Cervical mucus and pregnancy early

Looking for advice on how to advocate for myself better or tests or referrals to ask for.
Me:
Almost 30 years old, female. Married, no children, full time self employed business ownehairstylist. Of English and Mediterranean descent. No significant history of alcohol use, no Marijuana use. Have not drank since 2020. No significant nicotene use, but smoked 1 to 3 cigarettes per day until 2021, switched to vaping the lowest concentration, quit nicotene in 2023. Generally healthy and balanced diet. 5'5", currently about 145lbs. 105/65 is normal resting BP, heart is high 50s to low 60s. No significant personal medical history aside from benign ovarian tumor resulting in emergency surgery due to torsion in 2017. Have had pelvic ultrasound within last 6 months, no findings. Normal abdominal CT. Have had two colonoscopies and an endoscopy due to GI issues, detailed below. PFT suggested mild asthma. GI Scopes found mild cell changes in lower esophagus, rectum, and chronic gastritis in stomach. Had MRI of brain which showed two small white matter hyperintensities. Normal echocardiogram, cardiac stress test showed elevated ejection fraction which may have been due to dehydration. Normal cardiac event monitor. I have some degenerative disc disease in my cervical and thoracic spine.
Blood panels usually show: - low- to low end of normal hemoglobin, potassium, sodium. - high end of normal levels of CO2 -high but not alarmingly high wbc (very high neutrophils but low lymphocytes) -thyroid (free t3 and t4) levels tend to swing from the 1.0's to almost 3.0 -estradiol low end of normal Have a normal ESR blood test, have not been given an ANA.
Symptoms include:
Sudden, crushing fatigue (have almost fallen asleep while standing and walking) Heart palpitations (both fast and slow, pounding ones) Sudden feelings of impending doom/death/panic Sudden lightheadedness and nausea Sudden bloating and diarrhea 5+ times a day Cystic acne, currently controlled with tretinoin (.025%) Migraines with aura, with or without headache (visual and sound distortions, cannot look at certain patterns (especially small stripes) or hear certain noises without feeling "out of sorts" Vertigo (feels like I'm falling or about to fall over) Extreme acid reflux that is never fully controlled even with Pantoprazole (burning is gone, regurgitation still a thing) Unexplainable weight fluctuations of up to 25 pounds within a couple months, both gain and loss. Random episodes of shortness of breath, rescue inhaler works typically. Sharp, stabbing pains and dull aches in rib cage, back, neck, and chest Sudden aching pains in arms and legs or skin will feel like patches of it are burning for a few minutes Unable to vigorously exercise or I will have what feels like an adrenaline dump and have a panic attack. Usually walking up to 3mph is fine but sometimes it isn't. Hypermobile joints which have resulted in many partial and full knee, shoulder, and finger dislocations, especially in teens and early 20s. I've always been very flexible. I do have TMJ.
***Also worth noting: Throughout 2018 and 2019, I'd have random days here and there where I would spike a fever and be in bed all day with flu like symptoms, if I went to the doctor my WBC count would be quite high, but either the next day or by the end of the day I'd be fine. This went on for about a year and a half. Then in late 2020, I got COVID and everything started or severely intensified about 6 months later. Continued to worsen until early 2022, then again in early 2023 after a series of very stressful events, and has stayed the same since. Most symptoms have been with me since childhood and intensified over the last few years to the point that some days I feel like I can barely function.
Family history of:
Mitral valve defects (both sides) DVT Heart attack Unstable angina Atrial fibrillation Renal failure Heart failure Type 2 diabetes Hypertension High cholesterol Colon cancer Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism Reproductive cancers in men and women Anxiety Depression Bipolar disorder Substance use disorder Fibromyalgia Chronic fatigue syndrome Ulcerative colitis GERD PMDD

I am pregnant with baby #4. I feel great. A little tired. Occasional nausea and very rare vomiting. My pregnancy is high risk (I’m 37 and my 3rd baby was born 2 months early) and I’m paranoid. I’ve seen baby on an ultrasound. My HCG levels are perfection. But I have never been pregnant and not been super sick. Is this normal? Does it mean I should be worried about baby being healthy? My OB always said previously morning sickness was a good sign all was well with baby so I just need to know I’m over thinking or is this not okay?

