Parenting After LT TTC ~ January - April 2008

Hi Mako. I am FF the twins now. I BF for three months and I was on the mini pill during that time. although people kept telling me that BF was a natural contraception I was not ready to have a little surprise happen with new born twins lol. Once I stopped BF I got a period pretty quickly. That was in September and I am still waiting for another one :wall: I stopped taking the mini pill ages ago now also because I was waiting for AF so I can take the proper pill to try and calm down some of the PCOS symptoms I have been getting again. Anywho I guess it will come when it is good and ready... just sick of waiting.

Hi Ktgirl
It sure does suck having pcos doesn't it. I hear you loud and clear on not wanting a new bubba with new born twins lol. Are you able to just start the pill or do you have to wait for AF?
I wish in a way that I could go back on the pill but unfortunately that is a No No forever for me now. I wish I'd have known that when I was on it for sooooooooo many years. Luckily I'm still here considering what "could"have been :o So DH and I aren't doing anything to prevent another preg but we aren't doing our best to have another bub just yet either. I guess we are lucky or unlucky that BF has worked as a contraceptive so far which ever way I want to loook at it ;)

Oh and WELL DONE for BF your bubbas for as long as you did :clap: Its a tough gig with 1 bub let alone 2 ;)

Hi ladies

We have a sticky thread on immunology testing in the LTAC area that members have added too over the last few years but it has been dormant for a while but you may have found it useful when you were TTC.

If you were able to take the time, it would be valuable for other members to have any information you may have gained from your own investigations included in this thread which wont disappear over time.

I will also bump it to see if we can add valuable learnings for us all.

HERE it is.

Thanks :)

Hi everyone,

Thought I would take a moment whilst DD is actually resting comfortably to come and post something other than a brief hello!

I'd be really keen to find out how everyone found the first 3 months or so with their babies. I am finding it so overwhelming at times, TBH, despite how lucky and wonderful having our baby is (a concept with quite a lot of guilt attached!). DD has very bad wind (both ends) that is progressively getting worse as she grows - she's now turning collicky at almost 4 weeks old - and I feel like I've tried just about everything under the sun to help her with her wind/gas. I'm finding it hard to accept that it's pretty normal for babies to be completely healthy and thriving (as she is) but to be as uncomfortable and upset as she is at times. Her crying/straining is also a huge trigger for my anxiety levels, as I expect it is for every mother! My perceived ability to cope swings wildly throughout the day too, and I am scared about how long the colic/wind will last and will I/we make it through that time ok?

It would be so great to hear how other mothers to AC babies feel with relation to managing and coping - especially when we feel how precious our babies are - and I'm sure it will help me normalise my own situation a lot better to know how other Mums and Bubs cope.

Miss C

Miss C,
I'm about to head to bed, finally have DS asleep..YAY..Anyway, just wanted to drop in quickly and say if you go back to page 8 of this thread, I posted something similiar. Also if you go back to the first few pages of this thread for a read, you'll find similiar things as well...

You are most definately not alone in your feelings there... I'm sure some more coherent posts will be made in the morning :)

Just a quick one from me, DS has a tooth just starting to come through the gum! Think it is why he has been sleeping bad the last couple of days - and nights lol.

Nic

Miss C, bad news up front - you are about the hit the worst of it. these things tend to peak at around 5-6 weeks. You may feel you can't cope. You may feel like it'll never get better. you may run around like a headless chicken trying everything under the sun but nothing seems to help.... (just speaking from my own experiences here ;)...) You will trudge on, weary and overwhelmed (oh, and probably feeling guilty cause didn't you want this sooo bad...?).
Then (and here's the good news) sometime around the 8-10 week mark (probably, fingers crossed) you'll get a bit of sleep and catch your breath long enough to realise.... things are better now!
Like Nic says, go back and read earlier posts - you'll see the same stuff. I'm sure there's one in here somewhere about how I wanted to take DS back to the hospital... (I mean to leave him there...)
Hope you have plenty of support at home, even just someone to watch bubby while you take a nap can really help in getting through this time. And enjoy, as much as possible, the wonderful moments in between... everyone says it, I know, but they really do grow soooo fast!

