! Or better yet, my cheap ones and the app.
My easy at home didn’t give me a peak until nearly 3 days later than CB … so i ended up DTD waaaay more than I expected and clearly that didn’t work either 😀

I found it very confusing to get them at different times and I have so many left but I won’t be taking them this cycle - for my own sanity! X

Thank you @jessie92

@MilkyAndFluffy totally understand, regardless of how long you have been trying this is super tough! So don't be hard on yourself, I found it tough from cycle 4! And cycle 24 was my successfuly one, each time I found it slightly easier!!

I think honestly and this is so easy to say I tried to relax a bit more and removed stressful elements from my life, I was generally in a bettwe place. I also moved to a plant based diet, I have no idea if that helped but it was recommended just generally to up my fibre and follow an anti-inflammation diet.

Wishing you all the best <3

@Vil thanks so much lovely, wow 24 cycles you must have been going nuts by that point but I’m so so happy for you. Wishing you a happy & healthy pregnancy ❤️

thanks for the comments, it’s hard because the only stressful thing I can change in my life is obsessing over TTC, I need to find a way to chill out about it, but also track and plan DTD in (we aren’t a massively sexual couple naturally we DTD naturally once a week) so during the fertile period we have to make the effort to try and get 3 sessions in during that time so I do need to know when that is. I wish we could just roll with it and see what happens but there’s a chance we’d fully miss the fertile window completely! But I need to find the line between not obsessing I think!

the diet thing sounds to be a big part and my diet is crap tbh. I need to do better! Thanks for your help lovely

No worries @MilkyAndFluffy and totally agreed, it used to annoy me when people told me to relax but now looking back I get it! We were mid house rennovation for the whole of 2021 and 2022 tbh so I think that affected it. Hard for me to say what else worked as we did IVF so not technically a natural conception!

Best of luck I stopped testing after cycle 9 as that gave me additonal anxiety I was missing things too!

@MilkyAndFluffy a friend of ours tried for a while and then got pregnant after shifting a bit of weight, could have been a coincidence though!

Diet wise could you look at taking a multivitamin to get a head start?

It took us 12 months to conceive our first child so can sympathise! I'm on cycle 3 trying for baby 2 now (first month was a miscarriage).

@MilkyAndFluffy I lost a stone while TTC my first then another stone and a half in the first trimester! I don't know if it made any difference losing that stone or if it was just the time it always would have happened. I'd say try to eat healthily, not necessarily with weight loss in mind but just focusing on nourishing your body with what goes into it x

Hey! My doctor said to me also about losing weight it can defo help. Iv been a lot more active in the last 3 months and just joined a walking club so hoping it all helps!
Are you taking any multivitamins? Defo recommend one designed for conception and your folic acid.
It's such a stressful thing too, I tell pregnant easily for my two miscarriages but it took me a year to conceive my son 🤷‍♀️ duno if I'm the minority but I can't be arsed with all the sex 😂 will be good this month and dtd every second day 😂