Baby- Making 101

Hey everyone! So... I've been meaning to start a journal of my journey through my very first pregnancy from the very beginning... Seeing that I'm already at 19 weeks of pregnancy tomorrow (4 1/2 months), I suppose it's better to start blogging late than never. :) I'll try to categorize my thoughts, feelings, and adventures from past dates as best as I can. Thanks for taking interest in my journey!!! And sorry if a lot of this info is T.M.I. (too much information) ;) xoxo

JANUARY 2009
Elbert tells me he thinks he's ready to be a dad. I must have had the deer in headlights look because he then had to explain how old we were getting (I was 29 at the time, he was 33). I always knew I wanted to be a mom of like 4, but I still felt like I still act like a 12 year old myself, so how could I possibly be responsible for a little one? Well, we agreed to start "trying" in the summer... Wonderful! That gives me about 6 months to be selfish, party (cuz we're such party animals you know), drink my apple martinis, and travel the world (We didn't get too far. Two trips to Hawaii we squeezed in).

APRIL 2009
I was obsessed with downloading a bunch of iPhone apps. I ended up downloading an app that I never thought I would ever download. What was it, you ask? Well, it was the handy dandy "Female Menstrual Calculator" - an app that will keep track of my periods every month. :) I figured, hey, might as well start keeping track of this thing, right? Would be convenient for those doctor visits and totally convenient on guessing when to (ahem) do the love, err, baby making. ;)

JUNE 2009
Oh crap! It's summer! Elbert hasn't mentioned anything about trying yet... I'll just wait til he asks again... In the meantime, our parents have already asked us about 100 times when we're planning on having kids. I think my mom was starting to worry that I ran out of eggs or something. I can't believe she asked me if we were using protection! Ewww Mom!!!

AUGUST 2009
Elbert's ready. He said so. So I said, OK, I guess I'm ready too. I don't think anyone is ever gonna be ready until it happens, so, I guess we gotta start somewhere, right? So according to books, magazines, online sources, and my handy dandy Female Menstrual Calculator iPhone app, the best time to "try" is about 14 - 16 days after the first day of your last period... If you're on a regular cycle of course... Of course, my cycle just had to be all whack, so the guessing game was something we decided to do this month. I don't know if you want to consider this our first month of "trying," as this was our first month of NOT preventing baby creation magic. Two weeks later, we bought one of those super cool digital Clear Blue Easy pregnancy testers... After frightfully peeing on the end of the stick and waiting 3 minutes, the results came in... "Not Pregnant." An hour later, Aunt Flo came knocking at the door... What a waste of a perfectly fine, digital pee stick...

Later this month, a bunch of friends and family ended up giving us tips and advice on getting pregnant. We took some notes:

*** Buy an ovulation kit. These work like the pregnancy tests. You pee on a stick, and if the test gives you positive results, hurry up and DO IT! :) Basically, there's about a 3 day window before your ovaries pop an egg out (ovulation). These 3 days before your awesome ovaries pop the egg out are the prime days to get them soldiers swimming on up the fallopian tubes. The ovulation tester detects this 3 day window before you ovulate. I guess our girly bodies release some sort of chemical or hormone in our pee right before we ovulate, which is what the ovulation tester tests for.

*** Hang "upside down" for about 15 minutes. Wait, what? Like have Elbert grab me by the ankles and shake me vigorously? No silly!! Basically, there's a yoga move, where you throw your legs up in the air (while laying down), and you're basically balancing on your shoulders/head/neck and top part of your back. And what is the purpose of this? Well, after the "deposit" has been made, gravity supposedly helps them soldiers swim towards the ovaries faster. If this is too uncomfortable for you or you're just not that flexible, propping your legs up on the bed with a pillow underneath your butt/back will do just as well.

*** Be patient. Yes, many of you have told us that the art of baby making may take a few months to a few years to master... So just have fun with it and see what happens!

to be continued...