IVF Pregnancy Club- spring/summer 2026

[pastelheart]

Wanted to start a thread for anyone expecting after IVF and due next spring/summer

I am finding it quite daunting after infertility for 4 years and then a round of IVF to now be FINALLY expecting in June 2026, can hopefully chat with anyone else in the same boat

@backtotheicsi🩷

I feel for you all with the pessaries. When I done IUI in 2020 I had to use them and hated them. However when I done the IVF (different clinic) my progesterone was via an injection which was much easier. I had spotting at 7 weeks so stayed on the progesterone until 12 weeks

@MintOwl welcome and congrats! It’s so funny how we are all still in disbelief that it’s actually worked, I feel like this constantly. I randomly turn round to my partner like, can you believe it worked? I can’t believe it and he looks at me like 🤨 thank you, I am taking some TOIL today so have logged off my laptop and got into bed, hoping I sleep for a bit today. Oh my diet consists of cereal and crumpets and cheesy chips atm lol 😂 so well done on the mainly healthy snacks!

@dubkitten that’s exciting and I bet your goddaughter is excited. My son has been asking for a little sister for about 6 years and we have had to turn around like we are working on it 😂 I can’t wait to tell him on Friday! I am on injections and pessaries so feel completely mugged off tbh 😂 the injections are fine and the pessaries are fine in the sense no irritation or anything… it’s just a struggle to remember how many I have done throughout the day as have to do three… I’m always like have I done 1,2 or 3 so far? Hmmm maybe I should just put another one in just incase, or should I not risk it 😂 I have timers and everything and it’s not helping xx

@pastelheart so similar to be last week on what you’ve eaten all I ate was marmite toast and cheesy chips lol.
this week it’s been ketchup rolls and home made crispy garlic bread. So funny. It’s like cheesy chips had stopped working we ordered some Friday night and I was like oh no it’s not working. So I’ve moved on lol
@MintOwl congratulations! Xx

@Backtotheicsi omg I love cheesy chips but I randomly thought about this take away from back where I am from originally yesterday and it’s all I can think about… they do these noodle pots and I always had satay sauce and chicken with udon noodles and then cheese and chicken spring rolls… I can’t think about anything else but I’m not back to my home town until Friday and I am considering leaving early and going there for lunch by myself 😂😂 lol at the ketchup rolls 😂 I was mad for poached eggs a couple of weeks ago… now the smell of eggs makes me gag so no thank you xx

One for team progesterone pessaries of doom: if you have come off them have you had any side effects? I stopped my 3x daily (@pastelheart I agree they are a right faff to remember - particularly the lunch-time one!) on Friday and have felt more tired since with a hangover-style headache and malaise today. Hoping my hormone levels will stabilise over the coming days and I will feel better. Oh and I am also in disbelief that it actually worked and I have a baby growing inside me somewhere (no real bump to speak of yet so it really is like where?!😂)

@magpie234 lol thank you for reminding me to go do my pessary 😂 bloody hell im useless.

I am sure your levels will level off soon and you will feel better 🩷 do you think we will feel like that until we have our babies or do you think we will carry on feeling like oh my god I can’t believe it happened forever? Xx

@pastelheart I think forever tbh 🤷‍♀️. I have also found it hard to fight the feeling that pregnancy spaces are not for me after so long in the infertility club but hope that will improve with time.

@magpie234i think you are right. It’s such a strange journey isn’t it, so many different emotions to contend with

100% get you on the pregnancy spaces, I started following the June due date post and I just couldn’t post on there. I think I just felt in a complete different head space to others. As they say, the fertility club is the worse club to be in, but with the best members. It’s lovely talking to people who just get how you are feeling.

I even think my partner can’t understand 100% either, he’s been amazing and supportive but he can’t understand the complete mix of emotions constantly… and the hormones. So many hormones lol 😂 xx

Also, so hopefully telling our family the news this weekend, I have bought cards which say ‘We have been keeping a secret…’ on the front and then going to print some pics, like our scan pic, pregnancy test etc to put inside. Visit our families (separate) and be like oh just found this card in your letter box… do we like this idea? Xx

@pastelheart heres me wanting to not tell a soul until Christmas 😂😂 I have ordered my girl a big sister teddy with two little rabbits on which should come this week so who knows!

