I Want to Get Pregnant, Now What?

You’ve decided to have a baby—that’s so exciting! While some women seem to blink and get pregnant, it can take quite some time for others. Once you’ve made the decision, actually getting pregnant can feel like a game of “hurry up and wait.” Here are some things you should keep in mind as you start trying.

Second Things First

Getting busy with your guy is obviously the one step you can’t get pregnant without. But the second to-do on your list (which you should start first thing) is to prioritize healthy habits. Start them now, and they’ll be easier to carry through pregnancy. Eating well, staying active and getting good sleep are all important for your wellbeing and for baby’s. If you’re a smoker, you’ll want to make a plan for easing off the cigarettes: an estimated 13% of fertility problems are affected by smoke or being around secondhand smoke. Over imbibing is also a no-no: excessive alcohol consumption can lower your chances of conceiving and be potentially damaging to the baby.

Stop Taking Birth Control

OK, this is another obvious must before you can really start trying. Our biggest piece of advice: consider going off of hormone-based birth control a couple of months before you really want to conceive. It can take that long for the hormones to leave your system, and for your ovulation cycle to normalize.

Start Taking Prenatal Vitamins

It may not surprise you that your body needs help getting all of the vitamins and nutrients necessary after baby takes his or her share first. What may surprise you is that you should start taking prenatal vitamins at least 3 months before trying to conceive. Folic acid especially is critical for the development of baby. The current recommendation is 400 micrograms a day. Because it’s important right from the moment of conception, you’ll want to take it in advance to make sure you have a good store.

Be Spontaneous

For those of us who are planners out there, it can be all too easy to try to schedule this pregnancy down to the moment of conception. But it’s called “trying” because it tends not to happen on the first go-round. Here are two ways to increase your odds for getting pregnant:

• Have sex two to three times a week. Based on how long the egg travels through your fallopian tubes and how long sperm survives, having sex every couple of days helps maximize your odds for conception.
• Use an ovulation predictor kit. Find out exactly when you’re experiencing the luteinizing hormone surge that indicates your body is ready for baby making over the next 2-3 days. A word of caution: it’s easy to get super focused on this small window of time, and put pressure on you and your partner to perform. You may want to consider keeping this time frame to yourself or at least not getting mad at your partner if he cant get out of work in time to get saucy at exactly the right moment! Believe me, we have our stories at Rosie Pope and Rosie remembers being irate at Daron for his flight being delayed and therefore missing the best window for conception…as if delaying the flight was his fault. There is nothing like obsession with timing to take away the romance and make it all that much more difficult.

Take a Deep Breath…and Another, and Another

When conception doesn’t happen as soon as you expect, it can be really stressful. Suddenly the excitement of seeing whether or not this month is the month where the pregnancy test comes back positive turns into frustration and disappointment, then to crushing despair. Plus, when you can’t get pregnant it seems like everyone else can. Remember, it can take up to six months or longer to get pregnant. Try to enjoy all the baby making activities, and find ways to destress when you can. If you are worried, then take action and talk to your OB and even a Reproductive Endocrinologist so that you can be relieved of your fears or have a plan/support if there does seem to be a problem.

Have a History Lesson

Now is the time for you and your husband to go through your family histories. You’ll want to identify any diseases that might be passed down to your child, so that you can talk about it with your OBGYN and consider getting screened to see if you’re a carrier.

Have Fun

Seriously. You could get pregnant tomorrow, or it could happen months from now. But once you’re pregnant, you’ll never have this time back. Enjoy each other, and try not to worry before you need to, it will only create more challenges. Give yourself time (at least 6 months), and let yourself be excited. Just think: you could have a baby!

Tags: childbirth, conceiving, family planning, getting pregnant, pregnancy