Assisted conception (and the bits in between!) - part 4 - all welcome

[mummycat1]

Starting new thread with massive congratulations to Nanoo I reckon the old man can wait till he gets home! But of course - it's up to you really xxx

X-posted with MercenaryMom - we seem to have a glut of choccie biccies. Oh well.. (wanders off to bed trailing chocolate biscuit crumbs all the way up the stairs)

DuelingFanjo and KiwiKat good luck for the 22nd, that is the date of my scan. Oh let that be a happy day!

Dueling Good luck with the names. My friend, the one who I was on standby for, just had her baby and she got her choice of name, possibly because dp didn?t; really want to talk about it beforehand! Certainly, I got my choice of name and dh not keen to talk about it beforehand. Definitely better to think of names and 'try them out'.

Dueling My clinic has not been able to give me the definite answers for when EC/ET will be because until they see the size of the follicles and know that me and other recipient are ready, they can?t know and so we are running out of drugs! Can your clinic reassure you will have enough drugs or whatever for the length of time left? I'm afraid I am not up on the exact protocol you are on and to be honest they all seem to be quite different. Anyway, with the weekend looming I would just check with your clinic that you have enough of what you need. We are getting more Buseraline tomorrow as we are running out! Don?t want to make you scared, just check with clinic.

Good that you have got your time off work, me too, just felt good to be able to do that. Hope you and DH will have a relaxing time.

Bumpless/Bumpety/Littlemissbump/Bumpwith cargo hope all is well. Thinking of you. I hope your experience if a good sign for me but I know that each situation is different.

Capricorn76 All best luck for the treatment, sounds good. Don?t forget to have lots of s*x every couple of days. Sounds simple but it helps! What are they recommending for the short Lutal phase?

Cerubina So glad that you are getting the help and advice you need. Hope you enjoy Granada, that's Spain right, not northern England! My friend produced a baby mega quickly. I am going over to meet the new babe (a girl) this week. I am so excited. I am going to buy a baby Bible and I have a really cute card to give. I feel nothing but happy, not even jealous. Not to say I will feel like that all the time but today I feel fab. I have read some of Zita West (not her new one though) and met her in person and I like her! She too is fab. I must be in a good mood! Too much chocolate covered polystyrene.

Pumpkin yes, question, question, question, be ready. I asked lots of questions before we babysat a hamster, this is so important. Make sure you get the answers you need. Is your dh/dp coming?

Amberc how is the healthy lifestyle going?

MM all sounds great, or at least as great as it can be. Positive and good.

Idreaminchocolate how are you? Better, cycle buddy?

Is anyone scheduled for ET last week of March or first week of April, I have lost track of my cycle buddies as I have been hanging around so much!

I moved to Progenova twice a day, we are hotting up!

Well it's official, I'm on the wagon good and proper, no sweets and no booze! I went back to Weight Watchers and I am so taking it seriously. My inspiration, an episode of Rikki Lake where people made ill through liposuction talked about their surgery gone wrong. No, I've not have liposuction, I guess it just gave me the kick up the Patootie that I needed!

Idreaminchocolate Cross posted with you. Glad you are well. Those rockets won?t build themselves you know. Or have I already said that! Yes, grossed out by fondling animal manure whether pregnant or not! (OBEM not me!) Yes, Dave the trucker form Slough was me or rather my DH thinks you are all men pretending to be women. Number one you could not pull it off so well, number two why would you and number three you would be talking about beer and pizza not chocolate and biscuits! I may not know men, but I know food! You can guess 100 times you will never guess the right names! Everyone else will get bored before us! And even if you get t right I am not doing a Rumplestioltsskin and handing over the baby! (If there is one!) Let?s just say the names are hard to hues but as soon as they are a reality, one toe or more, I will tell you!

Just came back to you guys instead of reading a real life email from real life friend, you have became my family! Are you r work in you high powered pace allowed to keep you loitering for two hours! It?s all going on at my work and for once I feel actually quite career minded. I want to get a better position and don?t want to let on I am trying to get up duff. Stressful, so much so I told my colleague about fertility treatment in the loos, it was like a very grown up episode of Grange Hill!

Pumpkin I meant your apartment is important nit looking after a hamster, although that is too. People who know me know I love hamsters!

Pumpkin that should read appointment not apartment and not and not nit. Oh I think you know what I mean.

BUMPITY BUMPITY BUMPITY BUMP BUMP BUMP!!!!

Lord - i go back to work and you go and get yourself knocked up . Seriously, seriously happy for you..

