TTC

My nephew Jed and I last year.

TTC or Trying To Conceive. One of the many anagrams I have learned as of lately. Yes, that's right, as most of our friends and family know, AJ & I have decided to try an start creating midgets. We have thought a lot about this and we are very excited with our decision.

Now, just an FYI, some of this post might be TMI for some of you (too much information!!) but I wanted to share a lot of what I am learning.

I have to admit, I always rolled my eyes and was mostly confused when women talked about how they were "trying to get pregnant". In my mind, it was as easy as getting off your birth control and having some fun!! Unless you or your significant other have actual fertility issues, then what is there to stress about, track, time, etc.? What was the big deal? So for those of you who aren't in a place in your lives yet where you are ready to TTC (ha! used it again!), I understand if you have these feelings. But, the past month I have been doing some research. No surprise? Huh. Weird. And I found out some pretty crazy stuff and learned a lot of freaking anagrams, some of which I still don't get.

• First: When a woman's body ovulates the egg only has 24 hours where it can be fertilized!Yep. You read that right, only 24 hours.

• Second: A man's sperm can live in a woman's body for up to 5 days, but normally only a maximum of 3. They can just chill for a while waiting for the egg. This is why you will here about the window of opportunity of getting pregnant starting "3 days before ovulation" and then the day of ovulation. 

• Third: A woman's cycle is ridiculously complex. I now no longer feel guilty about my monthly up and down mood swings knowing what my body does cyclically every month, which a man's does not go through. There is the follicular phase, this is the phase pre-ovulation where the egg is created and readied for ovulation. In this phase estrogen stimulates a hormone in your body that helps in "making ovulation happen" - the rupture of the ovarian follicle and the release of the egg. Then there is ovulatory phase, when your body has created the egg and is prepairing to release it. This phase is ridiculously complex and is where the majority of the anagrams I learned about are concerning and the part that women TTC are obsessive over figuring out. The post-ovulation phase comes next, this is the small time frame (up to 24 hours) that the woman's egg has been released and is able to be fertilized. And then there is finally the luteal phase. In this phase one of two things happens, either the egg has been fertilized and your body starts preparing for the pregnancy, or the egg is disintegrated and your body cycles all the old preparations out to create new ones. 

• Fourth: Anagrams! Anagrams! Anagrams! TTC: Trying to conceive. NPT: Negative pregnancy test. PPT: Positive pregnancy test. DPO: Days past ovulation. LMP: Last menstrual period. HPT: Home pregnancy test. BCP: Birth Control Pill. GP: General Practitioner. Among many others. When I first read through the message boards, I would read things like this: "HELP! I'm TTC. As of right now I'm 12 DPO but the HPT was NPT. My LMP was 35 days ago and have never been on BCP. I am thinking of going to my GP but I wanted to wait for a PPT. Should I just go?" There was a learning curve there to be sure. 

• Fifth: When you are trying, you notice EVERY little thing your body is doing. Is that a cramp? Am I more emotional than normal? I'm a little nauseous today... I'm getting a lot of headaches.. Wait? Am I usually this hungry all the time?

These are just a few of the many observations I've made the past few weeks. Obviously AJ just got back on the 1st of May, which was perfect timing really for our desire to start trying, but it's not like we've been working on this for months and months or anything. I cannot even fathom what it's like for individuals who try for years to conceive and can't.. I also can't imagine what it would be like to try for years and then finally see that extra pink line on the pregnancy test.

On a personal note, I am already finding this stressful. Now this isn't too surprising for my personality type. I like to prepare everything and know what's going on. Not being able to control what my own body does and doesn't do is frustrating. But it's more than that. The majority of our family and friends are very excited about us having a baby. AS ARE WE!!! But because of this, I get text messages, "Are you preggers yet?" or phone calls, "How's the baby making coming?". AJ gets asked, "Scottie pregnant yet?". I actually feel GUILTY when I tell people, "No news yet." or "Nope. Not so far." Don't get me wrong, I am really glad that everyone is so supportive of us. Truly I am. But it just makes this so stressful. I feel like we need to get pregnant fast. Like, right now! And it's already weighing on me emotionally. Like I said before, it hasn't even been a full month since he's been home. AJ has been really good about it when I told him I'm already stressed about about getting pregnant. He said, "It's no biggee baby. We have all the time in the world and we have so much to do together."

So there you have it everyone. An announcement of sorts. Filled with some "fun facts" and then a little bit of personal confession.