Teeth will do that Nic, hey? We're on a hiatus between teeth at the moment, but I know it won't last long. Just gotta try and get some sleep while I can!

No AF here and I'm glad about that! Hope it comes for you soon ktgirl.

Glad you're settling in BW after your rough start.

You know Marcellus, the funny thing about the teeth thing is he is hardly drooling at all, but since he was about a month or two old, he was drooling that much that we had to sometime change his clothes.
I think the tooth has just fully broken the gum...look out mummies boobies!

6 month needles tomorrow :( DH is waking up early (will finish nightshift in the morning) and is going with us, being school holidays we are taking DD with us, but are going to tag team so DH will take DS in for his imms while DD and I sit in the waiting area, I think she will get too upset if we took her in and he started to cry.

Ohh Nic I hope DS is feeling ok after his needles today. Poor little munchkin :cry: I hate taking the twins for their needles. My Mum always has to come with me because DH is at work and I can't do it by myself with two babies. We have to do tag team too where I hold the first baby and they get their shots and then pass to Mum and then have to do it all over again with the second baby. It is horrible. At least now the next one isn't until 12 months!!! Yay for 6 months and no needles. That is good that your DH could go in this time :)

Hi everyone else. Hope you are all well.

Thanks for the replies, Nic and Marcellus - I really appreciate the advice and support. I think when I posted I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and a bit desperate to here from other mums! (I don't know a lot of mums yet where we live in the UK - still settling) I have had a look at page 8 and started reading through all the posts from the start of the thread (when there's some time!) and have found it really helpful - thanks for pointing me in the direction, Nic :) It's nice to feel that I'm not a bad parent, or that I'm not coping - it sounds like what I've been feeling is really quite normal and it really helps!

Nic - I hope DS's needles went ok today.

Hope everyone is going well and babies are all ok :)

DS was the same Nic - I thought he was just wierd, now I know better! he used to soak through his clothes, but no more...

It is good to have a nice break between shots.

It is good to feel normal. Do you have a mothers' group Miss C? I'm not sure whether my post really was all that helpful - I think sometimes I write these things to remind myself that however hard it is now it is definitely easier than it was then...

His other front top tooth is on the way now. The other top one took 2 weeks :o. I realised today that i've had about 5-6 good nights in the past 4 months. cripes. My friend asked me how I cope with work - you know, I'm not really sure :doh:

hey girls :)
Needles went well. DH took him in and we could hear him giggling! Then I heard him give a little squeal sp?, which DH informed me later on, was because he took DS's soft book off him lol. A bit warm that night, nothing bad thogh, put him down and he woke about half an hour later on, but was pretty good after that.

Kate, I don't know how you do the needles with twins! Doing it with one is emotional enough!

Miss C, Nothing wrong with posting when you are a little overwhelmed or emotional.. While we kind of know that we aren't the only women to go through the different emotions of being a new mummy, it's always nice to have someone say "Yep I felt the same way too" It makes you feel kind of normal

Marcellus, 2 weeks for a tooth! Ouchies! Hope the other one comes through a bit quicker and as painless as possible.

While I'm on tooth chatter here, I found that DS actually has 2 teeth coming through and not 1! What a surprise that was when i found the 2nd one!

Hi ladies

Oh Nic i feel your pain Owen & Julia had their first immunisations last Friday and arghhh next time i need a babysitter and a bottle of wine for when i get home :) Not quite as bad as Owens circumcision but not a nice part of mummyhood!

Oh Miss C hang in there hun! I think what your feeling is definately normal and guilt seems to be a huge side affect of parenthood, and when you have a baby who is windy or refluxy and screaming all the time its a wonder we have any hair left at all!

Can i ask a couple of questions?

