FET Day 33 - The 2ww

So here I am, only a couple of days into the dreaded 2 week wait. Generally speaking, it's gone ok so far. We came straight home after the transfer and I went straight to bed. It was my intention to go on 3 days bed rest, and literally stay in bed but it hasn't happened.
On the night of the transfer, DF refused to bring me hot food in bed so I had to come downstairs and lie on the sofa instead to eat. I stayed there for a couple of hours then went to bed.
I had done a big shop on Monday and written DF a list of all the foods I wanted during the day for him to bring me each morning. I also asked him to make me some porridge in a morning. Well on Wednesday, I got a chocolate pudding and a glass of smoothie for breakfast as he said he couldn't find the porridge??!! When he had gone to work, I found he hadn't brought me all of the items on the list, so I had to go downstairs to get some other bits. I also had a quick shower. Apart from that, I stayed in bed all day and night.
Yesterday my mum and sister came round to see me and said I had to come downstairs. So I stayed in bed all morning and then moved to the sofa at lunchtime. I stayed there for some of the afternoon but my doggy was driving me crazy (he likes to bark at other dogs walking past. Very loudly) so I moved back upstairs. I came back downstairs when DF came home for my meal and stayed there for the evening.
I think all in all, I've done ok. It's pretty hard to stay in bed ALL the time! My plan was to stay in bed for 72 hours after the transfer, which would make it this afternoon. But DF's mum and sister have asked to take me out to lunch. They will come and pick me up and bring me home, so it's nothing strenuous. I've had bad stomach ache since Wednesday night, which I think is more to do with my bowels than anything IVF related. DF said it's not helping by slobbing about, and that it might help if I move about a bit more. I think I'll go for the lunch.
I've been making sure I'm eating lots of fruit. I did buy a pineapple and to cut down on confusion, I asked DF to just juice the whole thing, then there's no stress about which bit to eat etc. But he broke the blender... I haven't actually eaten any of it yet as I bought myself a small box of prepared fruit to have each day, and this already has pineapple in it. So I've just stuck to that and if it works it works.
I've been taking a folic acid supplement everyday this year, along with vitamin C supplements. On the day of the transfer I switched to an all round pregnancy supplement. This already has the folic acid and vitamin C in it, so I've stopped taking the others now. I am to carry on with my HRT tablets and pessaries until further notice. It kind of feels a bit more reassuring that I'm still taking these, as last time I didn't think that the pessaries went on for long enough. It's all an extra helping hand for me.
All dog walking duties have been passed to DF for the time being. He is not very good at walking on the lead and often pulls. If another dog comes, you've had it. Last time I walked him quite often, and a few times he really pulled me which didn't feel right at all. So I'm not risking it at all this time.
My sister was advised before her pregnancy not to wear any tight or restrictive clothes from the minute go. So I've been wearing loose nighties and will only be wearing loose clothes for the considerable future. It's something to do with restricting the blood flow to the vital areas. Don't think I can go in jog pants to lunch today, so it will have to be a loose dress!
I haven't driven yet, I think I might have to tomorrow. I get pretty stressed out when driving sometimes, and I've noticed that I constantly drive with my stomach tensed, I have no idea why! So I'll have to try to relax a bit more.
I've got my first acupuncture appointment tomorrow since the transfer, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to gradually do a bit more over the weekend, but still take it easy. It's one of my best friend's birthdays tomorrow, but she hasn't decided what she wants to do yet. If it's a meal, then I'll go but then go home after; if it's just drinks, I might go for one while I drop DF off, then go home. I'll see how I feel.
I've had no twinges or anything to analyse so far so that's good. Just fed up with the stomach ache. I'm sure next week will be a different story hmm...

FET Day 30 - The Big Day

Well, I did intend to blog a bit more than this throughout my FET cycle, but to be honest, I just haven't had anything to say!! Doing a FET cycle is just a million miles away from a full IVF cycle. No injections, no stressing about what time to do them, if you're doing them right, no bleeding or bruising, no scans every other day, no worry about how big your follies are, how many eggs you're going to get, if they're going to fertilise, the list just goes on. It's been completely stress free. All I've had to do is have 1 injection, pop 3 pills a day for 7 days, then 4 pills a day from then on, plus 2 pessaries a night. Easy peasy.

So today was finally the day of the transfer, after a bit of rude phone call from the hospital yesterday, I decided that nothing was going to get me down today. I got a good night's sleep and woke up about 8. I took it easy and just waited for my phonecall. It was the embryologist this time, and she was really really nice. She said they had thawed 3, but 1 didn't make it. She said the other 2 were lovely :o)

So after taking our time to get ready (no stresses!) we made our way over to Leeds. We had a little look around the shops and then got some lunch. We set off to the hospital with 40 minutes to spare. Until last year there were 2 reproductive medicine units at 2 separate hospitals in Leeds, but they have now merged and so this time we were at a different hospital. When we pulled up I was horrified. From the outside it looked like something from Victorian times. As we were driving around trying to find a parking space, there were loads of little buildings, all boarded up with graffitti on. I was like, Where on earth are we?? It just looked awful. We couldn't find anywhere to park, so, with only 15 minutes to go, I told DF to just dump the car. I'd rather pay the fine than get totally stressed out. When we got inside, we found a brand new facility, it was all really nice, and I felt much better.

