Ignoring the LIES, DAMNED LIES, and STATISTICS: Fiesty & Fabulous 40+ers TTC

[xserialshopper]

Open to all 40+ers TTC.

We're friendly - not cliquey (sp?) and would love to know you{smile]

Hi everyone!
Heron, that is fantastic. Welcome little Heron! How is DS1 (teehee)?
Congratulation on your good news Rachel. Stickiness to your baby!
Thanks for the update Bump, this is getting ridiculous isn't it. We are all going to be rattling around like piggy banks.
I have been so tired the past couple of days and was wondering whether it could be one of the supplements. I have been taking multivits with iron and an iron tablet because of the bleeding. I'm wondering if I could be taking too much iron. I have always had normal iron levels, so the supplements could be unnecessary. Will stop them, just in case.

I see Jacqueline Gold is pregnant at 48! She's had ivf though and probably donor eggs - not that there is anything wrong with that of course. Still 48!

Hurrah for Heron - hope you and small Heron are having a lovely time.

And also wonderful for you Rachel too - all the best for the rest of your pregnancy.

Rowingboat - I 'd be surprised if the iron tablets would make you tired, the worst it could do is give you constipation - or so I've been told. Tiredness sounds like you need them (I was as white as a sheet for about 2 weeks after my last m/c) - but you could try a natural iron supplement like Spatone or Floradix. They're much easier for your body to take in, I think.

Oh, and is anyone else taking B6? There seems to be some connection with that and fertility (in the sense that if you are lacking it, chances of a successful pregnancy go down). I now have a natty orange horse tablet, courtesy of the health food shop. Oh and fluorescent yellow wee as a result. No amino acids for me yet though; catastrophic childcare failure this week means I haven't been to work, and so not near H&B). Next week....

Hope you all have a good weekend. I shall think of you all, rattling and pill-popping furiously.

Hello and thanks for all the good wishes. Not entirely sure how we managed it but this is my conception history: Pg 1 - mc at 7 weeks, Pg 2 - DS born Nov 05 (couple of months before I turned 43), Pg 3 - mc at 6 weeks, Pg 4 - mc at 8 weeks, Pg 5 - mc at 6 weeks. I had tests at the recurrent mc clinic and no reason was found so the assumption was that my age was playing a part and one of the doctors did say that at some point the chances were that I'd fire out a good egg (though he put it a bit more elegantly than that!)

Last mc was in Jan 08 and then I didn't conceive again for about 9 months. during that time DH took a job which involves working away most of the week and I think I honestly started coming to terms with DS being an only (not that I didn't still want another, I think I just got over the yearning, IYKWIM).

Maybe that's why it worked this time, we weren't so focussed on it. We certainly stopped that grim mindset of "it's that time, we need to be rabbits for the next week, like it or not" and started just enjoying ourselves again.

So no special trick, other than trying for a zen like state of calm. Hope you all have good news soon!

VSF - I did the B6 thing as well, I can't remember why. It made me very jumpy, it affects your nerves. I vaguely remember it was to help extend the luteal phase. It's awful I don't even know why I take things.Somebody posted that high doses were connected to nerve damage, if you search MN you will probably find that thread.
I'm pretty sure I don't need to supplement with iron, it doesn't take much iron to overdose and make you feel rubbish and tired. I did this once before and stopped supplementing because I felt so tired. It's because your liver tries to store it and it can't store much, so your liver goes all weird and you feel tired.
I have been drinking chamomile tea at lunchtime - doh that could be it! I'll try a different tea.
Rachel, the odds are on this being a good egg after all those MCs. I'm sorry you have had such a rough time.
Would you have considered adoption if you hadn't conceived? I just ask as we have the leaflets for adoption, but haven't acted yet.

I am having a day, I had a night sweat last night, and that combined with the lack of af making an appearance, it suddenly made me realise that I must be entering the peri-menopause stage of life. I am not ready for that yet, I know it must sound greedy but I really do want another baby.

Do you mind if I ask you all if any of you are at that stage and having symptoms of peri-menopause yet? Is my raging feeling PMT extreme a symptom too?

Rachel - thank you for posting on here and encouraging us, sticky vibes to you.

