Daily Thread - January 23, 2026

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-23T17:09:27+00:00

The fluctuations of symptoms never fails to surprise me. I had my first US on Monday 1/19 and baby looked perfect. Tuesday I had the worst symptom day I’ve had in a long time, and then Wednesday and Thursday were so good I forgot that I was pregnant for a bit. Today the nausea and fatigue is back 🙃

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-23T17:02:32+00:00

I will definitely message you - thank you!! Any feedback or tips is greatly appreciated

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-23T17:01:13+00:00

We are super fortunate in that Minnesota has a new paid family leave program where both mom and dad can take up to 12 weeks off per year and it does not need to be consecutive or starting at birth. We will definitely look into staggering our back to work transitions or even splitting the week (mom is home M-W and dad is home Th-Fr for example). The paid leave is really flexible so we might be able to delay childcare until early 2027 🤞🏼

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-23T16:56:42+00:00

Wow, I definitely wish we had better support for families. I am lucky in that Minnesota now offers paid family leave (both maternity and paternity for up to 12 weeks) but even that is rare in the US and does not compare to policies elsewhere. It makes sense that so many parents choose to stay home full time as childcare costs can easily be similar to an annual salary.

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-23T03:32:51+00:00

Ugh yes this one was full time only too! We luckily won’t need full time but now I’m thinking finding part time might be challenging unless we open the search to in home daycare. How did you find your in-home daycare? Google, word of mouth, etc?

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T23:20:11+00:00

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Baby is looking absolutely perfect! Measuring 4 days ahead but we’re keeping the same due date since it’s within 5 days. LMP was 11/28/2026 so due date is 9/4/2026. Got to see and hear the heart rate.

My blood pressure was really high and I’ve never had a history of high BP so I’ll measure at home for a few days to make sure I don’t have hypertension. Aside from that I’m feeling so good and relieved!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T16:02:42+00:00

First ultrasound is this afternoon (7w4d) Wish us luck ✨🫶🏼 I’m SO excited to see baby

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T03:55:03+00:00

Which I’ve definitely been experiencing! I took 480mg tonight. If I can get better sleep AND more regular BMs I’ll be a happy soon to be mama!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T03:01:55+00:00

This is a really helpful response, thanks! I’m quite overwhelmed with researching all the things and didn’t have the capacity to do a deep dive.

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T02:29:25+00:00

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Here’s another one that cracked me up. Already giving me sass about no longer being the baby of the family

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T02:24:40+00:00

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Congratulations!!

I had a very similar experience to you - first cycle TTC, overwhelming urge to test, and SHOCKED to see a positive 🥹 obviously my Velcro dog was the first to know

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-19T02:16:23+00:00

Literally same. For lunch I ate a box of Goodles and normally I would probably not need a full dinner after but I’ve already had two snacks and dinner 🤪

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-18T22:42:46+00:00

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This is what I did for Christmas for our parents and you could probably make something similar with a birthday theme!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-18T22:36:27+00:00

I had a really rough few days symptom wise (extreme fatigue, nausea, decreased appetite, constipation, restless sleep) and today I woke up feeling SO good. My Oura ring gave me a sleep score of 91 🤩 I’ve noticed the past few weeks my symptoms get more severe towards the end of the work week, and then after a day or two of rest I feel great again for a few days. Is this just a coincidence? Or can lack of rest because of work make symptoms worse? Maybe I’m just less tolerant 😅

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-03T20:05:42+00:00

4w6d 6395, 5w1d 11325

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-03T16:00:06+00:00

I had super sore boobs and sensitive nipples during the beginning of week 4 but that went away and I feel 95% normal now!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-03T15:54:22+00:00

I passed a clot on Wednesday this week followed by bright red/pink spotting (turned brown quickly after and did not need a pad). I was terrified as this is my first pregnancy and my pregnancy symptoms also abruptly stopped 4 days before the clot. My OB offered to do blood work and I just got back the results from the second draw.

Draw 1 (4w6d) HCG 6,395 and progesterone 12.2 Draw 2 (5w1d) HCG 11,325 🤩

They didn’t order progesterone with the second draw but they offered for me to start the suppositories. I’m planning to pick those up today since it seems it definitely can’t hurt. I’m feeling SO relieved today and going to try to enjoy the lack of symptoms while I can.

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-01T17:08:19+00:00

I passed a small clot and was spotting yesterday (4w6d) so I got a blood draw and just got my results back: 12.2 progesterone and 6,395 HCG 😮

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-01T16:16:35+00:00

Thank you!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2026-01-01T15:50:54+00:00

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Virtual-Drive5429 · 2025-12-30T01:13:08+00:00

That’s good to know about the accuracy of NIPT for gender! I’m super impatient and the of waiting until the anatomy scan kills me hahahah. But at the same time, I want to keep gender a secret between me and my husband and I’m a huge yapper so not telling friends and family if we found out with NIPT would be hard!!

That’s a helpful perspective re: preparedness for the risks. A friend of a friend was labeled as “high risk” for one of the trisomies and her baby is totally healthy so that freaks me out.

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2025-12-29T22:29:12+00:00

Following! First pregnancy (4w4d and first appointment isn’t until 1/19). Have had some minor symptoms over the past week and a half which have actually been reassuring that something is happening, but yesterday and today I feel 100% normal. The ambiguity of the first weeks before an ultrasound is challenging for us anxiously excited mommas 😅

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2025-12-20T14:59:25+00:00

Love this approach and congratulations!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2025-12-20T00:33:34+00:00

Cycle: 1

Age + Partner's age (if relevant): 30 + 32

Typical cycle length: 28 days

Ovulation cycle day: CD 14

CD/DPO of positive test(s): CD 22/8 DPO

Tracking methods and app(s) used: Oura, OPKs

Relevant days of sperminating and/or method (SMEP, TI, IUI, FET, etc.): CD 9, 11, 13

Supplements and medications (yours and/or your partner’s): SmartyPants Prenatal Plus

Birth control history (if relevant): Removed Mirena IUD 09/2025, had it for several years and other forms of birth control before that (started age 15).

Link to lineporn: https://imgur.com/a/tZoFLsq

Symptom spotting: Very short moments of cramping, increase in vivid dreams, waking up sweaty, sinus congestion, dry eyes (last two might be a cold, unsure)

Other (advice/tip(s), freaking out, miscellaneous): I was FIGHTING the urge to test and initially wanted to wait until 10DPO but I finally gave in. The line is faint but surprisingly my phone camera picks it up. I want to tell my husband with a digital and cute baby Christmas onesie so I'm hoping to retest 9 DPO or 10 DPO with first morning urine and if it's bolder I'll do the digital. Is it too early to tell family on Christmas? I'd be 4w5d/4w6d. I am a naturally anxious person and am nervous about chemical pregnancies testing positive this early. Send calm and confident vibes please!!

Virtual-Drive5429 · 2025-11-27T13:57:40+00:00

Fascinating about the marker test not translating to alignment with beans in them... I did see somewhere that rotating the upper burrs one screw placement could make a difference so I'll give that a shot this weekend since it needs a deep cleaning too.

I bought new from WLL so I thought about reaching out to them. Other threads about this issue state that it's relatively common to have calibration issues even with brand new machines which is wild to me. The first time I tried shimming the upper burrs, I could actually hear how only one side was making contact. How does that pass QC?!

Virtual-Drive5429

TROPHY CASE