Hope you are ok

sorry for butting in and thread hogging, but I was a graduate last year and am so happy for anyone that makes it to BFP and beyond.

hugs to you all xxx

Hi everyone! Typically, another person on my post natal thread has become pregnant. She said she didn't mention anything for a while as she didn't want to hurt my feelings - that's sweet. I have to get used to people getting pregnant but I must admit to seeing pregnant women everywhere - I don't know whether I am just hallucinating!

I bought some ovulation tests today as we are still going to keep trying but annoyingly DP was in Tokyo when I ovulated this time round (how inconsiderate of him!). Next time I'll get him to leave some gravy in the fridge just in case .

Soory for the completely self centred post but I was wondering if there was every any chance of an AMH level going up again. I have no idea but wondered if my new healthy regime would have any effect on my eggs as well as my general wellbeing.

Anyway - again sorry for my self centred post. Italian I loved your comment about everyone on MN being your family! So sweet...

hi Amber

I think that they say of the AMH that they always go by the lowest result. However I have read some good stuff about Wheatgrass raising AMH and so I have been drinking it most days.

I kind of cling on to the fact that they say the AMH test is only 70% accurate and perhaps I am in the 30% where they might be wrong!

DuelingFanjo How is it going? Are you all set?

riggly no news for a while, where are you up to?

Idreaminchocolate what are you up to rocket girl. Have you guessed yet, here is a clue, my favourite colour is green!

Isle thinking of you, we had sun today.

Kiwi how is the two week wait?

Cerubina and MM sending hugs and chocolate boobs or biscuits [biscuit

Donor is progressing and the other couple are ready so it is all just heading towards the conclusion in the next few weeks, I think we are into the last home stretch now.

I listened to Zita West in the bath tub last night. It was so nice and relaxing.

All the best

Idreaminchocolate How is your FIL now? Hope that you are ok with your DH being away and such crap going on at work.

Italiangreyhound I am good thank you, I have a scan tomorrow morning and so will be able to get more drugs then if I need them. It?s all at the hospital and their pharmacy is on the same floor so I guess they will write me out another prescription. When I went for a scan on Monday they said I was on target for 22nd so I am hoping it won?t change. DH had his repeat semen sample results through and they were good. Good luck with being on the wagon. It took me ages to finally give up booze but I have been ?clean? for over a month now and am really noticing the difference ? well at least as far as my fuzzy head goes, I don?t seem to have lost any weight. However I am drinking loads of full fat milk.

Hi to everyone else Kiwi how is it going?

riggly how was the scan, wasn't it today?

I am feeling chilled still although I did have some anxiety this morning along the lines of ?what if I have already ovulated? which I?m sure is silly. Am just hoping the scan tomorrow is all good news and we can get on with the IVF.

Hi Duelingfanjo, unfortunately my FIL has taken a turn for the worse. Worryingly the hospital doesn't seem to know what is the matter and seem to be dragging their feet a bit - he was taken in early on Tuesday evening and they were going to scan his chest as he had a funny cough, but they didn't because they thought it was more important to get him settled on a ward. When they got round to doing the x-ray today they found that his lungs were half filled with fluid. DH is very upset so I'm just trying to be supportive down the phone. I do miss him and feel a little lonely, but I need to stay strong for him. Thank you to all you ladies for looking after me here though - I do really appreciate it. DF Good luck with your scan tomorrow (lucky biscuit boobs). BTW, my clinic (and Our Lady Zita) says that semi-skimmed milk is okay.

Italian - Tammy and the Green Goblin?
re: grown-up Grange Hill! How's my cycle buddy getting on? Have you heard about your donor's progress? Hope you enjoyed your splosh in the tub with Zita last night - lots of candles and bubbly (bath)? Well done on the WW and no booze I think I will be ET-ing around about mid to late-ish April now, but it all depends on when I start bleeding (sorry - TMI) when I finish taking the pack of Microgynon on 30th March.

Hello, waves and choccy biccies to everyone xxx

Idreaminchocolate I am really sorry about your FIL and cross alongside you and DH for the way his entry into hospital was handled. Maybe if he was a young person they would not have felt the need to spend so long settling him onto the ward and could have done the medical thing straight away!

I have had a little pray about your FIL, I do believe in miracles. I also know that when people get old they get all kinds of illnesses and the aging process is not easy so I am sure your hubby is trying to manage measures of hope alongside lots of other feelings. I really hope you will get to see DH soon and be that reassuring and comforting person that I feel sure you are.

