I am just wondering if there is a practical, dummies guide, to TTC for the UK? I have all sorts of questions such as:
- do I need to have a pre-TTC health check? I'm 31, fit and well, but more wanting to know if I am given the "all clear", in 12 months time if I'm still TTC, does it help the GP as "evidence" that I was fit and well a year previously?
- what would that health check involve?
- Do I start folate 3 months in advance?
- cycle tracking is a minefield and I have no idea what half of the terms on here mean!
- other important considerations before we start, such as career and expenses that we should consider. We are expecting to pay off our mortgage within a year so that is one major expense gone before I'd finish work, and household expenses would be manageable- but it makes me feel funny to be dependent on my husband to allocate me money for clothes etc.. I've started putting away a small savings pot for me to buy gratuitous things like clothes and makeup!
- If we are lucky enough to have a child, we are intending on using shared parental leave so that I'll take 9 months of leave and him 3. But what sort of different working arrangements do people use? I quite like the idea of a 9 day working fortnight.
- how to find the cost of childcare when the ones local to us do not publish their rates online?
I can't seem to find a dummies guide on mumsnet, perhaps there are other resources other than articles which basically summarise these threads?
Sorry for the silly questions but there is so much I don't know that I don't know...!