Tintin’s Blog

Books I am reading for my TTC Journey…

Hello World…
Hope everyone’s week was great! Mine was a bit chaotic…I am really looking forward to resting this weekend and sleeping in.

This week, I wanted to take the time to discuss books that I am reading for my TTC journey. I have read many, many, many books besides the four I will show you. Majority are TTC/Pregnancy books and others are getting healthy books. I will possibly make a special post of all the books I have read thus far so that you can see if you are interested.

The first book I have read and finished involved the discussion of High Risk Pregnancy. even though I am not pregnant yet, I know that I will have a high risk pregnancy due to my hypothyroidism, high blood pressure, and possible gestational diabetes. I wanted to start researching things to do about that now so that I am prepared for the future. This book gave a lot of insight to pregnancy and the different reasons someone can be high risk. I strongly recommend this book even if you won’t be high risk as this will give you insight to anything that could happen.

The next book that I read was “What to believe when you’re expecting.” I found this book to be really interesting as it took each chapter to discuss each myth and explain whether it was true or not and the history behind the myth. It was a captivating read as I learned more things about before getting pregnant, during pregnancy, and after that I didn’t know before. If you are looking for a quick-ish and easy read than please pick this up even if you are not trying to TTC it is worth it.

“How to Conceive Naturally and Have a Healthy Pregnancy after 30” is the next book on my reading list. I am going to start reading it this week and will give updates as I go. Even though I am not 30 for another 10 months and 5 days (LOL), I want to start looking into this now. I know I will have to still look into going to a fertility clinic I want to make sure that know all the ways that I can add to making myself healthier for the pregnancies I will have and for myself in general. The reviews of this book were also good and I recommend this as read for those with a bit of time on their hands and who want to get pregnant. You don’t have to be 30 in my opinion to read this!

The last book I plan to read in this entry is the “How to have a baby and Still live in the real world.” Books like this always interest me. One book I have also read recently was similar and about working and being a Mom. Like mentioned earlier I will do a long special posts of all the books I have read so far! I don’t about the rest of you but I deal with anxiety and part of my anxiety is that once I have a baby I will not know how to balance my friends, family, and career. A large part me knows I will find a way I always do. But I still have a part of me that worries. Books like this help soothe that anxiety and keep that in check. I strongly recommend it to anyone looking to TTC, who is pregnant, or has a baby.

Some people may think I am going a bit over board with the reading as we aren’t going to the clinics yet until June when we are in a much better place financially and health wise, but I think it’s better to be prepared rather than not be. As mentioned reading these books helps with my anxiety and makes me feel more informed regarding my journey. Let me know in the comments what books you are reading to get healthier and/or for your TTC/Pregnancy/Mom Journey.

Small changes make all the difference…

Hello world…or rather the world that is reading!

In my first post I explained a bit of my background and the purposes of this blog. Within that same post I wrote that my next blog post would be about reviewing the extensive list of vitamins I am taking. I decided, however, to make it more than just a review and explain the changes I have been making to get myself and my husband healthier.

The start is the cutting out of soda. Besides the occasional drinking of it for mixing drinks and for the once in a while caffeine boost we have been sticking to juice, seltzer, and water. Since cutting out the sugar I have felt less bloated and gassy. It truly is doing wonders for me.

Another thing is what I eat throughout the day. I start with my Buff Bunny 1Up Nutrition protein shake in my gorgeous Shane Dawson tumbler. I mix the one scoop of protein powder with 16 oz of 2% milk and bring it to work with me. Then I clean it and fill it with ice water. This helps me stay hydrated and filled up. For lunch, when I remember to eat, I usually eat something light but filling. Then for dinner i try to eat a well balanced meal. After all of that I take my preconception multi-vitamin, biotin, vitamin d, folic acid, omega 3, and vitamin B complex.

Before the extra vitamins I was only taking the preconception multi-vitamin and the biotin. With just those alone I was noticing a difference in my weight and energy. My body seemed to slim down a bit more and my energy was getting better. In the week since adding the other vitamins I have noticed a huge difference in everything! My body looks thinner to me. Not a huge difference but definitely noticeable to me. I feel bad for my husband because I bring it up to him like all the time…Ha. Now if I can get him to take his multivitamin I would feel a million times better.

The last change I have made so far this week is adding the Pink Stork Fertility Sweets to my regimen. The ones I got are strawberry-pomegranate hard lozenges. They are not the best test in the world but definitely give me an extra boost to my body with zinc, vitamin b-6, and folate. I have been having these around lunch time every day and have noticed that my afternoon slump hasn’t been that much of slump any more.

With these changes I am starting to feel better every day and noticed marketable improvements to my health. Around the end of the month I will heading back to the gym and starting a 3-4 day routine to get me even healthier. Besides that I think I want to also get into meditating at least once a day either in the morning or night to help keep me positive and calm. My overall goals are to see my self thinning out and to also feel better. By not focusing on a number I hope to stay in a positive mindset about my journey.

In the upcoming weeks I will be going in for a physical and will let you know the progress I have made with my health. During that physical I will also be getting extra blood work done as there are more tests that need to happen for when we go to the fertility clinic. So, once I get all of the results I will let you all know!

