Preconception planning - anyone want to join?

@sunflowersaremyfav93 that’s the plan! We’re also hoping to put house on market then too, not ideal timing but it will take us a few months to get it ready and I don’t want to put off ttc any longer as I’m 36 in spring and I really don’t want to hit that next birthday and still not be at least trying! Things have been so up in the air this year with our cancelled and rescheduled wedding, we’re put that all behind us now but it’s a bit annoying as if we had been able to get married in the spring as planned we’d be further on with everything else! Bloody Covid 🙄

@butterfly5291 yes it does, but in the first month it won't confirm until you have a period, and at the moment I think it has my ovulation wrong- it's suggesting day 22 and I think it was day 33! I will try fertility friend and see what it thinks!

@Bells3032 good luck!!!

@wrensandrobins fingers crossed for you that this is it!

@sunflowersaremyfav93 yep the shops will be full of Christmas stuff from today and it will be Christmas before we know it! Which I find exciting and terrifying in equal measure as when the New Year it’s baby dancing time 😂

@wrensandrobins does natural cycles confirm ovulation? If you put your temps into fertility friend it actually confirms ovulation for you. Here's my chart as an example. The red vertical line is when I ovulated and horizontal is my cover line, you would expect to see temp stay above this during luteal phase and then drop when AF is coming.

Here is my chart! I'm really hopeful that this is it this time :)

Ok so I am excited this morning! I think I have ovulated for the first time since coming off the pill. EWM for the last couple of days and look at my BBT chart, it's shot right up, also my heart rate has shot up too and a quick google says that it does increase when you ovulate, annoyingly i stopped taking the ovulation tests because I was getting such mixed confused results due to my post poll hormones..

The only annoying thing is that that means in 14 days I should get my first period, and in 14 days me and my partner are going on our only holiday this year camping. 🤣 is it wrong to hope for a short luteal phase for this month only!

I will be so happy if my cycle goes back to normal though, I feel all out of kilter with my hormones.

@butterfly5291 ah usually I am a lazy sod and don't get out of bed til nine but DH was up early to go into work today for his deadline today and I wanted to go to ASDA before it got too busy.

I have some co-codomol before i go thanks. I've never really felt my strings tbh (i think i did at the start but only just) but hopefully it'll be easy

@Bells3032 busy bee this morning...I've not even got out of bed yet!
Hope your coil removal goes well, they told me to take some pain relief before I went, but it is just like having a smear really...and if you can feel your strings I'm sure it will be super easy x

Hurrah it's September!!! Usually hate the first of the month as it's when all my bills get paid but i am happy today!

Have already been to Asda this morning to get DH's hormone prescription filled. Thankfully we have found they have it so don't have to drag up to Harley Street to get it! and it's a lot cheaper too.

My husband has two weeks and one day til his probation period ends so fingers crossed. And then we can also hopefully exchange on our house!

We are hoping to get a SA done next week (he's got a massive deadline today so hoping to discuss dates later this week when he's calmer)

And my coil is coming out tonight!!!! hurrah!!!!

It's all happening!! eep eep

I by no means think they are some kind of miracle worker but from reading around the reviews do seem by and large very good. I guess it’s just all about increasing your chances of pinpointing the most fertile days to DTD

Definitely agree with that @TheNewMrsW! If after a few months of trying I'm not getting anywhere with my laid back attitude I'm sure I'll be peeing on anything that might help 😂

@butterfly5291 Thanks 😊 yeah that’s what I’m planning to do, just toying with throwing a monitor into the mix as well

@Pebbleinthesand I know what you mean, part of me thinks it’s a bit OTT but another part of me doesn’t want to be sat here this time next year thinking goddammit I should have pee’d on every damn thing I could get my hands on 😂

@TheNewMrsW I used my sister's old CB fertility monitor this month and bought some sticks off ebay. I liked it because you do it every morning and I didn't catch my peak on the cheap ooks...yes I did both out of interest but really if you use cheap ooks and bbt tracking then you will have a pretty good idea if when your peak was. My advice would be to DTD as much as possible once you start getting a darker line on OPKs until bbt proves you've ovulated. Will likely only be 2-3 days a month x

@TheNewMrsW Wow sounds very high tech! Although peeing on any stick more than a pregnancy test seems high tech to me where this is concerned. Really hoping I won't need to worry about that stuff, I think I'd be rubbish at it😂

@Pebbleinthesand there are various types but I was looking at the ClearBlue one, it’s basically the same as an OPK in that you POAS but you then stick the stick in the machine and it interprets the results for you and tells you when you are peak fertility, rather than you having to guess whether the line is peak LH or not. They are pricey though!

@mackjm20 when I had my DD I saved about £1000 for buying stuff. I didn't want to spend thousands on a pram and managed to get it on a good deal. I also up cycled the wardrobe and chest of drawers for the nursery.
This time we won't need to make as many big purchases because we already have a lot of it. I will need to buy a new next to me sleeper/crib though because we borrowed that from a friend and just bought a new mattress.

I don't even know what a fertility monitor is @TheNewMrsW. What does it entail?
I also had about £3000 saved by the time I went on maternity so that I wouldn't be skint once my wages dropped down.

My thinking is that if I save enough to cover the mortgage and our car payments for 6 months, DH’s wages should then cover other bills and outgoings and my mat pay would then be for extras, we’ll see how my saving goes the next few months! No Christmas presents for anyone this year 😂

So my question of the day - fertility monitors. Anyone got one, anyone thinking of getting one? I was sceptical but she seems to rate them in the Impatient Woman alongside other methods .... and I am definitely an Impatient Woman lol!!! I’m trying not to get too carried away or put too much pressure on myself but there is also a part of me that thinks I’m already 35, we want at least two kids and a couple years between each one... the longer I am ttc #1 the older I will be ttc #2 if we are so lucky... so thinking I’m willing to throw the kitchen sink at trying to get pg quickly! Thoughts?

I think that’s a “how long is a piece of string one”! There are certain things you do need but people do spend a lot of money on things that aren’t essential. I’ve read a few articles and blogs about this and my takeaway was that the big ticket items are pram/stroller, car seat and crib/cotbed. You can save a lot of money if you buy certain things second hand (if you don’t mind doing that) but it isn’t recommended to buy second hand car seats and cribs/cots you should always buy a new mattress. Other things like a changing table are nice if you have the money/space but aren’t essential.

It depends how high end you want to go too. The pram is the big one IMO, the really nice ones are the best part of £1000 😳. We were in IKEA a couple of weeks back and I noticed they have some nice nursery furniture that didn’t cost the earth, though I like the look of some of stuff in John Lewis lol

My bigger concern is saving up enough that I can afford to be off on ML, I would only get stat MP and I earn quite a lot more than DH ...

@sa222 Welcome! Don’t worry, I’m 35 and due to start TTC our first in January. I am conscious of age but everything I read says that the statistics for fertility of women in their mid-30s are much better than the media etc would have you believe 😊

I would read as much as you can the next few months and start trying to get an idea of your cycle and when you ovulate so that when you are ready to try you are in the best position you can be. Start taking pre-natals too 😊

Question for today (as my mind was running overdrive last night) how much does everyone have saved/ think they will need to have saved for all the bits you need to buy for a baby? Xx