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🩷

@FancyGoose Do you think you will collect colostrum before having baby? I really don’t understand this if you are planning on breastfeeding but everyone seems to be doing it! I understand the worry of buying stuff, next day delivery could work, but will it cause you more stress the closer you get? You will need a car seat to leave the hospital I think though x

@Sara237 ah yes the self sterilising bottles are such a good idea, I will get some. When I breastfed before I leaked sooooooooooo much so I have bought a milk collector so hoping I can get a little stash frozen from that. I have had to wear breastpads since 16 weeks LOL x

@FancyGoose thanks for the reassurance that your friend had Covid while pregnant and babies were fine, this helps 😁also you were saying about baby having a place to sleep etc .. we also get a baby box free and it has a mattress in the bottom of the box so you can use that for putting baba in to sleep, it might feel a bit werid putting baby in a ‘box’ I think 🤨 but that’s what it is made for so if you really didn’t wana buy for a few weeks etc at lest there is that option also ☺️av heard it can be dangerous putting baby to sleep for long periods in a car seat as their airways can get hindered /they can slouch over and its may cause breathing issues , always better to sleep them with a flat back 🥰

@pastelheart that’s good you haven’t had it, this is my 4th time, but I work in a school so lots of bugs etc always going around 😅🫣 children .. who would hav’um 😝 you might want a steriliser incase when baby is a bit bigger you can express then bottle feed your own milk, I know with my 1st, after 9 months she was getting so much bigger and it felt awkward to feed her on the breast,so I expressed and fed her with a bottle that way, so depending on how you feel I guess everyone is different.. plus she had teeth by then and no way was I risking her bitting my nips 😂🤨

when you say collecting colostrum ? The colostrum will be present when baby 1st starts suckling, then milk will come in a few weeks after, the colostrum is really healthy for babies guts etc .. what does it mean to collect it before the birth ? Av not heard of this ?

@Nosejug oh yeh I never thought about the immunity side of things .. good shout to a wee bonus ☺️

I'm thinking about colostrum when I get a bit further on - I know it's not recommended this early (21 weeks), but when DP was pregnant she had gestational diabetes and they were worried about pre-eclampsia, and very much recommended it in case DP ended up in a situation where she couldn't breastfeed. I think that's the logic behind collecting it.

@AmberRose26, isn't it colostrum for a few days, then transitional milk?

@FancyGoose I'm sorry your scan was a worry. FWIW I absolutely get your fear about buying stuff! I am planning to buy things on 24 hour delivery too, if it helps. I hope breastfeeding works and I'm not bothered if it doesn't, but I won't buy milk/bottles. All these things are surmountable and I know it'll stress me out more trying to work out what I do and don't 'really' need.

@pastelheart, what car are you thinking of? I have a 3-door car and I'm going to see how I get on with it, though someone in a pregnancy group helpfully decided to give me a big (uninvited) lecture about how dangerous it must be and how she much preferred her big, fancy car.

@SarahAndQuack sorry my mistake .. days not weeks 😁 so is it where you collect it by a breast pump before baby is born ? So will you still have some when baby is born , or does it stimulate your milk early ? Sorry av never heard of this so curious what it is .. my daughter was born 24 years ago so totally different things now I guess?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think you still have plenty when the baby is born - I got told you shouldn't try to collect it too early as it can send you into early labour, but later on obviously that might feel like a bonus!

I definitely notice it's talked about much more now. When DD was born, which is nearly a decade ago, it was very much explained as something you'd do only because you thought it was really likely you wouldn't get to breastfeed in the initial hours after birth. Whereas now it seems more standard?

I'd also love to know why!

I am 28 weeks and have just started noticing some colostrum stains on my pyjamas. So time for some breast pads! I have read not to start trying to collect any until much later though as it can induce labour. Tbc if I do that at all given I am hoping for a planned c-section but it does seem like a good idea to at least try and get a bit in case for whatever reason breastfeeding is hard or not possible in the beginning.

Interesting to read about this early colostrum gathering. Never heard of it! Will Google later. Breastfeeding was the one thing I found fairly straightforward about new motherhood with my son! Though I hadn't realized it puts you into a mini menopause with the associated night sweats, anxiety and general feeling of hormonal angst. Not that everyone gets this but I wish I'd known it was a common physiological response as there was a while back there when I questioned my sanity! After all the struggles, there's this natural expectation that we should love and savor every moment of early motherhood when the reality is often that a lot of it is mind numbingly tedious, endlessly repetitive and physically and mentally exhausting. Completely worth it and a love like no other but I think we should tell it like it is as I remember absolutely mourning my child free state at one point and thinking it was a terrible sign when now I realize it was just the normal and natural settling in to a whole new way of being. It all needs to be normalised imo. The good and the awful!
Happy Saturday y'all. 😂

Oh that made me laugh!

