TTC # 2 after fertility issues with # 1

Hey Frankie - thanks heaps for starting up this thread!

So, about me, it took us 18 months to conceive DD. After what felt like a million blood tests, ultraounds, an MRI, a scare where blood tests showed a possible brain tumour playing with my pituatary (sp?) I was finally diagnosed with a heart shaped uterus (which shouldn't impact on conception) and PCOS (but thankfully no tumour!). Due to DH's low sperm count and motility etc, and my PCOS we were advised that we would probably need IVF with ICSI.

Just two months later we got our surpise BFP , the week before we received our letter giving us the date for our first appointment with FA.

So we never ended up having to have fertility treatment but I hung out with clomid pill poppers who were great through all of the testing and waiting! I hope that we'll get a second miracle conception but fully expect that we'll need a little help.

We haven't been using any contraception since DD was born a year ago, got AF back about five months ago but like before, cycles are all over the place and suspect I'm probably not ovulating.

I'm also still BF (three feeds a day) but am going to work on dropping the middle of the day feed over the next month or so. I struggle with the decision to wean because I would really love to keep BFing for another six months at least but I know that with our history it needs to be done

The decision to wean or not is a hard one isn't it. My DD absolutely LOVES her milk and she won't drink anything else, not water, not even juice! so I'm a bit stuck until I can get her to drink water, as she needs some fluids! Although people tell me that if I wean her she will start to like water. I really want her to self wean but I'm not sure that will happen.

I also need to lose weight as considered medically obese which won't be helping my TTC efforts. I struggle with motivation as I am an emotional overeater - which I do more of when TTC or when I'm "trying to eat healthy". Catch 22!

Hey Bugbug, yes I know what you mean, I know when I was initially posting in the Clomid thread that I didn't mind those who already had a child posting, but I imagine that some probably don't want to hear about our babies, even pregnancu and childs age tickers can be hurtful when you're at your lowest in the journey.

I forgot to say that I had/have? "unexplained" infertility. I find it really interesting that I got my BFP immediately after I had an HSG xray and on our first IUI - pretty sure that one of them was responsible for me finally falling pregnant.

I'm lucky frankie, that my DD will drink water and cows milk, but boy does she get grumpy in the middle of the day if I'm late giving her a BF - she will start climbing all over me and grabbing at my top! It did take a while for her to drink water, we just kept giving it to her during her meals and she gradually caught on.

hi bugbug, and yes, like frankie, I know what you mean. I must admit, I got rid of my child age ticker when I posted the other day in the CPP thread.

And hi Buttons. It's a hard decision to TTC when you've struggled in the past. DH and I recently agreed that we'll just keep trying to have children until I'm 40 (I'm 31 now), or earlier if we decide to stop sooner, but at the moment I'm finding it difficult to imagine spending the next 9 years constantly thinking about TTC (although HOPEFULLY there will be at least one more pregnancy in that time).

Frankie, I've heard that about HSG's before, people getting pregnant right after having them. I'm pretty sure an HSG was top of the list of procedures our public gynae was recommending to FA that we have.

It's funny that you say "had/have?" - I wonder the same about my PCOS - the only reason I ended up with that diagnosis is because I wasn't pregnant - I had some cysts, but not such huge ones that it was obviously PCOS, and none of my blood work showed up strong signs, so it kind of became my default diagnosis. But I figure if they let me keep the PCOS label then maybe I'll be able to get fertility treatment just a little sooner.

A friend told me she is pregnant today. Her daughter is seven months older than mine, and surprisingly, I actually felt really happy for her straight away and only a teensy bit sad for me. It helps that she's been really open with TTC so I kinda knew it was coming (she doesn't have too many issues conceiving although she has miscarried in the past).

But all the pregnancy announcements surrounding me lately have got me thinking about trying to keep busy, and I've decided I'm going to concentrate on losing weight. We have a wedding near the Great Barrier Reef (Aus) to go to in late September and I'd love to be able to wear a bikini while I'm there.

