The Over 40 Crowd

[AMck]

Hi Ladies and a very happy new year to you all.

Jen, I don't know if it helps but my AF was as regular as clockwork until I started IVF tmt. It then went completely crazy with some cycles lasting 50 days and others 13!!! The Dr said it was normal to have some upset to the system.........I'm sure things will settle down for you soon...again it's playing the all too familiar waiting game. Fingers crossed for you x

Kat, hope you are having fun.....it's wet, cold and windy in Chessington!

Yasmina, congrats on test results. Another hurdle over, well done you. Sorry can't help with the speaking French thing, I'm absolutely usueless at languages. Good luck, I'm sure you will be fine.

Tammy, your plans for teaching online sound great. You sound very well prepared regarding childcare.

Sonix, hope you are OK. Sending you some PMA as you embark on your tmt. Fingers crossed for you x

Hi Bev, how you doing? I didn't realise you were a 'lady of leisure', lucky you! It's really good that your midwife calls on you, it must be very reassurring. Hope the ankles are Ok and that you are getting enough sleep.

LuAnne, how did your appointment go? Have you been approved for the Shared risk programme? Keep us posted!

As for me, we had a lovely xmas and new year with family and friends. Our next appointment is on 16th January. My ankles and waist are slowly disappearing! I consider myself very lucky so far as I am feeling great and my colleagues and friends say that I am 'blooming'!!!
One good thing that happened was that a computer literate friend scanned our baby scan pictures and reproduced them on proper photographic card. They will now last much longer, won't fade and I can carry them in my purse to share with any innocent bystander without fear of ruining them. It was a lovely thing for her to do as I am a bit slow in learning about all this computer stuff!

Anyway, hope everyone well and happy. Here's to a fab 2007
Hugs to all here
Bye for now
Anna x

[teachertam]

Hello Ladies:

Yasmina: I'm so glad to hear that you do not have gestational diabetes!! That must be a relief. I also have a very difficult time keeping awake the entire day without a nap. I'm getting up 5 - 7 times every night and therefore I don't think I get too much deep sleep. I'm constantly turning from left to right. You should be careful about inhaling the fumes from finishing a wood floor. Are you still working? Good luck on your French.

Jen: I had long AF's after each IVF, but they straightened out afterwards. I'm sure it is just the IVF's that is affecting your AF's. If you are worried about early menopause, you could always get the FSH test again. I believe the FSH test can indicate early menopause. Good luck on your upcoming wedding and your cycle in May.

Anna: I'm so glad to hear that you had a nice Christmas and new year's with family and friends. I hope my childcare plans work out the way I think they will . I do have backup plans in case DH has an afternoon meeting. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law just moved here and would love to help out as needed. I will begin teaching 2 face-to-face classes in June, as I will need some adult interaction. It is nice to hear that you are blooming.

Bev: I hope everything is going well with you and your little one.

Hello to everyone else.

Tammy

[Sonix]

Hello ladies,

Hey Yasmina, it’s great that all your tests have gone well. How are you getting on with French? That will be quite a challenge. Perhaps you should try teaching your guests English instead.
Thanks for your post with the Human Reproduction article. That’s the one I found. Doesn’t seem to be much else published on the internet. I’ll be having a scan on Tuesday morning (9th cycle day) and I presume they’ll be looking for an increased production of follicles(?). Hmmm. I queried my Consultant about my FSH level on my last appointment and he said it was OK but I don’t have any figures.

Jen- I’m sure AF will sort itself out again for you but if you’re worried, I’d definitely check with your doctor. I can relate to you feeling unsettled about it. Mine were regular 28-days cycles but were messed up with IVF too. AF actually only arrived 2 days early this time but according to the symptoms I’ve had I felt like it was going to start any time after 2 weeks. I got a lot of acne spots too and that was before I started this hormone treatment. Makes me feel like a teenager instead of 40. Keeping my fingers crossed for you that all’s well.

Have fun skiing and hope you have good weather. Is there a lot of snow already in Scotland? I’ve never been skiing in Scotland because I didn’t learn to ski until I came over to Germany. We’re lucky enough to live only 1,5 hrs away from St. Anton/Arlberg. We’re off there tomorrow for 2 days skiing. DH and I weren’t feeling up to it yet today because we’re both still recovering from virus infections. I’m going to try and take it easy – after all it’s my first time skiing this season.

Tammy, hope you are doing OK and are getting enough sleep. I suppose you will be well practised in getting up in the night for when your little one arrives.