Okay, so for this post there are a lot of people involved (this has been going on for a while) so I'll list up here who's who. This is my wife's family. I'll be using code names when appropriate:
Father-in-law - FIL
Mother-in-law - MIL
Wife(oldest daughter) - Wife
Second daughter - Sarah
Third daughter - Lana
Fourth daughter - Ruth
Second daughter's husband - BIL
Third daughter's fiancee - Karl
My daughter - daughter
Second daughter's older son - Danny
Second daughter's younger son - Aaron
And me as me
I know this is long but bear with me TL;DR Brother-in-law has snapped the last straw for the family and we are all starting to cut ties with him

 BIL's family has their own side of the story that I'm barely familiar with, so it won't be brought up here. We first met BIL way before they got together; Sarah bought a house as a group of friends with her boyfriend at the time, and BIL and his second wife at the time. We didn't interact with him much. We just heard a few stories about him from their friend group. Eventually this situation broke down and BIL and his second wife left and vandalized Sarah's home on the way out. They let their dogs poop all over the floor, stole some miscellaneous items, poured water in their lawn mower gas tank, etc. He did this to Sarah, his future third wife. We thought this guy was out of our lives forever. Sarah eventually came to stay on my couch after she sold the house. She lived with me and my wife for roughly 3 months. Then she went and rented an apartment a few miles away. No sooner than a few weeks did we find out she was dating future BIL, and a few weeks after that we found she was pregnant. He met the family and stated that he wanted to be a part of it. He blamed all his past transgressions on his second wife. We questioned him at the time if he was still with his second wife. He said no, and that he was officially divorced. My wife looked up the public court records and found out that he didn't file divorce papers until 11 days after we asked that question. A small lie but considering our history of knowing him it was concerning. BIL is a big gun enthusiast. About 1 months after they told us Sarah was pregnant, while cleaning a gun at home he shot himself in the hand. Again, we were concerned but Sarah assured us he was a changed man and this was just an unfortunate accident. His hand healed but he didn't do his physical therapy that seriously so his hand is still kind of jacked up. I feel this is important because he kind of has a history of not following through on what he says. During Sarah's pregnancy we found out that BIL seriously beat one of their dogs back when they bought the house together. We also figured out he diagnosed himself with bipolar, but refused to go to a doctor to get an actual diagnosis. The whole family at the time was distracted by all of this because during Sarah's pregnancy my wife went through a major medical struggle that resulted in multiple surgeries and a months-long stay in the hospital. We were so focused on that the BIL details just kind of came and went at that moment. Sarah gave birth to Danny during COVID lockdown. We were so excited and we all were very active in Danny's life. Time would pass and we just kind of got used to BIL being despite the fact that he often would miss family events. BIL and Sarah would move into a house on my in-laws property just down the road from in-laws house. MIL became their primary caregiver as she could work it around her job and still make decent money. As 4 years have passed my MIL, FIL, Lana, my Wife and I all take shifts of watching their now 2 kids for them, for free. MIL also watches my daughter but significantly less that their son's. 2 years would pass after Danny was born and everything seemed OK. There would just be hints in they way he talked about who he really was. He would say something in casual conversation like "man, there seems like there are too many black people in commercials these days" or "I don't know why we are forcing women's sports to be a thing." Bigoted stuff like that, but veiled enough so there was plausible deniability. I would often call him out on it, so he really grew to not like me. This all changed at his 30th bday. He had a big party with a lot of alcohol and weed with dozens of friends. My wife and I didn't go because we are not party people. Lana and Ruth went to the party. Sarah was also there. During this party BIL went outside and decided to "mud" his jeep through the creek beside their house. This was possibly with Karl but I'm not sure of that to this day. Karl has recently come into the picture prior to this event and was previously friends with BIL for a long time. The jeep got stuck and flooded for obvious reasons. After trying to get it out of the creek by multiple means, they gave up and left it there. I believe it took almost 2 days to get it out. He went back to the party and as everyone got progressively drunk and high, my 2 sister-in-laws Lana and Ruth (I believe) criticized BIL for getting his car stuck in a creek while playing. BIL verbally assaulted them and demanded they get out of his house. They left in tears. They drove separately, and Lana had gotten buzzed so they both got in Ruth's car and drove to my house. They sat and vented to my wife and I for a while, and eventually I offered that we should go do something fun to take their minds off of it. My wife and I drove them to Taco Bell and we got some food and drove around town for a while and made jokes in the car. After they cooled off and were in a better mood they said that Lana needed to go get her car from the party. In a flurry she accidentally left her keys inside her sister's and BIL's house. We drove them over just in case anything sketchy happened but Lana and Ruth didn't want us to go inside, so we waited out in the car. She didn't think it would be a big deal to walk in, but as her and Ruth did BIL immediately got in her face and demanding she gets out or else. Ruth went to talk to someone else at the party and didn't notice this