Regarding names you are not even close! If you really want to know they are both double-barrelled and one last clue for the week, my hubby had a pet called after a small English flower, which features in one name (as we cannot name a child after a dog hubby once had!).

Enough of this nonsense, please God let there be at least two embies so I can finally tell you my fabo names and can laugh your Lemsip-filled head off at the sound of them! Waves and hugs (we are not quite cycle buddies, I think I am end March start of April so kind of half way between you and Dueling and riggly - I'm trailing behind Bumpless and Kiwi! What great company to be in.

DuelingFanjo I am sure it will be fine, stop worrying about ovulating too soon. I am sure you will not and if you do you can come on the Mumsnet and moan at me! But you won?t! Is this your first time? Nerves are standard I think.

riggly any news? Not sure what stage you are up to yet.

Kiwi thinking of you.

Bumplesswithbumps How are you doing?

I think I am due to go up stairs for some s*xercise but strangely would rather listen to Zita West in the bath tub ! I am blaming 5 weeks of Buseraline for this and not my age!

All the best

Gosh Italian is that 5 weeks of Down-regging! Isn't that like hell. I have never done it myself (am on short protocol) but read lots about it.

My SIL is about to have IUI (Unfortunately for the 'teenth time) and has had some awful side effects from the injections this time. I feel so lucky that I haven't been so badly effected. If we both get lucky we can share our pregnancies and our babies will be born within days of eachother. It's my first time at all this so it's good to have my SIL to speak to about everything.

Idreaminchocolate The hospital situationo sounds outrageous. I hope they have at least managed to find out what is wrong with him now?

Scan this morning. Feeling quite scared. Just hoping it's all good news.

Idreaminchocolate - Oh that sounds awful for your poor father in law - how old is he? Would it be terribly intrusive to ask if this is something he is going to recover from? Please don't feel you need to answer that if you don't want to.It was lovely of italian to send a prayer for him. From me you'll get lots of positive thoughts.

Italian - did you get your 'seeing to' last night?! I am like you - would prefer a nice bath, a cup of tea and Masterchef!

DF - I didn't really get any bad symptoms with the drugs and I was on a long protocol 9not as long as Italian's!). The only thing I did get which was horrid was severe bloating which just looked bad (ironically like I was pregnant). I got apost on another thread about AMH and they said it couldn't go up as was representative of your egg reserve.

Italian - is it 'Daisy'?

Hi to everyone else on the thread!

Good morning all!
Idream, how sad about your FIL, all best wishes that he pulls through.

Amberc, hope you're feeling a bit more cheery?

Italian, I thought I was Dave the Trucker! 5 weeks of DR sounds like fun! I didn't really get any side effects aside from night sweats (my H did threaten to make me sleep on a plastic sheet when I go through menopause for real!).

I found my libido went into freefall during the whole cycle, which isn't really surprising I suppose with everything else that's going on. Took a couple of weeks to bounce back after the cycle failed.

To my shame, whilst I laugh endlessly at how ridiculous the Twilight books are, there is some filthy well written and diverting fan fiction out there that really, um, hit the spot... I highly recommend it if you feel like you need a kick start! Take a look over on the TSA thread in Adult Fiction... Hmm, did I share too much?!

KK, into the final stretch now. How are you feeling?

DF, when is your final scan? Hope they retrieve a bumper crop on Mon!

I had my review this morning at Guy's - no answers, just one of those things, apparently. The 2 blasts that went back were both 4AA, so they are surprised they didn't take (which obviously helps a lot...). 1 of the popsicles is a 4CC, so they don't really want to use that unless they have to, and the others are 4AB and 4AC, but obviously grading is no indicator of success or I'd be knocked up by now!

Predictably, the immune testing was pooh poohed (although I have discovered that the H's health insurance would cover it as 'investigations into infertility' so I might be sneaky and do it anyway).

So if the H is happy to jump back on the rollercoaster so soon, we'll aim to start the FET next month.

Just a quickie. Now have 8 Follicles. 2 are quite small but we're good to go on Monday. Just waiting for the call RE when to take the trigger shot.

yipeeeeeeee!

wave to Penguin will be back later to read through properly

Ooooh - great

Just a real quickie - you lot are FANTASTIC!!

FIL still very poorly, he's been diagnosed with pneumonia and septic lungs, which at 75 yrs old is not very good, however they are expecting him to recover, but he'll probably be in hospital for another week.

