Anyone TTC #1 and 30 or older?

[KatO79]

MissDoc I'm so sorry I hope that you find the funds to do IVF.

star I don't have PCOS but if you're curious, I think for my 1st IVF (long protocol) for stimming (after 3 weeks of down regulation) I did 250 IU Bemfola for 6-7 days and then they upped my dose to 300 IU for the last 6-7 days. That time I got 3 eggs that all fertilised, the best was put back in after 2 days but the 2 others didn't make it to freeze by day 5. That one resulted in a CP. For my 2nd round of IVF (short protocol, hoping for more eggs since they thought the down regulation may have suppressed me too much) I did 300 IU of Bemfola for 12-14 days plus Centrotide (to prevent early O) and got 2 eggs (1 egg they couldn't get out and deemed it bad quality), both fertilised although one was fragmented so we only had 1 top quality embie to put back in after 2 days which I'm pregnant with now. Although I don't know much about PCOS so can't advise you there.

 

[Etisgonnab]

Miss Doc: I'm sorry to hear about your news! Life can be so complicated. One day you think you have it all figured out and the next, who knows. While this may be of little comfort, the one thing that is certain is that life keeps moving forward, even if it's heading in a direction that you didn't expect. Adjusting can be difficult but sometimes you end up in a place you never dreamed you'd be and are better off for it. Your path may be different, but it's your path to make the most of.

Good luck with the IVF star. I can appreciate how stressful it must be, but wishing you all the best.

Afm: I've been MIA for a few, traveling for work. Had yet another bleeding episode on Thursday while I was out of town. Luckily I was just a two hour train ride away and was able to drop everything, get on a train and get back to my doctor. Had an ultrasound which revealed a still healthy looking pregnancy. The little nugget was swimming around in there, moving a lot with a strong steady heartbeat. They couldn't explain the bleeding though. This time it lasted much longer than the last time and had no obvious triggers like sex or an internal exam. So I was sent home with instructions to take it easy and wait and see. The bleeding seems to have stopped, at least for now, so that's good. Only have some brown blood (which they say is old blood) when I wipe but haven't marked a pad since Thursday night. So cautiously optimistic. I go in for genetic testing on Monday and was advised to see if they could squeeze me in for another ultrasound to check on everything. Fingers crossed!

 

[star_e]

thanks for the feedback Kat. what is down regulation? and is bemfola an injectable similar to gonal-f or follistim? so other than the addition of the med that prevented you from early Oing, you were only taking one drug, right? i'm only taking one drug too. but my dose is super low. its 75iu, and they just recently upped it to 100iu. if by monday they have not grown, i wonder if she will up it again. i think with pcos is tricky b/c it will be no growth for a long while and then suddenly too many grow all at once. its good to hear though that its not necessarily how many eggs you get. it can be two or even one and still work. i'll hold out hope.

oh one more question, so you got your embie transfered after two days - i've heard stories of different transfer days, 2, 3 or 5. do different clinics just transfer at different days? is there an advantage to one day over the other?

 

[Angel5000]

Ain - Welcome!! I'm 31, and this is our first so we're right about the same age. If this is your 3rd cycle, I'm impressed that they gave you all the tests and everything already but that's great to know that thing are good! Any given month, even with perfect timing and no problems, there's still just a 25% chance of conception so it can take some time. Are you doing anything specifically to track Ovulation or anything? If you have any questions we are pretty informative here and a great group of gals! I love this group.


Etis - Welcome back! I'm sorry to hear you had another bleeding episode! I'm glad everything looks good so far! I'm keeping everything crossed for you!



AFM - I've got some pics of the nursery!! So there's still work to do and some furniture to move, but the paint and 99% of the decals are up!