Hey, Rainbow. Sorry you are having a grim and worrying time too. I don't have any ideas to help I'm afraid, but would think that a GP could do tests maybe? Can you make an emergency appointment which might give you some answers. Thinking of you and hoping all is alright x

Hello, everyone!

Am back again, with a clean bill of health from the fertility clinic today and have dusted myself down ready to start TTC again.

I promise I will catch up on everyone's news, but in the meantime a huge hurrah for heron and rachel!

Sorry to be asking yet another question, but has anyone here with perimenopause, got faint lines on pg tests, that were to do with perimenopause rather than pregnancy?

rowing don't know whether we'd have tried for adoption. I don't think we would after DS but if we hadn't had him.... Dh took quite a bit of convincing to have a child (though he was besotted with DS from the moment he was born) and I think trying to persuade him to adopt would have been tricky.

rainbow I went to the GP in Sept with a period which had stopped and then started again with a vengeance - was very heavy and clotty, much worse than usual. Could only get to see the male GP at the surgery, whose helpful reaction was "well you're 45, it's probably the menopause". Six weeks later I conceived, which is probably the best revenge. Not sure how old you are, but I'm sure I read somewhere that the average age to enter perimenopause is 48 so hopefully your symptoms are something else entirely.

Hi everyone, been having a bit of of posting holiday cause I've been away from home a lot. Just wanted to say hello again and best of luck to everyone for bfp in 2009

Hi all. This is my first ever post - on any site I think. We are TTC #1 and technically this is cycle 1.

I say technically as although we stopped using contraception in Oct and didnt want to actively try until after our wedding at the end of November, somehow - especially considering I'm 40 - we conceived just a few weeks later. It was confirmed the night before the wedding and to say we were shocked is an understatement, particularly as I had been so worried about whether I would be fertile at all. Unfortunately I then had a MC in early December whilst on our honeymoon. It was pretty crap to go through that during our wedding and honeymoon and to now not end up with anything, but it has given me some comfort that my fertility is still not too bad.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, here I am ready to start trying properly.

rainbowdays...one of my fears was that the faint line i first got on my pg test was actually menopause, but it was the opposite so hopefully it will all work out for you......anna

Firstly - big congrats Heron, what wonderful news

And congrats to you too Rachel, sorry to hear about all your m/c's, I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. Sending vibes for a hassle free pg

Rainbowdays - sorry to hear you're feeling fed up. I think my only perimenopause symptom at the moment is a decreasing luteal phase, but to be honest I'm not sure.
Have you looked at natural progesterone cream? It is supposed to help with PMT and menopause - but it's not something I've tried or even looked into much so I can't speak with any experience or authority. I've just ordered some cream from
Here

in the hope that it will help with the luteal phase. Grownupbabes mentioned it recently and I think said it lengthened her luteal phase by around 4 days?? GUB - is this the same cream that you used?

VSF - I'm taking 60mg B6 at the moment, I think this is the third month. I was taking a higher dose (100mg) the first month but it made no difference to my luteal phase and I can't say I noticed any other effects, except possibly clumsiness - though not sure if that's unusual . So I thought I'd just carry on with a slightly lower dose in the hope that it might be effective eventually!

Rowing - hope you start feeling better soon, it's not surprising you're tired with all you've been through recently. Oh and which stats did you want me to google? If it's the ovary twinges I don't know, hopefully it will mean you're ovulating normally? Do you normally get twinges? Is it definitely different from cramping?

Bumpless - wow impressive amino acid info That is something I have yet to add to my arsenal of supplements, will look at rectifying that!

Gosh this is getting long - I'm a bit behind I'm afraid!! I'll post this then start again

hi rowing, how are you? baby is doing fine. me? mood swings for me, sometimes i feel really good, sometimes i am weepy. like today, we decided to go to the high street with baby. it was more tiring than i thought and also baby missed his feed. did not really bother him, as he slept all the way. but i felt like a failure when we got home!!

hormones!

