The Great Pram Debacle

The bad luck charm on 3 wheels
(not our actual pram, but same model)

OK, so a long time ago, we were given a pram...

We were still in our first year of marriage and just starting our journey of (mis)conception. We were given a pram, a stroller and a car seat from my husband's mother. They were used by her partner's daughter back in 2004(?).  I wasn't overly pleased with the kind donation because it represented all the pressure from the in-laws to get on the reproduction wagon, and I found it quite invasive. But we kept them in the back shed for years, gathering dust, mice poo and snail trails.

At the beginning of this year, I convinced my husband to get rid of the car seat as mice had found some forgotten crumbs under the seat lining and eaten the stuffing under the seat. I was also concerned that it didn't meet current Australian Safety Standards. But I had this weird thing that it was like a bad luck charm because of the all the expectations it represented. And what do you know? Two weeks after we threw it in the bin, I found out I was pregnant. A coincidence? :)

But we still held on to the pram and stroller.

I don't have a problem with the stroller. It's easy to fold. It's light and it's simple to use. But the pram is heavy (more than 12kg), incredibly bulky and doesn't lock when it's folded down. It also isn't reversible, which is something I really wanted so the baby could face me when it was very young. The tyres were also flat.

I hated this pram!

I loathed the idea of having to lug this thing around to do the shopping or go out for coffee. Or even pushing it around the shops. I gave my husband an ultimatum, that he clean the mice poo and snail trails and fix the tyres, or I would just go out and buy a pram to suit myself.

Well, to his credit, he did just that. So now I have to eat my words and we're keeping the pram.

I have, however, booked a pram and capsule combination for hire. It's a Babylove Snap n Go Capsule and Aurora pram and it costs $200 to hire for 6 months. This will give us time to work out if the free pram is actually worth keeping. It also gives us time to work out what kind of long term pram/stroller we would need, if we do end up buying one.

After all the research I did on prams, I'm happy with this option. If we bought that option at retail it would be more than $400, and we could quite possibly want to get rid of it after 6 months to find something  more suitable anyway. Capsules are just ridiculously expensive!



All images used in this post are not my own. They have been taken from a google image search. Please contact me if you want them to be removed.

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Handy IVF App: Menstrual Calendar

So I started using Menstrual Calendar a few months before I started my first IVF cycle in January 2012. The main purpose was to track my menstrual cycle to see how consistent it was, as well as predicting my ovulation times. I could also record other symptoms throughout the month to see if there were any recurring patterns. As you know, it didn't really help me to conceive, but it did keep a good record and proved invaluable during IVF.

I used the free version for a while, but soon paid for the upgrade so that I could customise the settings. It allowed me to customise what symptoms I wanted to record and what symbols I wanted to use to depict the symptoms on the calendar.

I found this handy with IVF because I recorded any notes I had that I might want to discuss with FS later, or if I just wasn't sure about something. Also, I recorded appointments and test results.

My Calendar

The picture above shows what my calendar view looks like. Because I upgraded the app, I've customised the icons and the background colour. I've added icons to show what medication I had taken, my appointments and tests as well as my body temperature. Really handy for a quick check of information. If you want a more detailed report, you can email the full cycle report to yourself or your doctor. Click here to see my cycle report.

Other apps which I have heard are good to use are:

Fertility Friend

Menstruation and Ovulation Calendar

Can you recommend any other apps?

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20 weeks - It's a Boy!

20 week scan - little baby boy.

So we've had our 20 week scan and discovered the flavour of the baby is Blueberry!!

In a way, it's not really a surprise because both my husband and I come from families with lots of boys. I'm the only girl in a family of 3 boys. So, I had suspected that there would be a little boy sprout in there. However, my husband had convinced me that we could be having a girl. He had no real reason why, but he's had a good track record of predicting the sex of all his nephews and niece...so I was leaning towards a little girl. He had also already named her. As our surname begins with F, he wanted to name her Ivy...which, when you say her name with the initial, it says I-vy F (IVF). I thought it was funny at the time, but I actually grew accustomed to it. I even started picturing little Ivy and all the cute dresses I would be buying her.

But alas, 'tis a little boy for us. And we're happy.

Fetal movements
Earlier that morning of the ultrasound, I felt the baby partying around 4am. It was the first time hubby had felt him move. He couldn't believe how active he was and how strong the movements were. I had felt regular movement for a few days before that, but it was always hard to explain or for him to catch them. So little Blueberry kept partying until I fell back asleep around 5am.

The ultrasound
So, we went to get the ultrasound. I didn't have to have a full bladder, in fact they said for it not to be full, I just had to be well hydrated.  I wore my stretchy maternity pants and a button up shirt for easy ultrasound access.  The goop was spread over my belly, and we discovered that the little bean was tired from all the partying he'd done that morning and was sleeping in a ball facing down. This meant it was hard to see his face, so the nurse(?) kept poking and prodding my belly trying to get him to turn around. Nope. Not budging. I had to lie on my side. Still nothing. I coughed. Still nothing. Then she asked me to get up, hold my shirt up and shake my belly around to get him to move...stubborn little blighter, I think he curled into an even tighter ball! So stubborn!!

