Posted By: Ollie (EDD 2/12/01 - "For this child I prayed" - I Sam. 1:27)
Sunday, 4 June 2000, at 4:17 a.m.
The details - (m and very long - as usual)

DH and DS are sound asleep, so I thought I'd try to get this
done now when no one is clamoring for my
attention! :o)

A bit of background: Got married at 28yo, went off bcp at 30yo,
thought I'd be pg in a couple of months.
Ha! Big laugh! Five yrs later, decided I was probably infertile.
Didn't know anything about temps, timing,
CM, etc... and never had enough sense to ask my doctor.
DUH!
Gave up ttc.

2 yrs later, at 37yo, DH noticed AF was late.
Surprise! I'm pg! Unfortunately, m/c at 10wks, but WOW - I
was capable of getting pg! Yippee!!

Started to read and chart, etc... Especially TCOYF!
Found out my perfect 28 day cycles were not perfect.
Wasn't O'ing until cd20 and had 8 day LP's. Yikes.

I decide to try and lengthen LP naturally before
resorting to medical intervention. Read, "Fertility, Cycles
and Nutrition" by Marilyn Shannon. Best $10 I ever spent.
Started eating better, taking a good
multivitamin, B6, Red Raspberry etc.. Ready to try again....

Got pg 2d month! Woo-hoo! DS born 10/98 - I was 38 yo.
He is perfect in every way!

Nursed for 11.5 mos and then weaned him because my thyroid
was englarged and Dr wanted to send me
for a radioactive iodine scan. Took an hpt the morning
of the scan, even though AF was not due for three
more days. Was sure it would be - because I had
only had AF once after weaning and had not been
taking my supplements for a year because I
didn't want them getting into the breast milk. Test was - so I
threw it in the trash and started to get ready.
Felt compelled to look at it again before leaving
(believe it was the urging of the Holy Spirit).
Dug it out of the trash and - yes, it had turned +.
Cancelled the scan.
Wow - nothing for 7 yrs then 3 pgs in 3 yrs.
Not bad for an old lady!

All went well until my 18wk check-up. I was only taking PNV,
but eating well, etc.. At 18wks they could no
longer hear a heartbeat. They sent me for a high tech u/s,
and found out the baby had died. Labor was
induced and on 2/12/00 I delivered Jonathan. Autopsy,
genetic tests, viral screens, etc.. all came back
negative. Dr cried when he went over the results with me.
Said Jonathan appeared to be a perfectly
healthy baby and that I appeared to be a perfectly
healthy mom and he couldn't give me any
explanation for the loss. Guess God just needed
someone to carry this little guy for awhile so he could
bring him home to Heaven.

Dr said the good news was that since they could not
find any medical reason for the loss, it was highly
unlikely that something like that could ever happen
again and we could ttc in one month.

Waited 4 wks to get AF. Found this site during that
time and consider it and each of you to be true
blessings from God.

In April my temps showed an O and I started getting
very faint + hpt's around 8dpo (no more jokes about
my testing obsession. I'll go into a twelve step program soon).
Tests never got any darker and AF started
on time and I believe the tests were still
detecting hcg from the pg
(they were TTC Store Aimsticks and very sensitive).
Took a test at cd8 the following cycle to make sure
I could get a good clean -, and I did. Ready
to start again.

In May we kind of missed our best opportunity
because of DH's work schedule. I was pretty sure we had
missed it - I didn't even bother testing.

In June we were able to get everything right -
you can see BD schedule, etc.. on the chart. I took a
multivitamin called Optivite (which is what I take when
I was ttc with DS, too). It is designed for treatment
of PMS and contains additional B vitamins and other
things which are supposed to help balance
hormones and lengthen LP. Since my unexplained
infertility for all those years appears to have been the
result of an LPD, the Optivite was incredibly helpful.
I usually take it for the first three months of pg, with
my dr's permission, before switching to a RX PNV.
If you're interested, check out www.optimox.com or
Marilyn Shannon's book for more info.

Also I took the EPO, FSO, RR and Vitex. I did not
use vitex before finding this site. I like it alot. Just a
quick commercial, I ordered by RR and vitex from
this site and I have been SO IMPRESSED with the
quality of these herbs. They are far superior
to what I can find in health food stores. If you're thinking
about trying any of the herbs discussed here,
you might want to consider ordering them from the
TTC Store.
They sell EPO and FSO, too, but I had some
from before that had not outdated, so I didn't try
those. Commercial over.

Also baby aspirin and green tea. I use plain old
decaf green tea and I drink it as iced tea. Sometimes I
mix it with an equal number of bags of decaf mint tea
and make Sun Tea. I can't say I drink it just for ttc
purposes, though. I just like it.

This cycle I started using progesterone cream after 3dpo.
Not an Rx, just the OTC stuff. I don't know if it
helped or not, but I don't think it hurt.
I used it the month I got pg with DS, too. Could be a coincidence,
but thought I'd pass the info along for what it's worth.
I used it through first trimester with DS and will do
that again this time.

Is that everything? I think so.
Probably bored everyone to tears.
Still... pretty amazing to think that I have
now been pg four times in four years -
and I'll be 40 yrs old next month
(also our 12th anniversary next
month!) I get very frustrated when I think of all
the years I wasted being so stupid about how my body
works, etc... but then I look at DS and I think
that he was really worth waiting for, and I couldn't have had
him when I was 30 because he was waiting for that
one particular egg that wasn't ready until I was 37!
That will make me feel better about being the
oldest mother in my OB's waiting room again!!

