^^ Very informative, thank you!
I've haven't found the TTC group, might search for it again.

I'm also going to start trying for baby #1 sometimes this summer. Sent your a FR, hope it's ok

I started taking folic acid (1mg daily, as suggested by my doctor) and I'm stopping supplements (protein powder, BCAA) as soon as I run out (probably next month, I'm not sure it's needed, but I just want to make sure). I'm already taking a multi but once I finish the bottle I currently have, I'll switch to a pre-natal.

I'm nearly 38 weeks with my 3rd now.

I have to admit I didn't really do anything different before TTC, although each time I have TTC I have been really fit and healthy.

We decided to try for a baby after our honeymoon in 2008. We got back at the end of August and I took my last pill, which I'd been on for about 8 years. I got pregnant the first month trying. I'd been on a real health and fitness kick to look good for my wedding, and even on honeymoon had been healthy, eaten well and done lots of swimming and stuff.

I put on weight in pregnancy, despite exercising, and then after I had my son I went back to exercising quite quickly and lost he weight. We started TTC the month he turned 1, and i got pregnant the 3rd month trying.

I put on a lot more weight this time, and after my daughter was born, I lost loads did ended up thinner and healthier than ever before. I also discovered MFP!

Last year we decided to TTC number 3. I got pregnant first month, but then had a very early miscarriage at 5 weeks. After that I got pregnant the 2nd month trying.

I take folic acid once I find out I'm pregnant.

I did have a smear test to check all was ok before TTC.

I think just being healthy, eating well and exercising helps.

I went in for a pap smear and a check up and discussed with my ObGyn that I was going to start trying and asked his advice for anything he thought I needed to do.
Prenatal vitamins (which I was already taking.) If I were you I would start taking them now.
Healthy food options; this is a good boost to health and along with taking the vitamins it gives your baby a good healthy start.
Exercise; he asked what I was doing and suggested I just continue with what I was doing. But, he said it is best to be active during your pregnancy, just a walk a day is great and why not get in the routine of doing that now, it will be harder to start a routine once you are pregnant.
Brace yourself; this is how he worded this advice exactly. He knew what had happened with my previous pregnancy with my daughter and he was certain I was going to be very ill with MS again and probably have some of the same complications. He told me to brace myself for it, prepare for it but hope it doesn't happen.
Evaluate where you are working and if you really plan to continue during pregnancy or after baby, plan ahead; my doctor wasn't thrilled about the job I had and was concerned about me doing it while pregnant and it is a very physically demanding job. My husband was concerned too and I ignored them both. 11 weeks pregnant, I got hurt and I haven't worked since. I wish I would have considered their advice more, thought it through more and probably left the job on better terms.
Finances and Insurance; before getting pregnant, find out exactly what your health insurance companies polices are on maternity and what their maternity coverage is. I had my own surprises with our insurance company when, in order to cover maternity, I had to sign a paper saying they had every right to know about results of every test and every complication, including access to previous birth information and miscarriages. Have some money set aside before conceiving, you may get lucky and not need it, but it is best that you have some financial backup just in case. For me, it was for things like anti nausea medication and all new medications for other conditions because the ones I was on weren't safe for pregnancy.
Find an ObGyn ahead of time; ask about their billing policies or anything else that is of concern to you. I love my ObGyn and have gone to the same guy always but was upset to find out with this pregnancy that their prices and billing procedures had changed. We had to pay for the birth and everything ahead of time, cash, even though we have insurance, and it won't be reported to our insurance company until after birth. So even though we are thousands of dollars out of pocket already, our insurance company thinks we have paid that yet. So, my daughter's physical and husband's appts are all cash still right now too. Ridiculous considering we have paid way over our deductible already.
Know your cycle; it is up to you if you want to get ovulation kits or take your temperature or nothing at all. I personally did nothing, I know my body well enough to just know the rhythm of my cycle and when I ovulate.
Stop taking hormonal birth control; I have heard many stories on this one. I have no scientific evidence, just hearsay from family and friends but conception seems to come easier after a few months off of it. I have no experience here as I have never taken birth control.

