IVF Pregnancy Club- Part Two

[pastelheart]

Hey girls!

thread number two for us, thank you again for all being so lovely and supportive. I still can’t believe, after all those years and all the upset… are babies are on their way ♥️

IVF pregnancy club Due Dates/Birth Dates

AmberRose- 3rd July (baby girl) 🩷
Sara237- 24th June (could be a week earlier)
Zirafica- 21st August, c-section could be 14th August
Magpie234- 1st May, could be 24th April (baby girl) 🩷
Nosejug- 27th June, may be earlier though
Fancygoose- 28th March- c-section could be 24th March
SarahAndQuack- 19th June
MintOwl- 14th May, (baby girl) 🩷
CloudyIvy55- 15th May
SamVan- 7th April (baby boy) 🩵
Pastelheart- 4th June (baby boy) 🩵

Dubkitten- baby girl born 8th January 2026 🩷

Thinking of you this morning @pastelheart

@CloudyIvy55 @SarahAndQuack @AmberRose26

well I had contractions for about 6+hours last night, was feeling rubbish and they were getting closer together and stronger. I managed to fall asleep at about 11.30 but was awake every hour on the hour but at least I did get some sleep.

I think I could be in early labour? But honestly I’m not sure, I’m very achey today with lots of back pain, so we will see what happens and I will keep you updated!

one good thing… it finally got my partner to pack his hospital bag LOL

and yes baby is head down and engaged (has been since 34 weeks) I was deffo feeling more movement lower down last night and he had the hiccups that I normally feel around my belly button but last night I could feel them in my… vagina so that was fun lol 😂 xx

Oh @pastelheart it’s very exciting, keep us updated and best of luck!

@dubkittenvery exciting but I’m gunna be a mess if this goes on for days and days! I’m trying to chill out but there are a couple of things I need to get done (that I thought I would have time for still) one of them being fitting the isofix base in the car so I’m just waiting for my partner to take 30 mins from work and help carry it for me

contractions haven’t picked up this morning so think I might try a little walk in a bit xx

I wouldn’t panic about the base - it’s just needs to be in before you leave the hospital - the OH can do it if necessary. Mine takes less than a minute to insert.

Yea walking is good and do you have a pregnancy ball? If so sit on that for a while constantly rotating your hips to help open your pelvis

@SarahAndQuack yeh it must be hard when they keep messaging you, you should good the reviews if the clinic and see if others have had issues sand leave an honest review on line, trust pilot usually is a good one to see what others have thought about the place.

@pastelheart Have you called the triage at all ? I wonder would they check if your dilated at all ? Super exciting he might be here by the weekend 🥰💛✨

@SarahAndQuack I'm sorry to hear your clinic are still being twats. This trimester is hard enough on the emotions and physically without the constant triggering. I don't know if you are able but have you considered a bit of counseling to help with processing all this? I had a lovely hour with the counselor I saw when had my son last week.There was no one thing in particular (or so I thought) but an hour with someone who knows how to support processing and who just gets it was really beneficial. Sending hugs.
@pastelheart Gosh, these nights sound intense. As others have said, I wonder if he'll be here by weekend...how are you feeling this afternoon? Think we're in for a mini heatwave, maybe get a fan! Thinking of you.

I've spent the morning setting up my room, next to me cot attached, feeding chair in position, muslins rolled and ready! I need to get a car seat and contemplate the hospital bag just in case we're early but I'm only doing one thing a day!

@dubkitten I honestly don’t think my partner would be able to figure out how to fit it in the car 😂 I don’t have a pregnancy ball as I had one in my previous pregnancy and never used it! Wish I did have one now

@AmberRose26 I have actually just called triage as baby hasn’t been moving as much as he usually does, I have got a couple of very small kicks from him today which isn’t like him at all. He normally doesn’t stop moving so going to head in in a minute and be monitored

@Sara237I’m feeling really rubbish tbh, going to head into triage just to check baby and hopefully that will make me feel a bit better. In quite a bit of pain whenever I move too but contractions haven’t started again just when I’m resting. Just worried as he hasn’t been moving as much as normal. I bought the baby a fan for his pram and I have stolen that… it’s actually 10/10 and it’s only small so I can move it around with me
exciting setting up your room! How many weeks are you now? I am 38 weeks today, feels like such an achievement, final stretch now xx

oh good luck with monitoring @pastelheart I hope alls well and maybe he’s just in a new position that doesn’t let him flail around so much. Either way well done for going in, you’ll be in the best place for checking alls well.

