Preparing myself ... any advice?

[GetExcitedAndMakeThings]

Hi all! My partner and I are ttc, he is away until december so has told me to prepare while he's away, i have been to the doctors and she says I have to cut out my coffee :( Ouch. I came off the pill a couple of months ago, I have been taking folic acid for about a month, I fell pregant pretty quick with my girl, now 5 (I never needed coffee before then), and i hope it happens again, we tried for 4 months before he went away but no luck. So now i have until december, can anyone tell me if i can drink coffee? how much, decaf even? Does it really cut your chances of conceiving? My mum has 5 kids and believes otherwise.... rambling on now. Anything else i can do/take to give us the best chance possible?

I've heard the caffeine thing. I love coffe but have switched to green tea and the occasional decaff instead. I am not convinced it makes a massive difference though in moderate quantities but I have been at this a while and will give anything a go.

Otherwise a healthy diet and avoiding binge drinking every night is peobably not a bad plan.

Keep taking the folic acid.

Four months is really not that long. Do you know when you ovulate and have you been hitting your fertile days each cycle?

Hi eurochick, thanks for the advice :)

The binge drinking isn't a problem, since I rarely drink and will also try anything that will boost my chances.

I have no idea when I ovulate and i have seen the info on how to work it out but i never have a refular period, they are monthly but still can be a couple of weeks apart or the full month apart. I wouldn't know how to work around that

Hi, yes, give up caffeine. It can be a wrench but is a good idea.

Try a very healthy diet - lots of greens etc. I was told egg is a good thing to eat while TTC (something to do with protein).

Wheatgrass is something that's supposed to help (although it is minging)

do some exercise but don't over do it.

I'd recommend a clear blue monitor to chart ovulation - get to know your body - I notices some very clear signs (egg white cervical mucus, and ovulation pain plus spots).

Best of luck!

In that case getting to know your cycle might be a good idea. Look for EWCM, ovulation pain twinges (not everyone gets these) and you might want to think about using an ovulation predictor kit or monitor if you are in a hurry.

I temperature chart to monitor my cycle but as that only shows ovulation after it has happened it probably isn't the best thing if you have unpredicatable cycles.

Hi, I have just got my BFP after 8 months of trying. We didn't seem to do anything differently this month other than I didn't have a period the month before so I really didn't expect to get pregnant, maybe relaxing about it helped, or it was just coincidence. I have cut down my caffeine now that I am pregnant, but before I carried on with my usual, not excessive, caffeine intake. I took folic acid before and tried to eat more healthily but nothing too drastic. Ovulation sticks can be helpful and charting, but only started these 1 month before my BFP so didn't really get in the swing of using them. Good luck!

And good luck to you guys too!

Thank you all very much :) Very helpful bunch :D The doctor said one or two cups a day is alright, what about decaf?

I will have a look into these monitors and ovulation kits, i haven't considered it before as I thought because it never took long 1st time, was naive enough to think it would be the same now. I will take onboard the healthy eating tips and I will use them :) Anything that will help is much appreciated. Thank you !!

Decaf is fine, at least I hope so because that's what I am having!

I should give up caffeine?!

I think there is still a miniscule amount of caffeine in decaff, so don't drink it like a fish, in place of water etc lol, but otherwise I'd have thought it was fine.

Thats good, I have 3 months to prepapre myself but have already went and bought the decaf and having a few cups of that a day instead of actual, real (cry) coffee, headaches starting to set in haha! Thank you all so much! Now off to write a new shopping list for asda! Time to ditch the rubbish :)