2023 TTC 35+ Part 2

[VixFromThe6ix]

Hi ladies,
This is a new thread as we maxed the other one. I tagged everyone that posted in the last 12 pages. If I'm missing someone, please tag them in the comments.
@Eirlys1986
@Muriel84
@Un7breakable
@vitahelp
@Mirla
@TheFanciestPants
@Mummyme87
@FiddleLeaf
@Anna531
@Poppy708
@Golaz
@LeopardLover
@Floralsandsmiles
@Bumblebee413
@TrudyProud
@13Bastards
@DinkyGT
@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7
@TTCnumberfour
@Cirque1
@39starstartry
@Freya8
@Angelsrose
@TheBirdintheCave
@AgeGapBbe
@BengalMama
@BB2023

@TrudyProud yay! How many dpo are you? I’d try not to compare lines. Every pregnancy is different. Xxx

@TickingTui welcome! God I hate the tww. I’m just CD10 here so at start of FW x

@TrudyProud 🎉 yay! I really hope this is a true positive for you and evolves well! How lovely xxxx

@TickingTui fingers crossed. I’m on CD15 and feeling a bit impatient as still to get a positive OPK on trying smep this month so just want it to happen now! I shall go POAS in a bit and hope for the best. Good luck with keeping yourself distracted for the next week or so before you want to test xxx

Congratulations @TrudyProud ! Feels like the BFPs have been a little thin on the ground- so pleased for you!!

Welcome @TickingTui!

I’m on CD10 and have bought Boots OPKs for next time. I feel like given that we effectively are only going to get to try every two weeks and not even necessarily over the FW that anything we can do to help things we should do really. But yesterday I had blood streaked EWCM yesterday and realised that my period hasn’t really fully stopped yet. It was a really heavy one for me and the mood swing on CD2 was epic. I’d spent the first day being sad that I wasn’t pregnant, but that day thinking it was for the best and that we shouldn’t even be trying until DH is back home with us properly in November.

Just felt all the misery and self loathing PMT usually offers in one huge dose. Just really made me think how tough morning sickness and a toddler on my own for weeks at a time would be. However, I’m 35, so, just going to have to suck it up as a means to an end and hope that we’re lucky enough to create a pregnancy in the meantime.

But no idea what my body is doing. Faint line on an opk yesterday.

@Bumblebee413 oof sorry to hear about that emotional rollercoaster you went on. I also feel your comments about worrying about managing a toddler with morning sickness etc and my OH won’t be away like yours, you are right about just having to power on though and accept the toughness/chaos as a means to an end of the family you want for yourself xx

@Sarahloudobby Have you read "It starts with the egg"? Lots of great tips for improving egg quality! Fingers crossed for you and those are promising signs, I've heard of plenty of women conceiving throughout their 40s 😊

I've been waiting for this!! Congratulations!! 😍 Keep testing, hopefully you just got the ovulation date wrong 😊

@TickingTui Welcome (also 37 and TTC #2!). 🧡 Such a good sign you're cramping, I remember that being my only symptom when I conceived my son 😍

Oh @Bumblebee413 this sounds tough! It's positive you're going to use OPKs to give yourself the best possible chance. Hopefully you get that BFP before your DH is back with you in November. PMT symptoms can be rough!

I understand the worry about dealing with a toddler (although I won't be alone) but I'm sure we'll just learn to manage. We want that BFP then we'll deal with the rest! Sending hugs X

Thanks @Muriel84, @Bumblebee413 and @LeopardLover ! Glad to find some community in all this 🙂

Hoping the best for you too @Eirlys1986 ! I'm also still BF, so know how tough it is working around that too! My little guy had pneumonia in Jan, so all the extra feeds shortened my luteal phase to only 8 days for two months... so here's hoping we're both back on track and it'll be a lucky month for us both!

Sorry to hear that too @Bumblebee413 . No matter how rational I try to be PMT fuelled sadness hits hard. Hope you get a lil self care space <3

And snap @LeopardLover 😃!! It was my only sign too - and in the same way (pain radiating down the legs which I don't usually get)... but like I said, I'm currently too scared to hope. Where are you at?

Also @Sarahloudobby - my Nan had an accidental pregnancy at 43. So absolutely does happen! Good luck 😀

@TickingTui yeh my luteal phase is just about 10 days at present so not ideal, I think with all his extra teething feeds it may impact things significantly this month.

@Muriel84 We didn't track as I wanted some "fun" TTC but now it's stressing me out . With DD I peaked on CD10 so I presumed I did for this cycle as well. Based off this crude estimate I'm 14DPO though it's likely I could be fewer DPO.

Thank you @Eirlys1986 @Bumblebee413

I'm sorry, it's annoying when your body decides to add new variables to the mix @Bumblebee413 . Does AF normally last this long for you? Could it be old blood?