Sorry I’ve been quiet, I actually have a message prepped on my computer to reply to everyob from the last week of messages but moving has become painful (right hip) so I’ve bought a pregnancy support belt from vinted to see if that helps and getting nhs acupuncture which will be cool to try whether or not it eases the pain.

oh @SarahAndQuack im sorry you’re getting this hassle from your clinic, could you set their emails up to go to a specific folder in your inbox which you can just ignore for the moment? It’s not just that they’re asking you stuff now but hat they’re putting you back in that difficult frame right at the start. Seems really unfair. Well not seems, it is definitely, and it’s bad practice.

great that your daughter was able to help you with cot! Sounds like you’ve taught her some good practical skills :)

I have lots of replies for messages but if I don’t send this one right now I’ll end up another week behind! But thinking of my favourite club and hoping everyone’s finding some relaxation and peace in amongst the pain and prep! Daily nhs pregnancy massage? Yes please….!!

Hello everyone,

I wrote a long message for the group a week ago and somehow managed to delete it without sending it which was infuriating! Anyway, thanks for checking in the other week @Nosejug , I'm pleased to report that Baby girl MintOwl was born last Monday evening! It was a bit of a saga but all worked out well in the end. We'd been given the choice of induction v c section at 39 weeks due to various medical conditions and my age and I opted for induction because I was quite keen to experience a vaginal birth, though was a bit anxious about the process and thinking I might switch to c section at a certain point. Anyway, the hospital ended up trying various induction methods over the next few days (pessary, gel, drip..) but clearly the baby was super cosy inside and had no intention of coming out! So finally on day five we were advised to switch to c section as my waters had broken for more than 24 hours at that point but things still weren't progressing. The op went really well (technically recorded as an emergency but it felt like a considered though strongly recommended choice at the time) and the team said it was definitely the right decision as baby was bearing down but just not in quite the right position to dilate the cervix, so probably would've become more distressed had we stayed on the drip any longer. I keep having flashbacks to the moment they lowered the drapes and we saw her being lifted up.. it was so incredibly moving. And we had a very entertaining anaesthetist who really made the experience feel more relaxed and personalised.

Now a week into being back home with her and still can't quite believe I've finally become a mum at 43! Completely exhausted and struggling with breastfeeding, but getting some good support locally and just loving spending time with her. Wishing those of you still waiting all the best for the next few weeks.. and particularly thinking of you today @pastelheart . I also felt the same in the final weeks in terms of wanting to hold onto the feeling of pregnancy / baby movements inside versus wanting to meet her.

Sorry to hear the clinic is still being so difficult @SarahAndQuack . We had several counselling sessions as part of our clinic's package which were really helpful. We ended up sounding off about the clinic's poor communication to our counsellor quite a lot in them! though I don't think we had anything quite as insensitive as yours.

and sorry to hear about the pain @Nosejug - hope it eases up and the acupuncture is good. I did some over the course of my final IVF cycle. Not sure if it helped but I found it really relaxing.

Ooooh baby girl @MintOwl hurrahhh!! Congratulations to your newly coined family. I had a wee happy tear drop reading your story. Just wonderful :) I hope bf picks up, glad to read you have lots of support 🌞

@Nosejug baby was just tricking me, he did two good sessions on the monitor and the midwife was happy. I’m feeling a bit better but I know he’s not moving as much as normal so I’m just going to keep a really close eye on it. Haven’t had any regular contractions today either so I’m just let down feeling like a whale infront on my (the babies) fan lol sorry to hear about the painful hip, hopefully the support belt helps. I do strap up my bump sometimes and that deffo helps with support so hopefully the belt does too. 100% to the daily massages!

