Advice - TTC in 6 months anything I should be doing now??

[bebemad]

I am excited to be ttc in June next year is there anything I should be doing now to prepare?

Save as much cash as you can! Don't buy too many new clothes as (hopefully) soon they won't fit. Enjoy nights out and hols with your other half, oh and appreciate the lie ins!

WillowB has covered the important bits! On a practical note get yourself as fit and healthy as possible - eat well, exercise, keep yourself at a healthy BMI, and from about 3 months before start taking folic acid.

PS the eating well and exercising bit also applies to your partner . If either of you smoke or drink heavily give that up too. It's boring being healthy, but worth it. I made my DH eat brazil nuts for selenium as well. Not sure of it helped, but it only took us a month, so who knows.

Try acupuncture or anything like reflexology to relax. Good luck!

Think about starting a good multi vitamin with folic acid

Definitely get the financial side sorted. Save as much as you can, if you have a mortgage see if you are able to take a mortgage holiday during your maternity leave and ensure that you and your partner are both up for sharing the load with regard to childcare.

Go out and get sloshed, stay up all night, eat loads of stinky French unpasteurised cheese!

I second Ivanapoo's advice!

Totally agree with worsestershiresauce - make sure you are as healthy as you can be and get on the supplements (your partner too).
For us it was a case of having a big holiday in the sun while we still could .

I made sure I had a smear just before TTC so wouldn't need one in the first trimester.

Start ttc now is my advice! So theres no pressure x

chart your cycle now so you'll know when the best time for dtd is during your cycle. use cheapy ovulation sticks to tell you when you usually ovulate. but i'd second the "start now" advice because it can take many many months if not years.

Defo chart your cycle and start trying sooner rather than later,took me nearly a year because I'd been on the pill

I learned a lot from reading "take charge of your fertility." I'd say it was the most informative book I've read. There was so much I didn't know about my body.

Definitely start monitoring your cycle, noting things like your cervical mucus, obviously the day you get your period etc and you can if you like get into checking your basal body temp. If you start now you'll have 6 months worth of data to aid you into when you are ovulating. I found the conception board useful as it gives you an idea of the issues and frustrations. I know a few people who came off the pill and it took months for their cycles to return to normal which was a huge source of frustration for them, so if this applies to you I'd come off it now and just use condoms in the mean time. oh and yes to folic acid!

I'll go a little counter this advice . I started three months beforehand, charting cycles etc. I went a little crazy checking basal body temp every morning and reading all the posts on the conception board....only to fall pg the very first cycle we tried. Not saying this will happen to everyone of course. But if you have no real outward signs of problems (irregular cycles for example) then probably best to take a positive attitude to it rather than getting head-bangey for no good reason. Perhaps start charting a month in advance just to be sure that when you have the cervical mucus is when you are ovulating?

See the dentist for a checkup as being pg impacts on your gums. Have a rubella antibody blood test. Take folic acid. If either of you take recreational drugs, particularly him, cut them out completely from at least 3 months before you start TTC. Join the Waiting to TTC thread in the MN conception forum. Buy a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility and/or sign up to Fertility Friend.

Oh yes - and a smear.

I have to agree with LeBFG, I was lucky to conceive immediately but during TTC and pregnancy it's easy (and I think pretty normal) to become a bit obsessed with it all so would recommend not giving yourself an extra 6 months of obsession!

I'm another one who would caution against turning the whole thing into a process so early in the game. Have a bit of fun, have lots of sex (every other day through out the month should catch ovulation), and try to avoid the stress of having to have sex NOW because you poas and it said you had to. If things don't work out, then you can start tracking ovulation. Lots of women get pregnant quickly (I did, my friends all did....) but we don't really talk about it, so there is a perception that is will be really difficult, not it may be difficult.