What do you wish you'd done/ known/ prepped in the year before TTC?

[dreamingofababby]

Hoping to go one last holiday but we're currently buying a house so it's a maybe and it'll not be fancy.

The only thing I’d say which thankfully someone did tell me is to SAVE SAVE SAVE as much as you can while ttc. Because once you’re pregnant although in theory you still have 9 months to save, there’s so much stuff to buy (especially if your first baby) so you find you’re spending most of your money then on furniture, pram, next to me crib, bottles, steriliser, clothes etc. Save as much as you can pre-pregnancy while ttc!

We did that and now my baby is 5 months old we’re thankful as we have everything we need and plenty of money saved, rather than be potentially worrying about paying for anything or having to return to work early.

Exactly what we did: lots of travel to non-family friendly places (we went backpacking through Asia), nice meals out, staying up late, lazy weekends, boozy brunches if you drink. You won’t get this time back so make the most of it doing anything other than thinking about babies.

Take prenatal vitamins and get/stay in shape. Pregnancy is very physically demanding.

That it will take so long. Its been a year and still nothing.

We are investigating it but if I had known maybe i would have started earlier though not sure how much earlier I could start. I was always very lax with contraception from age 22 to age 31, basically didn't use it, just did pull and pray

I had a surprise pregnancy so no time at all to plan. But if I had done I would definitely have done more spontaneous things like just randomly go out for dinner or cinema, and some big ticket trips. We were also saving for a house and wedding and honestly I wished I'd splurged on a holiday instead. Haven't been anywhere in the last 5 years and now stuck with school holidays prices and paying for 4 tickets on 1.5salaries means we're not going anywhere anytime soon!!

When pregnant I'm really glad I got everything second hand. Most of it was pristine and it saved us so much money. Nursery furniture, buggy, car seat (from a friend we knew), clothes, even the nappies as we did reusable. Way better for the planet and wallet and honestly didn't ever occur to me that there was any benefit to having new things that cost 3x as much.

After baby was here I wish I'd thought to save my mat pay and invest the child benefit for DC. I frittered it away and in hindsight could have been much better with investing it and also starting a savings account for baby.

On a smaller note...enjoy being able to go out of the house with just your keys/purse/phone rather than a change bag, buggy, drinks, snacks, kids in tow etc!

Fitness and strength exercises before ttc.

Driving lessons if you can't drive!
And enjoying your body in any way you like.. Kind of feels like it's not your own in the early baby years :)

I regret not planning a big trip during maternity leave too. Small babies are really portable!