Getting Pregnant


When J and I were finally ready to start trying for a baby, I had the unfounded fear that most women have when they make the shift from pregnancy prevention to trying to conceive: What if I can't get pregnant?

To that end, I scheduled an appointment with a very well-reputed doctor to discuss our plans for a baby. She checked me out, said everything looked good and remarked that she thought I should have no trouble at all conceiving as I was still quite young and not overweight. But, she did advise me that 6-12 months is normally the amount of time it takes most couples to conceive, so not to get discouraged. (I guess she could tell I was ready to have a baby right then!) She sent me away with folic acid supplements and said start trying. Great! After all, that's the fun part, right? ;)

J and I got busy, and I read books. Lots and lots of books. And the news was not entirely encouraging. Getting pregnant began to seem difficult (a full week into our campaign!) when I read that a woman of my age had only a 20% chance of conceiving during each cycle. Oh no! When your aim is pregnancy prevention, it's a relief to know that there is only a 24 hour window each month during which you might become pregnant. When you want a little baby in your arms, it seems impossibly slim. I said to my  mom and brother, "Everything they told us in high school health class was a lie! You can't just get pregnant on the first try."

Approximately twenty days later, I took a pregnancy test and got two pink lines. Pregnant! J and I told my mom right away, and waited until the first trimester was finished to tell everyone else. I sent my brother a text that said simply, "They didn't lie to us in high school health class, after all," and he shot back a congratulations knowing exactly what I meant. :)

Did you get pregnant right away or are you trying to conceive? Did you, or do you worry that you won't be able to get pregnant?

{photos from Getty Images and here}

Comments

  1. Wow, it is incredible that you wrote this blog at this exact moment in time. It hits home. While we're not quite ready yet, it is in the very near horizon. The prospect of having difficulties is terrifying, particularly when you hear stories of women who wait until their 30s and have difficulties. I recently met a woman who waited until she was 32 and had to go through fertility treatment and ended up having triplets! I'm so encouraged to hear your story and hope that I can soon (within the next year or so) share a similar one. Love you!

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  2. you were definitely one of the lucky ones!!
    i was off bc for 6 months before i got pregnant the first time, only to be followed 8 weeks later by a miscarriage of our twins. then it took approximately 2 years and the help of fertility drugs to get pregnant for the second time, only to have it be an ectopic pregnancy (most likely due to the drugs) and the rupture/loss of my right tube. 3 months later we were blessed to find out that we were pregnant with our daughter (after meticulously tracking my wackado cycles and doing the deed during the 24 hour window that the little test strip said i would be ovulating). less then 2 years later, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that i am pregnant again!! i actually laughed out loud when the test came back positive! we were planning on starting to actively try to get pregnant the following month in the hopes that we would have a baby due at the end of the school year/beginning of summer. Oh well, a spring break baby will have to do instead!
    i was never concerned about trying to get pregnant until we started having problems. i think that is the way with most women. we've tried to put very little stress on ourselves in the whole process, because stress never does anyone any good and can actually be harmful in the process of conceiving. we always figured that if for some reason we couldn't have our own, then we would adopt. thankfully in march/april our family will be complete with the one girl and one boy that we wished we would have.

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  3. All this time we thought 30 was the new 20 our bodies never got the memo! I'm hoping you'll have an easy time of it, Alicia. xo Erin, I'm so glad you got your perfect family - but sorry you had to go through so much on the way. <3

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  4. Hi... I just found your lovely little blog. :) It is so crazy that I have been reading stories like this a lot recently, I assume it's because the baby thing is on the horizon for us at the moment. Well actually it's on the horizon for him and for me... well I would do it last week! I am 28... so getting closer to that 30 mark and for me it's like I need to get on the baby ladder before the big 3-0. Having a very optimistic partner he doesn't see the big deal with 30 but for me I am impatient and oh so excited. I actually just wrote a post about it too. Glad it was easy for you... I hope I can share a similar story in a year or so... Love Elle xo

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Elle! I'll be thinking of you and hoping you're pregnant soon!! xoxo

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