Yes, I'm really hoping that I just implanted later than I thought @LeopardLover especially because my cycles are average 4/5days longer than they were before DD (I used to have a 23/24 day cycle with 3 day bleed pre DD but now on average it's 26 days but have also had a few 30days - I think because of breastfeeding).

I'm going to keep you all posted and in the meantime keeping everything crossed for sticky beans and more BFPs on this thread.

@TrudyProud truely so happy for you and hope that things progress in the right direction over next few days so definitely keep us posted! X

@LeopardLover Yeah, that's what I'm thinking; NHS for me and private tests for him.
@TrudyProud Congratulations! Hoping for a stronger line for you today.
@TickingTui Wow, that is commitment. Particularly the 2x per day bit...!

Right. Excuse my crazy POAS obsession! This is the first month I’ve used the boots cheap OPK instead of a digital monitor. Now CD 15, if I were just doing the boots sticks I would think this was positive or close to positive (although looks like the test line is fainter than control so I don’t know!. I basically found some old digital tests lying around and decided to do them yesterday and today as I got fed up of the boots tests being completely blank up till today. Both monitors are reading a blank circle today (pink test is a 2 days fertile one so only reads blank or fixed smiley and the purple is a 4 days fertile one so should also read a fixed smiley) I’m confused as to why the purple one isn’t doing a flashy smiley. Any thoughts? Would you take this as a positive result? Sorry for long post as you can see I’m driving myself scatty

Thank you for your encouragement @LeopardLover and @TickingTui and congratulations @TrudyProud

@Eirlys1986 i don’t know anything about the pink and purple tests but that LH stick looks like you’ll park this eve so test again around 6pm and it’ll probably be even darker. That’s how mine go. Nothing, bam, nothing! But never caught a very very dark one even when testing twice a day. Maybe my LH peaks over night.

@TrudyProud i think there’s so many variables with dpo, and how long implantation took etc. impacting the strength of the line. That’s what I’ve learned obsessing over these forums 🙈 xx

@Eirlys1986 obviously by park I mean peak! The end of smep appears in sight for you! 🍀🥳tomorrow is likely you ovulation day x

@Eirlys1986 it's my understanding that you have to use the digital tests from the start /well before you think you might ovulate (based on cycle length). The first test is a baseline and only after that will you start to see highs and peaks.

Fingers crossed for you

OMG @Muriel84 that's exactly me too haha - nadda, nadda, BOOM!

@Eirlys1986 - I have similar issues with POAS! I mostly use the basic LH sticks with the Premom app. Your tests looks like you're heading towards a peak to me. You can take a pic of the result with the Premom app for an estimate which I find helpful as I drive myself nuts with them too 😅

I also read that having sex earlier in the month - just after your period - can trigger ovulation (It's at the bottom of this article). I'm planning to try that next month!

@Mirla We just started the 2x for the whole window the last 2 months - have to see how long it lasts!

Thanks @Muriel84 and @TickingTui I will test tonight and hope to see a peak then.
@TrudyProud I did suspect I would have to use the digital ones from baseline for a comparison type result but wasn’t sure, as I had a few leftover I thought I would just do it out of interest to see if my “opinion” of peak matched the digital results but obviously this went wrong and just caused me confusion so lesson learned!

@Eirlys1986 looks a good opk, not positive yet though. Needs to be the same darkness or more for that. And digital don’t work if you start using too late, they need to have no detectable levels initially

Thanks @Mummyme87 i don’t know why I did the digitals to be honest as I know from using them prior pregnancy that they need to be used from baseline. I am a silly sausage

I'm a bit bemused by my OPK readings this month; I use Premom, and the last two days were "high" (0.5 or so, because it has determined from previous cycles that I don't really get that strong a result). Those were CD10 and 11. Today, CD12, it has dropped to 0.2. Maybe I ovulated early?... But my previous cycles also were super low and then just a spike on one day, so the two days of high also is quite different. I should have started testing earlier I guess, but I was feeling complacent from how regular things have been, and it is such a nuisance to test.
Do you think testing for the next couple of days and if it stays low I just need to assume yesterday had a peak later in the day and ovulation was likely today?

@Eirlys1986 aww sorry your toddler is having a rough ride with teething. As @Un7breakable says it's so impressive to do SMEP with this in the background.
@Mirla this is my first month with OPKs so no idea but have attached my chart if helpful. I think I am going to ovulate tomorrow.
@TrudyProud - congratulations! Our first thread BFP!
@TickingTui - interesting article. I think my ovulation is earlier than my Ovusense was suggesting(!!!). So just going to go for it from when my period ends until ovulation confirmed from now on! Saying that, a shorter cycle makes that a lot easier and not sure I could manage the 2x approach 😅
@Muriel84 good luck with fw!