Hiii everyone! Welcome to the new people, I hope you like it here!
Oi COC, I thought you were starplayer, did you change back?
Sorry, I was unclear, I meant the stats for this thread - our names and stuff, because I am getting a bit confused (not hard).
Still tired, but DS has a horrid cold again so it was probably the cold which was adding to the fatigue. You know that thing where you are going to be ill, but it hasn't actually 'arrived' yet!
At the moment I am waiting to hear from the gynae at the local hossy and sort of taking it from there. However, I have read some clinics will go ahead with IVF even if you do have a cyst. So more blooming emailing/phoning to find out.
Rainbow, I don't think I have any obvious symptoms, sometimes AF is a bit shorter, but then the next month normal. The women in my family start menstruating late: around 14 and the menopause late: in their fifties. I hope this is the case for me, not that I want to be pg in my fifties.
Have you had your hormone levels checked at the GP? Sorry not sure about the positive pg tests.
With any luck AF will arrive on Monday and we can get back on track. Have booked the day three test for Wednesday, have to get the old FSH levels checked again. Hope they are still OK.

Rowing - no I was FertilityFiend - it was XSerial/Starplayer who's the stats queen (I hope I've got that right, I'm doubting myself now..!)

Hi Sussex, good to see you again (though not under the circs obviously!) Great that you have a clean bill of health - onwards and upwards!

Hi too GonePearShaped

Welcome Latestarter - sorry to hear about your m/c, what awful timing - not that it's ever a good time of course.

Welcome to all other newbies, sorry I'm so behind and this thread is moving fast at the moment!!

Rainbow - re the lines have a look at this site:
peeonastick
Check out the FAQ's for the HPT tests.
I'm a big fan of peeonastick for info on both pg tests and opk's - worth a look for anyone who's interested - the faq pages are the best I think.

heron- wow congratulations. That went fast it doesn't seem yesterday that we all read about your BFP!

Congratluations to Rachel too

hello to all who remember me. Just noticed you all on acitve conversations so popped in to say hello! All OK here, had anomoly scan nearly two weeks ago, and everything was average. Will be 24 weeks tomorrow - just starting to believe that I might have a baby soon! LOL

Hope to see some more BFP soon on here.

I am so sorry for you, latestarter, what a terrible, terrible thing to happen

Cece, that's great news.
COC - I'm soo confused. I was convinced you were x-serial.
It's quite tricky to keep up with this thread when you are half asleep.
Latestarter, sorry I missed your post. I hope you are feeling a little better now.
Sussex, it is lovely to see your name again.
Have just scoffed some gooey, homemade toffee (was supposed to be fudge), which augers well the arrival of Auntie Florence. She has a very sweet tooth, must buy her some twiglets, the old trout.

hello all! Just lurking and popping in...Not read whole thread but just had to say congrats to the lovely heron and to cece too. Big waves hello to everyone else!

For those who remember me we are still "on a break" from TTC number 4 (anyone remember that phrase from Friends?) and tbh not too sure if we will go back to TTC now after 3 MCs in 2008 and my new job... Job is going well, am exhausted, DH away a fair bit atm so not sure we could muster the action needed even if we decided to...Will continue watching your doings with interest!

Rowing - lol, I used to get you, Roque and Rhet totally confused! (and maybe I still do, and I haven't realised )

Aha, speaking of Roque , glad the job's going well

Great news Cece - fingers crossed everything continues to go smoothly for your pg

Not much to update on news from me - on DPO 7 and temps looking even lower than usual for luteal phase, what does that mean? Probably not good anyway.

Am awaiting the arrival of my progesterone cream, it will probably arrive too late to do much good this cycle.

lol Rowing re trying to stave off AF with twiglets

Thank you everyone for your help, I have to say that following two positive tests yesterday and the day before, showing up within the timelimit etc, I was just beginning to hope for the best. But extreme lower back pain yesterday, followed by a negative test today. I think it is clear that I am miscarrying rather than it being menopause this time. No bleeding yet, but it is just a matter of time.

oh no Rainbow, how confusing
Have you used the same kind of test for all the tests you've done so far? How many days late are you? Fingers crossed for you x

Thanks COC, I was due af 15 days ago, been waiting, long enough for an answer for the absent af. I did a second test this morning in the vain hope that it was a faulty test. Using the same make, but it was negantive too. So I don't really have much hope of this being a mistake. Thank you anyway..