Well, DH is up and accusing me of being
a computer addict, so I have to go.
More later.
Thanks again for everything.
Love and prayers and positive wishes for you all.
Don't worry - I'll still be around. I'm sure the
alum bd is nice, too, but you ladies are the best!
Who'd ever imagine you could get so attached to
"virtual girlfriends?"

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ (Did I get it right?)

Well......of all months,
I was sure that this one was *NOT* our month....

I have been drinking water like crazy this month,
hoping to increase my CM
(which I have *NONE*).....it worked!!
I had one day of scant EWCM, but
wouldn't you know that DH and I would get into a fight,
so we didn't DTD, I
just cried all night....I knew this was our chance
(big temp dip that am
too), and we blew it. So, for all you ladies
who don't have much cm, I had
absolutely nothing, and what
I did have was dry, so it can still happen!! We
actually DTD 3days before O,
so that must have did the trick!!

As for supplements, I was taking prescription prenatals,
and drinking about
10-12 glasses of water per day (which I'm still doing!!)
I have taken Vitex in the past, but for some reason,
I didn't take it this month, and I actually
O'd on cd15, instead of usually O'ing on cd19 or 20.
I also have been using
Emerita Natural Progesterone Cream (for the first time)
twice daily (I'm going to continue the progesterone cream
until Dr's appt.) Now, you are
supposed to rub in the cream on different
areas of your body each time you
use it, so that's what I have been doing
(inside of thighs, arms, stomach,
etc.)

As for preggo symptoms......
I don't have many actually......at about 12 dpo,
I began to wake up at about 3am for no reason....
I would just wake up, and be
awake for about 5 minutes, and go back to sleep.
I would have "hot flashes"
at night and sometimes during the day, after about 12dpo.
Slight constipation.... Also, I have had these strange,
1 second headaches (I know
it sounds crazy) during the day at work.
My biggest symptom was the lack of
AF-cramps (which are really killer for me).....
I am really hungry all the
time now, but when I eat, I can only eat about
half what I usually do, and
I'm full (maybe this is pre-MS???) No sore bb's,
they are just swelling (I'm
sure the soreness is yet to come)

Temps are as follows:

• Pre-O: Averaging about 97.3
• O-day: 97.1
• 1dpo: 97.5
• 2dpo: 97.8
• 3dpo: 97.8
• 4dpo: 98.0
• 5dpo: 98.0
• 6dpo: 98.0
• 7dpo: 97.9
• 8dpo: 98.4 (slept late..took tylenol pm)
• 9dpo: 97.6 (coverline...thought AF was here)
• 10dpo: 97.8 (slight spotting..yellow/brown)
• 11dpo: 98.1
• 12dpo: 98.6
• 13dpo: 98.5
• 14dpo: 98.4
• 15dpo: 98.5
• 16dpo: 98.6 (tested ++ w/ CVS brand hpt)

Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:00:20 EDT
> I'm so happy and so shocked! My EPT is positive!
My husband and I having been trying for 8 months and
I've always had this fear that I wouldn't be
able to concieve. Anyway, since this site has been
such a great comfort to me during those months of
trying I vowed that if it finally happened to me
I'd share my story in hopes of providing others with
comfort. I'm also just so excited and have to tell people.
I've only told DH and I'm sure we won't tell anyone else until
I go to the OB and all is confirmed, etc.

Since I have always loved to hear the details,
I will leave mine and I will try to be brief.
We really weren't even going to try this month.
We've been staying with my in-laws while our house
is under construction and had very little opportunity
to bd. I've never been one to take temps-I'm not
that organized. This month I didn't even try to
calculate my fertile days. But one day I noticed some
excellent EWCM-the best I've seen in awhile-and
decided maybe we can sneak one in (bd). So we did.
We only did it one other time this month so I can't
be sure exactly which time it was.

Anyway at some point during this month my bbs
started to really hurt-especially when I got up
in the middle of the night to pee-which, by the
way, increased a lot. Actually I never had to go
during the night before.
So I guess that was another symptom. Also, my skin
is very transluscent so I could start to see blue veins in my bbs.
They are still there-very clear almost look like spider veins.
I also crave oranges! And I am extremely tired.
I haven't had any nausea. I have had a lot of cramping but it feels
different from AF cramping. My bbs are not quite as sore as they
were but they are still sensitive. I also was extremely
irritable. I was snapping at my husband for no reason and
I have never been that way before.

Intellectually I knew all these symptoms were
probably a good sign but I've > been disappointed
too many times so I waited until I was over a week late
with AF to take a test. Both lines showed up almost
immediately! I can still hardly believe it!

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you!
Amy

Subject: I can now join the alumni!
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:34:13 -0500

I really didn't think I was PG. My temp dropped
immediatly after I O'd. The only thing I noticed
was sore bb's the entire time from O'ing til now.
I'm regular as clock work down to the hour and I
tested yesterday, 3 days late and got a +HPT!
I've made my 8 week appt. The Dr. said they don't
even do blood tests anymore because the HPT's are so
accurate. This was our 2nd cycle trying.
Thanks sooo much for the wonderful and useful
information.
It never would've happened so fast if it weren't
for me happening on your great website!
ShelleyM