Katharine: Mummy to Saskia

hi ladies i had very clearly positive digital opk and tons of ewcm. as far as i am aware i have now ovulated the opks are negative but i still have o pain and some ewcm. wondering if o pain is something that can happen after o?

i am not ttc, I am 8 months postpartum so am just wondering what is going on with my cycles....they are very long at the moment as i am still breastfeeding a little. the last 2 cycles i have ovulated around cd31-35 which is nuts as my cycles used to only be 30 days long.

anyway am curious ovulation pain is from bleeding when egg is released right? irritating the abdominal wall so stands to reason it can go on a day or two after ovualtion?

ewcm though i never understand why i dont dry up right after o.. its misleading if my opks have gone neg after 2 days i am sure i am 2 dpo so why the ewcm?

hi ladies my daughter will be 8 months old in 2 days time, and i have so far had one light period and one proper period where i felt ovulation had ewcm etc. it was 48 days between these periods and i am now on cd29 and i think i have yet to ovulate! my cycles were 30 days or so pre pregnancy.

is this normal? does it just take a while for your body to settle down?

i am still breastfeeding but she is also on bottles so i feed very little maybe 2 or 3 small comfort feeds in 24 hours. my supply has massively reduced, but i do pump 8 ozs a day for her bedtime bottle as i believe she should have 1 good breastmilk feed a day. so i suppose that could be messing with my cycles but i would have thought once you get a period you would see some regularity or is that not the case?

i am not pregnant. (that i know of!)

hi ladies just curious if any of you have been a surrogate for a couple (host not straight meaning not your egg just hosting the pregnancy) here in the uk? if so how did you meet? how were the financials sorted? what was it like? pros? cons?

hi my baby is 7 and a half months old and she has successfully had a bottle at bedtime since 4 weeks. she has also been on formula in the daytime since 5 months old and had no problems with the bottle.

she is fully weaned. she has not been eating well this week or last but was ok on her milk, but now REFUSES a bottle of milk whether expressed or formula.. she just wants to breastfeed but i dont want her to as i had pretty much stopped and was ready to stop. i also dont have a very high supply. i had just been giving a morning breastfeed and expressing her bedtime bottle (6-7ozs).

Why would she just suddenly refuse milk bottles? she will take water ok at meals from bottles but if i sit her down to give her a bottle of milk (expressed or her usual formula) she wont even taste it she arches her back and screams. really doesnt want it. i find myself getting very frustrated with her and i dont know what to do.

i have been breastfeeding her but i really would rather stop and go back to bottles and formula.

i should add that she has also 'unlearned' how to settle herself to sleep and i have to give a dummy. i think this must be due to teething? she has been to the dr there is no sign of fever or infection they think its nothing.

i had a positive opk 2 weeks ago today. the surge lasted 3 days. since then i have had extremely abundant ewcm ever since but loads and loadsof it the last few days i've also been experiencing cramping 7 pains.

my opk remained egative since the surge i detected, and i havent had sex these last 2 weeks so its genuine ewcm, not seminal residue.

i took an hpt its bfn.

i'm 5 months postpartum & breastfeeding.

hi there, my baby has previously been a very good sleeper. she has often made noises and disturbed us (she sleeps in her own bed in our room), but used to do up to 9 hours sleeping without much fuss.

recently (last 3 weeks or so) she has got worse and worse, even waking in the night (always did dream feeds), and very hard to settle. she cries out in her sleep several times throughout the early evening and through the night. we are getting little to no sleep and she is disturbing herself with it, and causing herself to wake.

is this teething? anyone else been through this? how do we settle her better?

hi there, my 20 week old daughter will take a bottle of breastmilk no problem but refuses formula. how can i get her to take some formula? i am not looking to stop feeding i am just finding that with breastfeeding all day and pumping i am finding that the odd formula feed here and there would take the pressure off me. any tips?

we have tried mixing it with her milk which worked once or twice but then she threw up.

we have tried Aptamil, SMA, Goats Milk, and Hipp Organic which she hates the most and is the one I had hoped to give as Aptamil and SMA make her sick! HELP!

hi there, i am 20 weeks postpartum and breastfeeding exclusively. i do express milk but my baby only has breastmilk.

i have been wondering for a while when my fertility would return, and have been testing with opk's to keep any eye on things. i am not ttc!

i just received my first truly positive opk just now which matches some pains and ewcm etc i have been having, so i assume i am about to ovulate for the first time.

however, since yesterday i have had the worst nausea. i have thrown up several times and even had a little diarrhea (sorry tmi) in the night. can all this be from ovualtion or do you think it is coincidental i have picked up a stomach bug?

also- if my opk is positive that rules out pregnancy no? i used internet cheapies of both tests and the opk was clearly positive whereas the hpt cheapie just had the usual colourless watermark that i come to expect when using these tests.

i took the test at 6 this evening, when i came back to it, the display had the smiley face. however i took another one later this evening (and a cheapie) and they are negative like beyond negative. barely any second line at all!