But goodness, isn't it always the way? Why the fuck doesn't anyone tell us this stuff?! I mean, I know you have, but so often, you struggle through with something and it's only very late on someone bothers to say 'oh yeah, did you not know that was normal?'

In my case I only found out last week (week before?) that, apparently, after IVF meds it can take up to six months for your hormones to re-stabilise (assuming you're not dealing with pregnancy), and substantial weight gain or loss isn't an unusual side effect. I wish someone had bloody told me that!

From what I gather it is no biggie not to collect colostrum as you should have plenty after birth. I just have a friend whose baby unfortunately had to spend time in NICU and she wished she had some pre-filled syringes to feed him. Presumably you are more likely not to need it though! Totally agree @Sara237 that it is better to know what to expect and hopefully be pleasantly surprised than the other way round. Great to hear your last breastfeeding experience was good. Hoping for the same!

@AmberRose26yeah I think I might just get a couple of bottles that self sterilise like @Sara237mentioned! And good shout about the teeth too… no thank you. Although my son didn’t get teeth until 1+! Yeah I think it’s recommended to collect and freeze colostrum in later stages of pregnancy incase you can’t breast feed at the start… it jumps seems like another thing to stress about though doesn’t it… if your baby was in nicu… surely you could just collect the colostrum then as that is what the baby would be taking anyway if they were breast feeding? I dunno I just can’t get my head round it 😂

@SarahAndQuack honestly no idea! Haven’t even started looking was just something we spoke about the other day with my partners accountant and it threw me a little bit lol, has to be fully electric for the tax efficiencies though! I would have been more than happy to see how I got on with my car but I’m not gunna say no to new car 😂 my car needs to go to the garage as well so maybe it will actually save me money?! lol 😝 it is not dangerous having a 3 door car, ignore her x

@pastelheart I guess you could but I imagine the stress would be overwhelming and the last thing you would want to do is try and collect colostrum! But I agree is another thing to worry about that in most cases is not needed. I think I will give it a go but if I struggle to get much (normal) will try not to get worked up over it!

Oh, thank you for saying that! I'm sure it's not dangerous but you know how you worry about things (or I do). Totally sensible to get a new car pre-baby if you think it might need work soon - one less thing to worry about!

I am absolutely parroting what happened with DD/DP (again), so do feel free to ignore, but we were told that a c-section can shock your body into struggling with milk/colostrum, so if you have one you can sometimes find you need extra help to get it going (DP had the super-fancy medela hospital pump!). I have a very strong memory of her being so delighted she'd got a whole tiny bottle of colostrum on about day 2/3 after DD was born - we were tube-feeding her at the time as she wasn't very well - and then she ended up vomiting the whole lot back up anyway! Soul destroying.

I am telling myself firmly that while it is nice if everything works out perfectly, babies survive a great deal and it'll all be ok.

My mum told me that when she was crying over worrying about coping with me shortly after I was born (hormonal obv and think she maybe struggled a bit with breastfeeding at first) her lovely midwife said to her “Ann, our children grow up in spite of us, not because of us” and I’m going to try and remember that! Such a comforting thing to hear and also so true - yes of course they need us (!) but they are also surprisingly resilient little things!

Heh yes I was reading the nhs magazine I was given on breastfeeding yesterday, it said baby arrives with “a packed lunch” and to not worry about them not getting enough at first.

Eeeeek just ordered our travel system!

we went with the silver cross cove in Pewter 🩵 feeling very very real!

@pastelheart Pram twins! 🥰

Oooh exciting! Will you take it for a spin round the block :D?

im starting to feel kicks on the outside of my belly already hah. Poor baby it kinda weirds me out a little, like I jump when I feel it! Hope they can’t feel me feeling squeamish haha

@Nosejug So crazy… I can see mine moving now 😳

Is anyone else struggling with pelvic girdle pain? I am making a physio appt as it hurts to walk even short distances now let alone go up stairs etc. Getting it mainly in my groin - like bad pulled muscle pain. Ohhh pregnancy I am so grateful for you but I also hate you so much

@magpie234 Not yet, though I went to a barn dance yesterday and everything felt a tad heavy and the dances are so long 😭. I had it bad with my son who was a big baby and I am apple shaped so narrow of hip, don't know if it impacts. I had physio but his main comment was giving birth would be the solution 😂 I found a support belt really helpful when on my feet. I feel for you it's no fun.

@magpie234 oooh my seeing them move 🤩 😬

sorry to hear about the pain, nothing from me yet, probs just too early. I’ve also heard good things about supportive wear.

@AmberRose26 how are you faring with the Covid? Hope you're on the mend.

Any recommendations for a travel system that folds up quite small and is good for countryside terrain? I used to like the armadillo by Mamas and papas as it had the best sun hood which came right over. I can't stand seeing kids with sun right in their eyes! If only I'd kept it 😭!

@Sara237 This is partly why we went for the Silver Cross Cove so that might be worth a look?

@magpie234 Thanks. I thought silver cross were really big prams but will have a look..