at first. BIL shoved Lana against a wall and held her there. Everyone apparently stood in stunned silence as this happened. He then shoved her to the ground, grabbed her around the ankles and started pulling her across the floor. As he was threatening to do even worse, Ruth ran up and jumped on his back and gave him a head lock. She screamed at him to stop but before BIL could anything about this everyone finally woke up and pulled them apart. Ruth helped Lana up and they ran out of the house onto the front porch sobbing. My wife saw this and got out of the car and yelled at them to get back in our car. We drove up to the in-laws house. By then it was past midnight. MIL was about an hour away working her job and FIL was up in his room asleep. The sisters went and woke him up and explained the situation through tears. They also called MIL to inform her of the situation. He got ready and ask me to go with him down to the house to get some answers. The sisters stayed up at the house. We drove down in his car and when we got out the entire party was ready for us and greeted us at the car. Literally over a dozen people, most of whom I did not recognize started screaming what happened at both of us simultaneously. Everyone was clearly very drunk. FIL looked overwhelmed, so I raised my hands and tried asking everyone to stop for a second and go one by one telling their bit of the story. BIL stopped me mid sentence and pointed his finger in my face. I noticed he had his other hand on a holstered hand gun. He yelled out "You don't have a say here! You're barely even part of this family." For context, I had been with my wife for over 11 years at that time and he hadn't even married Sarah yet and had been there about 2 1/2 years. FIL backed up and told me that I need to stop talking and that I was being a problem. I backed off and went over the yard to Sarah and Karl. I asked Sarah what happened and she told me that she didn't see what happened and that she wasn't very aware of what was going on now. Karl would barely answer the same question. I walked back over to FIL but he told me to back off and that I really wasn't needed there. Admittedly I felt pretty insulted and just decided to walk back to his house and get my car and go home with my wife. We eventually left after FIL came back to the house. We found out later that BIL had pulled his gun out and threatened to kill himself if FIL didn't leave. Out of fear of what he would do, my in-laws were pretty afraid to take action at this point. A lot of the situation was his word against someone else's and Sarah went on a tour around to the friends and convinced them not to take any of this to the police. She then tried to smooth things over with the family and offered that BIL would apologize to everyone. He then refused, stating that Ruth was the real aggressor and that she assaulted him. He eventually agreed to apologize to just FIL for causing a problem and I think some half-hearted apologies to Lana and Ruth. The whole situation was swept under the rug but an unease has existed over the family since then. He stopped coming to family events pretty much altogether. About 4 months after this situation, prior to my daughter being born, he told MIL he was going to bring Danny up to their house so she could watch him for a few hours while he took a nap. His job works long hours so this wasn't out of the ordinary. However, he didn't show up for a while and my MIL started questioning what going on. She called but there was no answer. She drove down to his house and knocked but there wasn't an answer, only Danny crying in the background. She let herself in and found BIL asleep on the couch with Danny actively trying to wake him up. MIL tried to wake him up but nothing for a few minutes. She gave up and wrote a note to let him know where Danny was. BIL didn't notice Danny was gone for 2 hours. He finally woke up, drove up to in-laws house, and yelled at my MIL for just taking Danny without informing him. He took Danny and then left. A few months after that, after my daughter was born, He fell asleep while watching Danny again. This time we found out because when he woke up the front door was open and Danny was gone. He called in-laws for help finding him. My in-laws have a large property (about 200 acres) with a ton of it forested. Danny wandered 1/4 of a mile into the woods and I believe it took roughly a little over an hour to find him. Family questioned him hard this time but he just recoiled back into their house and didn't talk to us much. Sarah continued to defend him and said it was just an accident. Again the police were not notified about any of this. There was always this idea that if we went to authorities about any of this they would just run for it. They would then surprise everyone with the news that they were pregnant again, despite the fact that Sarah had used the morning after pill. This whole time they hadn't married yet. They announced that they were getting married but Sarah told Lana that it was mostly just to help BIL not have to go through bankruptcy a second time. I wasn't sure if this would do anything to help that situation, but that's what Sarah said at one point leading up to the wedding. About a month before the wedding, however, he threatened Sarah that if she insisted on inviting my wife to the wedding he would demand to invite a friend of his that Sarah hated. This friend also used to date BIL I believe. This was his ploy to force Sarah to not invite my Wife or me. The 2 other sisters and MIL all stood in solidarity with us and said that they would also not go if we weren't invited. He eventually relented and they got married a little before Aaron was born. As more kids were added, MIL's childcare duties got much harder. Eventually my wife and I started paying her (not much but something at least. $150 a month) to watch our daughter, but we also did chores for her, bought her food often, and eventually my Wife started taking a few shifts to watch all 3 children. To date, BIL and Sarah have never