TTC feels like a minefield

[RubyRooFastic29]

Hi please bare with as I try to explain this. We are on cycle 2 of ttc after coming off the pill after 12 years in July and feel like all I do is symptom spot in the tww. The last week I have had awful bloating, wind sorry tmi, skin breakouts and what feels like intense period cramping and pain under ribs. I think I ovulated around the 13th of this month and should be due af around 26/27th of this month. Think I just need some of your experiences and what I should be looking out for. It's probably going to be my AF but just looking for your experiences during this time I think. Hope this makes sense

I don't want to raise your hopes but when I got pregnant it just felt like a period. It is SO hard not too but just trying to wait the 2 weeks and take a first response. Sending you all the luck xx

Tbh if you are due on the 26th I’d be tempted to take a test tomorrow… that’d be 10 days past ovulation so you should be able to get a result?

I’m tempted to say it feels like a minefield because it is! With my first I thought I knew exactly what was happening - the month I conceived I felt different, I noticed my boobs aching and feeling massive, flutters in my tummy and I just had a gut instinct. Now we’re trying for number 2 after some losses I’ve realised I can symptom spot all I want but it doesn’t mean I’m pregnant. It’s so annoying! Good luck and fingers crossed for your BFP soon!

It doesn't have to be! I had zero symptoms the two months I got positives. Honestly, give yourself a break, I wouldn't even be tracking ovulation for the first few months at least, just enjoy trying. And set realistic expectations, it's very common to take a year, and especially if you've only recently come off the pill, it can take some time for your body to reset.

Relax!
Step away from the internet!
Have some fun, there's time to get "serious" later. It will be a long process if you start with stress!

My history it took 3-4 months to conceive my first. I had been on the pill for years and years. I didn't feel any different when I conceived. The month before I had a light earlier period which I thought could have been implantation but pregnancy tests were negative. My period was 5 days late and it's was my birthday and I wanted to know if I could drink. I was surprised to see a positive test.

I stopped contraception in April after 3 years on it this time. I had one period and then my period was late on holiday. I felt completely normal but with no preperiod symptoms. It was 5 days before I could test and it was a very clear positive. I had hyperemesis in both pregnancies but unfortunately this second pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 10 weeks. Both pregnancies felt very similar and it was 3 days after the miscarriage before I could stop the antiemetics and I had nausea for another week.

I'm TTC again and really just going with the flow and trying not to overthink things. It feels a lot more serious this time which is actually off putting. I'm trying to stay away from obsessing about symptoms. The last two months I have noticed change in discharge possibly egg white like and the day before my last period I had massive sugar cravings and demolished 3 crunchies in an afternoon. I'm trying to just enjoy time with my partner. The sickness in pregnancy usually puts pay to that and I had severe pnd after my first that took 2 years to recover from so it was a long drought of intimacy! I was on a limited diet as I was breastfeeding a baby with food allergies so I didn't eat properly for 18 months. So I've been trying to regularly have my favourite foods and do all the things I couldn't do whilst pregnant or whilst with depression. Before having my daughter I had all of these fanciful ideas that I would keep doing everything I used to do and was totally unprepared for how much my life had changed within a few weeks of that positive tests. So yes relax, take things easy, once you have been trying for a few months there's time to up the anti. 4 months was the time I gave myself for more targeted sex and looking for symptoms.