TTC #1- Looking for buddies!

Tb, yayyyy for having a good sleeper!! She sounds absolutely perfect! How is Kaydence adjusting?

That makes a lot of sense Steph. It's one of the hardest things to go through Trying something else instead of IVF seems like the best move at this point. We'll help you get through this!!

Dream, how are you feeling? Did you get your hCG levels checked yet?

Amber, anything new in your world?

AFM; 14.5 weeks right now and not much going on. I have a doctor's appointment next week but I'm just terrified of the doppler right now. I switched my care to the doctor(s) instead of the midwife at the clinic (since there's only 1 midwife and she's the one who screwed up last time). Low-risk patients are usually only seen by a midwife so this was kinda like an exception. Really hope everything goes smoothly and I can get over that whole trauma.

Steph - Sounds like a good idea.

I have a bloodwork appt June 14 to get my HCG levels checked, it's a little far (its actually the appt I had to do with my NT scan) I can't find an appointment sooner anywhere around. Labs are all booked up due to limited appointments cause of COVID. I may go for a walk-in and try my luck if I have time one day.

So it seems we're going to take my docs advice and take a 1 cycle pause to 'reset'. No TTC this month. It kills me to wait to try again, but I adore my fam doc and trust her advice. Even though she said it wasn't medically necessary to take 1 cycle off. lol So June is going to be pretty boring and probably a LONG cycle too. My cycle after my MMC last year was 40 days. I'll still do my OPKs just for tracking purposes but those are the only tests you guys will see from me this month unfortunately.

TB - I hope O is still sleeping wonderfully for you.

Steph I think that’s a really good next step. When do you meet to discuss that option?

Sunny- I can imagine you feeling quite nervous. And 100z% get switching to doc! I would not go back to that midwife for sure!

speaking of.. do you girls remember when I had my first OB and she was very like unhelpful when I kept having losses so I switched when I got pregnant?
Well she was the on call OB the day after I had Olivia. She was like “hi there-we’ve met before..” awkward lol

dream- I totally understand feeling impatient or even frustrated to wait. But it’s probably best for your body and mind!

so far little miss is still a good sleeper and in my opinion packing it on! We have her two week spot on Friday so we will see!

Sounds like a good plan Steph. Do you have a next appt set up?

Sunny- totally understandable how you are feeling. Glad you can switch your care over!

Dream- so hard to wait, but for the best! Sounds like you have a wonderful doctor!

Tb- I hope little one keeps sleeping well! Will be fun to see how much she has grown. How awkward that must have been with the on call OB, maybe she learned a lesson to be a bit more helpful for her future patients!

I think I've finally stopped bleeding/spotting. Now we wait for O.

CD19 (or that's what I'm calling it anyways - don't really know when CD1 was officially)

Still waiting for O. A little tension/crampy today. We'll see. My doc said use condoms this month - we tried, we failed, I'm sorry but condoms suck. So we've just been using the super effective pull out method. (insert sarcastic voice here)

One of the most important reasons why doctors recommend waiting is for dating of the pregnancy. Since you haven't had a "real" period, you might not know the date of your LMP. Pregnancy losses that happen later on (like in the second trimester) can sometimes lead to vitamin/mineral deficiencies and it may take a few cycles for that depletion to be restored. So in case you do get pregnant accidentally this cycle, well, chances are your baby/your body are just fine.

No, that's not me giving you the green light though But yeah... just in case it were to happen, it probably wouldn't be the end of the world


Tb, hahaha yeah that is pretty awkward! Glad she wasn't the one there for the delivery though

Steph, how are you doing?

16 weeks tomorrow and had my doctor's appointment a few days ago. Brought husband and toddler along because I just didn't want to go there alone again. I was alone at my 10-week appointment after my husband repeatedly asked to come and I told him no, since it was supposedly just going to be a blood draw appointment. It was great to hear the heartbeat and get that assurance that everything is still going well so far.

CD24 and finally seeing what might be a little bit of action on my OPK this afternoon. Darker than previous days but wouldn't call it a positive. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.

Sounds good Sunny - anatomy scan up next I presume?

Hope ovulation picks up and you'll get back to your regular cycle in no time!!

Yes, the anatomy scan is scheduled for July 1st... nervous/excited for sure!

Did my bloodwork yesterday... HCG 1 iU/L - all clear

CD26 and a positive OPK finally. Hopefully O tomorrow then TWW of waiting for nothing but AF lol. Then we can get the action going again.

So it seems like this will be a 40 or 41 day cycle, similar to my 39 day cycle after my MMC last year.

At least I'm consistent.

Hi Team!

TB hope everything is going swimmingly for you.

Great news on your 16 week appointment Sunny, not too long to wait until July 1st now!

Hope your ‘two week wait’ goes quickly so you can crack on again, Dream!

