IVF Pregnancies (thread 2)

[Holskey]

@LemonyT
@strawberrysummer19
@Etonmess20
@IamnotwhouthinkIam
@strawberrysummer19
@paintfairy
@2mumlife
@Starbeach
@TheSnufflet
@Novavee
@Donimo
@Monday55
@Cakecakecheese
@Porridgeislife
@JAR1981
@Hufflepuff1
@2022babyhope
@becarefuloutthere
@notsofertilemyrtle
@RiverRiot

I've definitely missed people, but hoping I've got everyone who's been active recently. Apologies if not!

Congratulations TheSnufflet so pleased to hear your twins are here! Sounds like you’ve all been through the mill but it’s great that you’re all well enough to be at home now. Enjoy your lovely new arrivals 🎉💐

Congratulations @TheSnufflet! Seems you've had a time of it but I'm so glad you and your babies are home 🥰

@TheSnufflet Great to hear you're all home now! Hope you're all doing well and you can settle into life as a family together now you're home x

Hi all, the new MN format has kept me away!

congrats to @Holskey , @LemonyT , and @TheSnufflet on the beautiful babies!

@Ivf2023 so sorry to hear about your MMC. Absolutely gutting. Are you feeling well cared for?

I'm doing a bit of a tidy and have some ovulation sticks, cyclogest, and pregnancy tests. What have you all done with these? I'm 28 weeks with our last embryo and though it makes me a bit nervous (still!) to get rid of these things, I'm sure someone else could use them, and I know we wouldn't try again should the very worst happen.

Sending good thoughts to you all and hope you're managing in this heat xx

@begoniagal3 I've been thinking about that too. Considering giving my ovulation stuff to my sister as she's been making noises about trying for a baby, and possibly stashing away the pregnancy sticks as planning on doing another round with my frozen embryos once my little boy is older. Do sealed pregnancy tests ever expire?

My little fresh embryo transfer is now 37 weeks! I'll be having a c section due to placenta previa on 11th august. Not long now.

Had a dream last night. I had three kids. This little boy around 13/14, a younger sister about 10, and another little boy aged around 4. They were all in the car and I was talking to them through the window sorting plans. Just a simple domestic moment. I love those type of dreams.

@begoniagal3 funnily enough I was looking at my remaining IVF drugs and all the needles this week and wondering how / when to get rid of them. I'm very nearly 28 weeks and also have the same nerves. This will be our only baby. We've no other frozen embryos and I know for definite DH could not bear to start the whole process again. We're getting new bedroom wardrobes soon so I'll have to do something with them when I clear everything out...

@ToCaden I think there is a date on the box which will say when pregnancy tests are valid until. I don't think they say "valid", just can't think of the technical term!

Funnily enough I dropped all my old meds at the pharmacy today. They wouldn't take my sharps bin though, will have to try the hospital for that.

Pregnancy tests do expire so worth keeping hold but checking the date before you next use.

I've been dropping in and out of the thread as somehow it keeps getting lost from my active threads. I'm 34 weeks now and so ready to finish work next week and spend some time with DS and DD before baby arrives. He's measuring on 97th centile, off the charts for abdo circumference and my waters are high so all a bit worrying. GTT negative and we were low risk for all screening with no structural abnormalities spotted at any of our scans so hopefully just one of those things! Further follow up scan and consultant appointment on 1 August so hopefully will know more then!

@begoniagal3 You could offer the ovulation and pregnancy tests on freecycle / facebook barter type pages. I'm sure someone could make good use of them.

@ToCaden As others have said there is a date on the pregnancy tests I beleive.

I still have all sorts, including Menapur in the fridge and sharps bins we should really clear out. I've been the same though of not really knowing what to do with it.

We have 2 frosties and are hoping for a sibling in the future. As we're a same sex couple we did have a chat as a couple (and with consultant from the clinic) awhile ago about about our best chances for a sibling. It was really useful actually - I'm younger than my partner, but respond poorly to IVF drugs, so we talked about whether my partner should do an egg collection whilst I'm pregnant to try to create extra embryos just in case the 2 frosties we have don't stick, since age is a factor for her (and it would speed things up if we had embryos already ready to go). Consultant was really good at working things through with us, and basically helped us come to the decision that since my DP doesn't want to carry a child and isn't bothered about using her eggs, that our best chances are still to use the embryos we have first and for me to do another egg collection if it comes down to that. Can't really imagine going through the whole IVF journey again though!

@2mumlife I agree. I think it's the many appointments with the many internal exams I hated the most. Hoping there's at least not so much of that with frosties (I really need to look up to see what happens as only had egg collection then fresh embryo transplant so far).

Recently had to have some internal exams for placenta placement, and wow I really hate those things. Another one on monday which I'm kinda hoping they forget about as it's really only a double checking thing before we plan out the c section.

Fingers crossed for us both that frosties stick and no further egg collection needed.

@TheSnufflet congratulations on your twins. And glad your girls operation went well. How are you getting on at home? My twins are struggling with weight gain so we are still under the hospital outreach team weeks on.

@ToCaden I've done 2 FETs. They are a LOT more straight forward than an egg collection, and were the only thing that worked for me (BFNs in 4 IUIs and my fresh transfer, but FETs ended in a CP and this pregnancy). A lot will depend on if you were to do a medicated or unmedicated FET. We did medicated FETs as my cycle is unpredictable, but I'm living in hope this pregnancy might 'reset' things and give me a regular enough cycle that we could do unmedicated in the future. I've already done 2 egg collections, and really don't fancy a third tbh.

