Tag: pregnancy

Gender Disappointment

Posted on by BooyahMom

When The Gender Reveal Reveal’s Sadness, Just Know You Are Not Alone. 

I’ve always wanted children. It was never a matter of if, it was when. As a teenager I always thought it would be amazing to have a son and then a daughter. I guess because I secretly wished I had an older brother. But, if it boiled down to it, I really wanted a daughter. I wanted a relationship like I had with my mom, a mother and daughter bond that was more like best friends. My mom and I joked that we were the Gilmore Girls. We related to that show on so many levels. It was always just me and my mom against the world. And we had such fun!

Tragically, my mom passed away when I was 30. Ten years after her passing, I got pregnant. It was a bittersweet moment. I was elated that I was finally going to be a mom, but a motherless mother was not something I was prepared for. Embarking on the journey of motherhood without my mom’s guidance was difficult, but I was convinced in my heart that I was going to have a girl, and that girl would somehow mend a piece of my broken heart.  

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TTC, Pregnancy and Parenting Acronyms

Posted on by BooyahMom

TTC, Preganancy & Parenting Acronym Guide and Glossary of Terms

Meanings of BD, BFP, BFN, FTM and more…

When I first started my TTC Journey I joined a few online groups of other women who were on the same path. Groups like this are a wonderful way to find support and camaraderie during what can be an emotional and lonely journey. I instantly found that I was clueless to all the acronyms and abbreviations that everyone was using in the online forums, support groups, and on social media. And there are A LOT of them!

As I subsequently joined pregnancy and parenting groups, I realized that not only are acronyms popular while TTC, but they extend into pregnancy and beyond. I have compiled a list to help you navigate them. 

AI • Artificial Insemenation

AF • Aunt Flow/Flo – Period or menstrual cycle.

AMA • Advanced Maternal Age – Refers to women 35 and over. Me, I had my babies at 40 and 45.

AMH • Anti-Müllerian Hormone 

BBT • Basal Body Temperature – Body temperature when at rest. Tracking BBT is way to determine when you have ovulated.

BBTC • Basal Body Temperature Charting

BC • Birth Control

BCP • Birth Control Pills

BD •  Baby Dance – Having sex on your most fertile days
         Baby Dust – Well wishes for conceiving a baby. I imagine it as a dusting of magical fertility glitter.

Beta • Beta Test – Aka quantitative beta hCG blood pregnancy test. Blood drawn pregnancy test

BF • Breast Fed 

BFP • Big Fat Positive – Positive pregnancy test

BFN • Big Fat Negative – Negative pregnancy test

BPM • Beats Per Minute – Used to refer to the fetal heart rate

BLW • Baby Led Weaning – Offering your baby a variety of foods and allowing them to choose from and feed themselves.

BMS • Baby Making Sex

BOB • Baby On the Brain or Baby Obsessed Brain – Thinking about having a baby constantly

BTDT • Been There Done That

BW • Blood Work

CB • Cycle Buddy – Someone who started their period the same day you did, or ovulated the same day you did

CD • Cycle Day – The days of the menstrual cycle. Followed by the number of days… CD1 = 1st day, CD5 = 5th day of cycle.

CD • Cloth Diapers or Cloth Diapering 

CIO • Cry It Out – A sleep training strategy that involves letting the baby cry while they learn to fall asleep on their own.

CF or CM • Cervical Fluid or Cervical Mucus

CL • Cover Line – A line drawn on a BBT chart

D&C • Dilation and Curettage – a surgical procedure to remove tissue from the uterus. May be performed because of abnormal vaginal bleeding, retained placenta after giving birth, or after a miscarriage or abortion. 

D&E • Dilation and Evacuation –   

DD • Dear/Daring Daughter

DH • Dear/Darling Husband

DP • Dear/Darling Partner

DPO • Days Past Ovulation – Preceded by the number of days. 4DPO = 4 days past ovulation

DPT • Days Past Transfer

DS • Dear/Darling Son

DTD • Do The Deed – Have sex.

Dx • Diagnosis

E2 • Estradiol – Your level of estrogen

EBF • Exclusively Breast Fed

ECP • Emergency Contraception Pills

EBM • Expressed Breast Milk

EDD • Estimated Date of Delivery – Expected Due Date of baby’s birth

EMU • Early Morning Urine

EP • Exclusively Pumping

EPT – Early Pregnancy Test 

ET • Embryo Transfer

EWCM • Egg White Cervical Mucus – The type of cervical mucus that’s during ovulation. Resembles raw egg whites.

FET • Frozen Embryo Transfer

FHR • Fetal Heart Rate

FIL • Father In Law

FF • Formula Fed 

FMU • First Morning Urine

FP • Follicular Phase – From CD1 until ovulation

FRER • First Response Early Result pregnancy test – This test seems to be the one most people rely on for accuracy.