Anna, it’s great to hear you’re doing so well. Keep it up. What a lovely idea to preserve the scan pictures.

LuAnne, any news? Hello to everyone.

Take care
Sonia xxx

[AMck]

Hi Ladies , how is everyone?

Just popped in to say hello. It's quiet here at the moment. Where is everyone?

Sonix, how did your scan go? Hope all went well.

Hugs to all here!
Anna

[jen babes]

Hi everyone

anna
glad to hear you had a 'Blooming' Christmas..so sweet that you carry your beanie pic in your purse to show to everyone..betch ya can't wait for the next scan...when do you have it??? Is there not a list update here???
I can't remember who's due for what and when?


sonix- My FSH was 15 then 17 then 14 on each cycle but i still stimmed out A class eggs even though i only got 2...Lets hope you can get a batch of them honey...Ec will be soon, it's so exciting... hugs to ya x x

Tammy how are you sleeping now? Nothing worse than sleep depravation..it's a torture to me...I can stay up until the cock crows but let me sleep the rest of the day....Please!!! Hope the days pass quickly for you until your little one is born When are you due??? x x

bev- thanks for the info on the site..wonderful and such postive feedback...My faith in in future and carrying/having babies has been restored thank you x x

Yasmina how are you honey? and the French? Keep studinying...but we are thinking of ya!

randa- where are you ? Haven't heard from you for ages!

Kat i hope your still away having a great holiday...if not welcome back to windy rainy Blighty...we missed ya!

a big hi and sorry to anyone i have missed

me- My AF typically came the day after i last posted...glad to hear that others have had upsets with AF even 6 mths after tmt. The meds sure mess you up don't they! Hopefully i willl regulate again but if not i am sure i can go on Bc pill if i need to for the DE cycle.

adam and i skied only on part of the mountain on sunday..but there has been a glut of snow up there this week so we are heading off skiing/ boarding again this weekend.The ski runs are all complete. Broc our 4mth pup loved it as he spent most of the time chasing rabbits in the forrests. So am sure he will be finding it fun again.

anyway love to ya all my 'wise womb-en'
jen
xxx

[Sonix]

Hello Ladies,

A bit quiet at the moment. Hope that means everyone is happy and doing well!

Hi Jen, glad to hear you had a good weekend away in the mountains. We had luck with good snow for skiing and reasonable weather too. I was a bit hesitant about overdoing it, with having been ill and just beginning treatment, but I felt fine and I’m sure the 2 days away did me a world of good.
It’s great that you can enjoy some winter sports and a wonderful wedding in Canada before you begin treatment again. I think May/June is good time to start. Those were our most successful months of IVF last year. Wishing you lots of luck!

Anna, thanks for asking about my scan yesterday. Our consultant, who had suggested the hormone treatment, was absent and there was a bit of confusion about whether or not I had been stimming. I had been told to turn up on cycle day 9 for scans, so was not. Anyway one little fighter of 12mm showed up on the screen, my hormone levels were checked and I finally I was given a prescription for some meds. So it’s a semi-natural cycle again. I tried asking a few questions but was told my previous FSH level is not the main issue, it’s how the follie develops, so just be patient. My next appointment is Friday for a further scan. Wish me luck.

So I suddenly find myself back on the rollercoaster and, dare I say it, back on the road to EC. Plenty of hurdles to go yet but I’m doing the usual exercise of trying to keep myself healthy and keep the days ahead free of any potentially interfering business appointments, just in case... One minute I’m thinking, “hey, what’s the point, I won’t get past EC, and even if I do…” and the next minute I find myself on a little “high”, remembering the perfect little embryo we produced last year and thinking, “wow, there is a just little chance this could work, isn’t there?”

Yesterday I ended up punctured all over. It started off with an attempt to take a blood sample at the clinic. My thin veins just didn’t want to perform. After 5 tries by 2 different nurses I eventually suggested that I go around the corner to a café for a hearty breakfast and come back later for another try. That did the job but I left the clinic with plasters all up my bruised arms. In the evening after my Yoga class, which I attended wearing a long sleeved top, I had to do 2 jabs; Menogon and a new med similar to Cetrotide. The first went OK but I managed to cut my finger on the bottle of solution whilst snapping off the glass top, ouch! DH had to nurse me with a plaster before we could continue. It took a bit of effort to get the 2nd jab in, felt like the needle was covered with rubber, and it left a rather sore red patch. Had to laugh at myself at the end of the day, though.