@MintOwl omg congratulations, I’m so glad it all worked out and you had a good experience in the end. Glad you have lots of support as it can really make a different. Thank you for checking in, baby boy all okay so that’s a relief just going to keep a close eye on it. The midwife did say he was very very low in my pelvis so that’s positive! He’s in a good position too so that makes me feel hopeful for when labour actually starts and doesn’t trick me! Xx

Ah huge congrats @MintOwl 💕💕

@MintOwl massive congratulations! Hope you are enjoying all the baby cuddles, and glad you had a good experience in the end with the c section 💛✨

@pastelheart thats great he’s in a good position and all was well. You will be glad you went to get the check up to put your mind at ease .. sounds like he will be making an appearance to the world very soon !

@Nosejug hoping your hip pain eases for you, my PGP went after I kept up the the stretches and exercises it’s not as bad for the last few weeks now , thankfully .. Hope yours will be the same.

Hehe @pastelheart the other morning a line from a sylvia Plath poem came into my head about her stumbling from bed “cow heavy and floral in my Victorian night gown” it fits so perfectly bc (well, I’m cow heavy for sure) but also bought a “past times” Victorian night gown for feeding/hospital off eBay. I’ve bought a few button down night gowns second hand as I imagine lochia will have me ruining them pretty quickly.

Ach it’s scary having to monitor movements, and I can imagine confusing given that he’s still very active but just not as 24/7 active. From everything you’ve described though it sounds like you’re at the beginning of things!

@AmberRose26 ooh very nice to hear yours has gotten better! I wasn’t actually given exercises or stretches but I’d love to be doing something to help. You don’t happen to have a worksheet or link to instructions do you? I’d love to get my mobility back!

baby is still breech for me and making suuuch stomach distorting movements 🫣 my partner filmed some of it but I have to look away at times haha! Wild.

@AmberRose26 yep he was just tricking me and making me worry, he’s been very wriggly today… typical lol 😂

@Nosejug 😂😂😂 omg I want one of those night gowns but I don’t know where to look? Like the cotton ones? They look so cute

also not sure if anyone remembers about 6 weeks ago my urine kept coming up with an infection for UTI? But I had no symptoms and everyone was obsessed with me dropping my wee off but not treating it? Until I finally got antibiotics from triage well

i had one normal urine sample and now I’m back to flagging infection again but no symptoms… has anyone had this and wtf is wrong with my urine?? Am I doing the sample wrong or something? I just wee in the pot but happy to be told this is wrong 😑 xx

Also, I am massively stressed

i mentioned before about my MIL…

the whole pregnancy she has been asking what we need for the baby and the whole time I have said nothing, you bought us our pram and that is more than generous. Please don’t buy anything else, we don’t need it I have got everything.

partner just came home and told me there is a WHOLE SUITCASE of baby things at their house 😭😭😭😭

and the thing is, it’s not going to be anything we need or want as she’s not asked at all what we are planning on using etc (obviously because I would have said the same as above) and it’s now going to be my problem of either storing stuff we don’t want/need or getting rid of it. I just can’t

I know she’s doing it to be nice etc etc but if people continuously don’t listen to what you say is it still being nice or is it trying to ‘nicely’ control a situation that isn’t yours to control?

and I am not very good at hiding my facial expressions so that’s gunna be fun when I see it all. Will be for my partner to tell her no more stuff!

and then I also have my mum being a bit of a dick too. She’s been difficult this whole
pregnancy, started off at the start just not seeming interested and I put it down to me not needing her as much as I did with my first son. So I just stopped talking to her about it, which she then didn’t like so changed her tune pretty quickly. So now I have stupid comments all the time, I was telling her how anxious I was feeling about managing people and meeting the baby and she pipes up with ‘I better be first to meet him’ like I just honestly don’t care or need the stress from any of these people. I just want to be in a baby bubble with my partner, son and baby 😵‍💫😵‍💫☹️☹️

Also at my baby shower my mum said, I have never been to a baby shower before and I was like no I haven’t either

abd she was like yes you have, you went to your sons one that I wasn’t invited too…

I had a baby shower (if you can even call it that) with my friends as I was 19 and we literally just had some food at my dad’s house. No family was there

but, she hasn’t mentioned this once in 12 years but then decides to bring it up at my next baby shower 😂 I was absolutely flabbergasted 😂

@Nosejug I have some exercises for PGP from the NHS website I’ll share the link …

https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/media/jm4omt4w/103503pain.pdf
.. and I also started doing a Pilates 3rd trimester workout every other day ..I’ll share the link .. I just do this same one each time but the woman might have more /different workouts if you wanted a variety of moves you could check out her channel ..

