38 and TTC first baby, anyone else?

[elliecain]

I've had some really major "coincidences" (I think lucky omens) recently...

Best thing though: we stopped in the supermarket on our way to the hospital today and were joking in the queue about my having to stop eating cheese etc. I could see the cashier was listening in. When we paid, DH asked for change for the hospital car park and she said would that be enough? I said we weren't going to be too long there. She said "good luck" in a way that said she knew. So I told her we were about to transfer the embies back in. Unbelievably she said that he has 2 girls, both through assisted conception! I teared up and it was such a moment. She said I should go back there to tell her when I get a positive. It felt so significant.

As we drove into the hopital grounds, I saw a pushchair. Looked back at it and saw it had twins inside! I keep seeing seahorses and twin references on TV and it just feels like my Higher Power is sending me signs. This feels really good.

 

[Aayla]

So happy for you Ellie! Lots of and lots of sticky dust to you!!

Well we are out for next cycle. because I have done 8 rounds of letrozole I have to go in and see the doc for more. They don't like to go further than 8 apparently. But he isn't in the office until either the 7th or the 13th. I will know early next week.

So I'm not even sure if they will continue with the route or we move on to IVF. I hate not knowing and having to wait. I hate having wasted cycles if I do get to continue on.

I may just say screw it and not bother with letrozole and just move on. have to talk to hubby first

 

[sugargully]

Wish and Ellie so happy for you both! I'm a bit behind but I know great things will happen on this thread. Dust to you all!

 

[Aayla]

Ellie: how soon do you find out if you have sticky beans? Is it the typical tww or sooner because you bypassed the conception part?

Afm: Hubby and I talked and we have decided to move on to IVF. It will be about a year as we have to save up and I have to lose about 100 lbs. But I feel good about this decision.

 

[elliecain]

Aayla, that's good that your DH is on board with making the move to IVF. It's funny, but when we first made the decision, I felt good about improving our chances, but I also mourned getting there naturally. We went through it really quickly after deciding, as I'm lucky that my parents have lent us the money. It's good that you will have time to get your body and mind in the best possible condition.

My OTD is 14th July. In my clinic, they make you wait 16 days after egg collection so the result in unambiguous. No blood tests here, just old fashioned POAS. I was fretting about this and how scary it will be, but I've been watching an old YouTube channel where someone took us through her IVF story and I'm going to use her method:
- Use a FRER and a digital (I have a digi left that I was saving for the weeks indicator then I miscarried before I could use it)
- Pee in a cup (I'll be shaking too much to pee directly onto it)
- Dip the FRER but cover it up.
- Dip the digi and watch that. (It's easier to get a result from this one, no squinting as a line does or doesn't develop, just wait for the words. However, it's not as sensitive, hence the back up...)
- By the time that's given you a response, the FRER will be ready too, so uncover it.

So that's my plan. I have a full day at school that day, so I'm not sure how I'm going to cope whichever way it goes. Probably get DH to phone me in sick. It's going to be the toughest part of the whole IVF process. I wish I'd never done an hpt, because it's all the bfns that have made me like this!

 

[Aayla]

Oh wow. Yeah I could see how it would be nerve racking. The tww always is though. Well only 15 more days to get through! It will go by so fast and yet so slow.

My mom said that they will help with the ivf but I don't want to have to rely on them. We may get some of the meds covered by DH's extended medical insurance through his work but he doesn't qualify yet so we have to wait and see.

So really it hinges on me losing the weight as fast as possible but still healthily (no starving myself here).

 

[Wish2BMom]

THANK YOU, LEFT!!!!

aayla - I think I said this before but yes, i think it's a smart plan to lose some weight and look into IUI. I just went through a monitored IUI and it's great, like Dandi says. They monitor your LH surge through your bloodwork and can tell when you're about to ovulate, so they take that monitoring pressure off of you. Then you can trigger and your IUI is scheduled for about 36 hrs later, so it's much better to plan.
My doc said that IVF basically wouldn't be more effective than us trying naturally (both odds suck, basically) so that's when I decided that if we're going to do it naturally, then we're going to do it with drugs and a sniper fire of sperm rather than them trying to find the path on their own.

mdc - I'm the same way with wine! can't let those good opened bottles go to waste!

And I have to report this - I weigh myself every morning and I am down to my lowest since last year! I have had a few plateaus that I just couldn't get through and I've managed to finally break through that. i'm sure I'll ruin it this weekend b/c I'm never as structured as I am during the week, but I'm so excited!
Also, I just bought one of those 'spiralizer' attachments for our Kitchen Aid mixer, so we can try the spiral zucchini pasta - anyone had this yet? I'm excited to try it. I need to find some good recipes, though.

