IVF pregnancies - Spring 2024

[thislittlebird]

Anyone here in a similar position? I'm feeling a bit of an odd one out on forums now where I don't feel pregnant pregnant and I don't feel infertile infertile, and thought I'd see if others were in the same, tentative situation. I don't feel like I'm ready to join the main May 2024 gang until I'm more confident this will continue.

I'm only 4 weeks 5 days :/

@KG1244 I’m not really very excited about scans tbh, just feels like a box to tick for me to get to the bit where we find out about health stuff. I’m probably unusual in this way. I’ll do 500ml max, I’ve already learned my lesson that 1 litre is a ridiculous suggestion.

It’s not a lot, it’s £5 for one photo but it just feels a bit shit when dh can’t come and you’ve spent years being fucked around by the nhs because of infertility, then spent a fortune privately to actually get help, and then you finally think you’re going back to a system where you don’t have to pay (because you already pay in taxes) and the charge sort of took me by surprise. I’m not paying for more, DH will have to just settle for one.

@thislittlebird Good luck today 🤞 I didn’t have to drink any water before my 12w scan and baby was easy to see. Didn’t have to pay for photos either. It’s so strange how each NHS trust is different. I understand what you feel like with being messed around. My GP deliberatley told us she would not refer us for ages after we initially saw her (how clueless we were) even though we’d been trying for over a year. I was later gutted to find out this was because in our area you cannot get NHS fertility treatment at all if the female is over 35. Had we been referred at the time I am certain I would not now be having a baby at 44!

@thislittlebird Ours said it would charge but then didn't. Very confusing.

I went to the loo one hour before then drank 400ml of water (thereabouts) and found that manageable.

I hope it goes well!

@thislittlebird we didn't get charged for pics at the 12 week scan, but we did at 20 weeks. Plus they're shit! Apart from one good one of the feet.

I second @TheBirdintheCave, 400ml an hour before is what I did too.

Is your scan next week? I won't tell you not to be nervous because of course you will be. We're all rooting for you and here to support you. And your chances of everything being absolutely fine are extremely high.

@thislittlebird That is so bizarre. Both the water and the charging for the picture!
I have not once been asked to drink anything before a scan, and in fact have been asked to empty my bladder more often than not, even for abdominal scans.

In any case, hope the scan goes well and everything is fine with the little one!

@countrypunk I had an OB appointment last monday, and she did a scan and printed the photos... and honestly, apart from the last one, where you can see she is sleeping with her back turned, the other 2 you cant even understand what youre looking at! LOL

@ASGIRC 😆 Baby not playing ball!

Literally every scan Ive had, shes been asleep.

Apart from 1, I went to the EPU for something (cant even remember what) and she was jumping around. She was 11 weeks then. It wa the only time she was active on a scan. All other shes been sleeping, and only moves when disturbed, mostly turning her back LOL

@ASGIRC Maybe you'll have an ultra chilled baby.... or maybe she'll come out full of beans after all those naps...

@countrypunk I really hope shes chill!! LOL

Ok so it was an annoying experience lol. I was waiting ages, I followed the rules and got there early as per the letter and then people would rock up on the dot for their appointment and go straight in :/

Can’t say I was thrilled some very rude girl who kept pushing past people queueing. Can’t wait to share a ward with these folks 🫠

Scan wise, all was good at this stage and they’ll tell me in the week if my bloods mark me as high risk. She got me to do the scan and then get up, empty my bladder, and then come back and do more scanning. If I’d drank a litre I might have pissed myself tbh, having waited nearly a hour in there. Very confusing! Baby was doing somersaults and was “very active” so didn’t stay still for long.

The NT measurement was 2.0 and the baby was measuring 13 weeks 2 days so a little ahead! Must be those ivf hormones as some of you have said.

20 week scan is Jan 6th, another Saturday??? And it’ll be extended so they can do a cervix check on me.

@PollywithaP we also lost years thanks to nhs and hospital incompetence, I’m very wary because of that experience. are you 44 now? Are they doing the cervix check on you?

@TheBirdintheCave it was weird, I saw people paying and getting a presentation envelope while I was waiting. Then she just have me two print outs while I was in the room? So I shoved them in my bag and never asked, they weren’t even very clear because the baby was moving so much so I didn’t feel compelled to offer money and no one asked. The ones I saw someone left on the desk were much better quality images and print, quite glossy.

@countrypunk so shit! really didn’t feel like paying a tenner. She gave me one because I only asked for one and then she have me another and she said she printed for herself? I just took it and left!

@ASGIRC it was so weird, and then all the rules they shout at you in the letter went out the window when I got there, no one seemed to care. The water thing was a joke, no way would I drink that much!

She was sleeping again? Wish mine did, it wouldn’t stop moving.

@countrypunk I would appreciate a baby that likes naps!

@thislittlebird So all was well, that's great news!