@Donimo Hopefully your babies start packing on the pounds soon. I'm sure you're doing a great job :)

Anyone else worried about how they will cope will sleep disturbance once baby is here? Did sleep great last night as woke in middle of the night with heartburn, and I am in SUCH a bad mood, was is usual for me if I don't get a decent nights sleep. How am I going to cope with night time feeds 😮

@2mumlife DH and I have discussed this. I have epilepsy and ideally need 6 hours sleep in every 24 hour period to reduce any risks. Priorities in the early days will be establishing breastfeeding (I'm so desperate to breastfeed, feels like the only thing my body would be able to do for itself for this baby) and me getting sleep, even if I sleep in the day and visitors can't come round as often as they would like.

If it's any consolation my friend had a baby earlier this year and she said the nights aren't too bad if you've had a couple of naps in the day. That's what I keep holding onto!

@2mumlife you kind of get used to the lack of sleep and grab an odd hour here and there to keep you going. I go to bed at 8.30pm and get a couple of hours whilst my husband has the twins. He then sleeps in the spare room so he can get a full nights sleep as he needs to go to work. On a bad day I get about 4 hours by grabbing a few hours here or there. And you do get used to it. I am however so looking forward to a time when they sleep for a 5-6 hour stretch! With my daughter things improved massively with sleep from 8 weeks old, would sleep 11pm to 5-6am most nights. But know this won't be the case with the twins! 😪

@CurbsideProphet @Donimo I'm hoping to daytime naps too. My partner really doesn't want to get into the habit of sleeping separately from each other, but we'll see how that goes when she needs to return to work as she only gets 4 weeks off for "paternity" leave and they want her back in for 2 weeks for busy period before they'll let her take more time off as annual leave. I just hope we get a baby that sleeps ok 🤞🤞🤞🤞 Can't imagine trying to do it with twins, but at least you have practice Donimo from your daughter :)

With my first baby (not a good sleeper!) I found I could just get up late. He woke me a lot but I could keep going back to sleep because I had no other children to look after. I now have to get up because of my toddler but this one is a great sleeper. I do bed-share though which obviously comes with risks but makes a huge difference to how much sleep I get. Of course, often being sleep deprived comes with the territory, but sometimes there are ways around it.

@Donimo I am having a similar weight gain issue with my girl twin - obviously intestinal surgery has meant that she's had a hard start but she is on a low percentile for weight (only just term now and measuring 6lbs) but she's so hungry all the time and I suspect a bit refluxy - if I feed her as much as she wants (both breast and formula) she ends up gorging herself and vomming it all back up again. Also have to keep her upright to stop her crying after feeds. Seriously considering buying some high energy milk and trying to get it into her. My HV is on annual leave so we're not being seen for another couple of weeks. Of course the boy is absolutely fine and is putting on loads of weight now so they have very different needs!

@2mumlife I wouldn't have believed it myself as I am such a big sleeper, but honestly once baby is here, 3 hours feels like 7! With the twins we just try and feed and change them on the same vague schedule (as much as babies under 4 months old can be said to be on a "schedule") to keep them roughly in sync. In reality it just means not letting them nap for longer than three hours during the day without waking them up for feeds/changing, which then means you're more likely to get a 3 hour + stretch at night. Of course this isn't foolproof and sometimes they will wake every hour on the hour, but I've heard this phase doesn't last long 🙂

@TheSnufflet we are under a dietian now. As over full term and twins are just over and just under 6lb. Had 2 weeks last week of weight loss which was hard. Can you see a dietian? As the high calorie formula we are using is prescription only and has a set daily amount to give and needs twice weekly weights to check how they are getting on. The girls are also on Gaviscon for reflux 4 times per day. Have you spoken to your GP regarding the reflux as it sounds like she has reflux. We have such a strict routine of feeds now, with having to score each breast feed and if insufficient to top up with expressed milk plus high calorie formula.... it's really hard work to stick to it and have a life!

I was told it might take up to four weeks to get screening results through, but they’d be in touch in about a week if there were any concerns

@Holskey @TheSnufflet Think I'm just going to need to go with the 'sleep when baby sleeps' mantra!

Gave birth to my ivf baby unexpectantly early via emergency c section yesterday morning. Placenta previa so woke up bleeding when he decided to come early.

Dramatic start after a pretty easy pregnancy, but they got him out and all looking good so far.

He's also huge. 8 pounds 5 at only 38 + 2 weeks (or 37 + 5 if going by the ivf dates).

Congratulations @ToCaden 💐 8.5 lbs is a very good weight isn't it! Hope you're recovering well after his dramatic entry into the world and enjoying your first days together 😊

congrats, @ToCaden ! That's a very good sized baby for 38 weeks! Well done you two. Enjoy the newborn cuddles xx

@ToCaden Congratulations! Glad to hear everything went well after what I imagine was quite a scary morning. Enjoy getting to know baby!

Huge congratulations @ToCaden! I hope you're not too upset with your birth experience, but it's totally normal if you are. I'm glad little one is doing well ❤️ Great weight- mine was very similar and has grown out of some 0-3 at 6 weeks 😭 They grow so fast!