DF - well done on your 8 follies, that's brill!

Don't know if I'll be around over the weekend as I may or may not go down to London to join DH, but I'll be back next week if I do go.

Happy weekend xxxxx

Dueling 8 follies!!!! That really rocks! Fantastic. Enjoy that blissful drug-free day on Sunday too, before the nasty pessaries (are you on those?) start.

Ideam I think you deserve most of the biscuit glut - so sorry to hear about your FIL and boss. to the hospital - let's hope they're sufficiently embarrassed to up their game.

Flibberty hello! I do put lots of this BFP down to your pep-talks about DE you know, you probably don't know how helpful and reassuring you were to me! Hope the return to work has been smooth and little Louis is still gorgeous (how could he not be)

Isle home renovations would probably provide a decent distraction - but they also usually bring me and DH to the brink of divorce - maybe you and your DH have a more compatible approach! Hugs to you Sweetie. How's the gloom?

Kiwi what sanity-maintaining plans do you have for the WE? Is Sunday POAS day or will you wait for the blood test on Monday? I was going to wait until I crumbled at the last minute - partly because I didn't know when I'd get the blood results and didn't want to hear the news at work.

Italian great to see you sounding so bouncy! After the world's longest downreg (don't know how you did that with such good humour) it sounds like you're almost there, everything's crossed for you, your donor and the other couple!

Penguin , Cerubina and MM it's fab that you're all getting stuck into planning ahead for your next cycles. What amazingly brave and resilient ladies we have on here. V of both sets of holiday plans! I have some time off over Easter but after 2 trips to Athens we're staying home and doing cheap stuff -actually that will be nice too. I've been using ZW's relaxation CD, in fact I'm still using the 2WW one! I feel I need a calming influence most days!

Amber I think AMH is quite stable, but FSH can go up and down and you can help it with exactly the healthy living stuff you're doing, so attagirl!

It's gradually sinking in. Don't all throw things at me, but I even had a little angst at DH the other evening about why I wasn't feeling happy or excited yet, I feel like I'm missing my own BFP. OK, I do deserve to have things thrown at me, go ahead! When we were in bed that evening DH put his hand on my tummy and said 'don't worry Mo, Mummy will be excited about you soon' and I cried. I hadn't told anyone in RL until yesterday, when I told my mum over the phone (parents sailing round world...) and she was so happy that it boosted me up too. Telling PIL tonight and I fully expect to be banned from lifting heavy items like cups of tea (my MIL is a fusser!) so that will probably be another step!

OMG Bumpless! Your DH's comment about Mo and calling you mummy made me cry! It takes ages to sink in when you first get pregnant even when you conceive naturally like I did first time round - I'm sure everyone with previous DCs will agree. It was only when I had a scan at 9 weeks that I felt like something was going on. It must be even more mind boggling when you have struggled to conceive and waited so long. do you have an early scan to see how many embies implated? Don't fret about not feeling anything yet, it will come and when it does - what utter joy you'll feel!

DF - sorry my post was much longer than the one above this! It was more along the lines of oooooh great news, you must be so excited! Let's hope that 8 follicles produce 8 lovely eggs x

Idreaminchocolate - so pleased your FIL is going to recover. poor thing being stuck in hospital. I was in hospital for 2 weeks once and it was frightful. The worst thing was the food if he's up for eatng take him something nice!

Well done Dueling on growing lots more follies! Great news. Keep on gorging yourself on eggs and seeds and good stuff to provide them with lots of protein, and that should see you sorted for EC on Monday. Good luck with it, how exciting.

Hope your FIL is getting the care he needs now Idream and I'm sure you will be a big help to the family if you do go down this weekend to help them out and visit.

Bumpless your husband is too cute. It would have made me cry too. I think big news like this just takes time to sink in and embed itself in our brains, just like a little embryo. My guess is it's a self-protection thing that is stopping you jumping up and down already, and that's totally understandable. We are all jumping up and down for you anyway and as your friends and relations find out the news it'll all start to seem more real I'm sure.

Hello Penguin and good to hear your update (possibly TMI on the fan fiction predilection though! ) I reckon I would make use of the health insurance if you think it will cover some tests - perhaps it will help you to feel that you are doing everything you can before you start FET. You sound as though you are dealing with it pretty well now after some hard weeks, I hope so and that talking to Guy's helped put your mind at rest a bit.

