Tips To Getting Pregnant - My Story

I had heard things about couples swaying the odds of conceiving a girl or conceiving a boy. I thought that it would just be nice on the third time around to get a girl.

I started researching on the web and in books that a friend lent me on a guy called Shettles who started the whole baby gender selection thing going years ago. Anyway, to cut a long story short (saved that for another lens), for the first months of trying to get pregnant we stopped doing 'it' at day 12-14 as suggested by Shettles - 2 days before ovulation.

The problem with this was that my cycle is (and always has been) irregular. One month it would be 28 days and the next month it would be 36. I didnt know that there was anyway of finding out when ovulation took place. The only thing I knew was that you normally ovulate 14 days prior to your next period.

However, there are things that can help you pinpoint ovulation, these include using a basal body temperature chart and tracking your changes in mucus (gross, I know). (I have a whole lens on ovulation too). So, this was my next step, I did this for a few months and from what I could work out, I was only ovulating every OTHER month anyway.

Even though I know that the time spent trying to conceive a girl had probably not helped me in actually getting pregnant, the thing about me not ovulating every month was a bit of a worry. We forgot about trying to conceive a girl, more than a girl we wanted a baby. We had a couple of months of trying to conceive right through the 'peak fertility slot' and then in June, I made an appointment with my GP, just to get checked out. He was great.

I told him about my concerns about my ovulating and a few other things that had been happening on certain months - I had a couple of months ago had pains (not your normal period pains) down the side that I believed I had stopped ovulating from, immediately before my period. The pain caused me to go as white (my husbands observation) and I had to sit down. I can only describe it as a labour type pain.

His thoughts were that because of my age (your chances of conceiving can start to decrease from the age of 35) it would be best to get me checked out.

Do we smoke, if yes stop as this can decrease fertility ? (we dont)

He told us both to cut back on Tea and Coffee (for me this wasn't too bad as I had stopped drinking coffee a few months ago, but Buster (hubby) loved his coffee)

Don't try to hard - only try to conceive every OTHER day, not every day (this gives the male tadpoles (have to call them that or wont go through on squidoo) time to build up. If you try every night, they will be much weaker)

Both cut back on alcohol (I dont drink so it wasn't a problem for me but Buster loved that beer when he got in from work - sacrifices had to be made - sorry Buz)

Relax - don't you love it when they tell you this. What with 2 boys, work, driving 2 hours a day to schools, all the immigration stuff we have going on, normal blah, blah, this one was a bit tough, but would give it go.

I haven't told you yet that

I am now 37 years old.

I know that there are lots

of women who can have

babies in their 30's and 40's but others can struggle.

Trust me to fall into the 'others' range.


My GP told me that your fertility may start to

decrease from 35 onwards.

When I went for the ultrasound, it was a bit hard when she put the jelly on my belly as the memories I had of this were ones of my first sights of Harry and Sam.

I went on day 14 of my cycle. The lady informed me that she could see that I was not going to ovulate during the next 24 hours. She couldn't tell me beyond that. Well, knowing that my cycle could go on as long as 36 days and that you ovulate 14 days prior to the first day of your period I was still trying to be optimistic (even though I couldn't help feeling a little disheartened.

A few days after I went in to talk to my GP again about my results knowing that they had all been sent through to him. Whilst he pressed a few buttons on his PC, I held my breath (what if this was it, this was the day that I found out that we couldn't have any more children) - the results of the blood and urine tests had all come back fine.

Then he clicked a few more buttons to open up the ultrasound results (again I dreaded the worst - weird I know, as the lady there had already told me what she had seen on the day). His words were "yes, I can see here that you are about to ovulate over the next few days". Me being the pessimestic person that my life has made me, asked him if he was sure and repeated what the ultrasound lady had told me. His reply was that I had probably mis-interpreted what she had said (I didn't care, this sounded better). Some good news, horray!

Over the next few days I carried on tracking my mucus and sure enough 3 days later there was 2 days of the egg white mucus (a sign of ovulation).

On my searchings on the net to try and determine whether I was in fact ovulating or not I came accross a tadpole (again calling them this or else squidoo wont let it go through) friendly lubricant. I also discovered that if you are dry down there and try to moisten the are with either saliva or other lubricant, it can actually damage the tadpoles! Some women only have the fertile cervical mucus inside they don't actually secrete any so the initial penetration can be uncomfortable.

The lubricant I found was called Pre Seed and all over the web it has glowing reviews. After using it myself I can only agree with the other pre seed reviews that I have read. It makes the area not feel dry anymore which helped us both relax more as it was not uncomfortable.

Pre seed acts exactly the same as the fertile cervical mucus is helps to transport the tadpoles to the egg. The tadpoles need this type of mucus to move along. I even used it on the day that I had my own fertile cervical mucus there as there was not a lot - it couldn't hurt - more is better. At least next month, if I have no fertile cervical mucus I will not be uncomfortable and my tadpoles will have their taxi to the egg !

