The Over 40 Crowd

[Sonix]

Hi all,

Just checking back in after our ski trip. We ended up in Switzerland and indulged in four full days of skiing, good food & wine, sauna, whirlpool…- the full programme.

Chriss - managing to keep sane, I hope. Think of those 4 embies snuggling in - they need you! - and try to keep calm. Enjoy your acu sessions!

JenB – hope you don’t get too stressed out with your visitors being around. Take it easy and keep posting those " ". Hoping and praying it’s your time with a strong and lasting bfp. Good luck and tons of baby dust are now being sent your way xxx

LuAnne – so nice to hear from you again. Thanks for your encouraging words. How are you and the little ones holding up? Hope you don’t have to wait too long now…

Catharine – keep spreading the PMA. Sounds like your body is adjusting to being pregnant. Glad you are feeling better today.

Amy – you’re starting stimming! Yeah!!! Hope you sail through it without any side effects. You don’t have to go beyond the Arlberg pass to your clinic, do you?? I assumed your clinic is in the Vorarlberg area. Can you go for all your scans locally?
Thank you so much for your kind words and your offer of help. Yes, I am soooo relieved that we got an appointment so quickly. I understand what you mean about my doctor sounding like he’s not able to deal with my lining issues and to be honest if we didn’t have a specialist supporting us in Germany we’d now be rather stuck. But I think (hope) he’s right to put us back in the hands of our consultant here. We need to have further tests done and he is not able to do those or monitor me enough from so far away.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement everyone. Yep, it’s our appointment tomorrow and I hope we’re not expecting too much. Will keep you all posted with the outcome.

Hi to Yasmina, Anna, Tammy, Andrea and everyone else reading here. Take care all !

Sonia
xxx

[teachertam]

Hello Ladies:

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted.

Yasmina and Catharine: Thanks so much for the birthday wishes for Andrew. We had a nice birthday party for him and he really enjoyed it.

Sonia: Good luck on your RE appointment tomorrow.

JenB and Chriss: You should be next with BFP's!!!!!!!!! Good luck on your upcoming testing.

Amy: Good luck with this new cycle.

LuAnne and Catharine: Glad to hear that everything is going well with the pregnancies.

Yasmina: I'm sure that you are thrilled to be able to go to China next month to see your family. I did not know that you were from China.
We are still in the adoption waiting mode, but my DH really just wants to have one child. He is afraid that we will not have the energy for another child, as we are getting older, as he puts it. How is Eloise doing? She must be getting big.

Hello to Anna, Kat, Bev, Andrea, Price cake and anyone else that I have missed.

Take care all,
Tammy

[Catharine]

Hey all-
Just wanted to share some wonderful music to relax by. Ya'll will think I'm crazy. John Denver. Yup I have DH put it on every night to relax me. Maybe it just reminds me of being a carefree 'spirit' of a child in the early 70s. But for what it's worth I find a lot of his music soothing and spiritual.

Wishing everyone well.

Catharine

[summerbaby]

good luck today, Sonia! Hope you come away with a better idea of where to go from here -- Yes, I do have to go over the Arlberg pass into Tirol to get to my clinic -- but, these days I usually travel through that endlessly long tunnel...But, as long as we won't need chains on the car, we'll travel the more scenic route after Easter for ER/ET...

Catharine - whatever works to relax you after such a hectic day is music to my ears. I have a nice CD called Sounds of Acadia, which is music intermixed with what they call "the natural symphony of Acadia" -- water, birds, storms...I listen to it and it reminds me of the nice holiday DH and I spent there one autumn and can just lull myself to sleep...

chriss - hang in there! your 2ww must be soon coming to an end - do hope to read about your bfp in the coming days! PMA!

jenb - I'm sure for you the 2ww has been endless - but in just 2 days you'll have that lasting bfp! thinking of you.

xx amy

[Sonix]

Hi everyone,

Tammy – good to hear from you again. How is Andrew doing? He must be quite an active little toddler by now. Another child would keep you both young but I’m sure the decision isn’t easy. Sending my best wishes.

Amy – Good luck with starting stimming tomorrow! I bet you’re looking forward to it despite the unpleasantness. It’s been such a long wait. Wow, you really do have to travel far to your clinic so I can fully understand why you were a bit worried about the winter weather. We’re in Arlberg a lot, it’s our favourite ski resort. When we travel beyond, we always take the scenic pass route too, if the weather permits. Enjoy the mild and sunny weekend!

