LOL Sveta, I also found that my nausea kept me completely miserable and wishing I could throw up, but I rarely did throw up...mostly just miserable, drooling nausea all the time!

Anna, welcome and I am so glad to see you over here! I definitely understand your anxiety. I'm 36 in March, but based on my AMH numbers from almost a year ago, I've got the hormonal profile of a very-nearly-menopausal woman, so I was told I'd better have kids asap if I wanted to at all. With my numbers we aren't even candidates for IVF. So I definitely get the fear of feeling like if you lose one, you haven't got time to try again. But you DO. So try not to stress! As long as your hormonal numbers looked good (from a fertility perspective) there is no reason to worry that your odds of mc are any higher just because of age; my dr. actually said the age thing is more related to the egg quality, and if your fertility workup checked out fine (I think you said you are "unexplained" infertility) then you should be golden! I know it is hard not to worry because I worried the whoooooollle way through first and second tri. And even in third tri (now that we're in the clear from a viability perspective) I STILL worry that something will happen. :doh:

For all those with recent BFP's I would just say make sure someone is monitoring not just your HCG, but also your progesterone levels in the early days, because when they checked mine they put me on a supplement even though I was only slightly low, and only at one reading out of four. I felt much better knowing I was on that!

And yeah, on the symptoms - no one really warned me that I would SO dizzy right from the beginning. Mine went on so long (till like 12 weeks, anyway) that I began to fear it would last the whole time. But I think my dizziness was due to the HCG because that symptom, at least, did eventually go away. The fatigue also goes away, like magic, about 14-16 weeks. Something to look forward to!!

Hang in there ladies! In no time you'll be staring at your puffy feet and wondering where your ankles went, like me!!

Today, hubby painted the closet in the nursery, and this evening we put the shelves back in there and put the few things we've gotten so far in the closet. It's so exciting to start putting the nursery together!!

I'm just so excited at how many BFP's we've gotten recently! YAYYY for all of us over 35!!

Hi Anna, nice to see you here! Try not to worry, and enjoy every day of it, even the sickness! Sounds like you have a good doctor, I found that when the sickness kicked in and it was awful, it took my mind of worrying I felt so sick.

For me I have to say the tiredness has not gone, but isn't quite as bad as in first tri, I still struggle through the day at work, and by 4pm just want to sleep!

How cute you are getting a nursery together Rottpaw.....I won't have one until we move house, hopefully when baby is a few months old, it must be nice making those preparations.

It's fun, although I'm starting to panic a little because we still have not even ordered the nursery furniture (which can take time to be delivered). At this point it may be a race to see if baby or his crib arrives first LOL! Maybe next weekend we'll be able to go shop for that.

Hey girls, for those of you in your 2nd tri + did you have any spotting at all during the 1st tri? I just had a bit more brown today. Seems to be isolated but wtf??? I feel awful like my body is full of hormones so that is good, but I am so scared about the spotting.

Hi Sveta,

I did not have spotting, but see if they can check your progesterone level. I was told that if mine got too low I might see spotting, which is why they went ahead and put me on a supplement. It could be nothing, but you would probably feel better if they check it. If the OB won't see you try your GYN. My GYN doesn't do OB, but she told me that the first three months of pregnancy are considered GYN rather than OB, anyway.

Hope that helps!

thanks ladies for all your advice! You are right I need to just relax and as time passes it becomes a little easier. I do have total perma grin! However not telling anyone for a while. I do have two questions:

1) my doc also monitored my progesterone and said I was a little low. Se confered with an expert and they both agree progesterone supplements have no proven effect. However everyrhing i've heard is to the contrary. I don't want to be "that" patient, but how do you demand a hormone? I think I might ask her if there are any ill effects of taking a supplement and if not if I can for piece of mind. At the very least a topical cream. What's your thoughts?

2. Is anyone curtailing their exercise?


lucy, love the picts!!!

Svet, I have not had any spotting but i've heard it's very common.

Rottpaw, how's your dad?

have a good one!

Well right now I just have a family doctor and I am not scheduled to see her until the 13th which would put me at 8wk4d. I never made it that far last time. If it continues maybe I'll go to a clinic on the weekend and ask about that. They don't seem to test for anything here. Even last time when I had spotting she sent me in for an ultrasound which came back fine, and was told everything was fine, but I lost the baby one week later. Nothing was ever mentioned about testing bloods.

Sveta, the whole way through I have had a watery pale brown spotting on and off, it did worry me at the start, but the midwife said it is just extra discharge that you get in pregnancy. I don't have it so much now. Sorry I am not more helpful, I know how horrid it is to see anything down there after a MC. I also never got bloods or anything checked, just early scan.

Anna, I stopped going to the gym the minute I got BFP, because of my history I was scared to do anything. But I heard moderate exercise is fine early on. I have just ordered a pregnancy yoga dvd as I feel I should be doing something.

What is everyone doing tonight? I am staying in with OH (missing a party) as I don't feel like being around a load of drunk people when I have to be sober lol, also too tired....happy new year to everyone anyway!