 

[KatO79]

thanks for the feedback Kat. what is down regulation? and is bemfola an injectable similar to gonal-f or follistim? so other than the addition of the med that prevented you from early Oing, you were only taking one drug, right? i'm only taking one drug too. but my dose is super low. its 75iu, and they just recently upped it to 100iu. if by monday they have not grown, i wonder if she will up it again. i think with pcos is tricky b/c it will be no growth for a long while and then suddenly too many grow all at once. its good to hear though that its not necessarily how many eggs you get. it can be two or even one and still work. i'll hold out hope.

oh one more question, so you got your embie transfered after two days - i've heard stories of different transfer days, 2, 3 or 5. do different clinics just transfer at different days? is there an advantage to one day over the other?

Down regulation is taking injections that shut down your own hormone production. I was originally only supposed to take it for 2 weeks before starting stimming but developed a cyst so hd to down regulate for 1 more week. Luckily the cyst was gone after that and I could start stimming after. My RE thought long protocol would be the best protocol for me based on my age and what my CD3 hormones are like. When I didn't get more than 3 eggs she decided maybe short protocol would give me more - which it didn't but got pregnant anyway with the 1 embie we had. Yep Bemfola is a FSH injection, don't know if it's mostly only used in Europe maybe? I have no idea though if one FSH injection brand is better than another. Yep for IVF #2 was only on Bemfola and Cetrotide (although the Cetrotide isn't fun as it hurts a bit going in and it would itch at the injection site for 20-40 minutes afterwards).

My RE says they have found that they obtain the most pregnancies by putting the embie back in as quickly as possible and 2 days seems to work best. She said that putting it back in it's natural environment ASAP seem to work best and gives the embie the best conditions. She seems to be right as I had a CP first and then this pregnancy after. I think that REs just have different ideas about what's best though.

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

Good morning ladies. I'm so confused at my body right now.. I'm thinking I Od later then FF thinks I did as I'm two days late according to it and I expected a temp drop this morning even more then yesterday and low and behold.. It shot back up. So I tested and at this dpo id expect to see ssomething.

 

[Angel5000]

You may have Od later. Or had a late implantation. Or goth. That huge dip could have been a late implantation. Do you have any signs of AF?

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

That's the weird thing. I don't usually have pre AF signs.. But nothing that makes me think it's coming.

 

[drjo718]

Ga- looks like you may have o'd on cd18.

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

I guess we'll see in the next few days.

 

[Angel5000]

I agree with drjo, you could have O'd on CD18 instead.

I see your CH's have changed... did FF do that or did you change the settings?

 

[star_e]

gagrl - from looking at your chart i agree with the ladies that you prob Oed cd 18. keep us updated. fx for you!

ettis - so sorry you had the bleed again, but super happy everything is okay! they don't have any clue why it happened again? i guess its good to know that if that does happen, it actually may be normal cause everything is looking good for you.

angel- the nursery looks adorable! i take it you were using stencils? was it hard to do? you did it perfectly, at least that's how it looks. super cute.

kat - thanks for the feedback. super helpful to hear other ivf stories. that way if they decide to transfer early, i know someone who had success. i guess different clinics do it differently. have no clue what my clinic does i guess i'll find out soon. not looking forward to any injections that are painful though. right now just on gonal-f, but i guess closer to the time i'll be given some drug for preventing O and ive heard in general those shots seem to hurt more. i'll really just be thankful to have gotten to that stage and deal with any pain as it comes along.

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

Angel FF changed it when I put my cm for the day...

 

[Etisgonnab]

Angel: nursery looks great!! You're so far ahead! I've been afraid to do anything until I am safely out of the first trimester

Star: yeah they couldn't give me any reason other than "it just happens sometimes in the first trimester." This time there was none of the usual things that could trigger it (sex, internal exam, etc) so I really thought I was having a miscarriage. My father in law suggested I could have some genetic problems with the baby but didn't specify....I go for testing tomorrow so I'll know soon. Hopefully they can also squeeze me in for an ultrasound to check on everything.

Gagirl: at least you BD on CD18 so good luck!! Have you also been using opk to track pending o?

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

Etis I did do a couple of opks but I'm looking again at the test from this morning and there is definitely a line on here... Is very faint but since this is now over 15 hours later.. I'm going to buy a Frer tomorrow during lunch..