I would very much like a baby that naps... my niece is on the go constantly so I'm sort of bracing myself that we might get similar! She is wonderful though.

@thislittlebird That’s great news baby is well. Dissapointing and also rubbish that you had so much misinformation. The other ‘customers’ sound like a delight from their actions 🤔 My measurement was 2.0 too,i’m still waiting for the results but i’m sure it will be fine. I don’t know what a cervical check is, no one’s mentioned it. I didn’t have one with last baby (3y ago)? Again maybe a difference in NHS trust? Find out if you can pay for a private room, some hospitals offer them (mine does). Hope your other half likes the pics and is better soon x

I'm having cervical checks because I had LLETZ treatment for abnormal cells 10 years ago. I think you only get them if there's a clinical reason?

@PollywithaP @countrypunk I think I got classed as moderate risk due to previous early miscarriage and age? So they said they’d do the cervical check.

@PollywithaP when did you have your scan? Recently? Sorry, I’ve forgotten who had what and when. So there’s one hospital near-ish to me where you could pay for a private room but apparently they stopped it due to covid 🙃. I don’t understand where you find this stuff out from, but I want to talk to the midwife about my options at the 16 week appointment.

Other half said “glad we didn’t pay for that!” When he saw the crapp pic lolol

@thislittlebird my scan was Tues 7th and I was put 6 days ahead so exactly 13w. Makes sense about the checks. I haven’t had any previous losses, in fact up until my DD no pregnancies at all.
I found out about the private rooms from a friend who had also given birth at the same place, so asked the midwife (as our midwives are hospital based here), but I never got one last time as I had an emergency section and was just so glad we were both OK that I didn’t even think to ask! Also you could ask if you get to do a maternity unit ‘tour’ which all the hospitals do here. I’m not sure if that’s just this area and the competition between them though. I live just over 30 mins from three major hospitals with ICU and trauma centres, 25mins from the smaller county hospital I have chosen and 20 mins from a midwife birthing centre, so was really spoilt for choice!

@PollywithaP yeah mine was something like 3 days ahead but they didn’t change my date, which I was pleased with. I had no pregnancies until that one chemical and then this one.

are you in London? Just being nosey in case your hospitals are near my hospitals. My area is quite poor, it seems very unlikely any hospital round here will have the option to pay but I would pay if I was allowed to go to Guys or somewhere like that and they offered it.

I’ll see if we can do these tours. We have a lot of choice but the choices aren’t necessarily good or better. Poor area, south east London has fewer hospitals now than when I was a kid and it has a lot more people. I’m quite nervous about it all really.

I realised last night that I gave them the wrong information about my ivf at the appointment. I was having the combined test bloods done and she asked me when my egg collection was. I don’t think I expected that question and I just ummed and ahhed and then said “it must have been 5 or 6 days before my transfer” and she logged it as September 2023. What an idiot, I now realise that’s complete rubbish and it was in March 2023! I didn’t have a fresh transfer, it took me by surprise and now I feel like a fool who will have aged her eggs unnecessarily for the numbers they’re crunching. I know it’s only a few months but it’s 39 vs 40 in terms of egg collection.

I’m near Reading, Berkshire. So I have choices of Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Basingstoke or Wallingford! It might be worth asking if you get a choice of which one you can give birth at? Hopefully the date will not make that much difference. I had the same but our eggs were collected in 2019!

@PollywithaP You probably answered correctly though lol. I just don’t know why I didn’t know the answer to the question, obviously I do but it threw me off when they asked. Yeah your area sounds nicer tbh, mine is pretty poor in terms of choice. Although I’m pretty sure you can choose anywhere you want technically, I don’t think they can tell you no. I’m going to ask them at 16 weeks.

quality of choice, I mean

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.
For those of you well into your second trimester (and had vomiting and tiredness in the first), please tell me this passes soon! I’m 15 + 1 today and still suffering although I’m now not vomiting everyday and when I do, it’s usually only once. Hoping that means the sickness is on its way out….

@KG1244 With my son it lasted until week 19 but I did notice a huge improvement around week 16, interestingly this was the week I stopped taking the pre-natal vitamin and just switched to Vitamin D like my midwife suggested.

@KG1244 i’m 15w tomorrow and i’m afraid I can’t offer any hope. I’m still sick several times a day and am exhausted. I have discovered this week that I can at least stomach watered down cranberry juice (as i’ve just been bringing water back up), and I have actually managed to eat a few small meals without throwing them up. I recall it let up around 20w in my last pregnancy (as I decorated my whole house). You have my sympathy, is is no fun. I’m finding it emotionally very tough too as i’m so drained.

Someone at work just announced to me on a call that they’re pregnant and due mid May, it was sooo hard not to say me too!!!!! I just went ohhhhh congratulations and kinda had to stop myself from laughing with amusement. All very awkward! I’ll tell her in a week but I’m waiting to see if my tests come back ok.

Is anyone here 40 + and got low risk on the combined test?