Baby planning
It’s easy to plan for a baby when you use an intelligent fertility tracker!
Plan your family and get pregnant faster with Lady-Comp and Pearly!
The decision has been made: you want a baby. Perhaps this is your first or maybe you want to add to your family and bring a little brother or sister into your world. Now you’ve agreed, it’s hard to wait for that positive pregnancy test. You’re ready, and so want it to happen as soon as it can!
Some couples decide to leave everything to chance and, as such, may be okay with waiting a little longer or being surprised by that positive test. But other couples enjoy the baby planning process, making sure the timing is right and getting to choose when they conceive. Choosing to plan can be a faster way to get pregnant and allow you more control over the timing. With the right tools, you can increase your chances of conceiving more quickly. It’s even possible to time your conception to the month! All you need is some preparation, knowledge, and the right tools to hand.
In your baby planning discussions, have you considered...
Summer baby or Christmas miracle - which will it be?
Calculating your birth date and planning when the baby arrives
When are you fertile? Getting to know your cycle
Your ovulation - the necessity for conception
How to avoid stress when planning for your baby
Self-care: your health when trying to conceive
Summer baby or Christmas miracle - which will it be?
We’re all very busy with so many aspects of our lives. When you’ve decided you want a baby, there’s nothing better than being able to time this to your own schedule. Maybe you’d like to have your baby arrive in Spring when the weather is great and you can get outside as much as you like. Or maybe you would rather fall when things are slowing down and it’s easier to stay indoors together. Perhaps a Christmas baby is on the cards, because you’d love that gift for all of your family. Or perhaps there’s money, career, vacations, family commitments or other issues you need to consider when planning your pregnancy and planning your baby. When trying to conceive is left to chance it can take months, but with a little baby planning it is possible to be more in control and time your baby to your schedule or at least narrow the window of when you are likely to conceive. Having that power can give confidence and calm to the process.
Calculate your birth date and planning when your baby will arrive
In order to be able to calculate your possible date of birth as accurately as you can, you must first know how long your menstrual cycle usually is and when you normally have your period. This is because the calculation of the duration of a pregnancy begins with the first day of your last period. It is assumed to be about 280 days from then, until the date of delivery. If you have a very regular menstrual cycle, you can calculate the possible delivery dates even before you have really started planning the baby. For example, if you want a summer baby born in July, your last period should be in October, and then you should conceive as soon as possible after that. On the other hand, if your last period is in March, it will probably be a December baby.
Please note, however, that only about 4 to 5% of children are actually born on their due date. Planning by month or, even better, by season is therefore much more sensible than hoping for a specific day. To plan your baby in this way, you need to know when you are fertile. Knowing your fertile days will increase your chances of conceiving at the desired time. You really need to know more than when your periods happen and your average cycle length, you need accurate information on when you are fertile each month.
When are you fertile? Getting to know your cycle
To understand when you are fertile, you need to know how your menstrual cycle works. Many women who want to have a child assume that they can only get pregnant at the time of ovulation. Women who don't want to get pregnant at the moment, on the other hand, often believe that they are fertile all the time and therefore need to use contraception at all times. Neither is correct. Normally, every woman in her fertile years ovulates once per cycle, during which an egg travels from the ovaries to the fallopian tubes. From there, the egg travels to the uterus. If it is fertilized on its way by a male sperm cell, it then tries to implant in the uterus. If this is successful, a baby grows. If it is not fertilized or cannot implant, it dies and is expelled with the next menstrual period.
Each egg is only capable of fertilization for a maximum of 18 hours. However, the man's sperm cells can wait for the egg for up to five days. This gives you a period of about six days in which you are fertile and can become pregnant. Fertility is highest on the day of ovulation, but unprotected intercourse can also lead to pregnancy on the five days before ovulation. On the other days of your cycle you are not fertile. So you can see that you have more than one day per cycle to get pregnant. However, if you miss this period or if it doesn't work out in this cycle, you have to wait until the next fertile phase to try again.
Your ovulation: the necessity for conception
In order for you to become pregnant, regular ovulation is the most important prerequisite, along with unprotected sexual intercourse. If you are unsure whether you ovulate regularly - most women do not notice their ovulation - you can have this clarified by your gynecologist. As a rule, however, he or she will only carry out this examination if you have already been trying unsuccessfully to become pregnant for several months. If you are on a very tight schedule for your baby planning, for example because you absolutely want a summer baby, there are even more ways to check in advance whether you are ovulating regularly.