Frostie • Frozen Embryo

FSH • Follicle Stimulating Hormone 

FT • Full Term 

FTM • First Time Mom

FX • Fingers Crossed

GA • Gestational Age – How far along you are in your pregnancy. Ex. 12 weeks, 20 weeks

GD • Gestational Diabetes

GTT • Glucose Tolerance Test – Used to diagnose high blood glucose during pregnancy, aka gestational diabetes

hCG • Human Chorionic Gonadotropin – Aka the pregnancy hormone

HPT • Home Pregnancy Test

ICSI • Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

IF • Infertility – Inability to get pregnant after 12 months of trying.

IFW • Infertility Warrior

IUI • Intra Uterine Insemenation

IVF • In Vitro Fertilization

LC • Lactation Consultant

L&D • Labor & Delivery

LH • Luteinizing Hormone

LMP • Last Menstrual Period

LO • Little One 

LP • Luteal Phase – Time between ovulation and menstruation (aka TWW)

LSC • Low Sperm Count

MC • Miscarriage 

MIL • Mother In Law

ML • Maternity Leave

MMR • Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine

MOTN • Middle Of The Night

MS • Morning Sickness

NBR • Not Baby Related

NTNP • Not Trying, Not Preventing

O or OV • Ovulation

OH • Other Half

OPK or OPT • Ovulation Prediction Kit or Ovulation Prediction Test

OT • Over Tired

OTC • Over The Counter – Medication that is available without a prescription.

PAI • Pregnant After Infertility

PdG or P4 • Progesterone

PCOS • Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

PG • Pregnant

PGD • Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis

PGS – Pre-implantation Genetic Screening

PGT • Pre-implantation Genetic Testing

PI • Primary Infertility – Inability to conceive after a minimum of 1 year of trying.

PID • Pelvic Inflamatory Disease

PMS • Pre- Menstrual Syndrome

POAS • Pee On A Stick

PPD • Post Partum Depression

PUPO • Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise

PVN • Prenatal Vitamin

RE • Reproductive Endocrinologist

RPL or RM or RMC • Recurrent Pregnancy Loss or Recurrent Miscarriage – Two or more consecutive losses.

SA • Semen Analysis

SAAF • Stay Away Aunt Flow/Flo

SAHM • Stay At Home Mom

SB • Stillborn

SD • Sperm Donor

SI • Secondary Infertility – Struggling to conceive after a previous pregnancy.

Slacker Boob • When one breast underproduces milk compared to the other breast.

SO • Significant Other

STD • Sexually Transmitted Disease

STM • Second Time Mom

STTN • Sleeping Through The Night

SubQ • Subcutaneous Injection

TR • Tubal Reversal – Surgical procedure to reconnect a woman’s fallopian tubes after a previous tubal ligation

TTC • Trying To Conceive 

TTCAL • Trying To Conceive After Loss

TIA • Thanks In Advance

TMI • Too Much Information

TW • Trigger Warning

TWW or 2WW • Two Week Wait – The estimated amount of time between ovulation and your expected period. The TWW was the most agonizing part of the whole process for me!

Tx • Treatment

UI • Unexplained Infertility

US • Ultrasound

UTI • Urinary Tract Infection

VBAC • Vaginal Birth After C-Section

WFH • Work From Home

WFHM • Work From Home Mom

WFP • Wait For Period

WOH • Work Outside Home

YTC • Yearning To Conceive 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I forget any? 
If I did, please leave them in a reply down below

 

P.S.

If you are TTC, I send you all my love and tons of BD!


I hope you get your BFP Soon!

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Being an ‘Older Mom’ Can Be Lonely

Posted on by BooyahMom

FIRST TIME MOTHERHOOD
OVER 40
DURING A PANDEMIC
WHILE TRYING TO CONCIEVE

Loneliness

Being a stay-at-home-mom, over 40, during a pandemic was a lonely experience. 

Not many of my friends were at the beginning of their parenting adventure. They had teenagers or young adults. Many were becoming empty nesters. They were traveling, going out all the time, and having gatherings and parties where kids were not invited.

I, on the other hand, had an energetic toddler as my permanent sidekick.

My pre-baby life was filled with things to do, places to go, and people to see. After giving birth to my sweet baby boy, things changed. I became a mother that prioritized caring for her baby over everything else. I entered this parental cocoon that never really went away. Mostly because we had no family nearby and the majority of our friends were on different paths that weren’t inclusive of young children.

For the first year, my partner and I only went out three times without our son. Once because his grandparents were in town and could watch him for an afternoon while we went to run errands. Another time, a friend watched him while we went to a concert. And he spent a weekend with his grandparents while we attended a friend’s wedding. 

The second year was 2020, “The Great Pause,” the year of the pandemic. We all experienced the isolation that the lockdown, social distancing, and stay-at-home orders produced. A part of me enjoyed all of the quality time I got to spend with my son, but another part of me cried out for social interaction. I yearned to talk to someone about adult topics, to go places, to eat out, to be involved in the community.
      
2021 brought more freedom to our world, albeit a cautious freedom. The virus was still a concern and we remained mostly isolated. We also began trying for a sibling for our son, which proved to be an emotional rollercoaster marked by several losses. My age has never been an issue for me, but I started to question whether or not it was going to make expanding our family an impossibility.