compensated any of us for our work. It's a little frustrating but we've tried to understand because Sarah and BIL seem to be bad with money. They objectively make more than us yet can't afford to pay MIL anything. Last Thanksgiving, in the middle of dinner, Sarah and BIL decided to have an "intervention" and talk about how we were not treating BIL fairly. They addressed everybody but really honed in on me specifically. This seemed to be because the rest of the family kind of dance in eggshells around them, while to be frank I'm pretty honest about how I feel about them. They seemed to think I was causing the family to turn against him and questioned why I would do that. I told him he lacked humility. He said he didn't understand. I told him that if he admitted to his mistakes and actually apologized about any of the stuff I previously wrote, instead of blaming everyone and everything else then the whole family would feel a bit different about him. A lot of talk was about the 30th b-day and other times when I just ignored him and how he had already apologized about the party. I reminded him that he didn't apologize to most of the family and he blamed Ruth. He then stated that Ruth was the cause of a lot of the problems at that party. He also made a big deal about how the family doesn't trust him with my daughter and kept emphasizing how he has never held her. We finally tried to come to an agreement. I told him I would try to talk to him more and try to understand him better and he said he would try to come to family events more. He also wanted more of a relationship with my daughter. We left and my wife and I were skeptical but we said that if this is who Sarah really wanted to be with, as long as BIL wasn't perceived as a threat he could have more contact with our daughter. We have had way more of a relationship with his kids than he has had with our daughter so I tried to sympathize with that imbalance. Karl also stated later that having known BIL for a long time, he thought he was very sincere. To date, BIL has not asked or tried at any family events to spend any time with my daughter, despite having numerous opportunities. Now to the current situation. About a month ago Lana and Karl announced that Lana was pregnant. This was a revelation due to Lana having a medical condition that made it harder to get pregnant. A lot of excitement was brewing in the family because of this. Karl has been seeming like a good partner to Lana, and proposed to her a little before the pregnancy happened. This is especially pertinent because Lana and Karl moved into a house together right beside BIL and Sarah. A few days ago they were over at Sarah and BIL's house when an argument broke out between Sarah and BIL. BIL demanded that Sarah wasn't an "obedient enough wife" and that if she wanted there marriage to work then she was going to have to get better at serving him. She was upset and they weren't coming to an agreement so he was going to leave, but apparently he was very high so Sarah refused to give him the keys to his car. He got extremely mad and then got a gun, held it to his head, and threatened to kill himself if she didn't hand over the keys. Fortunately, Danny and Aaron were taking a nap during all of this. Sarah called the police during this whole exchange and the operator heard a lot of what BIL said over the phone so based on that they arrived at the house. He apparently drove away and it took the police a bit to find him but once they did he turned himself over. They admitted him to a mandatory 72-hour stay at a psychiatric ward for a mental health assessment. Sarah then came up to the rest of the family (not me or my Wife) and gave them Danny and Aaron. She then went and confided with Lana and Karl about how abusive BIL had been and how life was just miserable right now. A lot of us, especially Karl and my in-laws, were telling her that she needs to leave BIL and file for emergency custody of her children. She seemed to be listening to us and turning a corner, but inexplicably the psychiatric ward allowed BIL to have a phone call with Sarah and they had a long conversation. Suddenly, Sarah shut us all out and completely changed her story. She started defending BIL again. BIL was then let out of the psychiatric ward a day early. Since Karl was working at the time, Lana came to stay with us and then over at her in-laws. We are especially concerned about her safety around BIL due to her being pregnant. They have since cut nearly all contact with us for 4 days now. They have only told Karl that they were getting a new TV because the old one mysteriously broke somehow. They have continued to post on social media like nothing has happened. They have spent 2 days with BIL's family so we aren't sure what their opinion of this is, though we do know a sibling of his has also told Sarah to leave him prior to this latest situation. We don't know what their plans for childcare is because they are wholly reliant upon us. Lana is very reluctant to ever be home alone. Ruth is as well. There are so many other details I haven't mentioned. There have been holes in walls they've had to fix. There is some evidence that BIL is cheating on Sarah, but that evidence is somewhat inconclusive. The bigoted comments for a while now have gotten increasingly misogynistic. It's a lot of 'we need to respect proper gender roles' kind of stuff. There's just too much and I've already written a book on here. I don't really know what to do at this point. Because a lot of this stuff has been swept under the rug it's hard to tell how seriously CPS or police would take our claims. FIL has threatened to kick them out of their very cheap rental they're in now. Who knows what they would do in that scenario. I know this post is detailed and because of that BIL or Sarah might see it, but at this point I wonder if I even give a shit. They've already eluded to keeping their sons from us in the past and the vibes we are getting now is that they are already doing it. And from the bottom of my heart, fuck BIL. 