Firstly how long after you stopped Bf'ing did you get AF? If you had PCOS how long would you let this go before seeing a Dr?

Also with all this teeth talk, when do babies usually start getting their first teeth?

Thanks
Shan

Hi Shannon. After I stopped BF my twins I got a AF reasonably quickly. I can't remember exactly now (baby brain lol) but it was only a week or two I think. Since then I have not got AF again it has now been 4 months and it is starting to frustrate me :wall: damn PCOS.

As far as teeth go I think they say 7 months is pretty normal for the first teeth however all babies are very different. My DD got her first tooth when she was 5 1/2 months followed about a week later with the second. She is also cross cutting so she also now has her left and right incisor (which generally they get at 10 months she got them at 6 1/2 & 7 months) and she has no front teeth lol it looks so funny. But her twin brother is yet to have one tooth come through, so it just shows how different it can be.

I notice you are in Brisbane. Where abouts are you. I also live in Brisbane (well just out of Brisbane). We should have a twins meet up some time.

Hi everyone else. Hope you are all well xxx

Ah well, the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I've been laid low the last few days by a ..... cut finger! can you believe that? Got a nasty infection from it - like I'm a frail old lady or something. feeling better today.

DH has always taken DS for shots so I've yet to have that pleasure...

hopefully it'll be a while yet before you have to deal with teeth Shannon

Hope you ladies are all doing well.

Shannon, DS's teeth broke through last week i think? Not sure about DD's, can't find her book ATM. I think it was a bit earlier than DS's though.
B/F with DD - my AF returned about a month after i finished i think? I remember thinking that she would be due around our wedding which was about 4 weeks away from then.

Marcellus, ouchies at the cut finger AND an infection WOW! Hope you are feeling better today :)

Well I have a question now, for those who have chatty bubba's, when did they say their first word? I swear DS said MUM today :o even DH heard it... 6 months 3 weeks though..isn't that a bit early?

Marcellus- I hope you are feeling better now. You poor pumpkin :hug:

Nic - My DS is a chatty baby, has been from very early on and will make sounds like dadada and he says mmmum (really drawn out it is quite funny) where as DD is not a chatty baby so when she does talk it is just a noise really :lol:

Yeah, feeling alright now.

DS is chatty too, makes mum and dad sounds, but don't think he's quite associated them with words yet. Mind you, sometimes when he wants a feed or cuddle he crawls to me saying "mumumumum" :lol:
I do think it's entirely possible for him to be saying mum, Nic, some babies start that early. How lovely for you!

Just a quick one from me.. I took DS to the Dr today for a second opinion - we went to the MCHN last year and long story short, they wanted me to take DS for a head x-ray because they thought the gaps were closing too quickly..anyway, it scared the absolute beejeebies out of me. The Dr I saw today said he thought it was a bit extreme to do an xray, he checked DS over, measured his head and said if anything, his head is above the percentiles and off the chart lol! but he said he looks like he is in proportion, happy and developing well so he didn't see any problems with him..phew! Such a happy mummy here :dance: Plus he has this red spot on his head which looks like a mole, but the dr checked it over (he specialises in skin conditions I was told) and he said it is a strawberry patch! just lots of little capillaries which make it look like it is nasty. so double yay there!

Hope everyone is well, especially the mums and bubs in the heatwave!

Nic

Nic Julia has a strawberry patch on her kneck, it started as a little hickey and grew and freaked me out big time too! I hope for her sake it goes away or she will be forever teased for having a hickey! So glad to hear your DS got the clean bill of health!

Nic- Double yay for you!!! So glad the Dr could put your mind at ease.

Mackenzie has a strawberry mark on her abdomen and our Paed said that it would keep getting bigger for a little while (I think he said until about 9 months but can't remember exactly) and then it would stop growing and fade away.

Shannon - Love the new Av!!!