The Rainbow After The Storm

IN 2022 OUR RAINBOW ARRIVED !

I know several people who have experienced the pain of pregnancy loss. It is something you would never wish upon another human being. It upends your world in ways that are unimaginable.

Trying to conceive (TTC) and pregnancy loss at any age is a difficult journey, but when you are in your 40’s it can feel completely overwhelming. Your biological clock is ticking so loud that it is deafening. And with each loss, your enthusiasm about pregnancy diminishes. 

TTC was a lonely experience for me. I was constantly peeing on sticks to see when I was ovulating or if I was pregnant, tracking my basal body temperature, and keeping records of it all. I was doing everything a pregnant woman should do in order to maintain the perfect vessel for a new life to enter and grow. My body was no longer my own. I was keeping it at a place where if I did become pregnant, it would be as hospitable to new life as it could be. I avoided supplements that I wanted to take, alcohol, certain foods, certain essential oils, and anything that was considered a no-no during pregnancy. It was an obsession, and it was one I did alone. Because after a couple times of sharing my excitement of a pregnancy with my partner and close friends, only to find that it was no longer viable, I stopped communicating. Every single day was a TTC rollercoaster that I rode alone. I didn’t want to drag anyone else into it anymore. 

When I was 40 and we tried for my son, I had no issues getting pregnant. We had only a couple months of negative pregnancy tests before I got my big fat positive (BFP). It was mainly due to me not knowing the timing of it all. I got an ovulation kit and was pregnant that month. For our second pregnancy, things weren’t as easy. It took over two years and several losses. But at age 44, the baby dust settled in and our little rainbow stuck!

 

Rainbow Baby

I was cautiously optimistic when I saw that positive pregnancy test. I had been down this road before. But when the lines darkened and I got my very first dye stealer (when the HCG hormone (pregnancy hormone) is so high that the test line steals the dye from the control line; causing it to be darker.) I was certain this was the one! 

I had kept it to myself long enough and started to share the amazing news! I only shared it with those closest to me. I waited until after our 10 week appointment and receiving our results from the genetic and gender test to tell others. 

Being pregnant and caring for an energetic preschooler has been a whole new set of challenges, but I feel so blessed to be on this journey. I’m now 45, pregnant, and still feel lonely, but I know that this time with my babies will be fleeting. This sacred time of growth and exploration is such a blessing and I want to embrace it for all that it is. I may be lacking all the adult interaction I had before, but I have these two little souls to travel alongside now. My heart is full.  

 

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Quick Tip: Heartburn

Posted on by BooyahMom

HEARTBURN

When I was pregnant with my son, I had the absolute worst heartburn. It was especially bad during my third trimester. Just drinking water would give me heartburn. Seriously.

Heartburn seems to be a common concern during pregnancy. Everyone kept telling me that it meant my son would have a full head of hair when he was born. (He did have quite a bit!) All I knew was that I was in agony.

I tried everything to try and soothe the burning: OTC antacids, drinking shots of apple cider vinegar, drinking nut milks, avoiding certain foods, eating ginger, eating almonds, etc. Nothing was working. Luckily, my midwife gave me a suggestion that worked amazingly well and I want to share it with you.
 

Papaya Enzymes

Papaya enzymes were my best friend. I took them everywhere with me. They worked almost instantly and completely. They were little miracle pills! Whenever I felt that evil burn churning, I would chew one up and feel better. Sometimes I had to chew two or three to soothe the heartburn dragon, but they worked better than anything else I had tried.

Personally I disliked the papaya enzymes that had the minty flavor. I found a brand that tasted sweet like papaya. It was vegan, gluten-free, and delicious! Unfortunately, and like many products that I fall in love with, it is no longer made. I found it at CVS… Radiance Platinum Papaya Enzymes. I bought up a few bottles as soon as I discovered they were discontinued because they worked so well. My partner and I continue to use them whenever we get heartburn.

I, honestly, very rarely get heartburn now, but I will never forget that horrible feeling. Can’t lie down, can’t sleep, can’t focus on anything but that awful burn in your chest. I feel you. If you are suffering, please grab a bottle of papaya enzymes!

UPDATE:

It’s 2023 and I am currently pregnant with my second baby and she is a little dragon too, breathing fire into my chest.

I had to find a new favorite papaya enzyme: Carlyle Chewable Papaya Enzyme. These little pills work great and taste like delicious, sweet, papaya. One bottle has lasted my entire pregnancy.

 

Products Discussed In This Post

Carlyle Chewable Papaya Enzyme

 A Booyah Must Have! 

 

 

buy on Amazon

 

 

What tips do you have for getting rid of heartburn?
What works for you? I’d love to know.
Please leave a reply down below.

 

 

P.S.

I know how sensitive the pregnancy taste buds can be. Unless you absolutely love that minty flavor, I recommend purchasing the papaya or fruit flavored papaya enzymes. You are going to be popping them in your mouth quite frequently and the fruity ones are much more tolerable, in my opinion. The mint ones made me gag.

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I appreciate your support of my website. Thank you! ♥

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