Hello, I am a 25 yr old male, and I am seeking advice regarding my spouse 23yr female. We’ve been together 4 years, and have twins 6 month old female. We have had ups and downs in our relationship from almost being done to back together to on the verge of, to where we are today. Fast forward… my wife had a rough pregnancy and almost lost her life due to a serious vaginal tear. Albeit she gave birth to our two beautiful baby girl twins. Our newborn phase was hell… constant waking and feeding,one colic baby and isolation due to the babies not co-sleeping in our bedroom. Obviously no intercourse or time to do bonding, we would only watch tv together content we both found interesting. I stayed home for a full month from work to help her recover from her injuries. Doing all the cooking, cleaning, I would even sacrifice my sleep to let her sleep, to recover and I would handle both babies. As the months grew by to around 3 months for our babies I started noticing weird behaviors of her, closing doors, long bathroom breaks, face down phone. Very private and picky and choosy of when she would be on her phone while being around me. Or always on the phone typing and swiping. On top of coming home from work and her staying at home I wouldn’t feel ever welcomed or well received. A kiss or a hug was asking a lot, or would give body language that it is unwelcomed. Due to this behavior my instant reactions plus a gut feeling told me there’s someone else having her time, her feelings, and although I did not prove it maybe sexual activity. The lone times we did have intercourse after 60 or more days she would say it’s not the same. Shortly after she told me she had depression and did not know if I fitted in her life anymore claimed she was confused and felt I fail to give her more help with our kids, she spiraled and started drinking almost every day and full blown lack of communication for a week or so. Due to my instincts I was so in shambles that I did my own snooping and investigating the best I could that was. I went through a full month of constant phone records through my carrier and found constant daily calls, FaceTime calls, ranging from 2 minutes to about 2.5 hrs. Plus constant Snapchat notifications, blurred out names of those notifications. Phone Numbers I had never seen before. All at times that she claimed she was up and feeding our girls yet somehow it would be around the same time I leave for work. And calls would stop with this person if I called her or a significant other would call her, then continue either right away or a few hours later, it explained the lack of updates/texts and claims of tiredness even though she would be on the phone instead of sleeping, and before I would come home from work again, calls before I walk through the door. Or on my drive home. After days of terrible feelings and dreams and suspicions, lack of interest, aplus what I found I had enough and confronted her. Let’s just say she did not take it lightly whatsoever. She called me controlling, a crazy, invasion of privacy, I hate you etc… in between the name calling and the proof I hit her with she wanted to separate once again… she changed her passwords to her phone she claimed we were done and I did not understand her and why she did what she did. She claimed it was just a vent session/sessions. Of her daily life and troubles with the babies and my need to feel loved and important. Talk about what their lives are like. She claimed it was all too much and me not accepting what she did and why she hid it or didn’t tell me of anything and accept it was just her trying to be “friends” with a male. I don’t believe in male friends and I have trust issues because of a similar situation in my previous relationship, plus I’ve seen and been through a lot to know better and not trust people. (Rough childhood). So I told her to go with the individual and we would be done. Since she wouldn’t give me reassurance or let me look for myself if the chatting stopped. She came around and apologized the day after because she didn’t accept she cheated by faith and confiding in others but didn’t want to split up. I accepted her apology for the fact I love and care for this person, and felt like she is the one for me. Plus her being the mother to our babies, a good mom at that. I always remind her and be nice to her tell her thank you for everything possible to give thanks about. Point being the calls stopped she said she blocked the person and she seemed normal after that, sex was back, love and attention plus us bonding a bit more going on a few dates. Fast forward to today, I’ve been noticing similar behaviors, cold, distant, always needing and asking for space, short answers or uninterested, she says she’s depressed again, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t feel loved and wanted and valued in the relationship. I know her life is rough and I know it’s hard but it’s hard on me too. Provide for us, career choices, my own family troubles, all the while trying to be the best husband and father to my family. I have no time to myself I sacrifice it all to be with my daughters and help her so she doesn’t say I don’t do anything when I’m home or off on the weekends. My job sometimes has the freedom to leave early I work usually 10 hrs a day. Sometimes to be nice or the fact that I long some sort of signal or hope I leave early to help or to have intimacy. I try to do any little deed or gesture for her. Our love languages are different I’m more touchy and she’s more gestures. I’ve brought this up to her and she claims she can’t do it as much as she wants to for me it feels unnatural. I don’t ask for much, a simple touch of the hand, a random hug, a thank you here and there, something. Sex would be great but I’ve gotten tired and scared to initiate because it’ll seem like a favor and unwanted. Although I ask if I satisfy her, she replies yes and I feel I do based on vibe but nonetheless. I wish it could be more, I wish she would take my love language and concerns for her behaviors and mental health seriously and not just always want space and being left alone and not talked to, wanting to go out to concerts etc… just pushed aside because I care too much for her, or want her to be better as a person and a partner too. Because she’s a good mom. Blamed for the way she feels or acts only towards me. And name call and guilt trip me. If you made it this far I appreciate all input. Good or bad. So am I the asshole? For asking for changes from her same way she asked me years back to be less needy and care less, be less jealous, and work on some anger that would arise at times. I’m finally putting my needs up there and I wanna be her partner and confidant, but she seems to indicate it won’t be like how it used to be anymore. And not just the honey moon phase part. Show me some sort of signs a taste of what I look for from my partner. Because a lot is being expected and needed of me. And still somehow it’s not enough and when I ask for something it’s an issue and an attack and uses depression and every day stresses as her reasoning. I’ve brought it to her attention I told her if she doesn’t want to change or help her partner out like I feel I do unconditionally I want to separate. Because I value myself and what I bring to anyone special in my life. And after my last relationship due to a similar lack of this and similar situations. And if it’s not reciprocating it gets tiring and hurtful. She rather split up. Please advise me