After a short wait, we met with the embryologist, and discussed the transfer. One of the embryos had thawed slightly better than the other, but they were both still good. We had already decided to have 2 put back in, and luckily this time they didn't try to talk us out of it.

When we got to the theatre they said my bladder wasn't full enough. Great!! This happened last time! I was desperate for the loo, but they said I'd have to drink more. So out we went for me to drink another half a litre of water. Whilst we were waiting, there was a man in the waiting room with his son, THE most adorable and cute little boy. His wife came back in after her transfer and started to chat to us, she said 'It does work you know' and nodded to the boy. It was really nice.

I drank loads more, and had got to the jigging stage, so they took me back in to try again, and it was much better this time. The transfer seemed to take a lot longer than last time. Or maybe I was just so out of it last time with the OHSS. It was a bit more uncomfortable too.

But Tony and Tiger are home where they belong now, I'm so pleased everything has gone well :o)

FET Day 14 - You are what you eat

Well here I am , 14 days into my first FET, and there's nothing new to report. After Googling (I know!!) the side effects of the down reg injection I had on day 1, I haven't actually had anything. No hot flushes, no mood swings. Nothing.
My only problem at the moment is what to eat. I started off with my own ideas about what I would eat / drink this time around, but I've also been bombarded with suggestions from all kinds of other sources and I'm just been getting confused.

My own ideas

When I did my first round of IVF I got OHSS. To combat this I had to eat a high protein diet. Because I had so much fluid leaking around my organs, it must have been a strain on my stomach and it really affected my appetite. I just wasn't hungry and the smallest amount of food made me full. DF would tell me off that I wasn't eating enough but I just couldn't. So when I did eat, it was just protein rich foods. Now I'm not saying that this caused my miscarriage but I don't think I ate any fruit or vegetables for those first couple of weeks and I certainly don't think it helped.
So this time around, I have decided that I MUST eat healthily. I have been drinking more water at work, and drinking smoothies with my lunch and at night to up my fruit intake. I have been taking folic acid supplements since the beginning of the year. I have forced myself to eat lunch everyday to help my blood sugar. I have dramatically cut my chocolate intake to once a week and I've cut down on takeaways.

My sister, the soon to be Naturopath

My little (pregnant) sister is studying for a degree in Naturopathic medicine. Of course, she has taken a great interest in both of our fertility issues and constantly texts me / sends me notes on what I should be doing. So, since the beginning of the year I have also been taking a Vitamin C supplement daily. I'm not sure why she said to take it but it sure helped shift my sinusitis quickly last month! I have cut out all carbonated drinks. I am only drinking Evian water. This is because of the high levels of minerals it has compared to other bottled waters. I didn't believe her at first but I looked in the supermarket, and she's right. It has a really high amount of calcium in it. This also helps with her recommendation of more dairy in my diet. I've been having a piece of cheese with dinner. I've cut out all caffeine. I've been having some organic liquorice as a treat as it is an antioxidant, as she says I need to flush out my infertile toxins or something like that!! I have also been buying the Innocent antioxidant smoothies to help with this too. She also said I need apples and tomatoes. I have an apple everyday anyway, and I've added some cherry tomatoes to my lunch.

Acupuncturist

The only tip I've had off him so far is to stop eating so much spicy food, as I have too much fire inside of me!!?? I do eat a fair bit of spicy food but not everyday. I will try and cut down.

Twitter ladies

I've picked up on various tips from my twitter friends. @born2bamummy mentioned about eating warm foods. I think that's a good idea as some days I don't have anything hot at all, or most days it's just my evening meal. I bought some porridge today to have for breakfast, this will also help with my dairy intake as it says to make it with milk. @afterthealter mentioned about cinnamon. After Googling, I decided it would be a good thing to try, as it will help with my PCOS. Although PCOS is not the first thing on my mind at the moment as I'm not TTC naturally, but I am at a higher risk of miscarriage with it, and I DO NOT want to go through that again. So anything that might help is good with me. I tried to get some supplements yesterday but they were pretty expensive. I'll just have to sprinkle it on my foods, but I don't know what on. Maybe my porridge. @rosierattle also gave me some good tips on foods to eat and supplements to take.

It just all got a bit much for me yesterday. I couldn't see what I was supposed to be eating, and when. And just how was I supposed to fit it all in in one day?! I'm going to stick to what I'm already doing, I don't think I can do anymore. The changes I've already made are so significant, compared to what my diet was like before, so I'm hoping that this will be enough.