Enough about me, how’s everyone else getting on?

Hugs to everyone.
Sonia xxx

[children]

Hi again,

Thanks all for your kind words about my high blood sugar. Yes, Tammy, I am still working. I am working in a private University and I need to make 100% salary from my research grants within three years, otherwise, my tenure will be a problem. We are offered 12 weeks parental leave with benefit, among these 12 weeks, only 6 weeks with paid, this is why I am working still and can not afford taking off before the delivery. Compared to majority of the European countries, the US is not as friendly to new parents!

Last weekend’s baby shower that our colleagues organized for us was wonderful, everyone was excited about our little one and they have gotten her a lot of gifts. Now, the only thing we need to purchase by ourselves is an infant car seat which we went straight to Babiesrus right after the baby shower and got it. We also set up the crib and changing table now so the room looks much more welcoming to our little girl.

My stomach acid comes back now once I stopped the Prolisec, but I can not take more than 14 days, so I guess I will need to live with the acid until the end of next month!

I had taken 2 classes already, Newborn 101 and Breastfeeding, each is 2 hr course. I am now going through a five-week course, New Beginnings Prepared Childbirth, each week two hrs. I have met a lot of future mums there, it’s fun.

Bev, aren’t you happy that your baby is so close to full term? We should have a countdown for your byby! Even though I think Tammy may beat us both up since her boy is developing ahead of schedule!

Anna, glad that you are doing so well, continue enjoy your pg!

Tammy, I hope you can sleep better now. I also need to get up quite often, but I can go back to sleep easily. Do you have morning hot flushes? I sweat a lot in the mornings these days.

LuAnne, have you started your treatment? Haven’t seen your post for a while.

Kim, how is your treatment going? I guess you should know the numbers of your follicles now, right?

Sonia, I hope you produce good number of eggs, not too many like mine - they were mostly bad ones. 8-12 are good numbers. I was told estrogen treatment before FSH stimulation can preserve the integrity of eggs, I wonder you have incorporated this also in your protocol? I guess testosterone should do similar jobs, good luck!

Jen, I wish you a wonderful wedding in Whistler. I missed my chance to go there for a ski trip last year because I did not get my VISA back on time – my hubby went by himself and he said it is the best among Rocky mountain ski resorts that we have been to. Enjoy!!!!

Yasmina

[teachertam]

Hello Ladies:

It is good to see some action here on our thread. I have been pretty wiped out since Sunday with an awful cold. I have been taking 2 naps a day. I have my 33 week appt. with my OB tomorrow. Andrew has been extremely active. I sometimes wonder what the little guy is doing in there.

Sonia: Good to hear that you are back on the horse! How does a semi-natural cycle work? Do you still have EC or just an IUI? Good luck on your Friday scan.

Jen: I am due March 3rd, but at my lasts two appts. my little guy was measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule. He will hopefully come a couple of weeks early, or else may be a 9 lb baby!!

Anna: It has been quiet on here. We have not heard from people in awhile. I hope you and your little bundle of joy are doing well.

Bev: I hope everything is ok with you and your little guy.

Yasmina: I do sweat in the morning too. I still get up every 1 - 2 hours a night. DH and I took a Childbirth 101 class this past Saturday. It covered everything from breastfeeding to C-Sections. I'm still not sure what type of pain medication to request. Do you know what you are going to do yet? I just started taking a water aerobics class at the YMCA last night. I enjoyed it but got a charlie horse in the arch of my foot at the end of the class. I have not had my baby shower yet, as it is planned for later this month. I still have problems with the stomach acid too, I try to take prilosec every few days and mylanta on the days in between. I have started my Spring semester here, but am only teaching 2 internet classes. It is difficult for me to be at home all day, as I'm not used to it.

Hello to Kat, LuAnne, Kim and Randa.

Take care all,
Tammy

[teachertam]

[Kat]

Hi all & Happy New Year!
We are back and had an absolutely fab time both on safari and on the beach. Back to a very dull & grey Chessington in comparison to the hustle & bustle & colours of Africa. Suntan fading fast though but will still have a bit next week when I go back to work.
Glad to see you are all doing OK, I did think about you all while I was away, wondering how you were all getting on.
The clinic knew were have been away so won't have tried to contact us but you never know, we might hear something soon.
Speak soon, a pile of laundry awaits...
Lots of love
Kat xx

[Sonix]

Hi Ladies,

Just a quick post to let you know that we’ve made it one step further. The appointment for EC on Monday was confirmed yesterday afternoon with the results of my blood tests. So as DH keeps telling me, we should stay positive over the weekend.