Sharing this experience since I was scouring through threads and google trying to find info on when ovulation came for different people after chemical pregnancy. I thought it happened two weeks ago I had several days of small LH rises and then back down. Body was obviously trying to ovulate. My temps have been lower this entire cycle than last and didn’t have a clear bbt jump since they were kind of all over the place. I measure with Oura/Natural Cycles. I was taking pregnancy tests already thinking I was around 9-12dpo. Finally got a blood test and it was negative. Here’s the kicker - I took a few opks the last few days just out of curiosity and noticed yesterday “wow that’s a dark line!” But had heard that sometimes early pregnancy can cause opks to darken so was thinking that must be what’s happening. Thank god I got the blood test to clear things up or I wouldn’t have know that I’m ovulating now! I only wish I had figured this out a few days ago since I missed about 3 days of opk testing so not sure exactly l when it began to rise but hubby and I will get to BDing tonight and the next few days and keep our fingers crossed. So for anyone in similar shoes- it does eventually happen. Was not expecting it to be a month and a half later and that waiting is excruciating. But it must finally be happening now! 🥳

Hi all,
I am about 7 weeks pregnant (tracked ovulation (4/13) and did not have sex for a few weeks after conception, so I know I did not “ovulate late,” LMP 3/29 and I have a regular 30-day cycle), and began seeing brown spotting about 24hrs ago. The spotting ranges from lighter to darker brown and has shown up every time I have wiped, which has been quite frequently given my anxiety.
Because of the spotting, I decided to book a transabdominal ultrasound at a “boutique”/private practice yesterday evening. The tech said that I “looked to be about 5 weeks along” and could see nothing more than a gestational sac. No fetal pole, heartbeat, etc. She asked if it was possible for me to have ovulated 2 weeks later, to which I said no. She did not offer any commentary after that except to say that “spotting is normal” and to wait for my 8 week OBGYN scan next week (a week from tomorrow). I know that transvaginal ultrasounds are much more sensitive than transabdominal and the latter can be unreliable so early, but it was a punch to the gut.
I will also add that I my pregnancy symptoms up to this point have been extremely minimal - only sore breasts and occasional heartburn. The soreness in my breasts is pretty non-existent today, however.
Needless to say, I’m spiraling right now. I am trying to stay positive, but the combination of the ultrasound, the spotting, and the lack of symptoms has kept me from thinking of anything but the worst.
Does anyone have a similar story/experience? Any suggestions or advice?

Hi everyone, I’m in Ontario and I am a director in healthcare. This is my first baby after a few losses (my last pregnancy ended in November of last year at 17.5 weeks) and I’m due December 24.
My job is very high visibility, high stress and high risk and a temporary backfill will need to be hired for my role to lead a few huge initiatives while I’m away. I’ll likely take about 15 months away. I won’t be able to work up until my due date, I’ll need to give my work a hard date I’ll be going off so I can overlap with my replacement for at least a few weeks.
I’m worried November 28 is too early, but I’m also worried I’ll go into labour early. I’m 36 next month and the baby is measuring a week ahead already and my pregnancy I think is going to be labelled high risk because of my history of loss. I’m moving from a reproductive endocrinologist this week to an ob-gyn so I can finally ask them questions. I’ve heard from so many other leaders at work they went off one or two weeks before and then gave birth early and had nothing ready and I’m scared that will be me. Work occupies a lot of my time and mental space so I like the idea of 3.5 weeks to get ready for the baby.
For other moms who had really demanding careers, how early did you go off? How much advance notice did you give? I think we will need to start recruitment in September for someone to start in November to begin to overlap with me so I’m thinking I need to notify my VP in August that I’ll be going off end of November.
Appreciate any advice ❤️

This was many years ago. I was probably below the age of 10. It was late afternoon to around the early night hours. It was dark. And a storm was coming.
My mom wanted to walk our dog Chuckie (rest in peace). Why? Did she know of the storm? No idea. Next thing I know, she got him on the leash and went outside. Not long after, I saw some rainfall. No big deal. Nothing heavy. Then, 5 minutes later, it looks like a hurricane out there. Heavy wind, downpour, thunder, lightning, the whole package. I remember sitting in the living room looking out the window. Trying to find my mom. But she is no where in sight.
My child brain immediately began to think the worst. I began sobbing while looking out the window. Saying “Mommy…mommy…”. I wonder what my neighbors upstairs thought as I was right at the window and could probably be heard. I wasn’t even concerned about our dog. I just wanted my mom. Soon enough, she came back. Minus being absolutely soaked and probably traumatized, especially Chuckie, they were both fine. My mom looked at me and was like “What’s wrong?” I just cleared my throat and wiped my mucus filled nose. Saying “nothing”.
Needless to say, I felt very dumb.

I had preeclampsia with my first, 11 years ago. I went undetected for too long and at 34wk it went super bad. Now my doctor wanted to monitor me early and today, at my second appointment, my blood pressure was 158/106! For a reference, it should NOT be higher than 130/90 I know how bad is 158/106. He immediatly put me on blood thiner and told me he was not gonna follow this pregnancy. He was refering me right away to high risk obstetric in a very good hospital here in Ottawa, Ontario. I'm glad I will be surounded by one of the best team in the country but meanwhile... it is stressful :( Holy shit man... this is high lvl for 9wk pregnancy :/ anyone else in a similar situation?
*Edit: at home, calm and chill I took my blood pressure and it was down to 156/92. Still high but better.