We didn't get the 4D (I'm not sure what the 4th dimension is) scan. It wasn't offered, they only do it if there's a diagnostic cause, like if there were physical deformities they needed to check. Our other option was to go to another non-medical company and pay $250 for 4D pictures, but as we can't claim that back on Medicare we decided to give it a miss. As it was, the ultrasound cost $250, but we at least got at least $100 back from Medicare, so it's not that bad.

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16 weeks - First Movements!

16 weeks - X marks the spot of the ninja kick

Monday 28th May was my best friend's birthday. As I was awake before 7am, I sent her a birthday SMS, eager to be the first well-wisher for the day. As we exchanged messages, I felt something almost pop out my left side. I had heard that it should feel like bubbles or a fluttery feeling. So, I had kind of expected a delightful fizzy feeling, like champagne bubbles...but this felt like someone had popped a champagne cork in there. It was very distinctive.

I haven't felt any other movements since then, but it was very exciting to feel that. Sometimes I feel a rolling feeling inside my stomach, but I don't know if that's baby because it feels a bit high in my abdomen.

I've booked my 20 week scan in on Friday 22 June. It'll be so cool to see the little one again...and find out if it's a boy or a girl! it's only 3 weeks away now, it'll be here before I know it.

163 days to go.

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15 weeks

Body Changes
15 weeks and everything seems to be going well. Baby seems to be growing, as I'm forming a nice little bump. I notice it more when I wake up in the morning, I can feel a little lump in my lower abdomen. But throughout the day my bump just becomes a fat belly filled with gas and an abundance of food that moves sluggishly through my digestive system...(shudder). So far I've only gained 2kg, surely most of that was from last week alone...sooo many Tim Tams!

My boobs have gotten bigger and my nipples are massive! My areolas have pretty much taken over my whole boob. They've also gotten darker, and apparently your clitoris gets darker too (but I haven't checked that out).

I have also started to get a snail trail, which I'm strangely proud of. I'm not a very hairy person, so it's hardly impressive. But there are definitely a few extra hairs there. It's like an extra stripe I've earnt.

Linea Negra
Ooh! My mother-in-law bought me a pregnancy magazine and I noticed in some of the photos of pregnant bellies, they had a dark line running down from their belly buttons. I noticed last week there was the faintest line down my belly. Another stripe earnt.

Your moving uterus
This week I've been feeling some sharp pains right inside my hip bones, which I was a bit worried about. But apparently it's only because my uterus has packed up, headed north and is now moving up towards my navel. This has caused my ligaments to stretch, causing sharp twanging pains. Phew! No need to call the doctor yet.

Mood changes
Something strange has been happening over the last couple of weeks. I've noticed my levels of rage have steadily increased and my level of patience has gone in the opposite direction. I called a young lad "a little shit" at the movies the other week, because he didn't put his empty popcorn cup in the bin. I have since been reassured that getting a bit "shirty" during pregnancy is to be expected.

Pregnancy. It's a magical time.

171 days to go.

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13 weeks

13weeks 4days - no more jelly bean!

Well I got my appointment with my OB this week. They were really great to fit me in on such short notice. My OB seemed really friendly and informative and the nurse was great too! I had a whole list of questions to ask them, but of course they just went straight out the window when I got there. Thankfully, they pretty much answered everything I was wondering about anyway.

So onto the scan. This one was done on the belly (no internal scan, thank goodness!) I was worried that I hadn't drunk enough water and if I could go to the toilet beforehand, but turns out it wasn't an issue at all. Once the doctor put the scanning thingo on my belly,  I could actually recognise features of a little baby.  It wasn't a jelly bean anymore. We could see the face, arms and legs and a little round belly. And  I cannot describe how amazing it is to our little one moving around in there. It just didn't want to keep still at all, it was twisting and tumbling around! But the doctor was able to get a few good shots. It's hard to believe that all of that is going on inside, and I can't feel any of it at all.

You can also get the baby checked for their risk of developing Down Syndrome. The Nuchal Fold Test measures a fluid sac on the back of the neck for any chromosomal abnormality. While the doctor was able to measure it, he said that because the scan was left a bit late, the test wouldn't be as accurate.  He told us that the baby was within the safe range (less than 300? - not sure what that meant). We could have gone ahead for further testing, but he didn't see any reason for it. So we were happy with that.

The appointment went well. Baby was 79mm, which was the expected length at that time. The doctor explained a few of the horrors of childbirth and the expected procedures. He prefers to go with a natural childbirth, unless certain complications prevented it. He also said that because this was an IVF pregnancy, he would prefer to only let me go 1 week past the due date. This was because for some unknown reason, IVF pregnancies seem to present unexpected labour complications. OK, that's fair enough.

So, we were happy overall. Baby is coming along nicely. Phew! 27(ish) weeks to go.

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