Pregnant after FET and going over 40 weeks

[JDUB0410]

Hi everyone! I had a question for anyone who has gotten pregnant via IVF or FET and has made it passed their EDD. I am currently 37w4d from a 3 day FET. I will be 31 y/o tomorrow and my embryos were originally frozen when I was 28 y/o so there really isn't an age factor here. I have been researching going past 40 weeks after IVF and I have seen that after 40 weeks it can be dangerous for the fetus. Has anyone else gone past 40 weeks and gone into labor on thier own? If so, how long after and if not, when did your doctors induce you? I went through a fresh cycle almost 3 years ago and gave birth to my son a little over 2 years ago. I had gestational hypertension and 2 days before I hit 39 weeks they noticed he had decelerations whenever I had a contraction so they chose to induce. Then with this frozen cycle I conceived triplets. It turned out that I had a set of identical twins (that shared a placenta) and a singleton. At 12w2d I found out that the twins didn't make it and no longer had a heart beat. They think something was wrong with the joined placenta. So right now I am pregnant with a healthy baby girl. I am being monitored closely because they detected unexplained elevated MAFP, which means growth scans every 4 weeks and NSTs twice a week since I hit 32 weeks. So after everything I have been through, I am very nervous about going over 40 weeks. It also doesn't help that a friend of mine, who was due a few weeks before me, gave birth to a still born at 37 weeks.

I am going to talk to my doctor about this at my next appointment (Monday), but I'm afraid he will just brush off my concerns. And I cannot switch doctors for one it's so late in the pregnancy and because I am in the Army and we have to go with whatever the doctors say.

Thank you in advance for any responses.

[charista28]

Hi,

I gave birth to my daughter a little over a year ago. She ended up being born 2 weeks late. She was conceived during an IVF fresh cycle so I was really sure of my dates. I was severely anxious during my pregnancy, re : cord around the neck, baby being in distress because she was moving to much, etc... The doctor told me, they usually induce after 41 weeks + 2 days, that's when the placenta is not as effective anymore. It was really tough but i held on. Just make sure to do kick counts daily, and you'll be ok . I wanted to be induced at 40 weeks but my doctor told me outright I would be judged by nursing staff for doing so, since everything was going well with my pregnancy (except my mental state, I was a total basket case and had a breakdown post-partum) Believe me, I know what being anxious is like. But please, mention your concerns to your doctor. You are so close to the finish line, good luck. Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy, you will miss it, specially feeling the baby move.

[SC-Sherb]

JDUB, I'm sorry that you are so anxious and very sorry for your gf's loss. Heartbreaking.

Pregnancy has so many up's and down's and high's and lo's. It's normal to be scared the closer you are to delivery, especially when we hear, read and see so much.

I did not do IVF or anything but I went 2 days past my dd with DS#1 before I was induced. I was scheduled for a routine NST and during it, baby's HB kept dropping. Since I was already 2 cm's dilated and my OB was on call that day, he induced me and DS#1 was born 15 hrs later. With my last one, I had a 2nd c-section and was scheduled to have it 4 days before his dd. I was very very anxious with that pregnancy for a variety of reasons and even the day of the surgery, he was moving less and I thought, just get him out. I can totally understand where you are coming from and I would talk to your Dr. and advise him of your fears and see what he says.

Good luck hun!

[JDUB0410]

Thank you for your responses. I very nervous and anxious and I hope all turns out okay. L&D has already had to medically stop my labor twice, once at 33 weeks and once at 35 weeks and I am slowly dilating each week. 3 weeks ago I was 1-2 cm, 2 weeks ago I was 2-3 cm and last Friday I was a solid 3 cm. I know this doesn't mean much because with my son I was 3 cm from 35 weeks until they induced me at just before 39 weeks. Now my other concern is that my husband and I are both active duty Army and he just left for school for the next 4 months. My mom and I are trying to plan a good time for her to come out here to 1 help with the delivery and 2 to take care of my 2 y/o while I adjust back here at home. My husband has missed everything when it comes to babies. He was in school when I had my ectopic and was rushed into surgery, he was in Afghanistan when I had our son, and again he is in school for the birth of our daughter. Today is also my last day of bed rest, and I will be headed back to work until I deliver.

Sorry for the venting, I just have a lot of stressors going on at the moment. Thanks for listening, I am normally not a debby downer

[SC-Sherb]

Hun, you have alot going on and you are not being a debby downer. We are here to offer you any support at all and I can only imagine what you are going through. They wouldn't let my DH come in when my DD was born for the c-section and it was stressfull. He was just outside. So, I can only imagine how you feel with your DH miles and miles away from you and missing everything. Big hugs.

Talk to your Dr., voice all of your concerns and see what he says. You just never know and please keep us updated!

