Last week on my Instagram stories I put up one of those fun Q&A posts inviting y’all to “ask me anything”. Out of that came almost entirely pregnancy-only related questions. Some of them were basically the same question so I combined a few. I figured putting them all into a blog post would be the easiest way to compile and share everything!
Questions & Answers:
“Are you at all open to sharing more about your journey to getting pregnant?”
Sure! I have always tried to be as much of an open book at possible so I’d be happy to share. Sorry if this response is kind of long!! Craig and I got married in October of 2016 and we knew we wanted kids…but not right away. I think we thought maybe 2-3 years of marriage would be good to get under our belts before adding kids in so we could just have that time to ourselves, travel, etc. I had been on birth control (the pill) since I was about 15 or 16 due to severely painful cramps (I’ll never forget the day I walked out of a math test and just left school because my period cramps were so bad I wanted to die).
When we got married I was 28 and I had it in the back of my mind that I had been on the pill for a while and that always made me kind of nervous. It made me scared it would impact my fertility having been on it for so long, so probably after being married for 6 months or so I decided to go talk to my doctor just about my concerns. She reassured me that everything would be fine and I shouldn’t worry about how long I had been on it, but if it would make me feel better, I could try to go on a different contraceptive that was essentially a lower dose of hormones and could help my body start weaning off the pill (I’m paraphrasing that from memory). That sounded like a good middle of the road option so I could still be on birth control but let my body slowly get used to being off the pill. That day I left with the Nexplanon implant in my arm. Long story short, my body did NOT like Nexplanon. I was breaking out, not sleeping, I gained weight and I had pretty much constant break-through bleeding. I gave it about 4 months before giving up and going back on the pill, again with my doctor’s reassurance that so long as I went off the pill about 3 months before I wanted to get pregnant, I should be fine. So that’s the plan I went with!
Fast forward to June of 2018, when Craig & I decided I’d go off the pill. I wanted to give my body nearly double the time that the doctor had recommended, envisioning getting pregnant in early 2019 being a good time. So we used other methods of contraception for a few months (not going to go into too much detail here, my mom & mother in law read this blog) but then come October I was kinda just like…”why are we waiting until 2019? It might take months to get pregnant, so maybe we should just stop preventing it and just see what happens?”. So that’s pretty much what we did.
I, however, wanted to try to be as in tune with my body as I could during this time and learn what my body was like off of the birth control, so I also got a basal body temperature thermometer and started using the Ovia app just to try to learn my cycle and when I was ovulating. So again, this was October. My last menstrual period that month was October 10th, and I didn’t get a great run at learning what my body was like off birth control before I got pregnant. My calculations (and those of the apps) say October 24th was our date of conception, which was literally the first day we had unprotected sex.
So that leads me to the next question…
“How long were y’all trying before you got preggo?”
Not long at all and it happened way faster than I expected. We got pregnant on our first try it seems, and I know I am SO lucky to be able to say that because I know so many couples out there are working to get pregnant. Please know when I share this I don’t mean it to sound like I’m bragging or something, it’s just simply the truth in what happened for us. We feel so blessed to be pregnant and my heart goes out to anyone struggling to conceive. Your time will come. See more in the next question…
“How did you handle months it didn’t happen (if any)? The anticipation then letdown sucks.”
I didn’t have this experience this time, but I think I wasn’t at all expecting it to happen so fast so I was genuinely shocked when I found out. But I do vaguely remember hoping that it would happen this time, because I know I can really get in my own head worrying about stuff. I just spent those couple of weeks in between “trying” and my expected period praying that God would just take my worry and anxiety about this situation away. I prayed that I would trust in the Lord’s timing and to help me to just have faith, whatever may happen. I know it must be so difficult going through it and feeling let down when it doesn’t happen, but I just encourage you to surround yourself in constant communication with God and to pray on it. Whenever a worrisome thought enters your mind, give it to God. Pray to trust His timing. It is never wrong, even if we think in the present moment that we know what’s best. He knows what is best for each of us and will guide us there. We just have to have faith in that. I would love to keep any of you currently struggling with this in my prayers. Please feel free to email me so I can pray for you, if you’d like! It would be my honor to do so.
“Was your pregnancy planned?”
Yes. See above for a detailed explanation 🙂
“How long did you wait to tell family you were pregnant?”
So I actually found out I was pregnant on November 6th (Craig’s mom’s birthday!) but didn’t believe the pregnancy test at first, so I took 2 more the next day. All were positive and I told Craig on November 7th. We didn’t tell our family until Christmas Eve, mostly because we just thought it would be a really special time that everyone could find out together and in person. So I had to go through a family wedding, thanksgiving, and Christmas get-togethers pretending to *not* be pregnant, which was a bit of a challenge! But worth it to give such a special gift to our families on Christmas Eve.
“How did you find out the gender so early?”
Craig and I elected to do the optional genetic testing that requires a blood draw around 10-11 weeks pregnant. We paid out of pocket for this since I’m not a “high risk” pregnancy, but decided it was worth it for peace of mind and to find out the gender. Since this test detects chromosomal abnormalities, it’s able to look at the chromosomes to predict gender. If there is a “Y” chromosome present, they know it’s a boy. If there’s not, then it’s a girl.
“Did you change your workouts at all when you knew you were trying during the wait?”
No, and to be honest I didn’t really change anything in particular! I remember we had a family reunion one weekend before we found out and I still drank wine. Even once I did get pregnant, I didn’t change my workouts a whole lot. I plan to do another post about this in more detail, but my doctor essentially told me that I had no restrictions when it came to working out, especially given my level of fitness prior to getting pregnant. You just don’t want to be starting anything new or intense during pregnancy, and you should always just check with your doctor to be sure!
“Comfy clothes?! I’m 7 weeks and I don’t want to wear anything!”
Oh gosh, I totally get that! I didn’t want anything touching my stomach even though I didn’t really have a bump yet. Something was just so uncomfortable about it! I have pretty much been living in joggers. My exact kind is sold out but there is a similar kind here and here. Flowy shirts are my jam (I wear this one nonstop and it comes in a ton of colors) and I also wear the black Align Legging from Lululemon a bunch because it’s easy to dress up and wear out. I have the luxury of working from home so I don’t have to worry too much about work-wear, but I think just based off what I used to wear to work I would have stuck to loser-fitting soft dresses and leggings with tunics. The weather is going to only be getting warmer as my bump gets bigger, so I’m pretty much planning on living in maxi dresses!! I love the selection of clothing from Pink Blush…it’s all designed to be worn before, during, and after pregnancy and it’s so cute, comfy, and affordable.
xo,
Bess
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