I’m in my second trimester (Mar.27-July2) and I’ll be taking a short flight to Disneyland from Sacramento on June 1st and flying back 5 days later. The fear I now have stems from this one YouTube short that randomly popped up on my feed regarding a woman that looked “too pregnant” to fly so they denied her.(don’t think she had a dr.note) I completely understand not being able to fly past a certain date because it’s close to the woman actual due date but what scared me were the comments on the video saying pregnant women shouldn’t fly at all because it can cause premature birth, the pressure can cause your water to break early no matter what stage in pregnancy?? Then this one woman even said it happened to someone she knew at 6months pregnant, a week later after she returned home from her trip her water broke?? Which I DONT want happening and now I’m freaking out. My question is, has anyone ever heard of this? Or know anyone personally who has had premature labor due to flying at 5 months or 6months pregnant? This has never been a fear of mine and I didn’t even think it could cause any issues unless you’re flying too close to your due date.. I just need a peace of mind.. And I talked to my doctor and she said it is fine to fly and I also have a doctors note. But the comments I read are throwing me off and I’m just curious if anyone out there has had any issues flying at any stage while pregnant.

I’m in my second trimester (Mar.27-July2) and I’ll be taking a short flight to Disneyland from Sacramento on June 1st and flying back 5 days later. The fear I now have stems from this one YouTube short that randomly popped up on my feed regarding a woman that looked “too pregnant” to fly so they denied her.(don’t think she had a dr.note) I completely understand not being able to fly past a certain date because it’s close to the woman actual due date but what scared me were the comments on the video saying pregnant women shouldn’t fly at all because it can cause premature birth, the pressure can cause your water to break early no matter what stage in pregnancy?? Then this one woman even said it happened to someone she knew at 6months pregnant, a week later after she returned home from her trip her water broke?? Which I DONT want happening and now I’m freaking out. My question is, has anyone ever heard of this? Or know anyone personally who has had premature labor due to flying at 5 months or 6months pregnant? This has never been a fear of mine and I didn’t even think it could cause any issues unless you’re flying too close to your due date. I just need a peace of mind.. I talked to my doctor and she said it is fine to fly and I also have a doctors note. But the comments I read are throwing me off and I’m just curious if anyone out there has had any issues flying at any stage while pregnant..

I really want a natural birth, I had a c section with my daughter she was 5 weeks early and had stopped growing it was a high risk pregnancy and they kept an eye on me throughout and had realised she wasn’t growing anymore so they tried to induce me but nothing happened after 2 days so I had a c section. I’m currently 28 weeks pregnant, they are keeping a tight eye on me and baby is currently growing as they should no issues at all so far it’s so different to my previous pregnancy. I spoke with my consultant last week and said I really want a natural birth and he was so negative, telling me that I’ll probably just have to have an emergency c section anyway and said aswell that I’m at risk of tearing but I had already known that when I researched about it. Any mamas on here have a c section and then a natural birth, how did you find it?

I’m (F, 31) currently 26 weeks pregnant with my first baby and about 5 days ago, while washing in the shower, I noticed what I could only assume was an external hemorrhoid. I’ve never had one in my life and I was even more surprised because I haven’t had any constipation. I started taking shallow warm epsom salt baths and bought tucks pads. I thought it was getting better until today a second one popped up 😭 this is so gross and TMI, but is anyone else experiencing this without any sort of constipation? Do they generally go away? Or should I expect them to just keep coming back throughout my pregnancy (and beyond????) I still have my entire 3rd trimester to go. It seems too early for this.
I called the nurse’s line at my OB to ask if there’s anything I can do or take to prevent them and she said that they’re common during pregnancy but to let them know if they become so painful I can’t sit 🙃 but I can use preparation H.

So yes, really stressed out about that, on early stages of pregnancy yet but, just can’t take this off my mind. I am a SAHM and my baby and me do everything together,walks, play, feed, put her down to naps and bedtime, she is use to relax on my breast after feeding and then goes to her crib. Husband is back from work for bedtime routine (bath, song, hugs) but ultimately I am the one putting her down. Weekends he steps in for play time and walks but feed and sleep still on me. I know we can try to start to get him to do it and I think this is most likely to be the only way, but,we already tried to put her down without breast and she goes wild.
Parents, how did you do? I am feeling so guilty already that I won’t be there for her on that day/days that is driving me crazy!

