Babies after Infertility

[Blue2014]

Here is a thread for all of us who got our babies even though we never actually believed this could happen us ...

Too sleep deprived (and surprised!)!to be witty or more interesting in the thread title ...

Come join us.

Oh congrats Boris! Sorry to hear your little one was poorly

Good luck Lucie.

We have no Frosties which makes things so much easier for me. I was devastated when we only had 2 fertilised eggs but I really couldn't have been luckier (they both went back in and one became DS)

Oh wow congrats boris! That's great news about number 2 at reprofit! I wonder if i can pick your brains please or anyone else that can help. I am also having a natural cycle at reprofit and my first scan is on Friday. I have a feeling I may have my natural lh surge on opk on Friday also so I assume they will trigger me Friday but they are assuming I will ovulate 2 days after the trigger. How do they know this? What if I ovulate the day of the trigger or the following day? Won't the timing be out for the transfer then which would be scheduled for 7 days after trigger .

I had my scan today Day 11 and my largest follicle was 15.5mm so I think I have a good couple of days to go yet before I trigger ovulation. My lining was a only 7mm though which is a bit disappointing. I have another scan Sunday morning but unless it gets towards 8mm I can see me cancelling. It's funny as I never used to have a problem with lining and it used to always be a good 10mm but now I really need it to be thick it's thin! Keeping everything crossed it grows another mm between now and Sunday.

Hi everyone! I never joined this thread but I recognise some names from TTC for 18 months plus and pregnancy after infertility. My dd is 6 months now and just the most amazing little person.
Lucie, I just wanted to say good luck! How did your next scan go?
Congratulations on number 2 Boris. Sorry to hear your little boy was ill, must have been a very difficult time.
Having a sibling for dd has been on my mind recently. I think we're going to wait until she's 1. I'm wondering about trying naturally for a bit just in case having dd has kind of reset my immune issues before moving on to our frosties.

Hi trix- great to see you, and hear your news.

Ooh lucie that’s exciting. Let us know how it goes. I just admit it’s all a bit hazy as to what happens when with a FET (particularly as I never did a natural one - do you trigger ov or does it just happen naturally and then you add the progesterone?). But fingers crossed you have a good result.

Thanks both my scan went really well and my lining was 9mm so I triggered ov on Sunday and transfer is due to be this Sunday. The snow here is horrendous though and meant to be flying out of stansted on Saturday afternoon but I can see us having to cancel. I'm so stressed and upset.

So lovely to hear from you Trixie. I was thinking of you when I posted up the other day and wondering how you were doing.

Oh lucie how stressful - hoping you manage to make it out🤞

We made it thank you! Just chilling in the hotel now and then transfer tomorrow morning 🤞

Transferred one fully hatched acgh tested blast yesterday. Praying it's a sticky one!

Fingers crossed for you Lucie!

Ooh hurrah lucie! Fingers crossed! When’s your otd?

I think 18th March but I will test wayyy before that!

Haha 18th March is ridiculous - do they seriously expect you to wait that long?! Keeping everything crossed for you.

Any news Lucie?

I got a bfp in the evening of 4dpt5dt (I know I'm a serial tester!) It was darker by 6dpt but lighter by 7dpt and today barely there so I guess it was a chemical. Hard to not be disappointed as I got my hopes up seeing the lines and started thinking ahead as you do. It was a tested embryo though and whilst I know that doesn't guarantee success it surprised me that it would result in a chemical. We have 3 frosties left another of which is tested but makes me feel nervous as would love a sibling but not sure if it will happen. Hard to know whether to change anything for next time or not. Do I stop breastfeeding? Can that cause a chemical? The clinic said I would be fine with breastfeeding but I guess no one knows for sure. I've emailed them to see if they have any suggestions. It's hard to know where it might have gone wrong.

I'm sorry Lucie, it must be so disappointing I always thought you couldn't get pregnant when breastfeeding but if the clinic say it's ok then it must be. My AF actually came back whilst still breastfeeding.
Do you know how long you'll wait to try again? You've got three chances and it worked before so the odds are very good.
Hopefully you'll hear back from the clinic soon.

Oh no lucie. So sorry to hear that. FWIW is always heard that cycling whilst breastfeeding, whilst not an absolute no no, wasn’t necessarily recommended due to it messing around with your estrogen levels. Did they test those prior to transfer? Might be worth doing a bit of reading up on it and asking your clinic.

But I also remember from last time round my consultant giving me an 85% chance with a Pgs tested blast. I thought that meant 1 in 6 cycles failed for no particularly good reason. Which is crap.

Thanks stealth from what I read it's prolactin levels that breastfeeding can affect and I had mine tested before the cycle and they were well within normal limits. I thought they would be as my cycles have been back to normal and really regular for a long time now. The clinic advised me it wouldn't be a problem breastfeeding and so I thought I would give it a go. I'm also on a fb group for women who do ivf and breastfeed and they have good success. I haven't heard about the estrogen but will do some googling. My lining grew really well using my natural cycle but definitely going to check up on it.