Jen – only one more day – do whatever you need to do to make you feel good. Hope your clinic gets back to you early rather than late tomorrow. You will be wanting to celebrate your BFP this weekend! Thinking of you! xxx

Chriss – you will be next! Sending lots of positive thoughts your way. xxx

The appointment yesterday went well. Our consultant was surprised to see us and said he thought I would have been long pregnant by now. He agreed that a hysteroscopy including taking a small sample of the uterus lining is the next step. The appointment is next week – 19th March. Our specialist is one of the best in the area and knows my IVF history so I’m glad to be in good hands. Hoping the results will give us some more clues and a way forward.

Talking of relaxing music… I usually get some to listen to during my acu sessions and it’s the track with the chirping birds in the background I like best. I can dream I’m lying in a meadow in springtime and forget everything else. A few weeks ago, at the end of a session, the assistant came into the room muttering about the noise of lots of police cars and fire engines outside the building. It turned out that the whole street had been closed off due to a gas leak but I hadn’t noticed anything.

Love
Sonia xxx

[children]

Hi Tammy,

Thanks for asking, Eloise is doing fine except for the frequent ear infections. The daycare teachers blame on her drinking from a bottle since she does not like sippy cups. Have you weaned Andrew yet from breast feeding?

My DH is very similar to yours, his reason is that we don't need another child to burden us with the responsibilities that we may not be able to handle in the future. However, I am going to take the opportunity that he becomes less disagreeable about my plan to give our frozen embryos a chance at the moment - since we know that our next 5 years job is secured now. I am going to start my last frozen cycle as soon as we will be back from China.

Sonia,

Happy to know that you are in good hands. tons of luck on your coming exams. Hope you will find some solutions soon.

JenB,

Best luck to your BFP!

Amy,

Hope you produce good quality eggs in the coming cycle. It's a long wait but glad you finally made it!

To all other ladies who read here, all the best to you all too!

Yasmina

[chriss]

Sonia, sounds like you are in good hands. I'm so relieved for you. I hope that Re can figure things out. Keep thinking good thoughts. Also, thanks for the good wishes. You know the deal, the 2ww is tough. I'm trying to keep positive. This can be difficult after previous letdowns, but I am keeping up my hopes.

Tonite we go to RE to talk about DE. and tomorrow to new clinic in Manhattan to see what a different RE thinks for us. Want to do everything I possibly can to make this work.

Good to hear from all the moms out there, Yasmina, Tammy. And to the BFP ladies... LUANNE, Catharine and to the ones of us still in the good fight. Thinking of you all.

Talk to you soon. -chriss

[Catharine]

TGIF

JenB-fingers, toes xxxed for that BFP. Sending extra doses of baby dust and PMA.

Chriss-you must be testing soon, sending you some mega doses of babydust and PMA.

Sonia-I echo the sentiment that you sound like you are in good hands.

Amy-more fairy dust for the follicle growth

Yasmina-have a fab time back visiting family in China. Safe travels to you and your family.

I'm hanging in there. U/S tuesday[March 18]. I have to say I'm trying to stay calm. Last august we saw the heartbeat at 5 weeks and lost it around 8 weeks This BFP certainly is different from that one in so many respects: less fluid retention from OHSS, no nausea (yet), no tender breasts. Outside the beta results and lack of AF I wouldn't think I was preggers. However, this doesn't stop me from being smart about it. I'm still holding to the high fiber diet [lots of fruits, vegies, whole grain, nuts] to ward off the one sympton I do have, lack of GI motility and I'm on low impact activity/exercise. I'd like to start back to running. I hope to get an answer to this by April. No need to rush into it, I've got a lot of work [grants] between now and April to keep me busy.

Hey to pricecake, Luanne, Andrea, Tammy and all those I do not mean to leave out.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend.

Catharine

[jen babes]

all for your lovely wishes ....am hoping with all my heart the beta comes back high...

will let you know as soon as we know the results ( about 6pm tonight i presume)

love jen xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[jen babes]

...sorry everyone i am still waiting....

i am pacing the floor here still waiting on my Gp calling and it s totally getting to me... Have a raging headache ( hormones) cramps and feel sick to my tummy with nerves.... hoping and paying we hear some good news x x speak soon x x x

love jen
xxxxxxxx

[jen babes]

$#$%%^^&&* we eventualy or our results back...

sad to say it's a BFN........

thanks everyone for all your valuable support....

life sucks at the moment

lov jen
xxxxxxxxx

[Catharine]

Oh JenB-my heart goes out to you and DH. I am truely saddened by the news I was so hoping these would take. Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. Please take care of yourself.