Thanks Lucy, that makes me feel better. I certainly feel pregnant () so I should just focus on the good. I also stopped going to the gym for now. I plan on starting up again during 2nd tri but I am too scared right now. Anna, you seem like a very active person and they say if you were active before there is no reason to stop when you fall pregnant The only reason I did is because I wasn't going consistantly for awhile. I'd make it twice a week at best and sometimes not at all. I had no motivation so I decided to sit these three months out.

I found this interesting article regarding progesterone:

When we talk about a hormone problem, you have likely miscarried in less than 10 weeks. After that, the placenta has taken over hormone production and any normal deficiency you have is not a factor. Low progesterone, the most common problem, is not as easy to treat as you might hope. Progesterone suppositories, while frequently prescribed, are not proven to be helpful and often actually cause a nonviable pregnancy to last longer than it should.

The only situation where progesterone is a sure solution is with a luteal phase defect, where the corpus luteum, which is formed along with egg at ovulation, does not produce the hormones needed to sustain a pregnancy. For most women, however, this is usually not an every-month problem. Usually the situation rights itself with the next egg and the next corpus luteum. This problem, if it is a permanent one, can be diagnosed through two separate endometrial biopsies. Progesterone must be started 48 hours after ovulation to work. By the time you have missed a period, it is too late to save a pregnancy with a luteal phase defect.5

Low progesterone, however, is usually a symptom of an nonviable pregnancy, and not the cause. Doctors often prescribe progesterone suppositories out of patient pressure when the hormone levels are low, but their use is controversial and usually completely ineffective. A common treatment for a suspected progesterone problem is Clomid, a pill taken for five days early in your cycle to rev up your hormone production. Not everyone is a candidate for Clomid, and 25% of women will have decreased cervical mucus, which can actually make you less fertile. See the Sperm Meets Egg Plan for more information.

Other hormone problems may be created when you have an untreated thyroid disorder. Your thyroid function can easily be tested, and this problem is very treatable.



As for New Years, we are going to our friends house. She is currently 30 weeks pregnant and another friend couple will be there who is also 30 weeks pregnant. So apart from our OH's getting significantly drunk, it will be relatively low key. I'll be lucky to even make it to midnight! lol

On the progesterone supplement issue, I was being followed by my fertility specialist for the first 12 weeks, and she is the one that put me on the progesterone supps (around 6 weeks I think). When I later saw my OB, she confirmed that I needed to stay on it till 12 weeks but I could quit after that (after that, the placenta takes over and all should be fine hormonally).

Everything we heard from our docs (this is in the US) and read online indicated that progesterone supplementation cannot stop a miscarriage IF the mc is related to factors other than hormone levels. However, if you have an otherwise healthy pregnancy (i.e. no genetic issues, solid implantation, etc.) but your progesterone is just a little low, they can definitely help bolster the pregnancy in that case. I believe that is what happened to me. Of course I can never say for sure if I really needed the supps, but the FS put me on it as soon as they picked up the first borderline reading, and my levels definitely came up once I was on the supplement (the vaginal suppository kind, which is much gentler to your overall system than the oral kind). Both she and my OB checked the levels after I was on the supp to be sure it was working. So I would have to disagree that the supps "make no difference" - what they may have meant is just that the supplement can't save a miscarriage that is related to other factors, which is true. If you ask for them try the cream or the suppositories because I hear the oral pills have much worse side effects. I was already so sick I did not want anything that would make it worse, so the suppossys were a Godsend.

Anna, specifically to your question - I did do extensive research into the question of whether the supps can hurt anything, if you happened to not need them, and the answer was no. So I would not hesitate to explain your concern and ask for them. Just tell the doc you would feel better even if she thinks they can't help, as long as they can't hurt. Do you know what your level was? My doc said they like it to be above 15 and when my second check came back at 12 (had been 18), they put me on the supplement.

And thanks for asking about my Dad! He's doing okay so far. he quit the chemo, and has seemed to feel a lot better (well, some better anyway :-) since that got out of his system. But of course I worry about how fast he'll go downhill from the continued advance of the cancer. He's losing weight at an alarming rate and basically bedridden (( We will see him again this weekend so I'll be able to tell if he looks like he's gotten much worse since we saw him 2 weeks ago.

On the exercise - my doc said walking is best, because as pregnancy progresses your joints get more and more loose, and you can injure yourself more easily than you usually might (even if you're in great shape to begin with). I have not done much over the course of this pregnancy just because it's been all I could do, between first tri sickness, second tri busyness and now third tri fatigue and ligament pain, to get through each day's normal activity LOL! But I hear anything moderate, especially anything you are already used to, is fine to continue. It seems to be a "do whatever you feel up to" type of thing, just don't go crazy. For me, I've started to have the SPD ligament pain, which they basically say can only be aggravated rather than helped by exercise, so I'm sticking to necessary activity only for the duration.

Whew, I've written a novel!! Can you guys tell I've really been missing having some other 35+ ladies to discuss pregnancy with LOL!?

Hope something I said was helpful! Happy New Year's Eve all! Lucy, we're staying in. May go to dinner but too exhasuted to party LOL!