Anyone else ALMOST ready to TTC?

[Bookworm]

Hi all future moms-to-be! My husband and I plan to start TTC in January, and the wait is about to kill me! Every day I want to order a new book on pregnancy or child-rearing! We don't even know if we'll be able to get pregnant yet, for Pete's sake!

Anyone else here in the same boat with me?

While I am waiting, I am trying to prepare - making my own natural cleaners for my home, eating more and more organic every day, etc.

What are all of you doing to ready your bodies and homes? Reading anything good?

[Jenne]

I'm in Nashville and I can totally relate! What I'm doing: I'm excercising, eating Total cereal for the extra vitamins, going to start Folic Acid, and have read all the Sears' books, Thinking woman's guide, and Ina Mae's book, plus many, many others. My favorite book hands down though is Birthing from Within. It moved me and empowered me. When I joined MDC I started a file of research articles and other good info from the Momma's here and that has been invaluable. When I get pregnant I'm going to copy it and hand it out to my family and friends to reference if they have any questions about my decisions

It is very exciting. For me I'm trying to focus on making my body a healthy and happy place to be. I'm also trying to think about the now and appreciating it instead of so much thinking about the future but it is really hard...sigh.

Happy TTC and good luck!!!
Happy Fall Y'all,

Jenne

[blondekids]

Hi! I am in the same boat as you. We've been talking about TTC for months now but we are going to actively try starting next month. I am soooo ready, the wait is killing me too.

To answer your question, I read Brewer, Sarah. Planning A Baby? A Complete Guide to Pre-Conceptual Care. Optima, 1995 just recently . I couldn't get it in the U.S. but it was pretty good about how to get ready (eating natural organic foods, etc). If you are interested in it and can't find it then PM me.

To get myself ready, I lost about 10 pounds (i'm not overweight) just by watching what I eat, we don't eat out much anymore, I cut out desserts, and I am eating more whole grains. I am a flexitarian so I have been eating more beans and tofu and milk. Re: cleaning products, I pretty much just use baking soda now. I can buy it in bulk at the co-op.

Also, have you started with your prenatal vitamin? That's super important. I take the target brand because it was so much cheaper than the others. I tried the Rainbow Lite but I couldn't stand the ginger smell.

Good luck, it's good to know there's someone else around here just like me!

[Bookworm]

Thanks for the replies!

Sounds like all three of us are preparing in much the same way. I am taking a prenatal, Blondekids - Rainbow, which smells good to me, but I wish they would cut back on the vitamin A! I found another one at Wild Oats that doesn't add Vit A, but there was something else I didn't like about it, now I can't remember what. I guess I don't have to worry quite so much about that until closer to January, but then, I think I will look around. I am def. going to look into the Brewer book! Thanks for the title!

[Bookworm]

Preconception Book

I just ordered Sara Brewer's _Planning Your Baby_. It looks like it will be perfect for us - we haven't found much information out there that seems geared toward people who are concerned about organic issues, etc. For anyone lurking, I had to get it on Half.com - Amazon does not seem to carry it. Oops, just checked ABE, and they have it even cheaper!

[splendid]

I found a group. We are up in the air about starting we may start as soon as Nov or as late as April. The biggest thing is insurance. We have to decide if we want to wait for the rider to kick in or wing it without it (the MW in town charges $2300). I have been buying diapers though. I've been stocking up on Mothereases and other types. I have also been exercising and taking prenatals.

[blondekids]

Ack, Amy I could have sent it to you, but glad you found a copy. Splendid I've gotten some diapers too. It funny, I went on some websites (diaperpin and here) to research how feasible it was to cloth diaper (i.e. am i really crazy for thinking of doing this?) and now I am using cloth pads for myself!

[CairaJade]

Yup, were's starting in January too. I'm trying to lose some weight (not overweight but above where I feel best), taking vitamins, and reading a lot.