Catharine

[chriss]

Jenbabes, so sorry. Thinking of you sweetie. You've been through so much. We are here for you. Wish I could do something to help you.

Guys, I'm exhausted and I'm not going to do any personals at the moment. I'm sorry. I just wrote up a long post of what DH and I have been up to on another thread. Hope you don't mind, but I'm just gonna copy it onto this thread....

We've had a very busy time the last two days. First had a consult about donor eggs with RE. We wanted to find out some information about it all. We did not come to any conclusions yet. Then the next day (yesterday) we spent the entire day traveling to and from new clinic. This one all the way in Manhattan. We wanted to get a second opinion becasue we have been at same RE and have had three BFN's. New RE acknowledged my advanced maternal age, but was not slighted by it. I think that he deals with many women my age. He thought that my FSH was good enough and he looked through all of my paperwork. He talked about how they do things differently than the clinic that I was at. ANd maybe a change would be what I need. He talked about using a different protocol. He did also note... that he feels that the difficult transfers have something to do with the BFN's. I have a tilited cervix and there's a sharp "angle" to get into uterus easily. IUI's have always been painful and I've always been under anesthesea for ivf transfers. THey've even put a stitch in there with a string to use to shift the uterus. New DR. thinks that the transfer plays more of a role in this than the old RE ever let on. OF course he wants to run more tests, etc.

So, of course this clinic is so very far away from home. I would need to take some significant time off of work. There's no way I could do any daily monitoring and still go to work. It's also more expensive and that means using up the last bit of insurance money and not having any left for donor cycle. (Although the DE are not covered at all.) So sad that money has to play a role in this.

I plan to go talk with my principal next week. I need to do this. Dh and I feel that we want to give new RE a chance. Hope principal will work with me. People take off work for other illnesses/surgeries, etc. This is a major "Quality of Life" issue here and we can not wait 4 months until summer. When you are 41 every month counts.

Sorry such a long post all about me, but I wanted to update you guys. I've been pretty quiet lately. I am still on 2ww, but have been having the usual PMS symptoms that I've had every other failed cycle. I was pregnant once before (miscarriage) and I do not feel the way I did when I was preggers. I test this week. Such a saga.

... told ya it was long. anyway. I'll be back in later to check in on all ofyou. Much love, -chriss

[summerbaby]

jenb - so very sorry. My heart goes out to you and DH. Take care of yourselves during this very sad time.

sonia - wishing you all the best for your appt on Wednesday. Glad all is moving ahead without a lot of waiting.

chriss - keep up that PMA for this cycle. Do hope you've got that BFP you are longing for. Should this not be your time, at least it looks like you've got a back-up plan. If you believe you'll feel more confident at the new clinic then a change is good thing.

Yasmina - enjoy your trip to China. I'm sure your extended family will be overjoyed to meet Eloise.

catharine - Looking forward to your post on Tuesday after your u/s! Sounds like the worrying never ends once you get that bfp! do hope you can relax a bit more after Tuesday and enjoy this time.

I've started stimming and go for my 1st scan on Thursday. So far all is well. Thanks for all the good wishes and support! I really can't believe it is all actually happening -- looking forward to Thursday to see what is going on.

Hello to Tammy, pricecake, andrea, anna & LuAnne+2!
xx Amy

[jen babes]

thanks everyone for your thoughts and posts x x x

Chriss good luck with testing this week x x x

sonia good luck with all on 19th x x your time is well over due x x x

Amy good luck for your 1st scan x x grow follies grow x x x

catharine 2 days until you see the heartbeat x x x love to you x x

yasmina tammy bevT Anna and the other preggy mums lots of love to you babies and bumps x x x

Dh and i have been taking it easy the past few days have had in laws staying ( which turned out surprisingly a good thing as very supportive) lots of meals our anad long walks in the spring sun with the dog..we are hanging in there x x x discussing another tmt is still a no go at the moment ...
so we are focusing on going on holiday in June x x x so for me its getting rid of the weight i have gained with the tmt cycles ( my thighs look a lot like cellulite city and are NOT pretty) lol x x
looking forward to going away to travel 3wks around france. Stopping off at the French Formula1 GP race for 3 days ( thats DHs choice not mine ) x x x slowly but surely we will get there x x x and be whole again x x

love jen B
xxxxxxx