ERA/Alice/Emma infertility thread graduates/pregnancies

[seven201]

If you are a regular on the infertility board you may have seen the ERA/Alice/Emma threads for those going through those tests after lots of unsuccessful IVF or recurrent losses. This thread is for the ladies from there who are now pregnant. We can share our worries and joys.

I am useless at remembering who is pregnant from which thread so please do add yourself or tag others. @Janefx40 and @Faithhopelove83.

Also, if anyone who has fully graduated/had their baby, then please feel free to join if you wish. I don't want to tag individuals as I don't want people to feel obliged.

If you've also just had lots of failed ivf and/or recurrent miscarriages you are of course welcome too!

A little bit about me. I have a naturally conceived nearly 7 year old dc. Have been trying for dc2 for 5 1/4 years. One natural early loss, 5 failed ivf, 3 surgeries (main one being an adhesion removed), 2 natural pregnancies and early losses, 1 ivf pregnancy that got to heartbeat stage. This pregnancy is a letrazole round and I'm 9+6 (although measuring 9+0 but that's been consistent) so due early November. I've been spotting brown for the past 3 days but my scan was this afternoon, so reassuring (although still worried). I'm under the CRP clinic in epsom due to the miscarriages.

Good luck to us all!

@seven201 DH started crying!! Even though I'm not sure he knew what he was looking at, the technician was great, I told her how much IVF I'd had and how I'd never got to this point and I was worried about a blighted ovum so she reassured asap about what she was seeing :) as it was at ultrasound direct they gave me some videos of the heart beat (imgur.com/a/Si7anID)

Aww, how lovely! I'm glad you had such a good technician. It says page cannot be found when I click on that link. So nice you had that scan at the start of the weekend so you have to soak it in and chat with dh.

@Janefx40 ah I hope your doing ok and not being too hard on yourself, I haven’t had a baby yet but I’m sure it’s out of your control and your doing your best. Hope your enjoying your time with your little man!

@Gardenlady543 ah that’s fantastic news, you must be feeling so great today!! 💕💕things moving in the right direction

@Gardenlady543 yyaaaaayyy! So happy for you xxx

Thanks guys, I'm going in for intralipids on Tuesday and have the next scan a week on Tuesday which is my clinics official one.

@Janefx40 sorry to hear you're feeling stressed about feeding :(

@Faithhopelove83 are you feeling better now?

How's everyone else doing?

Congratulations @Gardenlady543 delighted your scan went well. It’s great to get another scan so soon. It’ll be great reassurance.

I’m so sorry to hear about your surrogate. How is she? I hope she is doing ok.

@Janefx40 hope feeding is going better. Like @seven201 we combi feed from the start and it worked well for us. I didn’t want the hassle of trying to exclusively feed when it wasn’t coming easily as I felt I’d been through enough!!

hope everyone else is doing well.

Thankyou @Dochas12111 I have asked for an update on how she is and they haven't told me, which is really upsetting, as I have said we want to make sure she is ok especially as she had a vacuum aspiration last week. I am going to speak with the doctor this week who will hopefully tell me what happened and why the decisions were made and that will also be an opportunity for the doctor to tell me if she is ok.

Hope you are all doing ok.

I emailed my various clinics to say we had the baby. CRP (Mr Shehata's in Epsom) sent us a card saying congratulations. CRGH sent me an email asking if we wanted to destroy our remaining (abnormal) embryos! Says it all really doesn't it!

@Dochas12111 thanks for the advice. We have started mix feeding now too. It was good to hear your perspective - yes you are right - we have been through too much to torture ourselves with feeding issues. Mix feeding is a much happier place x

@Janefx40 an interesting response!! Glad CRP sent a card. It really does make all the difference, I remember a few years ago when my dog passed away getting a card from the vet and it just helped to know I wasn't just seen as someone paying a bill.

I went into my clinic for the first time yesterday to get intralipids. I hope this is the right thing to do, I can see Dr Gorgys timeline that someone posted online says an infusion with the positive test and another at the 6 week scan and then I think bloods at 8 weeks, although none of this was in my notes so I guess I will call up next week if things are going well and ask. Nothing interesting happening from my end, next scan is Tuesday at my clinic. I spoke with my doctor yesterday, he said if the scan next week is good the chance of miscarriage drops to 3-4% although that still seems quite high. He doesn't feel it was the fibroid or the immune stuff that made the difference but getting the right protocol for the endometrium, but surely I would have implanted in my fresh cycle if that was the case. I finally got to speak to the surrogacy doctor today, from their perspective they decided the pregnancy was not viable on the Friday and feel the information was passed across, obviously that isn't what I was told and I will probably never find out where the communication issue happened, they said our surrogate was upset and scared when this all happened, she had the procedure last week and is feeling well now, which is good as I have been trying to find out if she is ok since.

