OUR FIRST ATTEMPT AT IVF | TIMELINE UPDATE

Thurs 8th June: Started IVF injections.

Tues 11th July: Egg collection.

Thurs 13th July: 2 embryos transferred.

2 week wait.

Thurs 27th July: Pregnancy blood test at the hospital. Positive test confirmed in the afternoon.

Wed 16th Aug: First scan. 1 foetus seen with a very strong heartbeat. 

Sat 26th Aug: Pregnancy symptoms have disappeared. A private scan confirms the baby/foetus no longer has a heartbeat. It's measuring as it should, minus 1 day so it is about 8 weeks + 3 days old.

There's no bleeding or sign of miscarriage for 2 weeks and 2 days.

Tues 12th Sept: Went into labour for 10 hours. 

Wed 13th Sept: Went into labour again. 

Thurs 14th Sept: Emergency op to remove foetus under anesthetic.

Light bleeding following the op (for 17 days with 2 days where it's heavy in between) which turns into crazy, out of control heavy bleeding for another 10 days. Then it suddenly stopped for 2 days, then there was a night of heavy bleeding and then it pretty much stopped). 

Thurs 12th Oct: I finally get a negative pregnancy test.

Sun 15th Oct: (4 weeks and 3 days after the op). The bleeding has stopped.

Sat 21st Oct: I get positive ovulation tests on a cheap Amazon test and a Clearblue smiley face one. So the crazy bleeding was a period on top of my miscarriage. This is a great sign as it means we can have started trying again!!!!

Sun 22nd Oct: Positive ovulation tests.

Mon 23rd Oct: Positive ovulation tests.

Tues 24th Oct: Positive ovulation tests.

Wed 25th Oct: Positive ovulation tests.

Thurs 26th Oct: Finally after 5 days of positive ovulation tests I get a negative one!

If anyone knows possible reasons why I have had positive ovulation tests 5 days in a row please enlighten me! After I had the miscarriage I followed my hormone levels back down to 0 when I finally got a negative pregnancy test so it's not left over hormones from the pregnancy. 

I took another pregnancy test on Tues which came up negative too. Just out of interest really as at the time I couldn't be pregnant because I've been bleeding too much to try for another baby. Obviously we've been making the most of these positive ovulation tests though. Ha ha!

Jess. xx

MY FIRST IVF PREGNANCY | TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Hey guys.

Today I want to post a timeline of events so I can easily look back at how long things take etc if I need to. I'm still bleeding after having had an op and am trying to work out if I've had or when I'm going to have a period and when I'm going to ovulate. 

Despite feeling like it's all been a bit of an ordeal (an ordeal that's been going on for over 4 months now!!!), memories fade fast and we're not ready to give up just yet! 

Maybe they'll be a natural pregnancy. If not, we'll probably have IVF round 2 within the next few months. 

All I can say is watch this space. : ) 

In the meantime, here's my timeline of IVF events:

Thurs 8th June: Started IVF injections.

Tues 11th July: Egg collection.

Thurs 13th July: 2 embryos transferred.

2 week wait.

Thurs 27th July: Pregnancy blood test at the hospital. Positive test confirmed in the afternoon.

Wed 16th Aug: First scan. 1 foetus seen with a very strong heartbeat. 

Sat 26th Aug: Pregnancy symptoms have disappeared. A private scan confirms the baby/foetus no longer has a heartbeat. It's measuring as it should, minus 1 day so it is about 8 weeks + 3 days old.

There's no bleeding or sign of miscarriage for 2 weeks and 2 days.

Tues 12th Sept: Went into labour for 10 hours. 

Wed 13th Sept: Went into labour again. 

Thurs 14th Sept: Emergency op to remove foetus under anesthetic.

Light bleeding following the op (for 17 days with 2 days where it's heavy in between) which turns into crazy, out of control heavy bleeding for another 10 days. Then it suddenly stopped for 2 days, then there was a night of heavy bleeding and now it's mild). 

Thurs 12th Oct: I finally get a negative pregnancy test.

As I said previously, I'm using ovulation tests every day to try and work out if some of this crazy bleeding was a period and when I'm going to ovulate! I'll update this post when I work it out!

On a side note, Amazon is a great place to buy cheap ovulation and pregnancy tests in bulk (I'll link the ones I get below - this seller supplies the NHS so they work really well). Boy do we get through a lot of those!

I'm using the cheap ovulation tests every day and when I see any sign of two lines I'll double up with a Clearblue (smiley face) test just to be sure!! I got the idea from one of my favourite YouTubers who said she uses cheap tests from Amazon. I don't know why I didn't think of it before! 

Jess. xx

SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF MISCARRIAGE

It's been over a month since I last posted on here and the long and the short of it is that the drugs didn't work for me at all. I ended up having to have Surgical Management of Miscarriage (SMM). 

4 days after I took the second lot of pills I had another scan at the Early Pregnancy Unit, which of course confirmed that the fetus was still in there. I continued to wait it out and see if I miscarried naturally. A week later I went into labour at 3am and it lasted 10 hours. I was getting contractions every 3 minutes that would last 1 minute and was bleeding like crazy. 

Stuck on the toilet for 10 hours (other than a random 2 hour break I got) I felt lucky that my finace and mum were by my side. Yes it was embarrassing being half naked and in labour in front of them but I felt so exhausted I didnt care. My mum was fab and talked me through what to do with the breathing etc.

When labour finally ended around 1pm the next day, everyone was sure the fetus must have come out. The amount of blood and clots and goodness knows what else was insane. I had to use Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Codeine and anti-sickness medication to get me through. It didn't take the pain away but made it slightly more bearable. 

After going through all that you can imagine my horror when it all started again at 3am the next day. Labour went on once again for 2 hours and it was every bit as awful as before. At 8.30am I was straight back on the phone to the Early Pregnancy Unit and back at the hospital for 10am.

I had a scan which once again confirmed that the fetus was still in there. A little head and body, fully intact, just led there like nothing is wrong. I couldn't bloody believe it!

Feeling crazily exhausted and at my wits end with it all I agreed that I had no option but to give in and have the op. Looking back I think I was mad to think doing it naturally was the way to go! Luckily they booked me in for the next day and I was also first on the list.

The operation went well but it was over 3 weeks ago now and I'm still bleeding heavily. 

Tomorrow I'm going to ring the doctors and try and work out if this is normal or not. 

Jess. xx