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Inside the Bewildering World of Trying to Conceive
Acronyms optional
Until now, I have spent my entire adult life trying not to get pregnant, so it is a complete 180 to say I went off birth control.
How did this happen? The stars aligned: Our debt finally went down, not up. And more importantly, I finally felt ready.
Other factors are at play: my ob-gyn pointing out that my age is getting close to 35. My parents and in-laws aren’t getting any younger, either, and I want my kid to know all of his or her grandparents — something I didn’t get to experience.
I also made it no secret that I wanted to have a baby when I was done with school, so as my graduation date got closer, the prodding comments started up. Family members, coworkers, neighbors; it seems like everyone has come out of the woodwork to ask when we’re going to have kids.
I figured I could get pregnant right away, right? Just pop some folate pills and get to work. After all, I’ve spent the last two decades hearing about people’s accidental pregnancies.
When I was a kid, I heard people say, “We decided to have a baby,” and thought it was something you could just choose to do. I later learned about the birds and the bees, and ovulation and luteal cycles, and realized life is not as simple as it seems.
