Preconception planning - anyone want to join?

I'm also glad to see I'm not the only person who has used an old hairspray lid as a pee pot!

@Bells3032 It's really weird having your first anniversary during all of this, isn't it? Ours was one week after lockdown started - we were supposed to be on our final full day of a big holiday that day (we ended up flying back early because of FCA advice and the risk of border closures) so we were pretty blue to say the least. What made me feel marginally better was thinking how much worse I'd have felt if this had happened one year before! Here's hoping that both of our second anniversaries are better ones.

Hope everyone had good weekends? I have a bit of spotting today and a very achey left breast, so hopeful that this means I might get a withdrawal bleed soon and be one step closer to a return to my proper cycle!

@JamesZebra that's kinda the angle we have gone with, although we still go with the withdrawal method, we just figured if it happens we don't really mind! But just not actively TTC atm. Excited for the tests to arrive now. How boring my life must be to be excited to pee on a strip lol

@wrensandrobins I am so sorry you are not feeling good! I suffered from really bad migraines when I was on the pill. I hated the way it made me feel and eventually just decided to come off it and thought at least then I have almost a year pill free to get my cycles back on track before TTC. I was quite lucky because my cycles pretty much went back to normal and on time a month after coming off. I know for some people, it can take a lot longer.

@Nate1 great job with the tracking! Looks like you pretty much have it cracked. I think its a great idea doing this ahead of TTC just so we know what to expect. I remember joining mumsnet and reading about it and not having a clue what any of it meant, and I really don't want to waste my first month of TTC trying to figure it all out!

Hubby thinks ive gone barmy.

@Nate1 I already have 2 teenagers, I must be a bit mad to be trying for another when I am nearly done with the other 2
I just don't feel like I have finished having babies and my DP doesn't have any kids of his own so I would like us to have one together.

@JamesZebra how exciting that you guys are trying or at least just going for it :) I think you are right there is never the absolutely right time so why not do it as soon as you can imagine yourselves with kids :) lovely

Hi ladies :) happy to read that so many of you are trying to get fit 💪! I wish us strength ;)

@Bells3032 Happy anniversary. Sounds like a turbulent year. I have my fingers crossed for you to be 3 next year.

@CookieMonster3001 I know you didn’t ask me either but I thought maybe you ladies would like to see how I‘m trying - emphasis on trying :D - to track my cycle with temping and OPKs which is why I added a pic. Sorry if tmi. Maybe it‘s interesting for some of you. When I started I didn‘t know what I was doing but feel quite comfortable now :). I will (hopefully) keep the tracking up until a bfp in September/October maybe later who knows :). Anyway happy to share. :D You can see the date, cycle day, if I had my mens (x=no), my temperature and whether or not I had an LH-Rise/peak. Underneath each day is the used OPK (used anytime between 11-02 midday. :) So to cut it short I had a noticeable amount of LH for the last three days and a temperature drop and rise during this time which equals (hopefully) an egg :D

My migraines have been awful this last week 3 a day! it's been miserable! Im convinced it's my pill! I'm making the leap to natural cycles- we are going to use condoms for now because I know it takes a while to sync and would rather be a bit closer to the planned start date incase of accidents but I hope it will benefit me for December when we start trying to understand my cycle and have the pill well and truly out the system!

that was supposed to say there was no LH spike line at all

@CookieMonster3001 @MsQueenInTheNorth has it spot on. I just used an old tupperwear pot that I now keep at the back of my underwear drawer but a lid from hair spray is a great idea. They are dip sticks rather than mid stream ones so a pot is deffo needed.
I did another OPK yesterday and there was LH spike line at all so I am pretty confident that I ovulated this month. Me and DP are still dtd without protection as I figured if it happened now it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I am a bridesmaid twice next year so it could impact on that but I think there is never really a perfect time to try and get pregnant and if I stopped for every calendar event that being pregnant or having a young baby would be inconvenient for then we would never do it.
DP is convinced that his swimmers don't work. I have encouraged him previously to see his GP and get them checked but he is a typical man and refuses to go.......I guess time will tell if there is a problem. Just makes me feel relieved to know I am ovulating.
Let me know how you get on with the OPK's

@CookieMonster3001 no problem! This will only be my second month doing it recently, but I used natural cycles for a while a couple of years ago. That’s what I did then and it seemed to work OK, so fingers crossed things haven’t changed too much. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to test twice a day, but it must make it a bit more accurate?

I’m going to avoid temperature tracking if possible as I worried about how accurately I was doing it (I wake up quite a lot in the night, etc) but I might end up going back to it!

@MsQueenInTheNorth no that's really useful! Thank you! I have noticed the last couple of months, my temp graph has been a bit wishy washy (I am more strict with timings now so should have evened out, but still quite spikey) which caused my app to change my ovulation date about 6 times, so testing it with OPKs I am hoping will really help to pinpoint when the best window actually will be.

Pleased you’re enjoying Couch to 5k @CookieMonster3001! I repeated a couple of weeks (I think week 5 and another one) as I thought there was a big jump, so it took me a bit longer than it should have done!

Are the testing strips that you’ve bought the ones from amazon that are about £5/6 for 30? If so they are the ones I have and they don’t come with a pot I’m afraid. It is important to dip them so you don’t get the wrong part of the test wet; I just use an old plastic cup and wash it out after every use. I will be testing twice a day from around day 9 onwards (I normally ovulate around day 14), at about 11am and 7pm. I hope that helps a bit, I know you weren’t asking me though!

Happy anniversary @Bells3032, I’m sorry it’s not what you were expecting. Hopefully the next one will be amazing!