[mumm]

Hello-

I'm so suprised and happy to see this thread. We recently decided to TTC #3 in January. I never thought it would be so difficult to decide how many kids to have; I thought we would just "know". We really don't know tho! We are waiting until January because of the school cut off age (we don't want an aug or sept child), because I think my 19 month old needs more time to be the baby and it will give us time to change our minds again.

The only thing holding us back is finances. We live in a very well to do town, in an already affluent part of the country. Compared to the families around us, we don't have much. Compared to the general population we are doing fine. We have a nice (very small) house, two well kept cars, etc. But we do not have money for things like piano lessons, swim classes, pool clubs, vacations, etc. I don't want to ever go into debt, but I don't want to miss this third child forever if we don't just go ahead and do it. kwim?

Anyway, in terms of getting ready, we already have diapers, but they need a lot of sewing to make it through another child. We will keep the same midwives and birth center. I think. If it is not more expensive I could imagine a home birth. I'll wait until actually pg to figure that out! At some point I will night wean my 19 month old, or at least cut her back to 2-3 times a night, so I can get better sleep. But other than that, we are just looking at ways of spending less so that we feel more financially secure.

I'm glad to have found this thread, and know I am not the only goof ball already excited about a child, when not even pg!

[Bookworm]

Agreed!

We are trying to get our finances in order, too. I guess they say you are never ready, but it does seem we can find ways to spend less, like you were saying, and be at least more ready.

So, wow, it would not have occurred to me, since I've never had a child, to think about school cutoff ages. Oops. I hope we don't mess up.

This might sound kooky but what we have thought about in terms of ideal conception times (if we even CAN get pregnant) is baby's astrological sign.

I also picked up a book on Attachment Parenting in a used bookstore, and made my way through that quickly. Very interesting!

I am so tempted to BD without protection next month, but I know we need to be smart and wait until January. Moneywise, we will be in so much better shape then. Sigh.

[umbrella]

Oh, I've been going nuts for quite some time now.

My dd is now 4 years old. I always wanted my kids to be close in age, and originaly wanted to ttc after dd was born, almost right away. But circumstances worked against us, and the smart move was to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

FINALLY, we have decided to ttc late November/early December, and I really had to twist dh's arm to go that early. He'd still rather wait until March/April (with a decent reason, I should add). When I explained that I really would rather Nov/Dec, he said, "what's a few more months?" What's a few more months? TOO LONG, that's what "a few more months" is. So I went off bc 2 months ago, and finally, next cycle, we can ttc.

I've been doing goofy prep stuff too. It makes dh laugh. While I "won" the disagreement over when to ttc, he's at least happy that I'm happy, while still maintaining a mild worry that a little later could be a little better :

[birthdancedoula]

I'm not TTC yet but before I do I want to really try for a Concious Conception next time. We have one Oops baby, one NFP goof-up baby, and one condom jumper baby, lol! Our journey to parenthood isn't like we planned it but we wouldn't change a thing

We will have one more when the time feels right. In preparation I want to do a liver cleanse (I have a bad htx of m/s and the liver seems to play an important role in it all) and a general detoxifying fast. I want to start jucing again. I've just gotten back into charting cm, which has been difficult while bf'ing. Anyway, it won't be anytime soon as AF hasn't returned and O isn't anywhere in sight.

Happy TTC y'all!!

[Galatea]

We are waiting until January to TTC#2. Dh wants to start now but I am thinking more like January-April.

I am working out on the elliptical, taking Vitex, B-complex, and prenatals, and researching homebirth midwives. I am also getting a job so we can save for aforementioned midwife.

We also want to have a conscious, timed, planned baby this time. We want to know when we make him/her as we have always been a little sad that we don't know when ds was made.

[Milkymommi]

Hi Mamas!!

I'm so excited to have found you... I was gonna go hang around the One thread but now I don't need to !

We will be trying for #4 in December. Actually #5 because we have one angel baby. I am starting to get very excited. This will be our last addition so we really want to savor the experience. We have just decided to go for it so we have lots to do in the next month and a half.