That's amazing stats from your clinic. Ours quote around 60-65% for pgs but I have no idea why they fail and have to admit I thought once it had started to implant and I got the bfp the chances of a chemical or miscarriage would be very slim.

It’s a real bummer lucie. Effing typical that we (you) are on the wrong side of the odds again. Will be interested to hear what the clinic has to say. Look after yourself in the meantime

Thanks stealth I know I can't believe it. Thought for once things had gone our way and worked out well. So hard to decide what to do next. Will keep you posted.

Sorry to hear this Lucie. I thought that once your cycles had returned it would not be a problem although I dont have any experience with IVF. Wishing you all the best whichever way you decide to go. X

The doctor got back to me and basically said there's no evidence either way for breastfeeding. Some studies show it can actually have a positive effect on endometrial receptivity while others show that higher prolactin can cause lower progesterone levels. He said that plenty of people get pregnant while breastfeeding though and the rate of miscarriage does not increase.

I asked him what he suggests for next time as while we have 3 frosties left only one of these is a tested embryo so want to try absolutely everything so that I have no doubts or regrets if it doesn't work. In that case he said he would prefer to stop the breastfeeding so that we can use the standard fet protocol with estrogen rather than natural fet. We will also use aspirin, clexane and prednisone which I did this time and I will have intralipids incase any immune issues have developed since having little one. I feel like that pretty much covers everything.

I'm still feeding dd in the night at the moment although I have been offering a bottle sometimes instead and she has started to accept it whereas a few months ago she wouldn't at all. She doesn't really bf in the day at all now.

For those of you that breastfed and have stopped when did you do this and how did you go about it? I think I will start offering the bottle more in the night and see how she gets on. May have to delay the next fet by a couple of months as whilst I don't necessarily think that breastfeeding has a negative effect I know that if I got a bfn or another chemical next time it would play on my mind and I would wonder what if.

Sounds like a good plan lucie. Frustrating to have to wait but as you say you don’t want any “what ifs” from the next cycle. Worth remembering too (cold comfort I know) that PGS testing isn’t a 100% guarantee of a chromosomally normal embryo - it just picks up the major issues, not eg balanced translocations. So you can still have a chromosomal problem even with a PGS embie.

In terms of weaning, everyone seems to do it differently. I started with night weaning when stealthini was a year old. I just sat with him at night, offered him a bottle and soothed him when he got upset. The first few nights he basically didn’t fall asleep again for hours and was whimpering and trying to rip my pyjama top off and then he kind of understood what was happening and slowly started to take the bottle. Once I’d done that I dropped the lunchtime feed then the bedtime feed and finally the early morning feed. But everyone does it differently. Key is just to be consistent & not try to drop too many feeds too quickly as your hormones go all over the place.

Feels v unfair that you have to wean before you otherwise would but I guess it’s just another unfair thing we ivf-ers have to do - sacrifice the first baby for a shot at a second!

Thanks stealth I'm starting to think it was bad luck to be honest. From what I've read I've come across lots of people with chemicals or bfns from tested embryos. Like you said it doesn't test for everything and there are also things like the mitochondria and metabolism of the embryo that might simply not be strong enough to allow them to progress. It's just because they are tested I think we get it in our heads that it's more or less a given that it will work. Hopefully I will have more luck with the next one.

I did think to possibly do a medicated fet so I know all my hormone levels are right but reduce the amount of breastfeeding right down after transfer so no more than a couple of minutes here and there to settle to sleep but I'm not sure. It's like you say it's hard to sacrifice the time of the first for another baby that may not be.

That must have been very hard with stealthini trying to grab at your top etc. I think I would probably have given in at that point and felt sad. I tried last night and she was happy to take a bottle several times in the night and I could probably have got away with not bfing but I did it a couple of times just for a few minutes to help her drop back off.

How did you feel when you decided to stop? I'm finding it hard to let go off it.

I haven’t weaned completely yet. Baby HP is 17 months now and I always said my cut off would be 18 months but as that time is fast approaching I’m beginning to feel sad and worried about the prospect. He only feeds once before bed but it means that he falls asleep on the breast and then I lay him down and it’s like magic, so nice and calm and a lovely way to end the day. He can soothe himself to sleep as he does it at nap times but he usually cries when I initially put him down which we both find distressing because he doesn’t want me to leave him in the cot by himself. I think it will mean his bedtime will get later as I will have to wait until he’s really tired before putting him down for bed. Not looking forward to it at all. In those early days I’d never have thought I’d manage to get this far as feeding was so difficult and painful. I remember my mum saying I would be sad when I gave up and I said ‘I doubt it’ but she was right, as mums invariably are! Not real advice here Lucie but if u think you will regret stopping bf earlier than you would have wanted could u put off the ivf for a little while or is it a case of needing to use the embryos within a certain amount of time? Xx