Please Introduce Yourself!

[dreamrise659]

Hi Sally T and Sally D,

Read your sign-off. So glad to hear that despite your bubs early arrivals everyone is doing well. One of my friends recently gave birth at 26 and a half weeks. Bub was in hospital for 100 days. He's home now and is now 9 weeks past his due date but he still looks like a newborn (and fits into size 0000). He does't cry - he makes little noises that almost sound like a bird chirping! They still have a long way to go but atleast he is a fighter.

Whereabouts in Country Vic are you?

I am near Ballarat.

Lori
DD - almost 14 and TTC number 2

[Obi9602]

Hi

My partner and I have just had an unsuccessful 3rd attempt with home insemination. The first two times we used the saliva microscope. This time, and from now until we're pregnant, we used pelvic ultrasound to pinpoint ovulation along with a progesterone injection to help the egg along. Our donor lives 5 hours away so we need to be precise to get time off work and plan travel etc.

I thought I had 2 lots of implantation bleeding was got excited but then today got my period. I wonder why? God, does it get any easier?

Any tips you may have gratefully received. We'll have one more go next round, then start up again in February.

Obi

[dreamrise659]

Hi Obi,

The bad news is that it gets harder in lots of ways. You start to feel less hopeful the more negatives you get and that in turn apparently effects your chances of success so it becomes a negative cycle.

When did you get what you thought was implantation bleeding and how heavy was it? Have you had any blood tests to confirm that you weren't pregnant? The reason I ask is because possibly you may have had what is called a chemical pregnancy (very early miscarriage). Blood pregnancy tests will show this up (the day after your period was due) as they'll show certain hormone levels are higher than normal but not high enough for you to be pregnant. My first IVF round resulted in a chemical pregnancy. The next 2 were BFN.

The other thing is with getting your period still test (blood test is best). A friend of mine (who used IVF) got her period but the clinic insisted on a blood test. Her hormone levels indicated it might have been a chemical pregnancy so she had to have more tests a couple of days later to confirm - but her hormone levels were rising. More blood tests... it took a week before her hormone levels were high enough for the clinic to confirm she was indeed pregnant but throughout this time she had what appeared to her to be a normal (though at the lighter end of normal) period.

When I heard this it got my hopes up about my very light period that I had after my last cycle... but alas blood tests confirmed I wasn't pregnant.

If you start getting blood tests done and you do have a few chemical pregnancies then you can see a fertility specialist about getting hormones which are designed to support the pregnancy (reduce the risk of another chemical pregnancy) you'll then stay on these for the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy if you actually fall pregnant to reduce the chance of miscarriage.

I've been told that donor insemination takes an average of 6 to 8 cycles with perfect timing and everything else perfect so don't get too upset yet. If you have 6 unsuccessful attempts then it might be time to get your donor's sperm checked and have some tests yourself.

Best wishes - I know what a huge emotional rollercoaster it is and expensive when you need to take time off work and travel etc.

Lori
Started donor search Dec 2006, Started donor inseminations Jan 09, Started IVF Feb 10.

[Pepi-bebe]

Kia ora & hello,

Happy to find this forum as there seems to be no gay & lesbian groups or even threads on the NZ pregnancy forums. It's so weird to feel like the only lesbian out of thousands of women on them! However this forum doesn't look like its all that busy, I hope I'm proven wrong! I find the NZ ohbaby one a great support network, but just super straight!

I'm 34 & my partner is 32 & we are currently on our 4th home insemination attempt, we call it the DIY approach ;-) I got pregnant on the first go, with only 2 inseminations in one day. Not ideal timing but was our only otion for that cycle, incredibly somehow it worked! But sadly I miscarried at 12 weeks. That was back in late October. We've tried twice since then to no avail.

Our donor is my darling partner's brother, he has been staying with us (from the Caribbean for 5mths), but sadly goes home in a fortnight. So this cycle is our last of trying until we can afford the around the world flights to bring him back again.

Fingers crossed that we are successful again this time and that the baby survives till full term.

We can't use the fertility clinic for IUI, Which was our plan, as his sperm just doesn't survive the freezing! Not used to the cold I guess! We can't afford IVF at around $10k per cycle.

We are not keen on an anonymous donor as in our cultures knowing who you are is really important. We do have someone else that may be willing, but after experiencing being pregnant with a child who would have nearly the exact same DNA as my partner, you realize how amazing that is. So we really want to do that if it all possible.

Looking forward to being a part of this community hopefully. It's hard to be completely open about our situation on the general forums as they are so public & the last thing you want when grieving for your lost baby is someone saying you shouldn't have had it anyway. Not that I had that happen, but I didn't feel comfortable enough to expose myself to any negativity.

Take care, I'm off to read some of the other topics.

[Charlotte91]

Trust me, i don't think there is anyone here who will expose you to negativity because of your situation.

I'm so sorry you lost your angel. How heartbreaking.

Welcome to BB!
I hope to see you around the forum.
Where abouts in NZ are you? My mum is from there, so I've there 8 times. And my sister recently moved there, about 2 hours north of Auckland to my mum's hometown.

[mummiestobe]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce my partner & I......we are lesbian Mummies to be! I am currently 17 weeks pregnant. We are very excited to be starting this pretty amazing journey. We are based in Sydney and keen to get to know like minded people - look forward to getting to know you.