 

[Wish2BMom]

oh geez, i didn't see the whole next page before I started rambling on!

aayla - that's great you guys are good with IVF! even though it didn't work for us, I still believe in it. Good luck on the weight loss!

ellie - I LOVE those signs!!!
I just thought of this - is your full first name Eleanor? I think your name is so adorable. That might just have to be on my girl name list - it goes well with our last name!

sugar - :wave:

 

[Mdc]

Ellie, did you do an HCG trigger? Are you going to hold out until the 16th day with your POAS strategy? Love the idea though. I am toying with not testing at all until I get my beta results. I feel too many negatives also...so time to change it up.

Ayala, I got to the same point also and said screw it and moved to IVF. I do wish my doc would have been a little more upfront with me so I am going to throw this out there now for you. IVF will give you a great chance, but the goal is one take home baby think of extra eggs as a rare bonus. Even though I am in healthcare I had high hope of many eggs to freeze for pgs (siblings on ice). I feel like I see a ton of people here that have loads to freeze so I expected the same. When I only had two to freeze and one pgs normal it took the wind out of me a little. This is not to be negative at all and IVF was the best decision I have made for our family. Best of luck with the weight loss and moving on to the next step!

Wish, now we are in the juicy part of the tww! I also meant to say if you have a bbq where everyone is up and about in the past I used the trick glass half full and I took pretend sips while no one was the wiser. Great job on the lb drop...drop them like their hot I also have drop 3 lbs since stopping estrogen a couple days ago man that is the drug.

Hi sugar (although my new name for you is sugarmomma). Hope you are doing well!

Hi to everyone else!

Hope everyone has great plans for the weekend. We did not plan anything as we thought I would have had my transfer, so alas we are going to be boring. Might do some shopping and we serious need to get a new mattress and upgrade to a king!

 

[elliecain]

Mdc, yes I did an hcg trigger. I tested for a laugh the next day and it was odd to see the second line. They are confident it will be gone by 14dp2dt when my official test date is. I wish we had betas... I'm tempted to ask my GP to do one to take the pressure off me, but I know I just need to put my big girl pants on. I'm tempted to do it in the evening, as I'm so rushed in the morning getting ready for school and it would be crushing if it were negative send I had to go to work. I could hold my wee...

I agree about there are loads of people on these forums who get frosties, but I didn't get any either and I'm ok with that right now. I don't need to worry about them! I can't wait for your lining to sort itself out so you can put your lo back in.
We are also having a chilled out weekend. DH has a gig tomorrow night but I'm giving it a miss. I have acu, shellac and a shoulder massage tomorrow, so I'll be blissed out!

Wish, great on the weight loss, but don't overdo it. From what I've seen, you are faaaaaar from big and you ideally want your BMI into the 20s. /lecture...
Any symptoms you'd like to share? I'm so hopeful for us both this month.
My lovely nurse Carrie emailed me today and added this link from my clinic for coping with the 2ww: https://www.fertilitybristol.com/the-2-week-wait-following-ivf-treatment
Yes, my name is Eleanor. I didn't like it as a child, so Ellie stuck, but now I do like it too. I very rarely use it

I'm so excited to be getting bumble bees with my shellac tomorrow - 4B will be on my left ring finger and 5B will be on my right pinkie! My code for my newly named little embees!

I've just spent about 3 hours doing mindful colouring. I really enjoyed it and it's made me feel calm and connected.

 

[Aayla]

Wish: Funny that your doctor says that it wouldn't increase your chances and mine told me it would. he said we have the option to do the IUI with all the medicated shots etc (and now that letrozole still works that may be an option too) but he said IVF is gives us a better shot because sperm has already met egg and it should give us extra to freeze if we want more kids

and that brings me to you MDC lol If we don't get extra I think we will be ok. It keeps the price high if we want to do it again but right now we are focused on having just one. If we have two embies that are viable and good i want them both implanted at once. But we will be happy with one. Even if one child is all we get. We ideally want 2 but it will be what it will be.