@Backtotheicsi I can’t wait any longer honestly! I am actively avoiding everyone and I can’t avoid my family for any longer lol 😂 I can’t keep it hidden anymore 😂 xx

The Teddy is a lovely idea though @Backtotheicsi she will love that xx

Oh! @Backtotheicsi I forgot to say… the smints work! Had about a million today xx

@pastelheart That is so sweet! They will be so excited! Tell us how it goes.

@magpie234I 100% will 🩷 so I took today off work and I managed a 39 minute nap and that is all. The rest of the time I led in bed staring at the ceiling so that’s just brilliant, I hope I sleep better tonight. I do think I am worrying about the scan on Wednesday deep down, so maybe that is impacting my sleep too (I am also excited so could be a mixture) I hope everyone has had a good day! Xx

@pastelheart Best of luck! Ours is on Friday. No doubt the anxiety is playing into things for you… it can have such a powerful effect I find! Especially on things like sleep.

Thanks for the congrats 😊 I haven’t had any major cravings except I can’t eat enough extra mature cheddar cheese at the moment. And peanut butter, but that’s not unusual for me.
I love the card and teddy ideas!
I’m based in London and used a ‘Baby on Board’ badge for the first time today to get a seat on the tube which felt strange/cheeky somehow but quite satisfying, after checking nobody from work was nearby. Just had to remember to take it off when I got closer to work.
I don’t have a bump yet and agree that also makes it hard to believe!

Best of luck with the scans @pastelheart and @magpie234

@pastelheart oh that’s brilliant! I am ploughing through the smints in work to not heave it’s awful people must think I’m so weird just rattling my little tin every few minutes 😂
how are your ohss symptoms now?
getting close to your scan now, it’s so m hard all the waiting xx

That’s so cute. I got this for my goddaughter and it went down really well

https://amzn.eu/d/22m8J0l

Ah how adorable 🥰

Yea when you get the bump and start feeling the movements it suddenly will feel very real!

@pastelheart Thanks for starting this thread. I was looking for a space to share the various experiences of IVF actually working! I really feel it's a different experience for us who've had years of fertility struggles. I'm only 5 weeks after a FET and despite testing positive really early, high beta numbers, I'm constantly waiting for things to go wrong. I'm not trying to be negative it's just bern my lived experience for so long that it's totally surreal to imagine success! I keep saying to myself that I deserve this! And that past experiences don't determine this experience. It's so hard. And so amazing! As so many have already said, total emotional rollercoaster. I'm also shattered and nauseous but needing to eat little and often as the second blood sugar drops, the nausea sets in! How are others managing if eating is off-putting?

I had constant nausea until 15 weeks ( no vomitting thankfully) and just tried to eat what I could. My hospital said once I was getting fluids into me and a bit of food then it would be ok.

@magpie234 thank you and good luck for your scan on Friday too

@MintOwl oh the badge is a good idea! Did someone stand up to give you a seat? And thank you for the luck on our scan 🩷 it’s at 1pm tomorrow so getting through work in the morning will be a challenge

@dubkittenahh that card is sooo cute. I did see the scratch card ones and considered getting them

@Backtotheicsi 😂😂😂 let people think you are weird, who cares lol my OHSS symptoms resolved after about 10 days which, honestly, was such a relief as I had read that they could continue until 12 weeks and that really worried me as I felt so poorly. I was drinking 3 protein shakes and 3+ litres of electrolytes or iso drinks a day (also, don’t bother with lucozade, Tesco do their own iso drinks and they are 10/10 and a fraction of the price, I am deffo going to keep stocked up on them the whole pregnancy)

@Sara237 welcome and congrats! 100% get how you feel, and I think feeling cautious is completely normal for us… we have all been through so much! And you do deserve this 🩷 I am just eating cereal and cheesy chips 🥴🙃 and not stressing about it lol xx