Have you kept the news to yourself or have you told everyone about the pregnancy? A lot of people keep it under wraps for a while.
I’m jealous. I have baby fever. Soon. Getting married in three months, and once we get settled into the husband and wife thing, I’ll be trying to join the Doper Baby Club.
Congrats to all you pregnant ladies!
Yeah, I know - it’s kind of a crapshoot at this point, especially given that I’m 34, and I ovulated so late (I hear there’s a correlation). For that reason, we’re not really telling anyone in real life, yet. My husband was eager to tell his parents, and so we did, but if anything happens, we don’t want to have to go around telling everyone the bad news and rehashing the gory details and so on.
But as far as the Dope is concerned, if I miscarry, I miscarry. If there’s a defect, there is. It happens, and we’ll try again. Or we’ll find out we can’t try again, and we’ll consider adoption. Or something. I figure it’s just another aspect of pregnancy that people might want to know about.
Heart of Dorkness, you said you were monitoring your fertility for five months: how regular have your periods been? I’m curious because I don’t have kids yet and mine were very regular until I was 29, but over the past three years have started showing up several days “early” as often as not…what was it that made you decide to monitor, things just not happening, or because you had suspicions that it might be hard to conceive?
If it turns out that way, perhaps she can take some advice from this thread :D.
Best wishes, I’m jealous. I went in for my first ultra sound at 7 weeks and we had a blighted ovum. I had a D&C two weeks ago and we’re going to try again soon. I had no idea that miscarriages were so common, it’s like a sad club with lots of members I didn’t even know existed until I got to join.
Now, there seems to be so many people pregnant 
I want to be in THAT club.
What bodily symptoms made you first think/realize “oh, hm, i might be pregnant”?
Will you keep the names secret from family and friends, lest they say things like “OH, a CHARLES will get PICKED ON in school!!”, or “____ is so outdated!” etc
Who, aside from the father, are you most excited about sharing this time in your life with?
My periods used to be very regular, and long, heavy and painful. As I’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten lighter, shorter, and less regular. I didn’t notice the last part until I went off birth control (I was using NuvaRing). In the six months we tried, they ranged between 28 and 32 days, with no real rhyme or reason.
I did have suspicions it might be hard, because I’m 34. On the other hand, I had an inkling I might get pregnant right away, because I actually got pregnant* twice in college, both times using condoms. So when we tried for a couple months with no luck, we decided to take a more scientific approach. We used a digital monitor, the kind that stores your data and tracks patterns in a couple of different hormone levels, as well as the ordinary pee-stick kind. I also tend to have plenty of the “egg-white” (snot-like) cervical mucus that indicates you’re about to ovulate. I don’t have to feel around for it - it just comes out on the tissue when I go to the bathroom. So I had multiple sources of verification.
All told, we tried for six months, monitored for four, and got pregnant during the one month when it looked nigh on impossible. Maybe we should have used condoms.
Handy, thanks!
I’m sorry; that sucks. Miscarriages and other pregnancy defects are really, really common. I’m still at a pretty high risk of having one myself. The good news is that, as I understand it, the vast majority of women who have a miscarriage (or even a couple) go on to have normal, healthy babies. Again, though - IANAD, IAAPC.
I went with the tried-and-true: no period. As I mentioned, I ovulated really late in the last month. As far as I can tell (since the digital monitor stopped testing that late) it was roughly day 28 or 29. So I figured I might get my period a little late, anyway. And I tested a week after that and got a negative. When I still hadn’t gotten it two weeks later, I suspected I had something else going wrong. In my previous pregnancies*, I was having breast tenderness and nausea even before I missed my period, so I figured I would surely have some other symptoms by this point. So I tested again, just to rule out pregnancy before going to the doctor, and got a positive.
I hadn’t thought of that. I guess if they have a valid concern, I’d want to hear about it (“Uh, you may not realize, but ‘Adolph’ has certain negative connotations…”), but if they just don’t like it, whatever.
Good question! Two of my very close friends know we’re trying, and I know they’ll be totally geeked to find out. And my sister-in-law is a huge baby-nut. She’s been pestering us for nieces and nephews since we got married. She will absolutely lose her mind. I’m really looking forward to telling all of them.
*I’m comfortable discussing my abortions, but I’d rather take it to another thread. If you’re interested, let me know. Or pit me, as you prefer.
Do you have very specific food cravings, like deep-fried zuchinni, but definitely not deep-fried yellow squash?
Sort of. The only thing I’ve really craved so far is donuts, specifically glazed (like Krispy Kreme), and not cake-style. But that’s what I normally prefer, anyway. The only weird part is that I’m craving them. And the thing is, I don’t actually *need *a glazed donut to satisfy the craving. I’ve found almost anything sweet will work just as well, so I usually go for something like raisin bran or vanilla yogurt. I still have a glazed donut now and then; I just try to make sure I’m having it in addition to, not instead of, real food.