I probably confused you a bit with my last post about the cycle I’m on. Even with stimming I never produced more than one follicle so I’m on a natural cycle without fertility drugs. I’d love to surprise you all, and myself, with a whole bunch of follies, but no chance of that for us. It’s just the one follicle again. I was on testosterone for the first few cycle days and been injecting Menogon and Orgalutran (a GnRh antagonist like Cetrotide) since cycle day 9. So I called it a “semi-natural” cycle. Like Yasmina says, I suppose the protocol is to improve quality of the egg. Keep your fingers crossed for Monday!

Yesterday at work the last female in our department who is younger than me and without kids broke the news to me that she’s seven weeks pregnant and proudly showed me her baby scan pictures. I was expecting this to happen sometime soon but was actually secretly grateful to her that she picked a day on which I didn’t just get some bad news.

Oops, must go, it’s time to do the hCG injection…

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sonia
xxx

[teachertam]

Sonia,

That is good news! Remember, it only takes 1 good egg!! My last IVF had 5 embies transferred to no avail. Then one egg with a natural cycle and I got pregnant.

Kat: Glad to hear that you had a nice holiday. Hopefully, you will get that donor egg call very soon now! We need another round of BFP's!!!!!!!

Jen: Hope things are going well with you as well.

Hello to Bev, Yasmina and Anna. I hope everything is going well with your pregnancies.

Lisa: How are you? We have not heard from you in awhile. I hope things are looking up for you and DH.

Hello to LuAnne, Kim, Randa, Caz and anyone else that I may have missed.

Take care all,
Tammy

[Hopeful2BPregnant]

Hey Ladies & Happy New Year. I've been hanging out in the February buddies. That's when we will try again. More meds this time because my egg quality sucked. My clinic is really making me upset. My DH has to have surgical sperm retrieval and they keep telling me that I need donor sperm, that his sperm is not motile and there isn't many. I thought ICSI fixed most all sperm problems (other than if there is none). Anyone with any thoughts on the subject. We really want our own if possible.

Just wanted to say that you all inspire me. I'm so excited ready about everyone over 40 who is expecting a bundle of joy. Hopefully it will be me soon. I'm praying for all of us still waiting for that BFP.

Kim and I will be traveling together to the dr and that's great too. A buddy who knows and can go with me and share stuff. She and I have been through the first BFN together and hopefully this time we will get BFP together. Our boss will have a heart attack. Oh, I forgot to tell you that we work together and have the same boss. He is already spazzing out.

Gotta run for now.........hubby and friends are taking me out.......my birthday treat (a little early but necessary). It will be good for me to get out and stop worry about bills, IVF tests, CPA exams and well, everything.

God bless everyone and keep us posted.

Julia

[teachertam]

Julia:

Welcome to our thread! I don't know much about sperm problems, so I can't help you there. You will find that this thread is a great place to come for support. I found it right after my first IVF. I hope this next cycle is a good one for you. Happy Birthday and good luck on the CPA exam. I've never taken the CPA exam, but I have taken the PE (professional engineer) exam. It was a very long day!

Well, I'm off to bed.

Hello to everyone else.

Take care all,
Tammy

[AMck]

Hi Ladies, hope everyone having a good weekend.

Welcome back Kat. Glad to see you had a fab holiday. It is rather grey and dull here isn't it? I have everything crossed that you get a phone call soon with news of a donor xx

Good luck Sonix...thinking of you. Hope all goes well tomorrow. x

Welcome Julia, this thread is amazing. Lots of support and advice coming your way. Sorry I don't know much about sperm problems. But from what I have learnt on this thread you have to go with what feels right for you. If I had listened to my Dr we would still be on a donor waiting list! Good luck with your exam. Fingers crossed that this next cycle is the ONE. Dreams do come true!

Bev, are you still there? Hope all is well.

As for us, we went shopping yesterday to start choosing a pram, car seat and cot etc......It was really confusing to start with and we felt totally lost with so much choice! Eventually we found a helpful assistant who explained everything clearly and we started to make some decisions. Exciting times!!

Hi to Tammy, LuAnne, Yasmina, Jen and all the lovely ladies here.
Hugs
Bye for now

Anna x