How To Prepare Your Body For Pregnancy | 10 Steps I’m Taking to Get Myself in the Best Possible Shape for TTC

This post is all about how to prepare your body for pregnancy and all of the various changes and things I am focusing on to help get my body in the best possible shape to TTC and carry a baby!

PSA – hopefully this goes without saying but I AM NOT A DOCTOR and this is not medical advice. PLEASE please please discuss any changes, any specific steps YOU should be taking, or generally how to prepare your body for pregnancy with your own doctor. This is just what I am doing or what I’ve looked into and my goal is to share my honest journey. Please please please keep that in mind as I am not a medical professional!

Also PSA – we getting reallll tmi up in here. If you’re my family or that’s not your vibe, please quit the page. plz & thx.

Final PSA – this post is loooong so grab yrself a snack!

How to Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy

1. Taking a Prenatal

Initially I thought you didn’t need to start taking a prenatal until 3 months before TTC, but then I was reading THIS book and saw they recommended taking it 1 year before!!! Since I was about 9 months away from TTC, I was like, wellll……shit. I’m already behind!

In doing some research on the timeline I saw that the recommendations were really all over the place. Some people’s doctors recommending a year, others 3 months, some say 6, etc. etc.

When I went to my preconception appointment my doctor said 1 month before. It’s all very confusing and overwhelming to be honest! Also very overwhelming to figure out which to take. There are SO many on the market with varying ingredients, promises, and recommendations.

I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry and to just start taking them around the 9 months before TTC mark.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which one to take. It seems like none of them are 100% perfect, and it’s ultimately a personal choice as well. From what I can tell, one of the most important things to look for is folic acid in the list of what’s included.

I got overwhelmed trying to research online. I swear something will have like 5 stars on Amazon but when you go to the reviews the top one will be 1 star and how it made their arm fall off and it’s the worst mistake of their entire life to have taken that prenatal.

I ended up going to CVS and seeing what was on sale that had folic acid and was a gummy because why not have it be delicious 🤷‍♀️

This is the prenatal I went for. I’ve been taking it for around 3 months and I’ve got no complaints! I actually think it’s making my nails grow like crazy. I brought it to my preconception appointment to have her take a look and she gave it her stamp of approval, so I’m just gonna keep on keepin’ on with this one.

One piece of advice I saw online was that when you eventually do find one you like and feel good about to be careful about stocking up TOO much on it. You never know what you’ll have an aversion to once you’re actually pregnant, so you don’t want to be stuck with something that makes you sick or you can’t stomach.

2. Tracking Ovulation

One thing that I really wanted to make a point of during this time BEFORE actually TTC was to start tracking and understanding ovulation. If you’ve done some research already, then you know how key understanding your own cycle and ovulation can be. If you are a newbie or have yet to look into things, essentially tracking your peak ovulation will help ensure you’re giving yourself the best possible chance at getting pregnant.

There are a couple of different ways to track ovulation. A baseline is having a period/ovulation tracking app, but often these will estimate your ovulation and not be 100% accurate. More accurate ways are a basal thermometer, OPKs (ovulation predictor kits), paying attention to cervical mucus, or just general symptoms (mood, libido, cramping, etc.).

Using most basal thermometers require you to wake up and take your temperature without getting out of bed at the same time every single morning. That felt unrealistic for me, so I’m opting for focusing more on the other three. Perhaps when we are actually TTC if how I’m tracking isn’t working, I will switch to a thermometer, but for now I’m gonna stick with this.

I bought WAY too many OPKs, which are essentially little test strips (look very similar to pregnancy tests), that indicate when your peak ovulation is going to be. Do you need to buy every OPK on Amazon?! Hell no. I went crazy because I want to test them all out and report back which one I liked best, which one was the most accurate (although I’m guessing the accuracy is all pretty similar), and which one was the most user friendly.

We were living at my MILs up until about 2 weeks ago, so I plan to start tracking my next opportunity!

Is it necessary to track before TTC? No not at all! Completely personal preference. You might be someone who wants to wait to track until it’s actually time to TTC or you might be someone who doesn’t want to track at all!

Very personal decision and you have to be aware of if tracking will impact your stress. For some people adding that tracking in can really be stressful and overwhelming (and take all the fun out of actually TTC 😉), for others, it helps to manage your stress to give you more of an idea, sense of control, and overall better understanding of your cycle (aka me).

Want to get started but feeling overwhelmed on where to even begin?! I hear ya. My first suggestion would be to just start tracking your periods if you aren’t already. Download a handful of period apps and try them out (so you can figure out your favorite) and get into the habit of marking down when you get your period.

Knowing when you get it is a really helpful baseline since peak ovulation *typically* happens around day 14 (not true for everyone though!). But either way, tracking your period will help you get into the habit of tracking things going on with your body and starting to build that awareness.

From there you’ll start to understand when you could be ovulating, and you can dip your toes into tracking with one of the ways listed above. I promise it’s not as overwhelming as it seems, and as I dive into it I will go into everything to hopefully make things feel simpler (or we can commiserate together 😂)

3. Going to the Doctor

I made an appointment with a doctor for preconception questions, an annual checkup, and getting my IUD removed (more on that below).

I was behind on my annual checkup so I wanted to get that taken care of to make sure everything looked good.

