When exactly do we 'do the deed'?

[CheerfulSoul]

It's gonna sound dumb but I'm just not clear when exactly we need to 'do the deed'. I thought the sperm lived for 5 days and the egg for 1 day, so we should try prior to and at ovulation. However, someone told me it's the other way around and we need to try at ovulation and after. Can someone tell me how it works?!

You are correct, and your friend is wrong. It's definitely BEFORE ovulation not after. You want to have the sperm there and waiting to meet the egg when it's released.

How long are your periods? You ovulate approximately 14 days before you start your period. This means that if you have a 28 day cycle you should be shagging on about day 11 or 12.

Of course, the only foolproof way to do it is to have sex every other day, but I could never be arsed to do that.

IME the most effective time is in the evening when you've gone to bed (don't get up afterwards- let gravity do its work) and try and get your jollies at the same time.

OK, thanks guys. Actually, I already have a 9 month old so I guess we must have got it right once but I have no clue how! Hoping we can do it a little quicker second time around (first time took 10 months).

Also, it was my GP who gave me the 'wrong' information about the lifetime of the sperm and egg. I didn't try to correct him but felt sure I was right!

Not sure yet how long my cycle is - I only stopped bf a couple of months ago so only had one period yet. Last time, it was very variable (between 21-25 days) and predicting ovulation was a bit of a lottery.