That's great news Nic!
DS has a brownish patch of skin on his back. It's pretty hard to see unless you look really closely, but I imagine it'll probably look more obvious when he's had some sun.
He has a prety big head too... ;)

Thanks girls, I'm definately one happy mumma. Thing is, it's not what I thought a strawberry patch was like? Shannon, your description of Julia's patch is what I thought a strawberry patch was, but DS's is raised and kind of lumpy. He did explain that it would look worse if DS was hot or worked up, which explains the other day when it was looking worse.

Nic- Mackenzie's strawberry mark is raised too, sounds just like what your DS has.

Not much to report on my end. I think Mackenzie is getting sick. I have a cold so I was half expecting them to get it. Poor little bub was not herself today. She also has her next two teeth starting to come through which will make 6 teeth!!! She has got them so quickly. Ryder is still a gummy little fella with no teeth ;)

Nic, DD has what I thought were stork marks on the back of her head and neck - they get darker when she's been crying/worked up etc. They're not raised - they're like hickeys as Shannon described them, but I am noticing that they are getting bigger at the moment. Perhaps they'll become raised in the future too and that they're strawberry marks. Anway, just thought I would add my bit! ;) I'm glad to hear that everything is well with DS and that you don't have to worry anymore - awesome that his head growth is up above the percentiles!

ktgirl - hope Mackenzie gets through the cold ok and that you're feeling ok too.

DD had her 6 week check yesterday - she's all ok! She was also weighed at the hospital on Tuesday when we were seeking treatment for her reflux (she's now on Infant Gaviscon) and she came in at 5.2kg (11lb7oz) and she's only 6 weeks old - holy moley! She's a big'un! Next thing is immunisations in 2 weeks... eek! Not looking forward to it :rolleyes:

Hope everyone else is well :)

Wow MissC your little DD is doing some wonderful growing there. You must have some great mummys milk there!! She sounds like she is doing really well.

Kate, Wow at Mackenzie having 6 teeth and Ryder still being gummy.

Miss C, hope the Gaviscon is helping your DD with her reflux.

How is everyone else going? BW.. how is mummyhood treating you at the moment?

Nic

It is funny how different your twins are with their teeth :lol:. I thought DS would look less cute once he got teeth, but nup, he's still adorable (to us anyway).
I think the Vic ladies will be hiding out wherever they can find airconditioning... hope you're keeping as cool as possible :doh:

Me - I'm taking a month off work in March. I'll be full-time mummying so not really a holiday or anything, but it'll be nice to 'play house'...

Wow I have been away so long and look what I have missed.

I just really wanted to say Happy New Year ladies even though its a little late:redface: Just look how far all these gorgeous bubbas have come and now their 1st birthdays are knocking on the door...and you are all doing so well:dance: (especially you ultra-supermums with twins)

Better fill you in - Emma is now a crawling, tantrum throwing diva, she has 6 teeth 3 of which came threw last week eeek! and has just started the dadddadadada ( little traitor:p) But I am loving every minute. I have just gone back to work part time, only 12 hours and pretty cruisy but I found I miss her terribly...she meanwhile has a blast with the other babies.

I find it interesting that you are talking about no.2 especially fellow PCOS survivors;) DH and I had started the "talk" again and I was wondering when to start but I am still bf and probably will till she is 1, but I was wondering how long I would have to wait for af (I found a couple of serophene strips left over, I may hang onto them just in case)

Lis xx

Hi ladies

Justa quick one all good here, with the strawberry patch thing Julias started out as a hickey and has grown into a lumpy red thing and seems to be growing all the time. AF arrived here and it was horrible! Will be interesting to see how the PCOS is after pregnancy.

Also a quick thing i know this is crazy considering i have 12 week old twins but a close friend announced she is pregnant the other day, and i still got that horrible jealous feeling partly i suppose because she falls pregnant just looking at her hubby but i thought that would go away once i had babies... but nope its still there. Its odd i still feel like someone who can't fall pregnant and wont have children. I know that probably doesn't make that much sense but its just this odd thing i cant seem to shake. Maybe its moreso that i cant control how many children or when i have them and that really erks me.