We had our final re-scan at the hospital this morning, and to my relief they confirmed that there are no signs of the pregnancy still being there, so it has all passed naturally and really pretty smoothly. I'm relieved because I would have dreaded them saying I still needed an ERPC now, and then the whole recovery process would need to re-start when I thought I was through it. So that's good.

They said not to TTC until I've had my period but sod that. While I was being scanned I took the opportunity to ask if they could see any follies on my ovaries but they were a bit non-committal. They were going on about the old corpus but obviously I am more focused on any new ones now. They did say the lining is 7mm thick at the moment - do any of you more experienced ladies know from your discussions with doctors how that measures against upcoming ovulation? I think it might be approaching and it would be nice to think that my lining is round about where it should be.

I am just about the spottiest creature in the world at the moment, ugh. I had a lovely long spell where my skin was great but since the m/c it has all gone to pot. I have pimples working as a tag team on my chin - as soon as one's gone, another pops up to annoy me and they all feel huge! Boo to PCOS.

Rang ZW clinic just now to see if we did manage to get a cancellation slot with Dr Rai, but sadly not. So it's definitely on for next month.

Hope everyone has lovely plans for the weekend and positive vibes to everyone waiting to test, waiting for EC, waiting for scans and everything else.

Thanks Amber and Cerubina, that makes me feel better I need to book a 6 week scan for the end of the month, which should hopefully tell us a) how many implanted and b) if they're still with us. We're just thinking about Mo at the moment, as the nurse said my HCG level of 132 was consistent with a singleton pregnancy, so assuming Meeney and Miney didn't stick around.

Penguin I might take up your tip - my mojo has completely vanished and poor old DH is badly neglected, might need to give things a bit of a kick-start!

I'd go for those tests too, just for peace of mind. My athens clinic uses a different testing schedule to any UK clinic I've been to - they do a more thorough chlamydia test, using a menstrual blood sample. Loads of people come up positive even when the normal cervical swab sample has been negative, and need anitibiotic treatment before she'll start a cycle. She thinks undiagnosed uterine infections are a major factor in IVF failures. She also does a detailed scan of the uterus while it's being filled with saline, so she sees the opened out shape, and checks for septum or polyps that might impede implantation - again, a factor that isn't checked for in the UK. I was lucky to pass both these tests but lots of other patients there have needed to be sorted out before trying IVF again. I know we would all resist higher costs and more tests the first time around, but I do think it's a bit of a false economy to allow thousands of women to fail IVF before doing thorough investigations. Rant over!

Cerubina I think they want a 10mm womb lining at ET, so definitely sounds like you're heading in the right direction! Happy shagging!

Hi all-not been around too much as my MIL is staying at the moment. Even tho she's very sweet she does tend to go on about the fact that SHE is going to be too old to be a grandma- e.g. for us to hurry up! What about how I feel? Therefore, my post is going to be short and sweet-she is just on her way back from a day out in London.

Me and DH went to clinic today for more in-depth chat re: our options. Feel totally mind-blown. Think we will prob go for IUI with fertility injections rather than clomid. That way more eggs. I was given the results of my anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test-11.9. Was told this was low so even though am 33 it indicates I should hurry up. Feeling sad and like I want to throw myself into the largest glass of pinot grigio.

Hi and big love and hugs to all and will catch up soon xxx

Just a quickie - Pumpkin, does your MIL know about your difficulties in conceiving? If so, get your OH to have a gentle word that she needs to be supportive, not putting more pressure on. Really not helpful to have other voices apart from your own inner one telling you to get a move on - sheesh. If she doesn't know, perhaps you can come up with a killer line that puts her (nicely) back in her place and implies strongly that she should keep those kind of comments to herself.

In the meantime, have that glass of wine if you want it, and a nice hot bath or something. Sounds like a daunting appointment but information is all good - give it a few days to process and I'm sure you'll get on top of it.

Pumpkin AMH level of 15 or above is what people need to conceive normally. 5-14 is the IVF/Assisted Conception level so you are actually on the high side of that so don't worry (mine is 2.6! That is low not 11.9!)

Bumpless prescription for Pumpkin:
1: deep breaths. My AMH is 2.4. Yours is going through the roof and all you need is a little leg up to your lovely family.
2: get that Pinot, nicely chilled, and into a hot bubble bath with you, DH on standby to top the glass up.
3: Try these on MIL: 'I've always wanted to travel the world before having kids - we're off next month'. 'Great, is that an offer to babysit every 2nd Friday when we have some?' or (sob) 'it's all so h-h-h-hard...' (she'll never ask again)

Hang in there honey xxx