Sept 08: The End of an Amazing year

[Pacita]

Here we are: the thread that will see our LO's first birhtday...

I'm quite excited at the thought of other peoples pregnancies now I know I'm never going to do it again. I used to be a little spooked by them when I was still having babies.

I'm getting organised for dd's birthday now, I've dug out the pretty 1st birthday card I bought for her in Woolies before it closed last year, I stocked up as they were all 50p . Ex P is going away next week so he won't be seeing her , he has asked what he can get her though (money + books), at least he's not going to buy a stupid amount of toys we don't need. He hasn't seen them in almost 8 weeks since he last kicked off in front of them and I told he we had to go to mediation before he could see them again, we need something formal arranged for access as it was not working with him getting aggressive every few days. He only went to mediation last week (after dragging his heels since May) and I hoped he would see the dc's now. Obviously Newquay with his mates is far more important .

No Ponymum. The name Starlight was chosen by another user it is true, but I have never seen it (might do a search and find out), so no-one has got annoyed.

Meglet Hope your XP grows up some time soon.

starlight You are the original starlight, I haven't seen the other one, and beleive me I've lived on here since my op last month. I think you should claim the name for yourself .

The awful, awful, embarrassing thing is that I really miss XP now (can't admit it in RL though). Possibly because I haven't had to deal with him being abusive for weeks so I'm forgetting the bad stuff and remembering the good stuff. I need to get on the relationships board so SGB can give me a good lecture don't I .

Are you missing XP or just a companion?

I searched and there are no posts by a starlight, - so someone must have registered it but never used it.

Tee hee, I haven't read the book for a while. My sister recommended it years ago and I read it before I fell pg with M.

I didn't even know what ovulation signs I had before I read the book

meglet that's tough.

starlight you are definitely the original - and the only one I have ever seen.

Ah Meglet. Starlight is right, do you miss being with someone rather than your xp?

I can't tell you how much I admire you and what you've been through. It's no wonder you would like someone to take some of the responsibility and burden from you. But remember a bad realtionship is worse than no relationship.

I do miss XP, but only the nice XP, which was only 20% of the time. Thankfully I am financially better off without him (as he used to go out so much and eat so much junk), so I have the safety net of knowing I can't have him back as we'll be poor again.

meglet that's a good way to keep it in perspective.

ILTMIMI I agree, but that was my mantra throughout my 20s and 30s, hence why I am now (finally) with a WONDERFUL DH... but TTC #2 at age 40.

I am thinking about the fertility book you suggested, but the thing is... I am scared. I am afraid that if I get all official and serious about it it won't happen. But I have recently been lurking on some TTC threads (just lurking mind, because I am not officially TTC of course ) and it is very apparent to me that I do not know the lingo or understand what they are on about half the time. Last time TTC we used ovulation tests and just went for it when it was positive, and as much as we could at other times as well (TMI). I am hoping that approach will work again. Really hoping. (Sorry for hijacking the thread with this.)

Ponymum Some of us here know the lingo. Ask away if you want. You don't really need ovulation tests if you've got to know your body, or pg tests for that matter.

Also, - there are 'ways' of going for it, and things to increase chances of one sex of the other, - although I do think it is unhealthy to have anything more than a whim preference.

And don't worry about hijacking, - I personally LOVE the ttc topic. It is such a lovely and exciting topic.

waspy now I feel like I need to name change and ask you to join me on another thread so I can ask you a whole lot of embarrassing personal questions! But you know, no shame here, so here goes:
Firstly, I only used ovulation tests last time because it took about 6 months after coming off the pill to even work out what my cycle was (45 days with a 'false' period in the middle). Seems more normal this time, but tbh I don't really know the signs of a normal cycle as I have been on the pill for most of my adult life!
Anyway, go on, tell me:

1. What are the signs of ovulation?
2. When should we do it?
3. What are these 'ways' of doing it?

Oh, and please, please explain this "2 week wait". 2 weeks from when? And why?

lol

2 week wait is the time from when you reckon you might of conceived until your period, or the earliest time you are likely to get a positive pregnancy test result.

For most women (regardless of length of cycle) their periods come pretty much exactly 2 weeks after they ovulate.

So, you are your most fertile 2 weeks BEFORE your period is due iygwim.

