Getting Pregnant {Again}

It's amazing looking at the past {almost} three years of my blog and seeing how I'm right back at square one. Except this time, I have a baby. I'm totally content. Honestly, I'm fine and happy with one, and am not feeling the slightest bit pressured to have another.

Sure there are some things that get me thinking. Friends' pregnancy announcements, General Conference talks on procreating, and lingering just a tad too long on newborn photos of my daughter. But other than that... I'm cool.

Last time I did so much fertility research, I probably could have written a doctoral dissertation on the topic. I was slightly neurotic before even trying to have a baby.

But good things have come from this. I find myself useful from time to time when my friends ask me about getting pregnant. Some are lucky enough not to have to try very hard but others feel like they can use any extra bit of assurance they can get.

In case you're wondering, here are three simple tips I think can make the most impact:
1. Get a physical. You know, those fun annual appointments you get from your family practitioner? They'll run all sorts of tests and let you know where you are health wise. They can also let you know if something is off from the get go and save you some time if it's something that can get in the way of fertility.

For example, after about a year of trying to conceive, one of my best friends found out her thyroid was out of wack. She got pregnant about a month after getting help with that. That is something you'd get tested for during your physical.

2. Learn your body's workings. You can read books about knowing your body's cues to when you're fertile. I recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility. ... Either that or just do it every-other day.

3. Keep your legs up. Simple, yet effective. (Not all day every day, just for a little while after doing the baby dance)

And that, ladies (and gentlemen?) are some things I learned in my years of obsessive studying.

Next time around I'm sorta hoping I'll forget everything else I learned and keep these three things in the back of my mind. Looking back I sorta went a little crazy, worrying about not being able to have children or being "punished" for waiting too long (oh dear, don't let me get me started on the mind tricks I played on myself).

Like before, part of me finds myself battling internally with questions about how the future will pan out. I like to think I'm in charge of deciding when and how I'll have my next child but the reality is, I'm not.

I found a post I wrote in May of 2009 debating taking a First Response fertility test to give me a heads up if I would have trouble conceiving. I freaked out every time I saw the commercial and went back and forth on deciding weather or not to buy the test.

You'd think now that I have one kid I'd be like "oh, yea I can have a kid, no worries" but a little birdie put a phrase in my mind years ago that's stuck and made me curious again. That phrase being secondary infertility. It's like it sounds--When you have a successful pregnancy but then can't get pregnant again.

About a month ago this First Response Fertility test was tossed back in my life again and this time I took it.

Discreetly.

... Attempted discreetly that is.

I capped and threw the pregnancy-looking-test in my purse after my husband walked in while I was waiting for the results to show up.

It looks just like a pregnancy test but results take 30 minutes to read instead of 5, and it tests your FSH level.

No line, or one light line and one dark control line means you're all good in that department. My results read normal (yay!). While this isn't the answer to every possible problem it's still nice to know.

So it appears I'm re-tracing some of my steps. It's different this time though. I feel a little more embarrassed sharing by back and forth to-baby or not-to baby because 1. I have a child already, and 2. I have a much larger audience. Last time I ranted into outer space the Internet and hardly anyone read. Now I have people getting these things emailed to them, and relatives bookmarking my blog on their iPads. Oy!

But I should probably give #2 the same privileged of reading how seriously thought-out, loved and anticipated they were before they arrived right? Wrong? Oh, I haven't a clue!

Disclosure: I was selected for this #spon post by the Clever Girls Collective #CleverTTC, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. This opportunity sorta timed out great with the beginning of my new pre-ttc journey.