Hi every one of you wonderful supportive & very kind women! I am beyond grateful for finding this thread after quite a bit of searching on the net! I just turned 49 years old last Friday (Aug. 15th) & because of all your kind words & your personal stories you've all shared, you've made me feel sooooo much better! I have 2 sons, with my oldest being 19 & my youngest, being 16 & a half. They both are the absolute joy, treasures & blessings in my life & I thank God every day for blessing me with them, & I cannot believe how lucky I am to have these 2 incredible children & being given the privilege to be their mother! I was always told as a teenager & well into my mid-20s, that I would never be able to conceive a child due to the fact that I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (aka PCOS). My ex-husband, whom I divorced over 6 years ago, is the father of my 2 sons. We did have many challenges re: infertility but, I was able to conceive my oldest son, after 2 years of fertility treatments. I should also mention, I know when I conceived, due to Trans-vaginal ultrasounds. I swear, within 2 days, I started having pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, fatigue , craving Bologna & Cheese Whiz sandwiches in the middle of the night, etc. I had a urine Preg. Test, as well as blood work, @ 25 days, post conception but both were negative ! I didn't have a positive blood test, until Day 38, after conception! Although my Obstetrician disagreed with me, my 2nd son was conceived through acupuncture. I am an RN, but had a serious, work-related back injury & I was receiving the acupuncture to help control the constant back pain. Because of the PCOS, I've never, ever had a regular period, & there've been times through the years, when I've actually gone up to 2 years without a period. But, while I was the acupuncture treatments for about 3 months, I actually had a regular cycle every 28 days, whilst receiving the acupuncture. I'm not sure why, as I didn't have any pregnancy symptoms @ the time, something told me that I should buy a pregnancy test. Lo & behold, it was positive! I can't begin to describe the sheer, utter joy felt, when I did a HPT (Home Preg. Test). I should also mention; both of my pregnancies were extremely difficult, such as needing to be on bed rest with both boys from 18 weeks, to my delivery. I was also, especially with my 2nd son, very sick with constant "Morning Sickness", as well as being in & out of hospital numerous times with both boys. As well, with my 2nd son, I was literally walking down the hallway (no stairs involved), @ about 16 weeks, speaking on the telephone, when all of a sudden, I had this horrible extremely sharp pain, worse when I took a breath, non-stop pain & I literally collapsed on the floor! I couldn't move a muscle because of the pain. My husband @ the time, rushed home from work & had to actually carry me to our car; as well as carry me into our Chiropractor's office. Apparently, 2-3 discs in my mid-back had herniated, again...this all happened while I literally was doing NOTHING,(I do promise, there's a reason why I mentioned this, lol) my ex-husband & I, had always wanted 3 kids but even after numerous fertility treatments, we never were successful. 6+ years ago! post-divorce, I met the man of my dreams! He's the absolute love of my life, my best friend, my soulmate! He's never been married,nor has he any children. He is absolutely phenomenal with both my sons; especially with my youngest, who has moderate-to-severe autism. He truly is much more of a father to my sons, than their own father. About 3 years ago, I had my IUD removed, & ever since then, I'm absolutely astounded & flabbergasted because, I've had a regular period every 25-28 days, like clockwork! I actually had some symptoms similar to puberty, including acne, PMS, etc! I had my last period around the end of June, early July, 2014. I wasn't thinking about pregnancy, as well as, thought with the PCOS, & my age, pregnancy days were over. In the 3rd last week in July, of this year, I started getting extreme nausea. To this day, if I get too hot, too tired, or the smell of literally anything cooking, I end up with horrendous retching/dry heaves, for up to 30 min, many times a day. The only thing that helps, is to be in a cooler temp & free of any odours. My sense of smell, I swear, is multiplied by a thousand! My breast size has almost gone up one size since the nausea started. The only thing I've been able to eat, is red licorice(I don't mind it regularly but, I'd never eat it before all of this) & Jello Pudding cups. I'm exhausted beyond belief, my abdomen is growing daily, I'm either crying over a Hallmark Commercial, lol, or losing my temper over absolutely ridiculous things, (normally, I'm very good-tempered, rarely get angry, rarely cry). I've had unexplained heartburn, off & on, &, the most obvious sign...my abdomen is growing, a small bit everyday! When I should've had my period on Aug 6/Aug7th, I had some pink spotting but on Aug 7th, I had very heavy bleeding, with quarter-sized clots & a few times, it looked like very small bits of either more clots, or tissue!?!? Prior to this happening, the pregnancy symptoms were so severe, a few days before this, I literally couldn't get out of bed, due to the extreme nausea & fatigue. I had also had a lot of cramping before this too. I thought maybe that I'd had a very early miscarriage but, the bleeding only lasted 10 hours. After this, no further bleeding or cramping! I still have all the pregnancy symptoms but they're about 35-40% lessened in severity! As well, after the bleeding episode, as time goes on, they're starting to increase in severity! I really do think, I may've been pregnant with twins but possibly???, I may've very sadly, miscarried 1 of them? As well, what happened with my mid-back, with my 2nd son, literally occurred last Friday!!! Same pain, same scenario, where is literally standing still in the bathroom, just about to start putting my make up on, when...excruciating pain, bringing me immediately to the floor! As well, my very well-controlled asthma, again with my 2nd son, was so bad, I literally couldn't climb 2 steps, without getting short of breath. (This happened @ about 10 weeks with him. Same thing with my asthma, since this past weekend! I absolutely & most, most sincerely apologize for such a long post but the reason for such a long post is: I've been doing HPT, every 2-3 days, since my symptoms started. I've tried different brans, even tried with only the 1st morning urine, BUT, they're all coming up negative!!! However, 1 of the tests did have a very, very, very faint line, which my hubbie could see too! I did a HPT last night; negative! I was beginning to think I was going crazy here, lol, I thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to read such a long post; as well as, for all of you sharing your experiences! I'd be eternally grateful, if anyone has any suggestions, or has had a similar story! I'm going to go to the ER today, with the hopes of getting some answers! I wish you all, nothing but the best, including much, much, much happiness, luck, light & love