Hope this helps, I feel so much more relief from just keeping moving and I think since finishing up work I am not as sore, I work in school in the nursery room so I would be sitting in the tiny chairs and I think that’s what was hurting my pelvis so much as would put my posture in a really bad position, I also try a small 1k walk every day but I usually don’t it’s like every 3rd day as half the time am too lazy 😅 they also gave me a big tuba grip thing wear round my waist to support which helped also, av not had to wear it in awhile so that’s good.

@pastelheart that’s not good about your urine, hopefully it’s not to sore to pee ! Nothing worse than a UTI! Oh gosh your MIL sounds stubborn and like you say trying to just do what she wants to control, even though you have said you don’t need anything else, that would annoy me also .. as long as she isn’t harassing you once baby is born asking why baby isn’t wearing /using the things she bought, that’s what my MIL would do .. any Xmas presents she’s bought me in the past .. if av not really liked it and just put it away in a drawer, the next time she’s round she will be like ‘ oh are you not using .. whatever she bought… and I have to say av just not got round to it or something like that 😅😵‍💫.. nippy !!
awh hopefully your mum steps back a bit and gives you space once baby is here .. we have just said no visitors for the 1st two weeks till we get in a routine.. then after that people can come .. so they will all just need to ‘like it or lump it’ as we say in Scotland 😂 you are well within your rights to give a time to people when they can visit, whether it’s the first few days or few weeks , people should understand…. You would hope 🤨 💛

@AmberRose26 I don’t have a single symptom of a UTI! Just like last time, it’s so strange! Honestly MIL has stressed me out but onto more exiting things…

contractions are back, had about 45 mins of PAINFULL contractions this morning, stopped for a hit and now having less painful contractions. Have had a few other clues that stuff has started but we can leave out those details

fully expecting them to stop again so I’m trying not to get too excited lol. Will keep you updated xx

So exciting @pastelheart wishing you all the best!

Oh @pastelheart you are definitely on your way!!

Gosh, it's all happening!

Congratulations @MintOwl, you must be so thrilled. It's lovely.

@pastelheart, hope you are doing ok! Sounds as if the show is on the road!

Thanks all for sympathetic comments about the clinc. Sorry to go on about it - it's silly; it shouldn't bother me; I just had a down patch and I so appreciated being able to talk about it to people who get it.

Currently supervising 5 (could be 50!) 9 year old girls for DD's birthday ... goodness! They have been about as thorough as my midwife in trying to establish where the baby's head is and which way he's lying!

Ohh weird @pastelheart no I def jus wee in the cup then pour it into the tube. I can’t imagine you’re causing any cross contamination by your method. They def need to look into this, it’s not something you want to be dealing with on top of new baby.

(I wrote the above yesterday but failed to send!) sounds like you’re underway now!! How very exciting! I’ll (we all will!) be thinking of you : D

@AmberRose26 thank you thank you for those links! Good to know that it mayyy have been that but also may have been other things (manage my expectations!) I had a slightly better day yesterday but then pushed it last night and today and back to big limping! Oh well! And eeep me too with the gifts, I only made one request that stuff we’d be given would be cotton/natural fibres where possible and mil gifted us two glittery polyester cardigans 🫣 it’s more that I feel bad wasting her generosity.

Sorry everyone I am deep in the newborn trenches so have fallen behind! But huge congratulations @MintOwl and thinking of you @pastelheart and hope it all goes well!

I am really struggling with the lack of sleep now at coming up to one month - coupled with our feeding struggles and intense schedule it is a LOT. She is adorable but I cannot wait for things to chill out a bit as my cortisol levels are sky-high. Still cannot believe she is here and ours though 💓