First timers, TTC. Safe space for brain dumps...

@Circe22

Hey ! I’d love to join this thread too! My partner and I have decided to start trying this month, 33&31. Super excited and a bit of a planner so spent a fair amount of today trawling through the conception part of mumsnet !! So nice to have have a place to ask questions / share random thoughts.

Baby dust to everyone here ✨🧡

Hi I would love to join as well. Been TTC for a little while for baby #1 at 40 yo.. feeling a bit hopeless because of my age but don't really want to talk about it to friends and family to avoid pressure! Currently awaiting AF which should come tomorrow or the day after. Been experiencing mild cramping and sore breasts for the last 4 days but not getting my hopes high as the cramps could well be in my head! Did a test yesterday which was negative, won't test again and just wait as I am struggling everytime I see it's negative :-(
Baby dust to you all!

Hey ! I’d love to join this thread too!
My partner and I have decided to start trying this month, 33&31. Super excited and a bit of a planner so spent a fair amount of today trawling through the conception part of mumsnet !! So nice to have have a place to ask questions / share random thoughts.

[quote MrsG2021]@HMFx That’s a good idea, I will try to do the same. Definitely up for trying to keep each other sane! X[/quote]
It's a plan 😁👍🏼 xx

@HMFx That’s a good idea, I will try to do the same. Definitely up for trying to keep each other sane! X

@MrsG2021 thank you - same with me too. Coming of the pill changed a lot for me I've recommended it to all my friends too and they've also said it's helped their mental health. Nice to have someone who knows how it is! Hopefully we can keep each other sane. Trying to remember my tips from therapy of how to deal with it all and not let it consume me. I definitely think the booster has had an effect. Fingers crossed for us both! X

[quote HMFx]@MrsG2021 it's like reading my own mind reading your post. I too have dealt with health anxiety in the past. Therapy helped but it's been bad the past couple of days in the run up to trying for the first time! I'm hoping once we actually start I will calm down. Doesn't help that my period has been very odd this month but again putting it down to diet changes and having my booster last week. I'm also taking the pregnacare conception vitamins but only for a few days so not sure how much affect this will have had. But I have heard it can change your cycles so I wouldn't worry too much.

Also thanks to @Jenbyfish for the advice it's actually made me feel better this morning 😁[/quote]
Sorry to hear that you also suffer from health anxiety @HMFx , although it’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one. I have also had therapy which helped a little bit but coming off the pill really seemed to improve things for me. Not sure why, maybe it was something to do with my hormones!
Yeah, I’ve read that it can cause changes to your cycle so not too worried! The changes weren’t huge, just one short cycle, followed by a slightly longer than average one so hopefully it will settle down now. I’ve also had my booster recently so that might be affecting things too.

@Nyxxie I just used basic strips - got a pack of around 50 femometer ones and that lasted a good few months as I wasn't using every day, just around the 1-2 week window after AF when ovulation was likely. I don't think there's a lot of difference between brands in terms of effectiveness, just comes down to cost. I'd say bulk buy if you can (if you end up with spares they can actually (usually) also show positive in the early weeks if you're pregnant, same as a pregnancy test - but best to use a proper test initially!). I did buy a BBT thermometer too that I intended to use alongside but in the end was never that organised to track temp every day

Morning all, went to bed feeling slightly crampy despite AF not being due for a few more days so pretty sure this month isn’t the month. Almost tested this morning to end the agonising, but then chickened out.

Thank you @Jenbyfish for the advice and reassurance, really good to hear. Do you have any recommendations on which OPKs to get?

I don't think I will use them this first cycle as it will be a withdrawal bleed rather than a natural period and I know the NHS advice is to wait until after your first natural one. That said we won't be using protection either, but won't be trying to maximise our chances until next cycle onwards. Seems like forever to wait!

Really grateful for this thread and looking forward to hearing how everyone gets on

Hi & welcome to all newcomers!

I woke up with the really bad backache again this morning and after a slight rise in my BBT, I thought I’d do a cheap test strip. I have previously had nothing show up on them but today on CD26 I got a dot… so I did a FRER then got a BFN. Disappointed but AF is not due for another few days so maybe there’s still hope!

Thank you for setting up this thread.