A first good sign is a regular cycle with menstrual bleeding. If you have used the Lady-Comp cycle computer so far to know when you need to use contraception, you can now use the information to determine your fertile days. The Lady-Comp shows you your ovulation very precisely, so that you would notice cycle irregularities or missing ovulations immediately if you used it continuously. Ovulation tests, on the other hand, can only give a rough idea of your fertile days, since the hormone increase measured by the urine test strips also takes place when the egg matures, but ultimately does not get released.
Baby planning made easy - with the fertility tracker Lady-Comp
Now, you are probably asking yourself how exactly you can find out when your fertile days actually begin. Your body sends you a number of signals which you can use to get to know your unique cycle better and calculate your fertile days.
With Lady-Comp you only have to measure your body temperature once in the morning under your tongue before getting up. The measurement takes about 60 seconds and the result of your fertility analysis is displayed directly as a colored light. So you already know that morning whether you will be fertile over the next 24 hours or not.
Lady-Comp also provides you with fertility predictions for the future, allowing you to plan ahead with your partner.
Without a cycle computer you would have to measure your temperature manually, write down the numbers, draw a temperature curve on a chart, and carefully evaluate the data. In addition, you would need another physical signal, such as the consistency of your cervical mucus, to be accurate.You would have to observe the changes in color and consistency over a period of several months to be able to draw conclusions about the time of your ovulation. You can avoid all of this work and effort with Lady-Comp! Instead, enjoy the time you’ve saved with your partner and rely on the very accurate results of your cycle computer. This makes baby planning easy, convenient, and time-saving.
How to avoid stress when planning for your baby
Stress is the biggest enemy of women who are eager to get pregnant. It doesn't matter if the stress is caused by your work, your homelife, or even the process of trying to conceive itself. So, if you've been trying to get pregnant for a while and despite perfect timing it doesn't work out, you might want to give yourself some time off for self-care. Analyze your life and your everyday life: What stresses you out? What is getting you down? What could do you good instead?
Maybe you have the opportunity to go away with your partner for a few days, on the days when you are likely to be fertile. In a relaxed atmosphere, away from everyday life and the associated stress, many women find conception comes easier. Time outside in nature, yoga or meditation, time to relax can also help you to find yourself again and reduce your stress level.
Self-care: your health when trying to conceive
Nutrition is so important when planning for a baby. It is especially important that you do not undereat. If your body is under-nourished and does not receive all the necessary nutrients, this can lead to a lack of ovulation and missing periods. Treat yourself to good, healthy whole foods and try to eat as balanced a diet as possible. If you are unsure whether you need folic acid or iron supplements on your conception journey, talk to your gynecologist. A simple blood test can determine your iron level and, if necessary, allow you to optimize it by taking an iron supplement. However, please do not simply take supplements on suspicion and without consulting your doctor. Taking too much can have exactly the opposite effect of what you want.
If you have recently noticed unusual weight fluctuations or feel unwell overall, a visit to your general practitioner may also be advisable. If there is a physical cause for this, such as a problem with the thyroid gland, this can usually be treated very easily. An untreated hypothyroidism can, under certain circumstances, lead to a lack of ovulation. Basically, if you know your cycle, eat healthily, exercise moderately and take a relaxed approach to the subject of planning a baby, your chances of getting pregnant soon are already very good. Only rarely is there actually a physical cause if the wish for a baby does not work out. And even then, specialists can often help you to have the baby you want.
Take the first step to the baby you want
Now you know a lot about your cycle, your fertile days, the right timing, and good preparation techniques. You have everything you need to create your personal baby plan. How will you choose to plan for your baby? Regardless of whether you decide to use Lady-Comp or Natural Family Planning (NFP) in the more time-consuming method, you will need two to three months' lead time so that you can narrow down your fertile days as best as possible.
The Lady-Comp cycle computer can calculate your fertility with a very high accuracy.
You can also use the "preparation time" ideally to get the mentioned doctor's appointments behind you and also to critically check your diet and your everyday life. Maybe you don't want to get pregnant right away. Just make sure to take appropriate precautionary measures on the days indicated as "red", i.e. fertile. As soon as the pregnancy fits into your personal baby plan, you can be free - especially on your fertile days. Ideally, you should have sex both on your ovulation day and two or three times during the five red days before ovulation.
In any case, we keep our fingers crossed that you have the baby you desire. And if you have any questions about Lady-Comp or Pearly, we are always happy to help!