 

[Etisgonnab]

I see it!!! What brand test is it? If it's a wandfo I had the same issue. It took SUPER long to dry and see a line so I thought it was negative. I had a similar issue with FRER though too--it took a couple days longer than the rest to show a clear line. The easy@home tests showed first and the clear blue digital confirmed for me right away. Fx! Let us know how it goes tomorrow!

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

I see it!!! What brand test is it? If it's a wandfo I had the same issue. It took SUPER long to dry and see a line so I thought it was negative. I had a similar issue with FRER though too--it took a couple days longer than the rest to show a clear line. The easy@home tests showed first and the clear blue digital confirmed for me right away. Fx! Let us know how it goes tomorrow!

This was my last wondfo but now I'm literally freaking out... Am I horrible for freaking out? Am I going to be an OK mom.. Can I actually handle an infant. Shouldn't I be excited?

 

[Etisgonnab]

I see it!!! What brand test is it? If it's a wandfo I had the same issue. It took SUPER long to dry and see a line so I thought it was negative. I had a similar issue with FRER though too--it took a couple days longer than the rest to show a clear line. The easy@home tests showed first and the clear blue digital confirmed for me right away. Fx! Let us know how it goes tomorrow!

This was my last wondfo but now I'm literally freaking out... Am I horrible for freaking out? Am I going to be an OK mom.. Can I actually handle an infant. Shouldn't I be excited?

I totally freaked out too (and still do on a semi-regular basis). Am I going to be a terrible mom? Am I going to screw my kid up? How the hell can we afford it? How can we deal with the fact that our lives will now completely revolve around a kid? And so on and so on. Listen, it's a HUGE thing and a HUGE change. It's only natural to freak out a little right? No matter how much we want it, I'm sure it takes a while for a lot of us to fully wrap our heads around it when it's actually happened. The thing is, it's going to be an amazing change in ways that are so difficult to imagine right now because you haven't experienced it before. You'll get excited, and then probably scared again, back to happy to freaked out probably all at the same time. Just comes with the territory. You'll be great

 

[Gagrlinpitt]

I see it!!! What brand test is it? If it's a wandfo I had the same issue. It took SUPER long to dry and see a line so I thought it was negative. I had a similar issue with FRER though too--it took a couple days longer than the rest to show a clear line. The easy@home tests showed first and the clear blue digital confirmed for me right away. Fx! Let us know how it goes tomorrow!

This was my last wondfo but now I'm literally freaking out... Am I horrible for freaking out? Am I going to be an OK mom.. Can I actually handle an infant. Shouldn't I be excited?

I totally freaked out too (and still do on a semi-regular basis). Am I going to be a terrible mom? Am I going to screw my kid up? How the hell can we afford it? How can we deal with the fact that our lives will now completely revolve around a kid? And so on and so on. Listen, it's a HUGE thing and a HUGE change. It's only natural to freak out a little right? No matter how much we want it, I'm sure it takes a while for a lot of us to fully wrap our heads around it when it's actually happened. The thing is, it's going to be an amazing change in ways that are so difficult to imagine right now because you haven't experienced it before. You'll get excited, and then probably scared again, back to happy to freaked out probably all at the same time. Just comes with the territory. You'll be great

Thank you so so much for this.. I felt horrible for feeling this way..

 

[Angel5000]

Star - I made a stencil for the thicker grass blades at the top of the green out of cardboard, but the rest of the decals are stickers. I don't have the time or patience or skill to pain that well. My mom did the added little grass "spurts" by hand (those aren't too bad to do). All the animals are stickers we found on Amazon ranging from $8 - $25.

Gagrl - I SEE THE LINE! This is a big deall, I never see lines. Don't feel bad about freaking out, I still freak out! You'll be a great mom, I think the fact that you are worried about it is a good sign.

The Wondfo's always take a long time to try and get the line so it's harder to tell it's actually positive, but if there's some color there it's a line! I've never had an evap on a wondfo. Can'tw ait to see an update with another test! The curved FRER's can be bad for shadowy lines where the liquid gets trapped in the curved window BUT if the line is pink it's definitely positive. If it looks gray then hard to tell.