Oh right, so it's just the usual "test if your period is late" then. I thought they were waiting for 2 weeks AFTER their period was due, which made no sense as I thought it would have been obvious by then!

There are quite a few subtle signs of ovulation, but the most obvious is the appearance of the cervical mucus. Gross perhaps, but put it between your forefinger and thumb and put them together and pull them apart.

The main ones are:

1. Cheesy and forming peaks - not ovulating

2. clear, wet, thing and a bit stringy - about to ovulate

3. clear, very stringy with perhaps a ting of yellow, elastic band-like - ovulating.

If you have sex when at no.2 you increase your chances of a girl, if you have it at stage 3. you increase your chances of a boy.

Stage 3 is often referred to as Egg White Cervical Mucus or EWCM and you can prolong the time it hangs about by drinking grapefruit juice. The reason you want it to hang about is because it is sperm friendly

If you google 'ovulation cervical mucus' you'll probably come up with lots of info.

If you're not squeemish, - a nutter took regular photos of her cervix and the mucus through some cycles. It might make you feel ill though, but it IS facinating

www.beautifulcervix.com/cervix-photo-galleries/

here

OMG Might of

My written English isn't perfect, - far far from it, but I never make that mistake, - not ever!

And I like Waspy

And after you have 'done it', tilt your pelvis in the air for 20mins. Easier done by sticking your legs up against the wall with a pillow under the small of your back.

Not entirely necessary, and not sure of the evidence of this, but it seems to be standard practice for those ttcing.

Heehee great to see the old ewcm tips coming out!

I thought I had ewcm two weekends ago, hence not doing the hpt. It could've been sperm though. But it was very ewcm-like. And no af yet so will do test this weekend.

It's ds birthday on Monday and we're having a party on Sunday. Was getting all pfb and wondering why my childless friends were all going away for the bank holiday and not rearranging their plans so they could come to the party. Actually got quite upset about it. But then realised I was being pfb and it's probably better that there aren't too many people at the party.

X factor are coming to my house on Thursday to interview dsis and the girls!!! Very exciting. Hoping that dh and mum are both recovered from hideous d&v bug as I don't want sis to catch it. Dh got much worse yesterday and spent the evening moaning in pain. Nearly called an ambulance at one point, but then gave him some paracetomol instead. That seemed to do the trick. Now mum has got it, she only looked after ds the next day.

Oh, you can never have tmi when it comes to ewcm

I would really recommend the book tbh. It tells your everything you need to know and goes back to basics about what a cycle is. Something I really was ignorant about It covers all aspects of your cycle from ttc, contraception, breast feeding, menopause. So it's not a "trying to get pg book", it's a book about your womanly well-being. Does that help?!

You don't have to chart if you want to keep it all low key atm. But it can give you helpful tips for things to look out for for sucessful ttc. Things like ovulation signs and leutal (sp) phases, again something I knew nothing about.

If I ever had a daughter I would buy her a copy. The things I learnt were amazing. I also plan to chart for contraception.

An interview at your house Digi. How EXCITING. I hope you all recover from the d&v bug soon. Maybe tell your sister to cover herself in antibac gel and not touch ANYTHING

We have another cxrawler.

Robyn has finally got the hang of it and can crawl from one end of the room to the other.
It is such a PITA as we now have to keep the whole house tidy not just her patch in the living room

omg the things you have to read thank goodness I never had to ttc.

hope the meeting goes well today angrystarlight

I'll dig out the birth list sometime and see if we can find some of the missing ones

LOL, did anyone look at the pictures in the link?

HV came and went. Lovely lady. Didn't even ask to weigh dd, just came to talk to me to see what she could do to help. Went away with some phonecalls to make on my behalf to save me some time (BUT, - I have learned from bitter experience that it is always best to do the calls myself anyway).

She weighed dd in the end at my request. She maintains the 9th centile and HV not worried at all - phew!

Good news Angry, maybe you can change your name back now?

I'm working up to looking at the pictures

Ah, all the talk of ewcm does bring back some memories, doesn't it?

I am sitting here wondering how long T will keep happily watching the menu screen of the baby einstein dvd before I actually have to press play. I almost want to keep it on to see how long it takes for him to get bored of it...