I told her we were going to TTC in the coming year and to be honest there wasn’t really anything special that happened during the appointment because of that, it was more on me to ask any questions I had. One thing we were going to do is do a blood panel to test for any genetic things I could pass on to my kids and test for my immunizations (although I ended up passing out when we did the blood draw so I’ll need to go back for that 🙃).

I asked about if there was anything Scott needed to do to prepare, about the current meds I was taking, and to look at my prenatal, but there was nothing she really said outside of that.

If you have questions then I recommend having a preconception appointment, but if you’re making an appointment JUST for that with no question in mind, I’m not so sure it’s worth it. Of course your call! I’ve read that that’s the norm – which isn’t that so crazy?! Like we’re about to embark on one of the hardest things we could do to our body and they’re just like 👍 cool go for it???? Okay…

4. Removing Birth Control

This obviously will depend on if you’re even taking birth control, and what kind of birth control you are taking. If you’re taking a hormonal birth control, you should probably discuss with your doctor when to stop because your body will need some time to adjust and for the hormones to regular before TTC.

I had the copper IUD, which is non-hormonal. Technically that means I could remove it and get pregnant like the same day. However, because it changed my period, I wanted time without the IUD to truly understand my cycle without anything altering it whatsoever.

Also, I had done a bit of reading and saw ONE person mentioned that they ended up having a miscarriage after getting pregnant soon after a copper IUD removal due to the fact that the IUD thins out your uterine lining and so the baby didn’t properly stick. I also had seen a few women share that their doctors recommended to wait one cycle before TTC after copper IUD removal.

From reading that, wanting to understand my completely natural cycle, and generally hating how bad the cramps were (essentially 1 week of terrible cramps before my period, a week long heavy period, then 1 week of terrible cramps after), I was ready to give my body a break and go without the IUD.

5. Hydrating

These next few habits are more about preparing my body to be in the best possible health and shape before carrying a baby, and would be good to do even if you’re not TTC obviously! But these are some healthy habits I’m working to develop and/or make more regular.

I’ve kinda gotten off my water habit since we have been traveling a bit and generally not in a regular routine. Now that we’ve moved, I finally am reunited with my beloved straw water bottles (anyone else find it so much easier to drink water when you have a straw?!) I will be sure to up my intake and reincorporate that habit into my life.

6. Getting Regular Movement

This is something I’ve truly never been great about to be honest. I go through spurts but have never developed a longer lasting routine. I know that it can be helpful with pregnancy and labor to be in good physical shape, so over these next 6 months it’s a big goal of mine to figure out a sustainable workout/movement routine for myself.

We actually just got a Peloton right when we moved and I’m only 1 and a half weeks in so far, but really liking it. Makes it so easy to have it right here in our house. The monthly payment plan made not quite such a financial burden! (and no interest!)

7. Having Healthy Balanced Meals

This is another thing like hydration that has been thrown off a bit due to traveling for an extended period of time. It’s been SO nice to have a kitchen again and to be able to stock it full of everything I need to create healthy and delish meals.

General goal is plenty of veggies and overall balanced meals! I typically eat pretty healthy when in my regular routine, so it’s more just getting back into that after months of travel/living at my MILs.

8. Cutting Down to 1 Cup of Coffee a Day

I wasn’t planning on doing this one so soon, but recently was sick (first cold I’ve had in like 3+ years??) and whenever I’m sick I stop drinking coffee. Took that as an opportunity to cut down my intake rather than have to ween myself off of it later. Plus, I am a cream and sugar kinda coffee gal, so I figured cutting down to one per day wouldn’t be the worst thing for my health.

So far I’m not missing that second cup as much as I thought I would! I think I broke my habit while I was sick so that worked to my advantage. I actually thought cutting my caffeine intake would have been a bigger deal because I am quite dependent, but so far so good.

9. Being Mindful of Alcohol

I’m not much of a drinker at all honestly, so this isn’t really anything new to me. I maybe have 1 drink every other month. However if you drink more frequently it’s something to look further into and/or discuss with your doctor!

Occasionally I will partake in a little 🍃 activity, so that’s something I’m cutting down on. Apparently it can stay in your system for quite some time so I’ll probably stop that all together in the next few months.

10. Learning about TTC

This one might be obvious from the other 9, but I’m making a point to learn as much as I can now. I feel like I’d personally rather gather up and learn all the info now before we are actively TTC. There is plenty to learn, so I’d rather take my time with it rather than being in the middle of TTC and feeling like I know nothing and overwhelmed af.

This is mainly consisting of reading a few books (I grabbed this, this, and this one) and tracking my ovulation to learn about my cycle. Also doing some searching around on various Reddit threads. SO much info there and I like hearing other women’s experiences. Seriously, just search how to prepare your body for pregnancy reddit (or whatever other question you may have) and SO much good info from real women will pop up.

PS – I’ll share some reviews on those books when I’m done reading them so you can know if they’re worth it or not!

If you’re looking for how to prepare your body for pregnancy, hopefully this post gives you some ideas to consider and/or discuss with your doctor. It’s a very personal journey and what I’m doing might not be what works for you. That’s okay! My hope is that this gives you a jumping off point to figure out your own TTC journey and what feels best ❤️

This post was all about how to prepare your body for pregnancy.