I have read this whole thread as my son is also having similar problems. He didn't crawl till after 1, he didn't walk till later, he always made gibberish sounds with little words. He didn't start putting words in sentences till he was almost 4 and its still only a few words. He has a small attention span unless its something hes really interested in. To get him to cease doing an activity usually results in him getting very upset over it and us having difficulty calming him down. He can get rather loud and hysterical. He will keep doing behaviours he has been told specifically not to. Of a morning before we are up he will just screech & make bird noises out the window, he makes beeping noises like his grandfathers van that backs out and throws things & just general bad behaviour until we get up. If you ask him a question he will just repeat a couple words back of the question at times, if its one he knows hell answer. He had trouble making choices he will decide one and then when given that he will want the other and get upset over not getting it. He will say hello to people, look at them and us and smile and laughs, sometimes he just gets the giggles. I don't know how to toilet train him, he goes to school next year and he just doesn't know when he needs to go, he will pee if put on the toilet but that's it, there's no regularity to when he goes. He loves to sing & do action songs like clapping etc, loves TV, he knows and recognises both numbers and the alphabet, knows shapes, colours, knows his name and can spell it as well as his Nan's and pops and dads. He cannot write it, doesn't take an interest in drawing can draw a circle and a line and the letter L but that's about it. He has been attending daycare since before he was 1 as he is an only child and we have no friends with children and don't go out a lot. They referred us to a speech, physio and OT therapist who he has seen a few times a year. He is progressing but very slowly, he is way behind other children. They also put him into an early intervention group to try and get him ready for school, he loved the activities, he loves being around other kids he just doesn't interact with them. They find him strange. He has now been referred to a team to see if he is on the spectrum, they have done a part evaluation of him and are referring him to a developmental psychologist in January before deciding their diagnosis. He also has trouble with toe walking and W sitting. He refused to feed himself off and on for awhile until i took to counting to 5 and if he hadnt taken a mouthfull I put him straight to bed without finishing, he now eats his food thank godness for now especially if mummy starts counting. This is all new to me, I am a first time mum, I was an only child and also used to toe walk so did my mother. I have little experience in knowing what's normal for kids at what age so this has been tough. Its been tough realising that a lot of parents are having conversations with their kids by now and telling them things and are able to teach them things about the world etc and I have never had that communication with my son. Yes I am afraid of what putting a label on my son will do but I don't feel qualified to help him alone. I am worried about his future and am hoping he will continue to develop. He is a happy little boy mostly he loves to smile and laugh and sing. He loves cars and trains and anything electronic, going out anywhere is a great time for him. He has no problem with strangers or new environments, he loves to explore and learn how things work. Just don't leave him with a book or a picture as he will rip it up in tiny pieces even though he's been told repetitively not to. When he was younger he used to like opening and closing doors.

I to thought that my mom and her mom would be an indicator of what I might face with menopause but they weren't. Grandma had a hysterectomy and mom had six kids. I have none. Mom's lasted about 10 years, hot flashes real bad and just couldn't make sound decisions. Very moody as well. For me, 50 today, last period a year ago. Hot flashes a few times a day but the thing that bothers me most is the mood changes. I have always been a pretty even keeled kind of person. Mom always called me laid back Laura. Stress never got to me before but now, I have a real hard time with it. Fortuneately I work with men, my husband being one of them and a our boss is a friend I've known for 20 years. I've always been able to be brutally honest with him and if I'm having a bad day, I forwarn him and he keeps his distance. Leg cramps have also been real bad since this all started. Fortuneately I can control it to some degree with supplements of calcium/magnesium along with black strap molasses.

I also hate bra shopping. I absolutely need underwire and have a hard time finding bras that give me complete coverage and a supportive lift. I finally found a bra that works perfectly for me. It is a minimizer bra and I feel supported and confident in it. That never happens! So I bought all the ones in my size at a local department store (Boscov’s). The bras are about $40 each but always on some sort of sale. Here’s the bra:not the prettiest thing, but VERY effective and comfortable.