I had my appointment with the fertility specialist a couple of days ago. He looked at all the results of our tests and said that everything looked fine there. The percentage of Busters lazy tadpoles were not enough to worry about.

He wants to do some more tests, the first one being another blood test which needs to be done on day 2 of my cycle (which is tomorrow - got my period again last night - fed up!). He wants to check that there are not any blockages in the tubes aswell. To do this a dye has to be put into the womb in the first 13 days of your cycle. Ringing today to try and book this one too. He also wants to do a scan himself on day 13 of my cycle to confirm that I will be ovulating that month.

A tip that he did give me was not to try every night as this adds stress. He said just have it in the back of your mind that you will ovulate around day 13 and try to do it a couple of times around that date.

Another thing that he said aswell was that because my cycles were irregular he thought that I was probably not ovulating every month, but that was easily fixed.

I don't have to wait until the 25th October to do a test - I got my period 2 days ago. Started with the usual stomach cramps and then sure enough about an hour later I got my period. I had heard so many stories previously, so I asked myself - Can you be pregnant and still have a period? I thought I would do a test anyway just to confirm.

It was negative, so no luck this month. There is always next month, one thing for certain though - I AM NOT GIVING IN!

When I arrived I was asked who my nominated driver was. I hadn't been told that I needed one ! They wouldn't know until they had started the scan. I would only need a driver if they had to give me an injection to relax me. Luckily I didnt need one so I was OK.

They get you into the same position as when you have your Pap Smear. It feels much the same really but when they put the dye in I did experience bad cramping, but it didn't last long. The dye went through the tubes, which I was able to see on screen and the only thing that was noticed that did not look quite right was that the dye seemed to clump together on the left after it had come through the tube. I was told that this may be a sign that there is an infection there.

I did experience a bit of cramping from time to time throughout the day, similar to a period.

Anyway, good news - no blockages - the relief I felt was immense. The results would be forwarded to Paul Stokes.

Paul Stokes my fertility specialist has now put me on Clomid. I am on my second month's course. The first month I was taking 1/2 a tablet for days 2-6 and this month it's a full tablet on days 3-8. He has told me that ovulation occurs 5-9 days after taking Clomid. Clomid brings on ovulation. To confirm that ovulation has taken place I have to go for a blood test on day 21 of my cycle.

Clomid has helped many couple's conceive so fingers crossed.

I wished upon a star...
I closed my eyes and prayed,
I threw a shiny penny,
into a well each day.
The same little wish was wished,
upon my birthday cake
I asked the Lord... Please hurry,
just for heaven's sake!
I was trying to be patient,
but I had waited long enough
my wishing well with pennies,
was now completely stuffed!
I would start and end my days
repeating the same prayer,
I knew that up in heaven,
they could see I really cared.
Just when I thought I couldn't,
bear another day
it is then that I learned,
you were on your way.
All the prayers and wishes,
finally did come true
The blessing God gave me,
was my pregnancy with you!

That's right, we have been trying to conceive now for over 18 months and still we have no pregnancy. We have moved on now from just Clomid to Clomid accompanied by an HCG shot and Intrauterine Insemination, at a cost of $800 per month. Needless to say, we won't be able to afford many months, but this is our last chance at having a baby. The stage after this is IVF and at $10,000 a time, it's just simply not an option for us. Unless you of course have a spare $10,000 you would like to share with me, lol.

We have just finished our first month of the HCG shot and Intrauterine Insemination and were unsuccessful in getting pregnant. However, my fertility guy, Paul Stokes is happy with the results of all the tests done. I ovulated really well. We are giving it another go this month. Today is day 5 and I have a scan appointment next Tuesday which will hopefully show a couple of growing follicles.....fingers crossed.

I have created a couple of lenses on our Intrauterine Insemination experience so you can follow our progress more on there - we need all the support we can get.

Things have progressed a lot since I last visited this lens, when I say progressed, I am still not pregnant, but we are now trying to conceive with the aid of artificial insemination. For the first 2 attempts ovulation was inducted with clomid, but then on the third month my fertility guy, Paul Stokes wanted me to switch to the Gonal F Injections to stimulate ovulation. I injected myself at 8.30pm every night for 12 nights and then I had the Intrauterine Insemination today, so fingers crossed.

I have created a few lenses on our experience with Intrauterine Insemination and Gonal F Injections which you can find below.

Yes again it was another unsuccessful month of trying to get pregnant. We have decided to take a break from the expense and drugs of IUI and take a different path. We are now going to try Natural Fertility Treatment. It is a lot cheaper, better for us and comes with a better success rate so what have we got to lose ? I have done a lens on my Natural Fertility Treatment journey which you can find below.