We’d been waiting and thinking and debating, but baby brain is taking over! So here we are.
I feel like [name]Ive[/name] been reading books about pregnancy for the past five years, but in the end, I’d rather hear other peoples experiences, so here are a few nosy questions for you moms:
[name]How[/name] many months were you TTC with your first? ([name]Skip[/name] if thats too personal, just everyone seems to have such different “averages” on this!)
Did you make lifestyle changes while you were TTC? (Start prenatal vitamin, change diet, cut out alcohol, caffeine, etc…)
Were there any (relatively) silly things driving your timing? Financially and mentally, we’ve been ready for some time now to grow our family, but there were little things (“If it happened now, I’d be about 8 weeks for our best friends wedding and wouldnt want to tell anyone yet!” “I dont want third trimester in the middle of the summer, that sounds awful!”) I know these things don’t matter at ALL in the grand scheme of things, but I’m wondering if other people think like that. So if youre like me, when did you stop thinking/planning/dwelling and just decide to go for it?
Got pregnant on the first cycle! I am 27, DH is 28, both healthy and active.
No lifestyle changes but I did add the following pills lol; Women’s [name]One[/name] A [name]Day[/name] (contains 400mcg folic acid) in the am, B6 vitamin in the am (100mg) and another in the pm (google its benefits), an additional 400mcg folic acid pill in the pm and mucinex during my fertile period. We didn’t think it would happen right away, but now we have a baby B coming Feb 2013
First year of marriage was no baby talk, it was all about us. Then, about 10 months into the marriage I ran our of bc pills and the new ones they gave me here in the US that were supposed to be the same messed me up so I just said “we’ll be trying in the next 1-3 years anyways, may as well”. We decided to wait to try in [name]May[/name] 12 because a) I started a new job in Oct and needed to be there 6 months to get mat leave, but we didn’t want a Dec or [name]Jan[/name] baby, so that left us with Feb aka trying in [name]May[/name]! No Dec because of Xmas and we have flights booked to go back to [name]Canada[/name] and visit, no can do 38 weeks preggers lol and my bday is in [name]Jan[/name] and it’s too close to the flights we have so feb was the best option.
I have no children yet but as a medicine student I’d advise you to cut down on caffeine, and give up alcohol. If you smoke cigarettes, give those up if you can but I understand addictions are powerful so at least cut down on the amount you smoke. I’d advise you to start taking folic acid capsules and the vitamin B capsules asap.
Also start tracking your menstrual cycles so you can figure out when your ovulating.
wasn’t trying for #1. We TTC for 3-4 months for #2. We TTC for over 3 years for #3 (1 m/c in there).
I didn’t do anything differently. A good quality (very important point- it has to be good quality!) multivitamin with folic acid was all I took while TTC.
YES… I think like that all the time. You aren’t alone there. Like you said though, in the grand scheme of things, they truly don’t matter, but it’s normal to think that way. Only advice there is that you just have to go with it sometimes…especially if this is what you want! I truly believe there is NO perfect time to have a baby. You will adjust and it’ll turn out better than you think! There will always be “what ifs” and you just have to continue to move forward with your plans.
Thank you so much for all the replies! @norseberry: Congratulations! That’s awesome that everything fell into place for you so fast! @katyg: I will definitely be checking out that thread! We’ve been married for 3 years now, but got married quite young and wanted some time to get situated (time’s up, baby fever here too, haha). @tinabina: wow! lots of congratulations are in order around here! I already take women’s one a day, now I just need to pay better attention to reading the labels instead of figuring any old multi will do. Thanks for the tips. @strawberry shortcake: thanks for your perspective! It’s giving up my coffee thats going to be the hard part for me! Luckily, I’ve been tracking my cycle for years now since I didnt take well to being on the pill (or maybe I just like making charts). @crunchy mama: You’re so right about the what ifs, thanks!!
We tried for 2 months and then ended up pregnant with twins.
Did you make lifestyle changes while you were TTC? (Start prenatal vitamin, change diet, cut out alcohol, caffeine, etc…) Yes. As soon as we were TTC I stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol and started taking a daily vitamin with folic acid. I also tried to eat a lot of fruits, veggies and healthier fats (nuts and olives and such). Giving up coffee was HARD! That is why I eased into it while we were TTC.
We had spent so much time thinking about the big stuff that the little things didn’t really factor in to it. We are living abroad and the main choice was whether we wanted to try for children while we were living overseas. We had planned to be here for 2 years so there was some time pressure. I’m sure we mentioned the idea of trying to have summer babies so it would work with our school year (we’re getting master’s degrees) but we didn’t plan it that way on purpose. We went round and round and ultimately decided to go for it (after lots of pro con lists). But nothing really went according to plan anyway so I had to just give up on trying to control everything. All our careful plans were shot anyway when we learned it was twins. (But we wouldn’t have it any other way now!)
I’ve never been pregnant, but I can answer number 3
We are still waiting for the right time to have a baby, some people claim there is no right time, but I think there is. I have seen plenty of wrong times. I have a cousin right now who is living with a boy, not married, is dirt poor (living off food stamps) and is pregnant. She is constantly fighting with her bf and complains about it to everyone on fb. Perfect example of a bad time to have a baby.
So I think good timing is your married, you have the finances so you can afford the child and have savings in case of an emergency. A house isn’t an absolute must, but for us it is. We want to make sure our child has a good childhood. We want them to have a backyard they can play in and all that stuff.
So we don’t plan on ttc until we have a house which will be a year from now and then we might want to wait another year just to have the extra money or so we can have time to celebrate living in our own home for awhile. We’ll see what happens when we get there
I also don’t want to be pregnant during the winter because of chances of snow storms and I am NOT giving birth in a car. I’d rather take the summer heat than get trapped in my house due to snow.
@zaelia: We’re alike with the pro/con lists! Any tips on giving up the coffee? I bought a bag of decaf for probably the first time in my life the other day and figured I can start trying to ease off the caffeine without going around lost without my morning routine. I work from home and I swear that routine of making coffee before I get down to business is half the addiction!
@catloverd: I hear you about going down the checklist. My husband and I have spent the past year renovating a house, so that was another factor in waiting, I know many women find ways to manage it, but I really didnt want to be pregnant and dealing with the stress of living in a construction zone!
lineska - I [name]LOVE[/name] coffees and cappuccinos and I just stopped cold turkey 4 days after I ovulated. I was never a coffee addict and didn’t have a problem. I think your mentality just changes and it makes it easy. Of course I would [name]LOVE[/name] a frappucino on this hot summer day, but I’d love a beer too and it’s not like I am stressing and dying for one lol I just understand I can’t for a little while. In the mornings I usually just have a glass of milk, but lately my pregnancy has made me loose my appetite so I just drink water like its my life. Funny though, I had no problem eating bacon lol.
If you’re a coffee addict maybe just start having a half a cup, then every other day etc…
Thanks for the tips.