Planning my first pregnancy with Natural Cycles: Erin's story

Disclaimer: This is one Natural Cycles user’s experience. Everyone's experience is different and we encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider when considering switching birth control. 

Josh and I started seriously talking about getting ready for kids right before the pandemic. I went off hormonal birth control to give my hormones time to regulate, we started planning finances, I started taking pre-natals (you can’t take these too early), and we even started chatting with a therapist about it. 

We both love our lives and I wanted to make sure we were fully committed to the idea of being parents. I honestly think there are a lot of people in this world who are parents because it’s what is expected of them and I didn’t want that to be us. I also know statistically marital satisfaction drops quite a bit in the years after becoming parents. I wanted to make sure it’s what we really wanted, and that we went into this decision with our eyes as wide open as they possibly could be.

Then the pandemic hit, and we didn’t leave our house for a solid year. And then Josh’s parents moved to Omaha and in with us for a year while they built their new home. I also left my financial services job and started a new job in tech. So our baby plans came to a screeching halt for a good two years.

Enter 2022. Between January and September, we resumed normal life, Josh’s parents moved into their new home, and I’d successfully established myself at my new job and hit the year mark. (My company offers benefits from day one but I felt better peace of mind knowing I would have the legal protection of FMLA while on leave.)

Also, a lot of my friends started announcing pregnancies. And while in earlier years when friends announced their pregnancies, I was just super excited and happy for them, these announcements started to make me emotional. There was a longing that was never there before. This deep inner feeling of “I want that too.”

My childhood and teenage years were spent feeling like I was waiting for my life to start. And then I met Josh and my 20s were the dream of what I always wanted my life to be. I was the main character of my story and so present and grateful for it all.

In 2022 we went on a lot of vacations to celebrate surviving the pandemic and not having roommates anymore. Traveling is one of my favorite things in the world and when I feel most alive. But I again started to feel that disconnected feeling. I noticed all the families traveling with babies and kids and again felt that out-of-body feeling of watching people live their life and feeling like I wasn’t fully living mine.

Everything inside of me seemed to be telling me it was time. For all of 2022, I tracked my period with Natural Cycles. It’s an amazing app that learns your cycle and tells you how long they usually last, what the variation is, and whether or not you’re within normal ranges. I never tracked my periods before as my cycles were always just regular and didn’t give me problems. So I learned A LOT during this time.

At this point I integrated my Oura Ring with my Natural Cycles account to make measuring more smooth. I originally got my Oura Ring for sleep tracking, but with the Natural Cycles app, I could use it to measure my temperature overnight instead of measuring in the morning with a thermometer. Want to try Natural Cycles yourself? Click here to get 20% off with my referral link.

I also talked to my OBGYN who recommended having sex every other day from day 10 through day 20 of my cycle. Aged 32, I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get pregnant or if I would struggle to conceive. I shared all this with Josh and we got his swimmers tested to ensure we wouldn’t run into any problems there.

When I started a new cycle at the end of November we officially started trying with the every-other-day method. I stopped drinking “just in case” and put off getting Botox or my brows refilled. I flew to New Jersey for my cousin’s bridal shower in between days 20 and 27 (the end of my cycle) and remember excitedly telling my family. It was crazy to think that when I flew home it would be time to take my first-ever pregnancy test! While I was there I remember my boobs started feeling a little sore towards the end of the trip but otherwise felt perfectly normal.

The day after I got home was the day I was supposed to get my period. And it didn’t come. So I went to Walgreens and bought two pregnancy tests. You could see the non-digital one showed a line but the digital one said not pregnant. I remember texting my friends like, “WTF does this mean?!” Long story short, some digital readers require a higher level of HCG present to display a positive and it can sometimes take a few days for levels to rise enough for it to register.

So the next day I took two more tests and they were both positive. I was in shock but also so happy. I just thought for sure it would take us a few months so having it happen on the first month at 32 kind of threw me for a loop.

I switched my Natural Cycles app from trying to conceive to NC° Follow Pregnancy. I also downloaded some pregnancy apps to track the baby’s growth. Let me tell you, a baby at 3 weeks does not look anything like a baby. I felt like I was tracking a blob. It was so weird to see it morph and change in those early weeks.

The day I got two positive pregnancy tests I called my OBGYN and went in for blood work the same day to confirm. Once they confirmed it, I went to Target and bought Josh the Dada book and a pair of gender-neutral baby boots. I put them in a baking dish in the oven in the morning and told him to check the oven because I baked him something special. He was really surprised and happy and it was really sweet.

Then there was a whole freaking lot of waiting. Something they don’t really tell you about the first trimester is how much sitting around doing nothing there is. My doctor scheduled me for a six-week ultrasound to confirm I wasn’t farther along than I thought I was. I went in expecting to have a belly ultrasound so I was pretty shocked to see a vaginal ultrasound wand. I was like, where is that going? Thankfully it didn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable. It was just very odd!

At first, when they pulled the screen up my heart dropped because I couldn’t see anything. They were like, “Don’t worry, we have to zoom in a lot at this point because the baby is so little.” They zoomed in, and sure enough, there was this weird cheerio-looking thing with a strong, beating heart. They said it was measuring at exactly six weeks so my timing and estimates were exactly right.

After that ultrasound, I did a Sneak Peek gender test. It’s not covered by insurance but so worth it if you’re impatient like me and really want to know the gender. I was so excited I could learn at 6 weeks what I was having. I screamed when it said "girl". Having a girl has been my dream my whole life…

This is an extract from Erin’s original post, head over to her blog to read the full article. Huge thanks to Erin for sharing her personal journey with us. If you’d like to try Natural Cycles to plan or prevent pregnancy, you can use Erin's personal referral link for 20% off your subscription.

Image credit: Ninety Six Oak.