When I was TTC the last time the public gynae said I should be under 64kgs and for every 5% of my body weight I managed to lose I would increase my chances of getting pregnant, so I'm going to hang onto that. I'm currently about 72kgs I think so it's only 8kgs but given I'm terribly unfit at the moment I think it will be a little bit of a struggle. If only Abby was walking I could take her to park and run around - hopefully we have a late resurgence of summer once she does start walking and we'll be able to get out together a bit.

Hi girls, nice to find this thread. Nice to see some familiar faces in here Frankie, Ariel, and Buttons (and not nice, IYKWIM - be nicer if nobody had to go through this twice), and good to 'meet' you bugbug. Quick rehash, I have PCOS which was annovulatory. It took a year of failed clomid cycles ('not responding, not ovulating') to be given ovarian diathermy (ovary drilling), the month after the surgery with low dose clomid, ovidrel, and progesterone we conceived DD. She was weaned at 10 months for health reasons which is a whole other story, but I got the surprise of my life when I actually got an AF, naturally, following her weaning. Because our specialist had said the best time for me to conceive a second would be directly after weaning we made an appointment right away with Repromed (having heard good things about them). Our new specialist put me on metformin, which has seen me since ovulate, ON MY OWN (!), every month. Unfortunately I still have a rubbish luteal phase of 7 days which is obviously not long enough. We did a clomid, ovidrel, progesterone cycle in February which resulted in a BFN, and have just had this cycle 'off' to regroup. Unfortunately this cycle has been super loopy, and I've had spotting every day since my AF ended, so my specialist has called me in for a review next week to figure out what's going on.

So know what you girls mean about thinking about TTC. I am based at the hospital one day a week and accidentally got off on the maternity floor the other day. Fraudian!

Just lurking - saw a few familiar names and was having a little nosy    I just wanted to say all the best for round two (or 3 lol), I hope you all get your another little miracle in your lives - and all your little ones are so gorgeous, I love seeing updates on FB    Good luck guys

Hi Kelly! Thanks for the luck! Love your pics on FB too, how incredible to have the two boys so close together. Is DS1 walking now?

Frankie, hopefully you manage to catch one of those ovulatory months. From what I understand losing weight definitely ups the chances of ovulation, so fingers crossed it doesn't take much. Are you going to use OPKs to try catch it or just take it as it comes? I can't believe your DD is only two months shy of 18 months. It has gone so fast.

I'm on CD1 today, which means I guess that if the specialist gives approval, we can do a day 5-9 clomid cycle this month. Not entirely sure what he's going to say though, given how this month has gone. From my pre-DD annovulatory days to a 21 day cycle with spotting every day. Still, will be good to hear what he has to say!

Yes I'm doing OPKs this month, I think I'll lay off them for a few months after this month as they're a bit expensive. Especially since I'm starting them on Day 10 and going through until AF starts, as cycle length has been erratic since AF returned.

Ceres, have you done any googling on what it might be? Seems strange huh.

Also, what do you guys think re coffee and it's effect on conception? When TTC # 1 I cut down, then switched to decaf, then read that was bad so cut it out altogether. I adore coffee and just don't wanna give it up, plus "needing" it takes on another meaning when you've got a baby I reckon!

He he Hopes I'm glad to hear you'll be back for round 3

Re coffee and its effect on conception, last time I cut down to one espresso a day and this time around I'm doing the same. No other caffeine in my diet (tea, chocolate, etc). I don't know that it would make a big difference unless you were a massive consumer but anything that can be done in our control to help and all..

Good luck with the HSG bugbug, I know Frankie is a fan of what they can do! Sorry, no idea how to bleed faster haha - perhaps stay upright for the week?!

Dr Google tells me a likely culprit might be ovarian cysts, Frankie. Which I guess would make sense given I have PCOS. I have a scan form to book in for imaging now, so figure I'll book in for later in the week after AF ends.