Hi everyone,
second time posting - brief history: IVF pregnancy,during NT scan at 12 weeks the NT was on the high end (3.5mm) so we opted for CVS. FISH, Karyotype and microarray came back normal, however as we also did a very early echocardiogram which showed a structural deviation (aberrant right subclavian artery) and a small VSD (less than 1mm), we opted for WES as well. Unfortunately WES came back today mentioning a "likely pathogenic nonsense variant in the RERE gene" and the report goes on to say that if it's a de novo variant (i.e. not inherited by myself or my husband) then it will be pathogenic with serious neurological defects and potential eye, heart and urological defects.
So the next step will be for me and my husband to get tested, and hope the variant comes from one of us rather than being de novo. I appreciate this circumstance is very specific but if anyone has any further information - perhaps regarding odds of de novo versus hereditary, or whether there is someone with a hereditary variant of the RERE gene with more info etc, that would really help as we're struggling to find information here and our appointment with a genetics counsellor won't be for another few days, and answers for another few weeks at least.

I’m coming across misleading info about bleeding and spotting after an embryo transfer. I’m 5w4 days, and at 5w2 I had a small gush of red blood that I found when I peed once that completely stopped after (so no more red blood) and has turned into brown spotting for now almost 2 days, only when I wipe and at this point very light but not ending. My clinic says this is “normal” but I feel like literally everything I say to them is normal maybe besides gushing red blood. The other odd thing is that the only symptoms I’ve had is mild cramping off and on. The last cramping bout I got was right after the small gush of red blood and I haven’t felt anything since, so naturally I’m connecting the two. Of course my clinic said symptoms fluctuating in early pregnancy is normal.
The other thing to mention is that I did have sex the day before I spotted, so probably 36 hours before since spotting was at night. I feel like spotting from sex would happen immediately and stop vs continuing brown?
How concerned should I be? I prefer statistics to “normal” but am not getting much from my clinic. I know SCH happen in 18% of IVF pregnancies, so not super reassuring since it’s still a smaller amount. But how many people bleed and it’s nothing vs bleed and it’s something? Like is spotting worse than not spotting at all or is it that statistics remain the same (so overall success rates don’t change for groups that spot vs groups that don’t). Maybe nobody knows this info and I’m asking too much lol.
I also have the option of an early ultrasound at 6w1 vs 6w5 but not sure if I want to take it since it may cause more concerns vs solid info one way or the other. My last beta was pretty high, 3100 at 15dpt and it more than doubled from two days prior.

Me again!
Context: My beautiful baby turned 1 last week. She’s our first. On her actually birthday her dad and I took her to an indoor playground, and got ice cream after and it was the perfect day just the 3 of us.
We have a birthday party planned for her in early June, which is admittedly late but ultimately how it worked out. We have 1 party planned that everyone is invited to. Period.
We aren’t doing any side quests, and asked for both sides of the family to respect that. Its an honour and privilege to be able to do this for her (even if she won’t remember)
The Story: A suspicious brunch invite was sent to us for this last weekend at my ILs. It was decently last minute, and the timing of it being so close to my daughter’s birthday just set my spidey senses off. I asked DH to explicitly ask if this was a birthday celebration, or just a get together. MIL swore up and down that it wasn’t, and she just wanted everyone over for brunch. Cool, we agreed to go.
We get there and there’s presents and cake and the whole family was invited to celebrate. I immediately shut it down and very firm that this wasn’t to happen. Her response? “You celebrated her birthday last week, it’s my turn”
Full passive aggressive, running off and talking negatively about me within earshot. DH pulled her aside and we left right after.
She does this tho, that’s why I knew this brunch was suspicious. You explicitly ask her not to do something and she will do it anyways if she doesn’t agree with your answer.
Example: She announced my pregnancy at a party of hers after we explicitly asked her not to because I was having serious difficulties and hadn’t told a lot of people yet.
I can’t stand this woman.

I’m about to start Opill because I cannot take estrogen-progestin pills anymore. I wanted to know how Opill prevents pregnancy? Does it stop ovulation, thickens cervical mucus, etc?

Hi, I believe I could be pregnant. Me and my boyfriend regularly have unprotected sex. Recently I’ve had some symptoms like bloating, breast changes, and slight queasiness or lack if appetite at times. This started making me wonder if I could be pregnant. I’ve taken a pregnancy test and it was negative, but its only been like 2 weeks since the last unprotected sex.
My period would usually start around right now and usually it hits me hard but yesterday my toilet paper was slightly pink when I wiped which has never happened and then today and I had a couple dark red blood clots (I think thats what they are) drop out and I’ve had some red blood come out here and there but its not as heavy or frequent as usual and only seems to come out every couple hours. Usually I can fill up a large tampon every every 4 or 5 hours on my first day.
I’ve read that spotting is frequent in early pregnancy but only if its pink/brown and is very small amounts but mine has been dark red besides the first day and while it has been a lot less than usual its still more than what I could consider spotting. Am I able to completely rule out being pregnant by this and the negative pregnancy test? I just dont want to let my guard down or get my hopes up that I’m not pregnant if it turns out I might be. Thank you

my partner and i did withdrawal a few days before my ovulation (according to flo) and my cervical mucus became egg white like and everything
it's been 18 days since, and ive had two negative tests taken on day 30 and day 34, but my period still hasnt come. my cycle is usually 33-35 days, and it's already day 36 so i'm worried. can i trust the negative test taken on day 34?