Shan

Shannon, sorry to hear that AF arrived. Hopefully her next visit will be much better. As for your friend announcing her pregnancy, I would say your feelings are completely normal. A family member announced their pregnancy when DS was only a couple of months old, and I felt jealous too...maybe it's because she can do it so easily, and in the traditional fun, exciting way?
But maybe you're onto something when you say it's because we can't control the how many and when?? Sometimes I feel like those feelings will be something I experience forever.

Lis, good to hear from you :) So cool that Emma is now crawling. Are you getting much rain from the ex-cyclone?

OK, so I know I already posted in here today, but I had to come back and say that DS sat by himself tonight!! Well, he kind of sat there for about 20 seconds before he starting veering off to one side. DD took some pics and she got one of him smiling. He thought he was so clever and was giggling and smiling away, normally when we get the camera out he stops smiling, but not tonight! DH is at work on nightshift, so he missed out, can't wait to show him tomorrow though!

Nic - How addorable. I found with the twins once they learnt to sit up by themselves they got the hang of it pretty quickly and now will sit for ages without falling over. It is amazing how quickly the grow up isn't it? Have fun showing your DH the new trick tomorrow.

Shannon- I can completely understand where you are coming from. Even as friends are now talking about TTC #2 I still feel a little jealous that I wasn't able to control it so easily, and do it the fun and exciting way. I am exactly the same as you when you get that little twang of jealousy.

Lis- Hi. Lovely to see you in here. Emma sounds like she is doing wonderfully, you are doing a great job.

Not too much to report here at the moment. The twinnies are just plodding along. Trying really hard every day to try and get up on their knees (gosh I will know I am alive when they both start crawling :doh:) Otherwise we are all well.

Hi everyone else. Hope you are all well.

:clap: for your DS Nic. That slow little topple over they do is so adorable. Watch out - he'll be on the move in no time.

And you too KTgirl - 2 on the go at once!

Hi again Lis - good to hear from you.

I don't think that feeling will ever completely go away - not sure it's something you just get over. Even just being asked if we're planning more makes me feel that way - like, 'plan'? can we 'plan' for that? I find myself giving convoluted answers saying 'we'd like to...' 'see how we go....' and so on. Can't just say yes!

Have any of you ladies added your stories to the success after lt ttc thread?

Hi All,
I've been AWOL for ages, and have been trying to catch up, but i seem to get further behind every day.

We are fine - yes, hiding out wherever there is air-con. I'm from NZ - we weren't bred for these hot conditions!

I have a strawberry - on my bum. It has faded SOO much since i was a baby, and now it's practically invisible.

One of my mother's group announced her pregnancy on monday. I am happy for her, but secretly jealous too, of course. The group asked me what my plans were (they know about the IVF, but not why or any details). They all loved to say 'Oh it'll probably happen naturally'. Yeh, probably not! But I'm nice about it to them. To be honest i am just really enjoying things now - not sure if i could handle a pregnancy right now, and i'm not really sure i want to go through it all just yet. Funny how us LTTTCers are expected to 'have plans'! Anyway, Liam is still BF, so we couldn't start AC again until that is all finished with. No AF yet for me, but even if i did get her back my FS said no treatments until BF is over.

Enough from me - will keep trying to catch up on everyone else.

Hi to you all and your little ones too :hello:

Hi Lenny!
Why do you keep nicking off to NZ...?:lol:

It's kinda annoying when people suggest it might just happen naturally. I mean, sure it happens like that to some people, but how does 'getting my pipes flushed' help my DH's sperm anyway?

hmmm, i posted yesterday but it disappeared....

:

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how does 'getting my pipes flushed' help my DH's sperm anyway?

---

:rofl: That's so funny - because it's true! But I never say that either! DH never tells anyone his sperm is dodgey. I guess it's easier to say i have endo.

