Planning On Getting Pregnant

AlSelley

cottage_retreatist I'm so glad you understand the times we live in I wish you the best of luck for you and yours in the coming beautiful moments. we look forward to sharing!

Birdie85

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but I really don't see the point in stockpiling baby equipment and joining baby clubs before you even get pregnant. I do understand where you're coming from as a few years ago when I was waiting to TTC I was desperate to have some proof that we'd be having a baby *at some point* and had to stop myself from getting carried away in the excitement. Then it took 20 months to get pregnant, and if I'd seen a bunch of baby things in the spare room without anybody to use them or even carried on buying things in that time I'd have been driven slowly mad by the constant reminders of what we were missing.

You have no idea if it will take you 2 months or 2 years to get pregnant, and don't listen to people saying 'Do this, don't do that' when it comes to *how* to get pregnant as you have to figure out which approach works best for you. My 'magic method' was using the Clear Blue Fertility monitor as it took out all of the guesswork but it is expensive and I only bought it after trying for well over a year first.

I'm now 12 weeks pregnant and have only just started signing up to the free baby clubs as I was well aware of how awful I'd feel if I'd lost the baby and then had constant e-mails and leaflets etc to remind me of what we'd lost. I haven't bought anything yet and I don't regret not having stockpiled over the years as here's the thing; there are always deals. If you miss the special money off deals this time, don't kick yourself as there will be a next time and it'll be soon.

Instead of spending money on things right now, save it in an account just for baby shopping when the time comes. In the meantime, get on Pinterest and mentally build your dream nursery. You'll have so much fun shopping for baby when the time is here and it'll be great to go with a decent amount of spending money... and you've got 9 months to prepare for the baby's arrival so it's not like you have to worry about timing!

P.S. If you really want some freebies, you can get a good free book about planning for healthy pregancy from the Tommy's website.

lilymay1

Totally agree with everything Birdie said.

Pregnancy is a long and difficult journey and one of the few fun bits of buying baby things.

cottage_retreatist

totally agree with Birdie as well!

I'm not going to start getting stuff until it happens but it's good to know what's out there and how much to budget for before embarking on TTC cause then I can start thinking about the level of money I need to put aside etc.

Main reason I wouldn't dare get anything baby-related before it happened is I'm too superstitious and I'd hate to jinx myself! Most people would say that's just stupid but I salute every time i see a magpie - in public places or not! So for me this is something I feel strongly about and it means - when the time does come I get the joy of shopping/Fleabaying/getting for free for a little person while carrying that little person!

It's all being put in a list on the computer so when the time comes I know how much to budget for and where to go!! Fail to prepare - prepare to fail!! That's my mantra!! :rotfl:

lampshadebrown

I think you are all getting a bit confused.. I am not joining these clubs now or buying anything yet. I'm just putting all the information together so when the time comes I will be we'll prepared and won't miss out or forget any of them.

lilymay1

lampshadebrown wrote: »

I think you are all getting a bit confused.. I am not joining these clubs now or buying anything yet. I'm just putting all the information together so when the time comes I will be we'll prepared and won't miss out or forget any of them.

As I said, 9 months is a long time. You will get plenty of information from your midwife and internet forums etc that will help you when the time comes.

codemonkey

lampshade, why not come and join the ttc thread or the waiting to ttc thread if you haven't already. Will give you ideas of how to get your body ready for ttc.

claire16c

mrsrolfie wrote: »

My advice is don't get ovulation tests. I bought some after a year of trying. Got a postive result, which I was pleased about, but then still didn't get pregnant. Went to doctors a few months later who said " I hope you haven't been buying those tests". I said I had once and she said "don't bother, they just stress you out more". And from what I've seen, she was right. Just 'do it' (!) every other day and you will hit the right time. I know people will disagree with me and that's fine but I think they make you become too obsessed, doing it regularly but not every day will ensure it happens. The day I went to the GP I had actually bought some more and had done one that morning. On her advice, I binned them. I got pregnant two days later.

I bought the pregnacare vitamins, again, after a year of trying. Get them on Amazon, half the price of Boots. Not sure if it was them or it was psychological, but I didn't care if they worked for me. My advice would be just don't get obsessed with it, don't do pregnancy tests every month or until you're at least a few days late and the Poundland ones do work :-)

Someone else has probably answered this but yes you can still get the changing bag, I bought one small pack of Pampers for around £3.70 and got the bag free.

Good luck with everything, just enjoy it, and if it doesn't happen one month, then have a cry then have a big glass of wine and make nice plans with your OH that weekend and do stuff you wouldn't be able to do if you have kids. That's what we did. It was very hard at times but we tried to make the best of it.

And agree with Becca, come off the pill as soon as possible, it took a year for me to get regular again which I think was part of the problem

x

In my experience drs who say stuff like that have no idea of the stresses involved in ttc. Bit like the ones who think women all ovulate on cd14 and should just do it a lot around that time.

I probably would never have got pregnant without ovulation sticks, they have given me great hope, haven't stressed me out at all, they show I'm ovulating ! It's a good thing! We would have missed the right time many times if I hadn't used them. The fact you got pregnant 2 days later is just a coincidence.

DigForVictory

In so far as you are able, do not loose or gain weight. Coming off the pill is enough of a shock to the system - sudden shifts in weight are an avoidable extra hazard.
All the best!

barbiedoll

Can I just remind everyone who joins the "baby clubs" and who uses the vouchers in "Emma's Diary" and so on, to NEVER enter their phone number on any of the forms or websites. You will have to endure a never-ending stream of sales calls from companies who will try to guilt-trip you into buying expensive life assurance plans, most of which can be found much, much cheaper elsewhere.

Remember, you're only getting the freebies, money-off vouchers etc, in exchange for your data! Set up a new email address especially for your clubs and if they insist on having a phone number ("in case we need to contact you") then enter a false one. Any number you have received from a PPI reclaiming text is a good one to use!