Hi,
-I am nearly 31 and DH is 30 in a few months. I've had no pregnancies before so didn't know if I could conceive.
-Came off BCP summer 2008 and stopped using condoms End Nov.
-Researched fertile times, etc, in Dec 2008 and officially TTC from Jan 09.
-3 close friends fell pg in first month and 2 are on their second pregnancies so felt pressure to achieve this too. Was frustrated when it didn't happen (stupid, I know!) but they always go on about how fertile they are!
-Put even more pressure on myself to fall pg quickly as I wanted maternity leave to concide with certain things at work - crazy and ridiculous, I know!
-Got really stressed out Feb and ended up getting a bad case of thrush from all the stressed-out BD'ing, mostly at the end of the day when tired from work, something like 12 days in a row.
-AF came a week early because of this and all the worry of 'can I take Canesten while TTC?' etc.
-Felt rubbish.
-Effectively counted March out as I didn't know what my cycle would be after Feb's early arrival.
-Decided I had gone up Crazy Mountain and was definitely on the way back down and realised I had to majorly chill out.
-Bought Zita West's 'Fertility and Conception' and followed as much of her advice as I reasonably could, alongside a chilled-out attitude, honest!
-Didn't temp or use OPKs, but was thinking about it for next month.
-Was on holiday for 2 weeks, it definitely helped to relax me and DH, who had 1 week off.
-Just had this feeling that this was my month.
What might have helped me (fingers crossed it all goes well)...........
*Chilling out.... difficult to do but it did help after a few stressful months.
*Big PMA.
*Being on holiday so BD'ing was much better as we weren't tired out from work. We didn't go away, just stayed at home.
*Massages from DH to relax.
*Reading Zita West's 'Fertility and Conception' - very informative and I really recommend it to you.
*Taking Pregnacare Conception and Omega 3 pills.
*No tea or coffee AT ALL - not even one or two cups a day. I had some every other month and Zita West says caffeine can increase the time it takes to conceive - this may have applied to me.
*Keeping my lower abdomen warm with a cosy blanket during BD'ing, ov and 2ww - another Zita West tip, although she said to use a hot water bottle.
*BD'ing every day at fertile period, which we've done before, but again, the BD'ing was better and more relaxed than in previous months.
*BD'ing in the morning, sperm counts are higher?
*DH took a few Wellman and Omega 3 pills, but only started this month so can't really count that.
*Eating more healthily, although I have been doing that really since TTC. Warming foods like soups, casseroles, well-cooked meat, etc - more Zita tips.
I 'knew' or 'felt' that I could be pg because I had those bumps on my nipples on Thurs night, and I was extremely tired all week, but that could have partly been due to my first week back at work. So I did the Tesco test Fri (faint line) then digi Sat (pg).
I hope this helps anyone TTC, as I know how stressful frustrating the whole experience can be, and I'm still hoping, hoping, hoping that everything will be OK.
I feel very lucky that it has happened so quickly in relation to other TTC'ers experiences, and so don't want to compare my few months of stress with the longer periods of anguish and hurt that I see on here, so fingers crossed for everyone.
Good luck to all.oxoxox
Will add if I think of any more.