Jo -- sorry to hear you've been sick. I sympathize, as I have some sort of virus/flu that DH got over quickly since I forced a bunch of echinacea in him but for me it's hanging on (and I'm not allowed to take the echinacea or most other cold medicines now of course). I coughed so much yesterday that I, ahem, had to go change me knickers. A whole new world of bladder control is opening up for me (or closing, depending on how you look at it). Your physical sickness doesn't mean it isn't okay to start TTC of course, but I imagine sex isn't the first thing on your list when you're feeling like this! It's a bittersweet thing about Jack and Madison's urns. Where have you placed them? Your older kids are so sweet, but it must be so hard to hear their little comments sometimes. I think it's a lot of pressure on you to know that even Josh is already waiting for the next bubs! Hang in there, hon; tomorrow is a new day.

Susan -- A warm warm welcome to your second trimester. Any belly yet? I'm so happy for you getting to experience new things now that you haven't felt before.

Hammi -- great to hear that your pre-conception counseling went well! Now you're all set and ready to go! I think your naturopath is probably right about the charting -- I mean, I charted for just one month before getting a BFP, and it gave me lots of info (yay for numbers), but it didn't make it any easier to get pregnant or anything! We just had sex like every other day and it's not like I would have been any less pregnant if I didn't know what my temps were, right?

Paula -- the other ladies can correct me if I'm not quite right, but I believe it's like this. Aspirin and heparin are blood thinners. They make it harder for the blood to clot. A good portion of women who have repeated early miscarriages have either clotting disorders that mess up blood flow to the baby or they an over-abundance of too many or too large "myom" in their uterus (I seriously don't remember if it's called myom in English or cysts or polyps or what; it's myom in Swedish). Almost all of us have myom but in my SIL's case they were filling up here whole uterus and some were very large. They discovered this after she'd had 4 miscarriages in a row, all in week 12. The placenta just couldn't properly get attached. So she was given aspirin because it made the myom "shrink" and stopped their growth, and gave my little niece (whose 3rd birthday we celebrated today) a place to plant herself. And for the ladies with clotting disorders, it keeps the blood thinner so the cord or the placenta doesn't clot up, etc.

Grats again on finding a sympathetic doctor, Laney, one that you're comfortable with. I know it's going to be a long ways before you breathe more easily; you have had a particularly heavy burden of loss to deal with, and I just have everything possible crossed for your little seahorse.

Helen -- there's another lady in the Pregnancy thread, AngelLukesMum (whose name is also Jo) who just got a cervical stitch. Maybe you could send her a little message if you want to ask about it? She's just joined the preg thread, so you can see what she's said about it so far if you look at the last page or two. It could be good to get both the doc's perspective on it and one from another mum. Oh, and about your question about the new American prez -- I'm over the moon. I feel like my countrymen have gotten some of their marbles back, and I'm hoping that will be followed by some of our dignity. 90% of Swedes seem to be super happy about it as well, and I've seen at least 2 Swedish news anchors get teary-eyed about it!

Katie -- just wondering, how do you sit when you get a massage? I want to go in to the massage therapist that visits our office a couple times a week, but I noticed the other day that I really can't lie on my stomach anymore. Lying on my back is a little weird, too.

Rozzie -- replied to you in the Pregnancy thread.

A little cut and paste from the Preg thread about how I'm going: As for me -- I caught DH's cold, first of all. I forced a bunch of echinacea into him so he got better in two days, but I'm not allowed to take it (have been VERY careful reading labels and trying to take as little as possible even of the OK stuff), so I'm still coughing all night and feeling totally ****. We still went up to Karlstad for DH's grandma's 93rd and neice's 3rd birthdays, which was maybe dumb because MIL and FIL are smokers and I always get a bit out of shape physically at their place, but I really wanted to be there and show my semi-belly (I sort of totally don't look pregnant or look like 6 months pregnant, depending on how you look at it) and pick up the baby buggy that SIL wanted to give up. We brought it home with us today, so we officially have our first piece of baby equipment now.

Having that baby buggy, though, has been one little cog in a whole whirring machine of weepiness and emotional complexity these last few days. I haven't slept much for worry about everything baby and non-baby and my bad dreams have been extremely vivid; one that I had last night has really had me on edge for two days and causing a film of Beiron's "birth" to play again and again in my mind. I started crying in the car on the way home from Karlstad (songs on the radio made it worse -- our wedding song, plus a song that became popular after we lost Beiron called "Empty Room" that was about emptiness and loss) and by the time we got home I just erupted into one of these huge cathartic sobbing sessions. So I dunno -- I'm definitely very hopeful and confident about Kebab, but memories of Beiron are especially strong and tough right now.

I'm really looking forward to my scan tomorrow and my midwife appointment on Tuesday. They mean a great deal to me because with Beiron both were already booked when we had the miscarriage, and so now I feel like "Yes, we made it this time!" I'll let you know how it goes.