I have been loosing weight to prepare and I have lost almost 20 lbs, I am very overweight. I'd like to lose another 15 or so which is very likely for me. I tend to lose about 3 lbs a week on a sensible, balanced and healthy diet. I'm, also starting with a personal trainer in 2 weeks so that will kick up some great weight loss too! I plan to continue preggo friendly excersize through this one with my trainer so my body can stay fit. I really feel like this will help me because I'm still gonna be overweight even if I lose another 20 lbs. I'm a shorty so the littlest bit of weight really makes a difference on me.

I'll be starting folic acid and I'll continue to take Omega 3 complex. I need to look for a prenatal that doesn't make me burp and feel sick... :LOL Iron!

I hope we can keep this thread alive because I think it'll be fun! We'll be able to get to know eachother in a smaller way so that when we join the One thread we'll know eachother better.

[splendid]

Hi Kirstie.

I'm in the process of losing weight too for ttc. I have about 30lbs to lose before I even think about it. I found my problem is portion control so I am working on that.

I am hoping for an Aug/Sept baby (I want everyone's to have their own special month).

Well I'm off to the gym. If only I could get into jogging some of my probs would be solved.

[Slackermom]

We're almost ready to ttc #2! We'd decided after DD was born last November that we wanted to have another as soon as possible, and decided that we'd aim to ttc in January '05. As that gets closer, though, I have mixed feelings. DD doesn't sleep well, and I'm dealing with some health issues of my own right now, so sometimes I feel it would be too hard to be pg again now. But most of the time, I'm very excited and can't wait to have another baby! I'm almost 36, so we don't have a lot of time to play with...plus, I'd like to convince DP that we should have *3* kids!

[Bookworm]

So many nice women in the same boat, yay!

I'm so happy to see so so many people going through the same preparations we are! It's so nice to have some camaraderie in this hurry-up-and-wait phase!

I must confess, though.



We almost cheated this month and went for it. I haven't taken my folic EVERY day for three months, but very close, and I have been taking prenatals every day for the last month. Right now, ttc is not the financially smart thing for us to do. We are in aggressive debt-reduction mode, and if we can just hold out until January, we will be in good shape. We have to make it! Plus, my January cycle should produce a Libra, which I think would fit into our household really well. Not that we'll get pregnant the first month, of course.

Anyway, next month is going to be hard. I'm pretty sure I ovulated this month. Next month will be second month of charting, so I should have a really good idea of my fertile phase, and it's going to be so hard to say no!

Splendid, I wanted to share my running discovery. I don't know if it will work for speed runners. I am sloooow, lol. But anyway, the first two or three miles are hard, tough, push-through, sometimes yucky. Then it gets so peaceful and good and zen. I know it sounds crazy, but I was trying to do five miles a few days a week, and every day it took about 25 minutes before I started enjoying myself, but after that first 25 minutes, I was loving every second. It took me three months to work up to three miles, when I very first started running. I quit for a while, but I am getting back into it. By the way, I am the most unathletic person in the world - gym class seemed to me like a form of torture by humiliation. You can do it, girl!

Has anyone else almost cheated and gone for it a few months before you were supposed to? We came really close!

[allisonrose]

Well I definitely understand the excitement all you ladies are experiencing getting ready to try to concieve. I'm not looking anywhere near as you all seem to be.
Our primary concern is finances: my hubby's in the Army and plans to leave in a year possibly two. We don't want to get pregnant, leave the Army, then have some problems with insurance or hubby getting a job or anything else.
I keep thinking about starting to try this spring but instead we might be looking at next spring.
My preparation so far is trying to lose some weight - not really overweight but every move I gain 10-20 pounds. And of course lurking around here and a few other parenting websites.

[mirlee]

We are also getting ready to try for number 2. Up until now it has just been talk, but we figure that it would be nice to pg by Feb. or March. It won't be easy, because this one will take not only planning, but many doctor visits as we will need assistance with conception. I posted that on another thread though. I would like to lose a couple of pounds before we conceive though. I gained 65 last time and really don't want to gain that much again.

Thanks for the Brewer book recommendation. I will have to check that one out.

Yeah for all of us!

[jayayenay]

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