MY JOURNEY TO FERTILITY: THREE MONTHS IN

rachelramdhan

Aug 26

Photo by Valentin Antonucci on Pexels.com

Date: 7th April 2023

It can take a couple up to one year before they're able to conceive. We've completed three of those twelve months.

As an update to the last post I wrote, my period came again in March. This period was very different to what I'm used to. It came roughly three weeks after my last cycle and it lasted for seven days. I'm hoping that that means my body is beginning to regulate my cycle on its own but I decided to continue with the Myo and D-Chiro Inositol at a lower dosage for the next two months just to be on the safe side. I have also started taking a prenatal vitamin as an additional way of preparing my body for pregnancy.

Since school is closed for two weeks for Easter vacation, I've decided to take advantage of this time to seriously kickstart an exercising regime. For now I've more or less settled on attempting to walk 3 miles at least three times a week and twice for the week I'll do strength training exercises. My intention is that if I get my fitness up before I am pregnant and hopefully I will be able to maintain it even after.

The other lifestyle change is my diet. Now I know we're supposed to consume fruits and vegetables everyday but in researching preconception, foods to eat and the like, I realized I was reading articles from writers who are living in other countries with diets and consumption that is way different to mine. I created an excel sheet with recommended foods and I am looking at ways I can incorporate those foods into my meals.

This week I had a few vegetarian meals for dinner. The first one I had for the week was what I call (and know it as) baigan choka which is basically fire roasted eggplant, that's mashed up and fried with onion, garlic, tomatoes, and whatever seasonings you like and I ate it with roti. The next two days I had roti with pumpkin and roti with pak choy. To think that I never enjoyed eating those foods when I was younger and now that I'm adult living away from my family home, I'm eating it.

Alcohol is now eliminated for the foreseeable future and that's more of me taking a precautionary measure in the event that I am pregnant and do not know. Honestly, if my period does not show for a month or two, my first thought will not be 'Oh I'm probably pregnant'. My first thought will be 'Ugh, my cycle is messed up again.' With those factors in mind I've decided no drinking which will be a little challenging because I just started making cocktails at home but such is life.

My goal for the next three months is to exercise at least five times a week, ensure I am eating some type of fruit and vegetable every day no matter what, and no alcohol. I'll also be taking my prenatal vitamins and continuing the Inositol just to ensure my cycle is regulated. Because it appears that I may now be having a regular cycle, I am also tracking my cycle on an app.

Am I panicking that three months have gone so far and there's no baby? Not really. Will I be panicking if at the end of the next three months, there's no baby? I don't think so, or at least I hope not. I have decided that I am going to treat myself and my body with grace. I also jumpstarted the process of trying to get pregnant one year before we initially planned so if it does not happen this year I'm not going to go into a full blown panic mode. It'll just mean that next year will require a few visits and tests.