@Bells3032 great idea on the hairspray cap!! Now I will just have to practice my aim........ haha

Oooh mine and my husband's birthdays are also in the next month!

@Cookiemonster3001
Some do and some don't. If you can't find anything else (I am pretty sure you can get urine sample pots on amazon) do you have a cap or something from a hairspray or something similar. I used to use one of those and just make sure it's washed out between uses and not put back onto the hair spray!

@Bells3032 from the picture, it doesn't look like the ones I got come with one? They just look like foil packets with strips in them. Might be wrong though!

Sounds like you have had one hell of a year so far. Praying you have the most amazing gift for your 2nd anniversary! Whilst we cant really do much at the moment, enjoy your time with your hubby this year :) Its mine and hubbies 3 yr anniversary in August and both of our birthdays this month and hoping it will be our last just us two!

@CookieMonster3001 I think they come with the pot no?

@sunflowersaremyfav93 stay away from Google!

It's my wedding anniversary tomorrow. Not quite how I imagined my first anniversary. It's going to be quite disappointing. We aren't even doing presents as we said we'd rather keep the money for something for our future house (I have asked my hubby for a mirror jewellery cupboard when we move). There's not space in the flat so presents are IOUs. It's been a bonkers year with my husband's firm collapsed the day after our wedding and he was TUPEd to a new firm, six months later his boss's business hadn't picked up and he was threatened with redundancy but thankfully got a new (and much better paid) job before he was made redundant and started that job a day before lockdown started! We lost my grandpa at Christmas, my birthday i ended up needing surgery and lockdown. But we had amazing trips to Japan and Disneyworld and Vegas as well. it's been absolutely bonkers. We hope by anniversary 2 our world may change again!

Good morning ladies!!

@sunflowersaremyfav93 I hope you are feeling a bit better today! Agree with the others! Stay away from google!

@butterfly5291 ooo I'm so excited for you! you will have to keep up updated with your journey!

@MsQueenInTheNorth I have just started Couch to 5 K, absolutely loving it! On week 4 at the moment.

So good to see other ladies on here too! Lot of us seem to be on a fitness journey and quite a few planning to start TTC in October! We will all have to start another October thread when we get there.

I placed an order to ebay this morning for some balloons as its DH birthday next week and thought I might as well get some OPKs while I am at it, saves me doing 2 separate orders! so looking forward to getting them and testing them out!

@JamesZebra so you can't just pee on them? gonna have to hunt down a pot I'm willing to pee in. Is there a set time a day you usually test? sorry if you have already said this!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I'm starting AF today and really hoping I can get my run in before it starts, although I have to admit, this is the first time in a long time I don't have any major PMS symptoms. Since coming off the pill last year, me and DH have just been relying on the withdrawal method, and I do sometimes get anxious around my AF time because although its unlikely, I know it is possible!

I dont think that's its necessary to be married (I am) but I do think there are things to consider if you aren't and not for maternity leave reasons (although that is a consideration and I know people who have been caught up for it). It's more that, whilst the vast majority of pregnancies are safe there are dangers to it and if something should happen to you a partner wouldnt automatically have rights to make medical decisions for you or the child or automatically be the father of the child legally if the worst were to happen. Similarly if you own a home together there may be inheritance tax implications if you aren't married and you'd be forced to move out of your home.

You don't need to make a big hoha you can literally do it in half an hour in a town hall but it does mean much better legal position. But maybe I'm morbid haha.

I thjnk everyone has to do what's right for them though. Marriage or no marriage is up to them as a couple

@Nate1 thank you! I think I just had a bit more perseverance this time, I’ve started it a couple of times before but not finished it. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up! Your hiking sounds great, I wish I lived someone that had slightly more exciting walking routes! I think yoga is a great idea, I know I definitely need to work on my core strength. Not so much for conception but for actual pregnancy and birth!

Hi @queenatom, fellow Couch to 5k-er! My next step is to get a little bit faster, but a glacial pace (which is my current effort too) is definitely better than nothing!

@sunflowersaremyfav93 It doesn’t have any vitamin a in, but it does say to check with a doctor before taking it if you’re pregnant. Hopefully it will be OK!

My boyfriend and I aren’t married (obviously, or I wouldn’t be referring to him as my boyfriend ) but if we do start trying in the new year then I will want a plan put in place for when we are going to get married, and I’d ideally want to be married before I finished maternity leave. Not so much for romantic or commitment reasons (although obviously that would be nice too!) , but just for the legal protection that come with it. It’s not for everyone though!

I'm not married, I have been with my partner 5 years and we have owned our own home for 3 of them. I would love to get married but we just can't justify the cost at the moment.

I feel secure in my relationship that being married isn't needed immediately.

@sunflowersaremyfav93 I haven't spoken to my doctor. The way things are at the min it is impossible to get an appointment unless emergency or urgent. I would considering myself to be in good health, just need to start getting more fruit and veg into my diet. Very thin last year for my wedding, but managed to put on about 8pounds which is prob better for convincing.

So many of my friends say when is the right time to have a baby or start trying. Things like job, wedding, house, commitments make you think I will wait until next year, month etc. Many people do it and they haven't got everything together. But it all works out.

My twin fell pregnant in her first cycle last year, wonder how things will go for me.

@sunflowersaremyfav93 It‘s great that you live in your house! I‘m always envy of you guys in England because you often seem to be quite young and homeowners. I am married but no house :D and tbh not for a while I think.. :(

Hi @KittyT30 I would like to have a late spring early summer baby too. :)