 

[Wish2BMom]

We also have a boring weekend, which is fine with me. This house needs a good cleaning since we've had plans the past few weekends. We do have plans to go to a friend's house on Monday and BBQ and swim, but that's it.

mdc - nice job on the weight loss too!! omg, once you go king, you won't go back. Best thing we've done in forever. Though when we're at hotels now and don't get a king, we feel a little squished! #firstworldproblems

ellie - no worries on me losing THAT much weight. I'm more back down to 'normal' for me, though a few years ago, this weight would have been high. I'd be happy to lose 2-3 more but I'm not going to stress over it - I'm 40 now so I think I'm lucky to be where I am. Just going to try to maintain structure in my diet, continue finding ways to fit more veggies into it (I'm not a huge fan of fruits) and try to keep it to one 'cheat' day.
I'm 'training' for an obstacle race we have coming up in Nov. So not really TRAINING-training but trying to get into and keep in shape for it so I don't embarrass myself. If I do happen to get preggo, though, I'll just walk through it when the time comes!

unfortunately, no - no symptoms to speak of. Yep, this is the juicy time. I'm able to be zen for the first part of the TWW, but psycho the 2nd half. Ugh. I'll read that article, ellie!

edit - I lied, there was one thing going on the other day. You know how VJ town gets 'sore' on day 1 of AF? I felt like that on Wed. Again, never heard of this being a symptom and maybe it was b/c my jeans were too tight or something (though they were stretchy skinnies) but it was annoying. But my tell-tale tatas have been fine.

 

[Wish2BMom]

well i've gone through 5 attempts with IVF/FET and I've had a chemical and a miscarriage at 7+ weeks, and have diminished ovarian reserve so that's what she means by any other protocols in IVF wouldn't really be more effective. I usually just end up with one solid fertilized egg in the end. My stim drug was at the max amount and I was still only getting 6-7 follicles per cycle.

 

[Aayla]

well i've gone through 5 attempts with IVF/FET and I've had a chemical and a miscarriage at 7+ weeks, and have diminished ovarian reserve so that's what she means by any other protocols in IVF wouldn't really be more effective. I usually just end up with one solid fertilized egg in the end. My stim drug was at the max amount and I was still only getting 6-7 follicles per cycle.

that makes sense. I haven't had my reserve checked but I assume they will do that before IVF. i am hoping we can get all the checks and stuff done way prior. I would hate to save up and find out I got nothing left.

 

[Dandi]

Mdc- we just upgraded to a king last week and it has been life changing! Don't wait any longer, just do it!

Boring holiday weekend for us too. It's just too hot to do anything. We had planned on going to the botanical gardens tomorrow night to see an art exhibit. It's the same artist that we saw in a different city 6 years ago on the day we met/first date. We thought it would be cool to have the same date exactly 6 years apart, but it's so hot and it hurts to walk bc of the pelvic pressure I'm experiencing right now, so I just cancelled those plans today. We're going to finish some things up around the house and do some shopping tomorrow instead. Tonight we're picking up pizza and having a movie night at home. So boring and it sounds glorious to me right now! Lol

 

[Star2011]

Aayla l am sorry for the neg. All the best with weight loss and IVF.

Ellie! Congratulations! I am sooo happy you are PUPO. Cant wait to hear the good news in less than 2 wks.

Mdc- still praying for that lining to behave! All the best.

Wish- sending positive thoughts during these 2 wks.

Happy 4 th of July to all in the U.S.

 

[Aayla]

I am laying in a swing chair, sipping a margarita, listening to my siblings play beer pong and people laughing. This is a night I needed.

 

[elliecain]

Meet 4bee and 5bee, my twin embryos:
https://i65.tinypic.com/359gto9.jpg

 

[Aayla]

Ellie that is so cute!!

 

[Aayla]

so we have set a date to start IVF. Of course I have to run this by the doctor at my next appt. We are looking to start mid march..that will be the stimming etc. We are hoping to have the transfer done at the end of march / beginning of April. This will give us a Christmas baby.

I have always wanted a Christmas baby. DH is all for it too provided we keep Christmas and the birthday separate. No combining gifts etc. He is born in January and hates it because he always got very little because no one had any money in January.

So this gives me 8 months to lose weight and 7 months to save up all the money. I don't include July for money saving as we are a bit behind on some bills and we need this month to catch up. I get a raise at the end of the month as well and I will be learning some new tasks which will give me more hours. I figured out that if we can survive on his current pay cheques and bank my current pay cheques then we will be able to save it in the 7 months. When I get my raise and more hours we can for sure save the amount needed and DH should be getting more hours soon as well.

But I have to go over the budget with a fine tooth comb to be sure we can live on his money alone.

As per the weight loss. As of today I am 325 lbs. My bmi is 52.5 In order to be at the top range of their limit of a 38 bmi I need to weigh 235. So I need to lose 90 lbs. If I can keep a consistent loss of 2.5 lbs per week I will just meet the 90 lb goal by mid March. Of course in the beginning I will lose a bit more than that and then maybe taper off a bit after but that is average amount.