Myself (29) OH (31) ready to TTC. Bloody nervous. I have regular periods and tracking my ovulation times. Good luck to everyone!!

@MrsG2021 it's like reading my own mind reading your post. I too have dealt with health anxiety in the past. Therapy helped but it's been bad the past couple of days in the run up to trying for the first time! I'm hoping once we actually start I will calm down. Doesn't help that my period has been very odd this month but again putting it down to diet changes and having my booster last week. I'm also taking the pregnacare conception vitamins but only for a few days so not sure how much affect this will have had. But I have heard it can change your cycles so I wouldn't worry too much.

Also thanks to @Jenbyfish for the advice it's actually made me feel better this morning 😁

Hi everyone. Please can I join? I’m 27 and my DH is 28. We got married in August 2021 and have decided to start TTC this year. I’ve been broody for years haha so I’m feeling really excited but also a little bit nervous that it won’t happen (no reason why but I do have a bit of health anxiety so probably that!). I’ve been tracking my cycles using Clue for a couple of years now just out of interest so I’m fairly confident when I ovulate but might need to buy some sticks to be sure (although I don’t want to become obsessed!). I started taking the Pregnacare folic acid a couple of months ago which annoyingly caused a few changes to my usually very regular cycles. Has anyone else taken the Pregnacare vitamins and had similar side effects?

Thanks for all the tips @Jenbyfish

As this is our first TTC cycle, I started doing my BBT yesterday. I am quite surprised how low mine is orally with 34.95 yesterday and a rise to 35.32 today. I’m expecting AF in the next few days so assumed it would be dropping now rather than rising but I still think it’s really low anyway

Ah sorry, morning brain - meant vitamin D not vitamin C

Hi all, massive good luck and best wishes to all of you TTC. It was a mixed bag for us - took nearly 18 months in the end but part of the reason for that was that my cycles have always been irregular and I was very hands off the process at the beginning (sort of just estimating the window based on dates and physical signs).

I know well-meaning advice isn't always helpful, but there's a some practical tips I'd like to pass on that I really feel helped me - no guarantee of success but I think anything you can add to your arsenal when TTC is a bonus. Really recommend ovulation sticks in helping to narrow down the optimum window. Also took daily folic acid and vitamin C supplements - I can be a bit indoorsy normally so definitely think the vitamin C helped with my cycles. And I gave up alcohol 100% - personal choice and probably just coincidental but previously I'd been having the odd glass when AF arrived and in the end I cut it out altogether for a few months. If you're really concerned at any point and have the money (or don't mind waiting for an nhs referral) consider a basic fertility test for both of you - we did this after a year based on my concerns about being irregular but when the results didn't find anything untoward, it gave us an extra boost of confidence. Alternatively, if something did show up at least you'd then have the knowledge to decide the best next step for you.

Just wanted to post here because for anyone who doesn't manage to get that positive result after the first few months the TTC journey can get tough at times (2WW is the worst!). On the other hand I really felt it gave me a lot of resilience and perspective so if you end up in a similar boat, don't lose hope! Best of luck to all of you!

I'm glad it's not just my DH who thinks you can just dtd once or twice willy nilly and it will happen 🙈 @BlueSky57 I also have lower back ache and tummy cramps, have done since ovulation about 3/4 days ago and being off work means I'm reading into every little thing. In reality though I think my ovulation was a day or two later than expected so we went a bit early with dtd..

Hey all, would love to follow everyone's journey as me and my SO have just started ttc! I think I'm ovulating about now, hard to get my head around everything so got a while to wait yet to know!!

Hey all! Would love to join you? I'm getting my implant removed later this month, and pretty nervous about how 12 years of hormonal contraception will have affected my hormones etc, so expecting it to take a little while before it settles back into s rhythm. Hopefully will give me some time to lose a little weight before my body becomes public domain!

Hi everyone! We're also going to start ttc our first in the next couple of months so it's nice to have somewhere on here to share the journey

Hello all- I'm in the same boast as well.
Pretty clueless about it all so called my Dr yesterday and he advised waiting 2-3 months whilst taking folic acid supplements before TTC. So April it is then!
I didn't know this before so thought I'd share incase. Good luck everyone!

Being off work is definitely giving me too much time to think (overthink) everything! Hopefully things will seem to go a bit quicker once we're back into the normal routine