@Janefx40 gosh, what a response from CRGH! Nice CRP sent a card - they really do seem to care. When I had my last intralipids I was handed a little gift box with hand cream, some chocolate and a little candle in - so sweet! I'm glad you're feeling good about the combi feeding. As my dd lost so much weight she was initially on a few bottles a day but I did eventually manage to drop that down to just one before bed. Just do what works best for you.

@Gardenlady543 I'm glad you've been able to speak to someone but I'm sorry they didn't really give you a proper answer about why you weren't told sooner. Good to hear your surrogate is doing a bit better now. Must be so hard not being allowed direct contact, but I can see why that's the policy. Not long until your next scan.

@Gardenlady543 good luck for your scan tomorrow. Let us know how you get on. It takes so much courage to walk into those scans, I know. Will be thinking of you xxx

How is everyone else? @seven201 @AM08 @Faithhopelove83 @Dochas12111

@Gardenlady543 good luck for tomorrow.

@Janefx40 all good with me thanks. How are you and baby getting on?

@seven201 we're ok thanks. He is 3 weeks tomorrow.

He's getting weighed tomorrow so I am pretty nervous to see if he is gaining weight or not. He's pretty scrawny so not feeling confident. It's been really hard to pump to increase my milk supply as he is constantly feeding or on me. I've put him down for the odd 10 minute period today during which I ate so not long enough to pump milk. Anyway - we shall see what tomorrow brings.

He's doing well tho. He was so much more alert today and went in his baby gym twice. He seemed to really enjoy staring at the toys!

@Janefx40 good luck for the weigh in tomorrow. Pumping can be a right pain! I hope he's letting you get some sleep occasionally!

Thanks guys, just had the scan, measured spot on at 7+6 and all looking good. :)

Amazing @Gardenlady543 !!! What a relief that must be. Is it sinking in yet? I don't think it's sunk in for me yet and I'm further along.

@Janefx40 have you been to the weigh in yet?

@seven201 that is good if it hasn't sunk in for you either!! I mean I know it's happening and I'm keeping my close friends who know about my IVF updated, it's just hard to accept after having IVF since 2020 that a baby maybe coming my way and I'm so worried about something going wrong. I have decided I'm going to have another scan on Sunday because otherwise I'd have a really long wait until the following Sunday, plus the place I go to send the images and video across so it's quite nice to have that.

This sounds really stressful @Janefx40 I was having a look at things for this stage and thinking how it will be a whole new issue for me, as me and my husband are both vegan and that's a pretty difficult thing to accommodate with formula apparently there are a couple of products in France but they all seem to be sold out, I'd love to breastfeed as much as possible but I know it's incredibly difficult and I'll need to have a backup available. Sounds like there is always something to worry about!

@Gardenlady543 this is amazing news! I'm so happy for you. It's natural to feel nervous as it's early days and you've travelled a long way to get this far. But this is the best things can possibly be at this stage and there is comfort and hope in that!

Breastfeeding isn't necessarily that hard. Sometimes it takes work but it is possible. If I had been determined not to top up with formula there would have been a way forward, it would just have been hard work. Come talk to me when you get closer and I will talk you through some of the breastfeeding stuff and how to avoid some of the pitfalls!

Oh his weigh in. It was ok. It was a pass but we didn't ace it. He's gained weight but not loads. He's gained just enough for them not to worry but no more than that. So things are working but I'm not totally reassured. He's starting to be far more alert tho which is nice. He's a sweet little tiny chap!!

Thanks @Janefx40 I'm glad the weigh in went ok, fingers crossed for a really good one next time!

@Janefx40 well done on the weigh in. Always a bit disappointing to not get the "he's jumped back up the centiles" but it sounds like you and him are doing a great job!

@Gardenlady543 glad you've got another scan soon. I have my cervical length one next week so am quite pleased we get another peek. Especially as I've been overdoing it lately as our building work has started so have been moving stuff and cleaning until late every night.

@seven201 cervical length is an internal scan. I guess that's obvious but it took me by surprise anyway as hadn't thought it through and figured I was done with that transvaginal wand!!! Glad you get another peek soon.

What building work are you having done? Exciting!

@seven201 are you having the cervical length scan privately? I asked my midwife about what tests they do to check the cervix in case of a weak cervix etc…and was told they don’t check which seems ridiculous.