F&J

[Pepi-bebe]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce my partner & I......we are lesbian Mummies to be! I am currently 17 weeks pregnant. We are very excited to be starting this pretty amazing journey. We are based in Sydney and keen to get to know like minded people - look forward to getting to know you.

F&J

Hey there, we are in the same boat :-D I'm just over 4 weeks pregnant, so early days for us. We're based in Auckland NZ, but I came on this forum as there don't seem to be any lesbians on the forum I'm on here in NZ.
We had my partners lovely brother fly to visit us on a 'working holiday' hehe, to assist us and fortunately had success. Twice actually, the first go was successful too, but I lost our baby at 12 weeks. It was devastating, but we have been so lucky to have conceived again the week before he returned to the Caribbean. It's a long journey and we are all pretty broke, so it was our one chance to bring him out for a while. We used the DIY home insemination method both times as we had intended to use a fertility clinic here to do IUI, but his sperm didn't like the cold and refused to thaw after freezing. No wonder really!
I'd love to hear more about your journey if you are keen to share...
Take care, M (& D)

[Pepi-bebe]

Trust me, i don't think there is anyone here who will expose you to negativity because of your situation.

I'm so sorry you lost your angel. How heartbreaking.

Welcome to BB!
I hope to see you around the forum.
Where abouts in NZ are you? My mum is from there, so I've there 8 times. And my sister recently moved there, about 2 hours north of Auckland to my mum's hometown.

Oh I'm sorry I didn't notice your reply straight away!
We live in Auckland now, but are moving about 1 hour North of the city in April.
In other good, well great news actually, we are pregnant again!
Yippee.

[Sally2]

Welcome Pepi-bebe,

Congrats on your pregnancy, hoping it's a safe & happy one with a beautiful baby in your arms at the end!

Not much activity on these threads at the moment, but there is quite a good community out there, we just don't always check in as often as we once used to

[Kayenkay]

Hi everyone! My name is Kim and my partner of ten years is Kaylee! We have just started our journey of trying to conceive through Melbourne Ivf with dr Melissa Cameron after 12 months trying with a known donor whom unfortunately found out he had prostate problems! We are very excited about the possibility of finally conceiving and have decided to try iui first with donor sperm! Was wondering if anyone had experience with dr Melissa Cameron and was successful with their treatment? We have found her to be wonderful so far and are hoping 2013 may finally be our year! Looking forward to hearing any replies!

[Lou and Em]

Hi, I've replied to your post on my previous thread but thought Id drop by and say hello here too!

We have been seeing Dr Cameron since April this year and have found her to be so supportive and helpful. We have been through two unsuccessful IUI cycles with donor sperm and are planning to start IVF early next year. We're really hoping that 2013 is our year.

Its really nice to hear from a couple living in Melbourne going through a similiar experience to us.

Good luck with everything and keep in touch

Em

[ACMom2B]

Hi, I'm Ange and my partner of 8 years Candy, are on our second TTC...GL everyone!

[TwoMummas]

Hello,

I'm kind of doing the rounds on a few different forums introducing myself.

My DP and I are in our 20's in QLD and looking to try later in the year using IUI and donor sperm through QFG.

Every day we're learning something new but it's still exciting times!

Talk to you soon

[Kayenkay]

Hi to both newbies on this forum, we saw your msg's and just wanted to wish both couples the best of luck with your experiences trying to get pregnant! My partner Kaylee and I are lucky enough to be able to say that on our third try through MIVF that we were successful!!! Yay, we are both so excited, so far we are 2months and 4days pregnant, so not quite past that safe point yet but so far, things have been looking good! We attempted 2 IUI's before moving onto ICSI, where we had 7 eggs removed and two good embryos placed back in and with a whole lot of luck, we were blessed with one of them taking! So obviously we would recommend that process over IUI's, only because your odds are much greater! This will be our first child, so we are so nervously excited to be experiencing this blessing! The only thing troubling us both is that we are unsure whether I should go back to work, or stay at home away from the environment I would be in there, which is a company that manufactures glue! I don't want to be exposed to anything that would harm our baby! I haven't been there since the egg removal, except 1 day yesterday! And it makes us nervous to think I may do any harm to our beautiful bub before he/she is born! But in the same sense, ivf isn't cheap and all our savings has been drained! Sorry for dragging on, but we are very unsure of what to do and thought it might help putting it down in writing! Anyway, best of luck to you all, sending u all positive vibes and hoping your dreams come true as ours have! : )

[ACMom2B]

Thanks fir the good wishes. Wr are more hopefull this cycle. This first iui was very rough on me. I'm very emotional to start with so added any form of hormone makes it interesting. We are starting again with clomid and progestrone supplements and hopping that my body will be better adjusted to all the poking and proding and hormones. Best of luck everyone.

[Beebee]

Newbie to this whole game, and glad to find there's a thread that might help my partner and I sort through the options. We're currently looking at IUI, but it's not clear whether it's that much better than home insemination really?

We're also wondering whether anyone has seen any fertility clinics in Australia using the Evie, which seems to up the chances of pregnancy with IUI?

Thoughts welcome!