Next week or possibly sooner, I will discuss the different books I am reading on bettering my life and for TTC and Pregnancy. Let me know in the comments or on my instagram on what you would like to see me discuss about my journey. Ask any question or post any ideas.

Thank you to anyone that is liking, sharing, and subscribing to me. I appreciate all of you! I am going to leave this blog with a motivational quote that I feel really lifts you hope and gives you hope no matter what your goals are.

Photo Credit: Yourfertilityhub.com

The start of my journey…

Hello World…or well anyone out there.

2020, like every year, is another year of starting new goals, plans, and adventures for the future. One goal I decided to do is create a Health and Trying to Conceive Blog, Vlog, and instagram. My Vlog will be a bit later but my Instagram and Blog start today. For those interested in following my Instagram the handle is: Tintinttchealthjourney.

To give some background on me I have always struggled with my weight, drugs, bulimia, and mental health. My weight has always fluctuated and I struggled with bulimia since I was about 15. My mental health has been a contributing factor to my drug usage. I was always a mixed up kid and struggled to be clean. Then in my senior year I got clean from barbiturates. Then as I entered college I got involved in an abusive relationship that lead me to being addicted to cocaine. Thankfully now I am married to an amazing man that really loves me. I have been clean from Barbiturates for 11 years (almost 12) and from cocaine for almost 8 years. I started seeing a therapist in October of 2018 and really started getting my mental health to a better place. My bulimia has continuously been a struggle and while I haven’t thrown up my food in years I still have thoughts here and there about it.

This year my husband and I are not only looking to get healthier, but to start the process of having our first baby together. I say process as due to some circumstances with me it looks like we have to go to the fertility clinics. I have a clean pap smear and I am fertile, I just do not ovulate enough (typically every other month…). I also have high blood pressure that only effects the bottom number and I have hypothyroidism. I will be using this blog, the vlog, and my instagram to discuss our journey with conceiving and my journey to getting healthier. There will be healthy recipes, discussions about processes, and any other relevant topics.

Since there will be a bunch of different acronyms used through out my blog I will have them listed at the end for future reference.

Today I received a package that will really help me get started on this journey. The package was a bunch of vitamins and fertility sweets to add to my daily regimen. I have been taking a preconception multi vitamin and biotin: 10,000 mcg nightly before I go to bed. Now I am adding in: Super B-Complex, Omega-3, folic acid 800mcg, and D3 5,000 IU. I know that may seem like over kill especially when adding in the fertility sweets that have vitamin B6, zinc, and folate, but after speaking with my doctors and doing research this seems to be the way to go. From here I will be adding them at night with my biotin and pre-conception multivitamin. In the morning I take my thyroid medication when I wake up and then my blood pressure medication before I leave for work. See the photo below for all of the products I will be taking at night. Excluding of course the fertility sweets. Those I will be bringing to work for my desk and having one a day around lunch time.

Next week or the week after I will be heading back to the gym to start getting more work outs in. I plan to not focus so much on the number on the scale, but rather focus on feeling better and seeing myself thin out a bit.

My goal for this blog is to post once a week at minimum to keep myself accountable and to really have an outlet for everything. In next weeks blog I will discuss the books I am reading on conceiving and pregnancy, give a review on everything I am taking, and let you know my typical day of eating to help jump start my journey to get physically healthier. In other blogs I will discuss my mental health and as we start doing the clinics in a few months I will let you know the step by step process.

Thank you for taking this journey with me! It means the world to have you here! Please leave a comment, follow, and share!

Acronyms:
AF: Aunt Flo, menstruation
BBT: Basal Body Temperature
BD: Baby dance. This means having sex for conceptive purposes, or any other form of insemination such as IUI or IVF.
BFN: Big Fat Negative (pregnancy test)
BFP: Big Fat Positive (pregnancy test)
CD: Cycle day
CM: Cervical Mucus
CP: Chemical pregnancy (a very early miscarriage
DPO: Days past ovulation
EWCM: Egg white cervical mucus, the most fertile kind.
FSH: Follicle Stimulating Hormone
FP: Follicular Phase
HPT: Home pregnancy test. Measures levels of the hormone hcG.
HSG: hysterosalpingogram, a test that looks inside the uterus and fallopian tubes.
HcG: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. Hormone detected by pregnancy tests.
IUI: Intra-uterine insemination
IVF: In-vitro fertilization
LH: Luteinizing Hormone
LMP: Last menstrual period. The first day of your last period.
LP: Luteal Phase
LPD: Luteal Phase Defect
MC: Miscarriage
MFI: Male Factor Infertility
O: Ovulation
OPK: Ovulation Prediction Kit. OPKs measure luteinizing hormone, which surges about one day before ovulation.
POAS: Pee on a stick
RE: Reproductive Endocrinologist
SA: Semen analysis
TTC: Trying to Conceive
TWW: Two Week Wait, the roughly two week period between when you ovulate and when you’re supposed to get your period (and when you can take a pregnancy test)