We had our failed treatment follow up today. Saw a new consultant who is our new favourite (everyone else has been great too but we’re in love with this one now). Told her right from the off that further IVF cycles are not for us. She thinks our ovulation induction sounds like a good plan and we’re looking to start taking provera to induce a bleed around July 6th. She thinks we’ll start with clomid and go from there. We did cycles with clomid before, but it was through NHS not private and so it was minimal monitoring. Our next dilemma will be whether to go au naturel, or do IUI. I was of the belief that unless there is some male factor as well, then IUI wouldn’t make a huge difference to chances of success compared with times intercourse.. but any thoughts from you girls are always appreciated!

Hey Steph - So happy to hear you're loving your new consultant. I fell like that's an important part of the process. Good vibes from those who are working to help you.

I have zero medically backed option on IUI vs au naturel. Just that in my own experience we did 3 IUIs and all were duds and then conceived with intercourse. My DH did I think 3 sperm analysis and all had different results. One said low motility, then on the others said his motility was fine. Another said low count but then he had great count when we did our first IUI....soooo yeah bit of a crap shoot. What does your gut tell you? You can always do both. IUI then back if up with some good BDing. During the time we were doing IUIs though I did feel more confident going that route because it was at a point where TTC was becoming unbearably stressful and DH wasn't always able to finish cause it just simply wasn't fun anymore.

You're right Steph, not much of a difference. The only advantage I can think of doing IUI over TI is that Clomid might dry your CM up a bit. That can make it more difficult for sperm to pass through. With IUI, you bypass the vaginal canal so it's not much of an issue. Do you remember how your body responded to Clomid last time?

I like Dream's tip of doing both TI and IUI if you choose to go the IUI route (if you're up for it!). If you conceive, you never know if it was due to the TI or the IUI and that's kinda cute in my opinion

A little OPK line porn for you guys. These are from yesterday. Cd27

Wow look at those!!! Looking good Dream. Seems like your body has no trouble adjusting to all those hormonal changes it just went through!

Steph1012 said:

Hi Team!

TB hope everything is going swimmingly for you.

Great news on your 16 week appointment Sunny, not too long to wait until July 1st now!

Hope your ‘two week wait’ goes quickly so you can crack on again, Dream!

We had our failed treatment follow up today. Saw a new consultant who is our new favourite (everyone else has been great too but we’re in love with this one now). Told her right from the off that further IVF cycles are not for us. She thinks our ovulation induction sounds like a good plan and we’re looking to start taking provera to induce a bleed around July 6th. She thinks we’ll start with clomid and go from there. We did cycles with clomid before, but it was through NHS not private and so it was minimal monitoring. Our next dilemma will be whether to go au naturel, or do IUI. I was of the belief that unless there is some male factor as well, then IUI wouldn’t make a huge difference to chances of success compared with times intercourse.. but any thoughts from you girls are always appreciated!

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Hi Steph,

I don’t really have the link to back this claim but when I was googling pregnancy rates via IUI, I think it was 8-9%, which is a little bit higher than timed intercourse (6-7%). But Im not sure if the timed intercourse involved Clomid.

Separately I had the most awful experience with high level doses of Clomid, like I was an emotional mess. My friend told me that her fertility doctor put her on something else, and she ovulated a lot better. I know she got one baby via IUI (I got the procedure 3x and it didn’t work out for me). If you react poorly to Clomid maybe see if they can offer you something else.

Finally, our doctor told us to bd two nights before our IUI procedure, and also the night of the IUI.

Best of luck!

Hmmmm thanks girls, a lot of food for thought!!

Dream- I also remember my poor husband having trouble with everything when we were first doing ovulation induction (we ended up doing some crazy things involving syringes and sterile pots!!!)!

@Jojo0802 - thanks for your reply! Your stats sound about right for what I already believed to be the case I think. And yes I remember when I took clomid before I absolutely hated the way it made me feel. Just horrible. We came to a decision with the doctor on Wednesday that we’d do one round of clomid to see how I respond, and switch meds for the next cycle if it was no good. But I’m really not sure if I want to contact them this week to say I don’t want to bother with clomid at all. It’s really difficult because we’re paying privately and clomid is very cheap compared with everything else, so if it did work well then I could obviously deal with the side effects for a short while… decisions decisions!

Sunny, I think at the moment we’re leaning towards trying TI the first time. Although we’re both shift workers so that could be interesting… I don’t remember if clomid dried things up last time, I felt utterly shit in general so chances are it did I suppose!

So about 2 more weeks until you start Provera and get things going Steph? I hope Clomid is easier on you this time around. And otherwise ask for Letrozole/Femara (like jojo mentioned), which also prevents the whole "drying up" thing.

Hey Sunny!

Yeah I think I’ll be starting around 6th July.
Changed my mind about clomid based on how awful I felt last time and how unresponsive I seemed to be, so I believe we are now going with gonal-F low dose in alternate days and have to cross fingers that I don’t over respond again. I feel so over it all to be honest. Broke down and cried twice at work yesterday, what a nightmare. I have the most wonderful colleagues though and today I’ve felt more like myself so that’s something. It’s just hits me out of nowhere sometimes.