Day 138...Horse Pills

I did some more reading in my book "What to expect before you're expecting" (honestly it is amazing! I'm going to have a commercial moment and say that; if any of you couples out there are trying to conceive, grab this book and read it first! It's extremely helpful!) and I came across information on prenatal vitamins. Apparently, they suggest, it's best to start a prenatal vitamin three months before trying to conceive (close to the same time you should be stopping your birth control if you're on it). This helps to get the body prepped and re-nutritionalized (I'm making up words...I know, but you get the point), especially if you've been on birth control for a long time. Long term oral contraceptive use can actually deplete your body of essential nutrients and vitamins needed for baby making. After reading more about it, my husband and I took another walk to the store and picked up some prenatal vitamins for me to start on the following day (I had already taken my normal vitamins so I didn't want to over do it).

I was, however, a bit worried and distracted. As I've mentioned before, I stopped taking birth control about a month ago (right after Thanksgiving), so that I could get my body regulated in time for making Pickle. Normally I start my periods on Sunday, Monday night by the absolute latest. Well here it was, Tuesday, and I hadn't started even a little. I had some mild cramping, but nothing else. I really wish I could talk to my mom or other family members about it, ask them what their experiences were when coming off birth control (like, how long it took for them to get a regular flow again), but there's a problem: none of my family members planned their pregnancy, none were even on birth control at the time! So there isn't any family members I can talk to about it (plus that would totally give away the surprise of us trying to get pregnant). No one in my family knows what it's like to come off of their birth control, how to monitor their ovulation, and none of them planned their pregnancies. Honestly, I think it's harder to plan it (tracking my menstruation, the pressure of conception, budgeting...), but I'd rather be prepared for my baby than just have it happen.

Planned Picklehood