Monday, April 30, 2012

Preparing for TTC


Up until now, I’ve spent my whole life trying NOT to get pregnant. It is terrifying to think that when you finally WANT to get pregnant, that it might not happen. I have been on birth control – first Depo Provera injections for about 6 years and then Alesse birth control pills (“bcp”) for another 6 – for almost 12 years. We knew we would want to start TTC around the time we hit the 30 year old mark so, after a once in a lifetime trip to south America, I stopped taking my bcp in November. Although we didn’t want to start TTC right away, I wanted some time to let my body take over and get back into a normal cycle, since after 12 years on birth control, I had no idea what normal would be for me. I figured a bit of a wait would also give me some time to get healthy. Not to mention, after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, DH didn’t want to have a baby born in the late part of the year which meant we had to wait until at least April to start trying.

Generally speaking, I would say we are pretty healthy people. While I haven’t been as diligent in getting to the gym or out for a run as often as I would have liked, we spend a lot of time working on our home and are fairly active. Our eating habits are pretty good as well, but that’s not to say that I don’t love dessert (I have a serious sweet tooth) and it would be shameful to admit just how much wine gets drunk in our household. So, starting in March (January-February was a bit of a lost cause – I work about 16 hrs/day during that time and so we order in food at work) I have been focusing on eating nutrient rich meals, eating a lot more plants than I have in the past, drinking litres of water and I *gasp* gave up both coffee and wine (well, all alcohol) cold turkey. I will admit I’ve had a couple of slips with the wine – at dinner with friends when I wasn’t yet prepared to field questions about why I wasn’t drinking, but otherwise I have been sticking with it and feel great. Oh and of course, I started a prenatal vitamin!

Aside from that, I’ve been trying to be less stressed on the whole. My job can be pretty intense but I have been working on spending more time on me, for me.

I would love to hear about what you did to get ready for TTC and/or what one thing you felt helped prepare you most for your pregnancy.

3 comments:

  1. I am also Pre TTC (if you didn't see that on my blog - lol) and I did the same thing, with the exception of changing my diet - I know I need to, but I just can't stop eating my junk yet - lol. The Prenatals are a great idea - I started those earlier this month. I would recommend getting a BBT Thermometer (Basal Body Temperature) and start charting your temps every morning, a great website to input that information is FertilityFriend.com - I started using it this cycle & I learned when I ovulate :) Great tool for TTC. I have added your blog to my blogroll so I can stay up to date on your Journey! :) Hopefully you can do the same. If you have any questions, feel free to email or message me! I'd love to help! Lots of sticky ::Baby Dust::

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    1. Thanks Megan! I still have to add a blogroll but once I figure that out you'll be on it! Thanks for adding me to yours :)

      I downloaded the free version of FF on my iPhone and have been tracking CM but haven't started tracking my BBT. I'm a total control freak and was trying to be a bit more hands off, to see if it would happen without me getting all OCD about it! If it doesn't happen this month I don't think I'll be able to resist.

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    2. That's how I feel about OPK's - I wont buy them unless we don't get pregnant July & August, then I'll start with those, haha. I haven't paid for FF either, I'm just using the free option on my iphone & on my computer.

      If you need help figuring out Blogger - let me know! I have been blogging for 3 years now, so I'm pretty confident in my blogger knowledge - HAHA

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