Can you believe that I jinxed myself ... AF arrived yesterday. No kidding, after about 18 months away. I guess i should be pleased :dunno:

I think there's a tendency to assume that if you do IVF there must be something wrong with the woman.... In our case that's true (we have his'n'hers factor), but still... And I don't really want to get into details about DH's sperm with people. It's a little undignified really.

Damn on jinxing yourself! I guess the one upside to DS's constant night feedings is that af daren't show her face round here.... :rolleyes:

Hi gang,
Gosh I'm a slacker with keeping up with you all in here!

Darn on jinxing yourself Lenny!

LOL Marcellus! Exactly right. Same Male probs here but dont want to really go into they whys and whatfors in public.

Celeste has lots of very bright pink marks in her hair at the back of her neck and a quite faint area of redness between her eyes. It gets brighter when she cries but its not really noticible mostly. hope it fades away as it is in a very obvious place on her face but I'm not worried about it.

Yay on everything being good with DS now Nik. Its a horrible panicky feeling when they suggest something is wrong!

We have had horror weather here in SA and our aircon broke the night before the 45C day!!!! Celeste was sick with a chest infection (still is and on second lot of antibiotics) so we had to go hide out at my folks place 100km away. All fixed now in time for the next hot burst.

My mothers group are starting to go the second round of pregnancies now too. I was ok with the first one but I'm a bit closer to the second one and that one stung me a bit. I feel kinda stupid about feeling jealous of a pregnancy now that I have my longed for bubba but we are in the throes of trying again. In fact I have been having my bloods monitored all week for ovulation so that we can go in for a natural frozen embie transfer on tuesday this coming week!!!! I can hardly believe we are doing it again. I feel quite different about it this time. Of course I really really really want it to work but I think I wont have the total devestation this time if it doesnt work. Mind you, I think these 3 frosties are our only chance of having a second child as on one income I dont think we will afford to go another stim cycle. :( I dont really know where to fit this topic in on BB this time as we havent exactly been ttc . No drugs or months and months of trying, just an appt to discuss everything then bloods everyday this week and then rock up for the transfer. It feels a bit unreal actually compared to the stim cycles we had for Celeste. So I'm not really a LTttc this time. I guess I'm an AC but I think I'm more comfy here with you lot. :)

Anyhow, I will surely be on here a bit more inthe next couple of weeks as we wait.

Keep cool if you can ppl
Sazz

Sazz, I'm sure you would be welcome no matter where you choose to post. Don't forget that the LTTTC thread also covers assisted conception, but I'm sure nobody would mind if you decided to hang here. I'm just REALLY glad to see you posting again! We're currently having similar heat in Sydney - I've packed Sam and myself in the car and escaped to my parents' house and will go back home on Monday when the heat has broken, and then begin the packing up to move house starting to the following Monday - going to be busy for a while!

I also get the comments about the next pregnancy being a surprise. However, I'm blunt and tell them that getting pregnant and having a baby may change me, but it will do bugger all for DH... But would you believe that I walked out of my 6 week check with my OB with a prescription for the pill in my hand - and I'm actually taking it now? Never thought I'd do that again, but I am...

BW

AF arrived for me almost 2 weeks ago... not much past 5 weeks since DD's birth! :wall: I thought the BF thing would help, and I was kinda looking forward to having a while without it! :doh: I think I might have jinxed myself somehow too, Lenny!! I'm going to have to think about going on the pill also, even though it will be weird to have to do that for the first time in a couple of years with DH just to be extra careful...

marcellus - I agree with you completely. Everyone I've spoken to has assumed that the need for IVF has been because of me - for us it was DH only, and I don't like having to explain that to people either.

I'm sorry about all the heat for everyone :( It's very weird being over here where it has been snowing for most of the week (and a highly unusual, record breaking amount of snow)! I kind of miss the heat and summer, but I certainly don't envy these horrible plus-40 temperatures that are going round! Hope everyone is keeping cool and doing ok.