My story: after visiting with a doctor and given the go ahead and receiving the clean results from pap smear we decided to start trying. I had just started my TOM and knew I ovulated around day 14. My husband was working out of town and was only home on Sundays at the time. Looking at the calendar, Day 13 landed on Sunday. We didn't do anything leading up to that weekend (not sure on scientific evidence behind this but felt we probably had better chances if he had built up a little while). So, when that weekend came around we tried twice while he was home. The next weekend he ended up not coming home so he was gone two weeks in a row. Coming home on a Sunday two weeks after we had attempted he came home to a positive test. My doctor keeps trying to tell me he thinks I am further along than I think I am but, as you can tell by our method of trying to conceive - we know Exactly what day that happened on. I Know how far along I am
I have friends that have been trying for years (one of them only 2 years, another 11 years). One of them was actually mad at me when I conceived first try. Everyone is different.
My last bit of advice is, don't get your hopes up too high. It can be really devastating when it doesn't happen month after month after month if you are allowing yourself to get all excited before it happens.

Sorry about the novel.

Can't even begin to express how jealous I am of that.
My daughter's pregnancy and birth total was over $200,000. (This is from various hospitalizations and complications during pregnancy and a very expensive Csection.) Thank heavens for insurance or I would still be paying that. I only paid about $10,000.

This baby will probably end up costing us about $10,000 too. We will have to see. We are almost at $4,000 already and still have 10 more weeks til delivery.

^I always forget about this too. I'm in Canada and the only thing we will need to pay out of pocket is a circumcision if it's a boy which is 450$

Just got off the phone with the insurance company. Looks like we are going to be over $10,000 with this baby for sure.

I have 9 children. Before having our first hubby and I used BC. I was exercising a lot (I was a dance minor in college at the time) but not eating great all the time. My baby was born early with some complications. Since then I kept exercising and ate better, stopped smoking, stopped drinking (except for the occasional glass of wine). My subsequent pregnancies have been better. I found the easiest labour/births were the pregnancies where I exercised throughout and ate less processed foods. It took us almost 5 years to get pregnant the second time. We were told we had secondary infertility and would most likely not have any more children. We decided not to do fertility treatments but to let God be in control (didn't realize He had such a sense of humor). This last one was my best. I didn't gain a ton of weight, a month post partum I am almost back to prepreggo weight, labour was fast, everything went great. I really liked that this time around I saw a midwife instead of a doctor. I didn't do any thing other than normal blood tests and one U/S. I did homeopathic treatments and gave birth at home in a birthing pool. It was much more relaxed. Stress during pregnancy can really mess with your system so the more you can relax the better. Best of luck.

I had my IUD taken out and started taking a prenatal vitamin. I also bought some ovulation and pregnancy test strips. The cheapo ones you get from amazon, but they seemed to work. We didn't try try. I had a general idea of when I ovulated from the tests, but preplanned ovulation based sex seemed ultra not sexy, so we just went with it. It took 3 months for the first and 4 months for this pregnancy.

If you can get some money saved up. You never know if you'll be out of work. A woman at my work was out for nearly half her pregnancy.

If you're not already doing so I'd start whatever sort of exercise you would like to continue with long term. The general advice for pregnancy is that you can continue with what you were doing beforehand. Most people say when they exercise and eat healthier their pregnancies work out better, but with my daughter I walked quite a bit and ate fairly healthy, and still had complications where I was on bedrest for the last two months.

This might have been mentioned already, but get life insurance and make sure a will is in order first. My son is 14 months and we are just now working on our will. I waited until I was pregnant to get life insurance and was denied based on weight. Just two very random but important things to consider.

I had been on several types of BC for almost nine years before we decided to try to conceive. I literally stopped my last pack of BC pills at the end of June and got pregnant on the 4th of July! I figured that it would take a few months but that obviously was not the case. I had a miscarriage (baby stopped growing at week 8 and I found out at week 12) and then a D&C in September. The doc told us to wait to have one or two normal menstrual cycles before TTC again. We waited to have one complete cycle and started TTC in November... we found out on 10 December that we were preggo and I am now due 14 August. Getting pregnant was the easy part for us!

Definitely track your body fluids and go off of what that tells you... just google it for info

Good luck!