weird thing is that the test stick didnt even look positive on the one i used that gave me the smiley.. although i think they are weird test sticks and arent like normal opks when they are digital so the lines are harder to interpret? anyone else had this?

hi ladies, my daughter is 15 weeks today and i am finally feeling fine again and back to normal. my husband and i have been having sex without contraception (i know this is stupid) so i have got the bcp mini pill. i keep meaning to start taking it but i dont want to! i dont think i really want to get pregnant again but after ttc for so long i feel weird preventing pregnancy! do you know what i mean or should i just take the pill and shut up?!

hi ladies i am 13 weeks postpartum and exclusively breastfeeding.

from the moment we conceived our daughter my interest in sex has been a total zero. right through the pregnancy and for most of the time since she has been born i have had no interest what so ever.

now though the last two weeks i find that i am often feeling those "tingles" and urges! its really weird and quite frequent. i have also had two lots of yellowish ewcm that was very abundant but 5 days apart. i took some opks to see if my fertility is returning but they are beyond negative... we have had unprotected sex 3 times in the last week or so, i had planned to go on the bcp but haven't yet..

what are your thoughts? any of you experience any of this?

my baby has been exclusively breastfed since birth. she has always been a great feeder and is gaining weight well. recently she cries when i try to breastfeed her. she will feed for a little while then unlatch and is impossible to get back on. i have found that standing up and making a shooshing noise while jiggling her will get her on the breast but she is just not feeling like feeding the last few days. she has done this before and stopped. i am wondering if her gums are sore or if she is just not hungry? its really weird! and very annoying! is this a phase or what? i mentioned it at my last clinic appointment and they just dismissed it cos her weight gain is so good. its driving me nuts though and i am starting to dread feeding her.

she takes an expressed bottle at night no problem but i couldnt get her to take an expressed bottle this afternoon either..

she also feeds really fast. she gulps and is on the breast for never more than 10 mins unless she falls asleep and comfort suckles. is this normal?

hi ladies

just wondering if any of you ovulated or geared up to ovulate as early as 12 weeks postpartum? i saw yellow ish ewcm yesterday and today, and lots of it but dont feel particularly that i have o'd yet no o pains (i usually get them badly). i am exclusively breastfeeding so this seems odd... thoughts? experiences?

she's been having a bottle from her dad (of expressed milk) since 4 weeks old. this has been at least once a week sometimes slightly more.

until 2 days ago she was happily taking 100 mls breastmilk before bed, from a bottle.

last night and tonight she just cries with it in her mouth & wont latch onto it.... very strange as was fine on tuesday night!

we have tried various teets she wont take any...

I have the electric Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Electric Breast Pump & it is DREADFUL. Slow, loud, painful. I can get more by hand! To get 90-120 mls it takes over an hour/ hour and a half! (3 fl oz).

My research shows the pumps to consider are the Avent Isis IQ or the Madela Swing... what do you think do you have experiences of these? which is best for getting a lot of milk in a short time? Double pumps are too expensive so not going to do that.

Thanks!!

hi ladies,

wanted to update my contacts and say that after going overdue i was induced on the 9th of may and gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Saskia Rose the morning of the 10th of May.

The induction was more horrible than I can tell you but our little girl arriving soon made the memories fade away ...

How are all of you doing? How are the ttc ladies? How are the pregnant ladies?

hi ladies,

wanted to update my contacts and say that after going overdue i was induced on the 9th of may and gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Saskia Rose the morning of the 10th of May.

The induction was more horrible than I can tell you but our little girl arriving soon made the memories fade away ...

How are all of you doing? How are the ttc ladies? How are the pregnant ladies?

hi ladies. so just to update you i had my scan and sweep yesterday at 41+1. the scan showed baby is head down, engaged and is fine. she has enough fluid around her. the blood flow in the cord is good etc.

midwife gave me a sweep which had me bleeding instantly and spotted the rest of the day. its just settling down now this morning.

had some very strong braxton hicks and period pains last night, but nothing since. so it doesnt seem to have worked.

they have said i can have another sweep friday or saturday if i want one, and have booked me an indcution using prostagladin gel on sunday. they will administer that and see if it works within 6 hours .. if it doesnt they will apply it again and give it another 6 hours. if that doesnt work they will break my waters, and if that also doesnt get things going they will resort to a drip to induce me.

has anyone experienced this kind of induction? does it work, this gel? or is it going to be a bit of a nightmare?

what do you think the chances are of labour before sunday - they said she's fully engaged but my cervix is long and closed.. well a fingertip open.. but thats all...

hi ladies, as you know my due datew was the 26th april. I'm now 5 days late and was hoping I could ask you all to send me lots of Labour Dust. we are desperate to meet our little girl and I dont want to have to be induced if I can help it.

Thanks ladies.. and my question of course is.. how late did you go with your baby girls (1st pregnancies)?

due tomorrow, and baby is still posterior, not engaged and have no signs of labour! anyone been through this?