Baby Journey: T-1 Month

July 18, 2012

So I just finished my first month off birth control. I see this isn't our first month of trying to conceive because we really used all my knowledge on the subject to try to avoid conceiving. And it appears we were successful. :-D I started temping, observing fertility signs, and charting all my findings after reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility (highly recommended, by the way) and am using Fertility Friend to actually record all my information. I do find that I am having trouble charting when I should...partially because we were gone so much, and partially because the dogs wake me up at odd hours all the time.

As far as side effects go, I thought I was having a pretty easy time coming off the BC after almost 7 years on it, but I found right around ovulation, I was having some pretty severe headaches, dizziness, and what I called "foggy head." It was almost like being hung over without drinking anything the night before. I actually had one more when I was doing laundry to leave for New England, I had to lay down I was so nauseous feeling.

The other major negative I have noticed this cycle is my face. Yikes. Breakouts galore. I picked up Oil of Olay's version of a sonic cleaner in hopes that it will help curb the Breakouts. I'm using a lot of benzoyl peroxide right now to clear it all up, but hope that once I get this flair up under control, I can stop using it.

I was expecting my period to come while I was out of town on "Gaycation," so I picked up two pregnancy tests to take with me "just in case." I felt really awkward buying them and had mixed feelings about using them. I wanted to do it just to affirm a negative, but then again, I was afraid of getting a positive with people I didn't want to know about it yet. I resisted the urge, nature let me know it was OK to drink, and I was not in an awkward situation with our travel mates.

Since getting back to the "real world," I've actually gotten very excited about TTC. This cycle seems real. Getting pregnant now would mean a middle of April due date...I could take possibly take off from there till the end of the school year, or at least everything but the last two weeks before school lets out, then be off for the rest of the summer. That sounds fabulous to me. I think that we are ready. I try not to talk about it too much...while I know the hubster feels the same way I do, I also know he gets annoyed when I obsess too much. I did mention that if we take my grandmother's bedroom suite for our bedroom (hello, king sized bed!), it just so happens that what we currently have in our room has both a twin and a full/queen headboard which would make it great to grow with a baby into childhood. Before I could even get the thought out, he was saying the same thing. He's also made a lot of comments about getting the house ready to put on the market...partially because after visiting other areas of the country, he's ready to get out of our current city, but I think that thinking about raising a family here is not something either one of us wants to do.

So what's going to change this cycle? I'm going to get more serious about charting. This morning I was 30 earlier than my set time, which isn't horrible, but if that persists, I'll just move the default up. I'm going to seriously cut back on alcohol consumption-which isn't bad as it is, but it can be when I'm around certain friends. And most importantly, I need to pick up some prenatal vitamins. I should have already started them. Oops.

Here we go months, 2 months off BC, first actual month of trying!