[JDUB0410]

Hun, you have alot going on and you are not being a debby downer. We are here to offer you any support at all and I can only imagine what you are going through. They wouldn't let my DH come in when my DD was born for the c-section and it was stressfull. He was just outside. So, I can only imagine how you feel with your DH miles and miles away from you and missing everything. Big hugs.

Talk to your Dr., voice all of your concerns and see what he says. You just never know and please keep us updated!

Thank you My next appointment is Monday morning. I will let you know what he says. I am also a little concerned with her growth as well. On May 2nd she was 55 percentile with her gestational age, then on June 1st she was 41 percentile, and finally on June 27th she was 39 percentile. Is this normal? I have talked to my doctor and my secondary doctor (I don't always get to see the same doctor) and they both tell me she is still in the normal range. But it seems like her growth is getting slower and I have stopped gaining any weight. I was average wieght and build when I conceived and I have gained about 25-27 lbs which is completely different from my 1st pregnancy. My 1st pregnancy I had a lot of fluid retention and I ballooned up. This pregnancy I am still able to wear my wedding rings and I didn't start really showing until I was pretty much in my third trimester. I was amazed by this and was excited that I am just belly, but now I am questioning her growth. This is something else that I will have to write down to talk to the doctor about. This pregnancy is just so different than the last.

[BC-Pennyh]

JDUB - is today your first day back at work? Hope that's going well. Maybe that's going to be all the push you need to get things going! My DD was an FET baby. (Two pg have been fresh cycle IVF, and two were FET, including this one). She was induced at 40wk0days - my OB thought she was going to be 9 lbs, but that's the only reason they induced. I guess every office is different, mine is fairly aggressive about inducing. Like others have said, bring up your concerns on Monday. And if you're already 3 cm, there won't be much concern that inducing won't work. It's when there's been no effacement/dilation and the baby isn't in position that it's likely to fail. So sorry your DH won't be able to be there for you when you deliver, I'm sure that makes every decision much harder too.

[SC-Sherb]

Well, that's a little concerning that her growth continues to decrease, especially near the end. Does everything else check out? Have you had a NST? I would push for one and tell them your concerns. Keep us updated hun.

[DMS721]

If it were me, I'd really push for being induced at 40 weeks. Mention all of your concerns to your doctor and don't let them brush you off. Be sure that they are monitoring the baby's growth. You have to be your own advocate. Trust your own instincts.

When my baby was 3 weeks old he had a bit of a fever and the start of a cold. Something didn't seem right to me, but his pedi brushed it off. My baby was a preemie, and as the day went on I just had this nagging feeling something wasn't quite right. I decided to take him to the ER for piece of mind. It turned out he was very sick and was immediately admitted to ICU and required breathing assistance. His ICU doctor said there is a good chance he wouldn't have made it through the night had he not been admitted. Needless to say I switched pediatricians as soon as we were released a week later. The point of my story is trust yourself. If you feel something isn't right, go to L&D to get checked out. It is better to get checked out and find out everything is ok, vs waiting and then having a problem arise.

Dawn

[JDUB0410]

BC-Pennyh – Yep. Yesterday was my 1st day back to work. I would have written last night, but after getting my 2 y/o to bed last night, I was right behind him only to wake up at midnight with the worst menstrual type cramps ever. Congratulations on your successes with IVF. I thank God for the amazing work that these doctors do. Without them I don’t know where I’d be. As for work, I am only working half days because I am so close to deliver, but at least it is something.
BC-Sherb – I am a little concerned about her growth decreasing as well. I have been getting NST’s twice a week since I was 32 weeks followed with an AFI once a week. They say everything looks great. I am in normal range for amniotic fluid and today’s NST she had a base line of 140 with accelerations up to 160. They did notice that I had a lot of uterine irritability, but I told them I have been having a lot of bad cramping in my lower abdomen, almost like AF is on its way. But I was told all looks well and to continue to look for labor signs. When I meet with my doctor on Monday and bring up my concerns, I am going to ask to be induced on the 23rd. I will be 39w2d. I am mainly doing it, because my mom is coming into town on the 21st and will only be here until the 4th. Without DH here, I am really going to need her help during labor and for the first few days past. I am hoping he is receptive to this idea.
BTW, I love your avatar. 19 years of marriage! Congratulations!!
BC-DMS721 – OMG! I am so glad that everything turned out well and your motherly instinct kept nagging at you. I too would have found a new pediatrician and probably would have had words with the old one and probably tried to go after his license due to malpractice. I am going to voice all of my concerns on Monday and beg for an induction as early as the 23rd (39w2d). I was induced with my son at 38w5d because of his heart decelerations and he turned out so perfect he didn’t even have jaundice. I will keep you all informed on what they say. Oh, I did ask a nurse at my NST this morning about growth and she did kind of blow me off and said that the radiologists all read scans differently and the percentile doesn’t mean much. If that’s the case, why would they even do the growth scans to begin with?