could I be pregnant?

So... after seemingly endless months of detoxing - a six month stint that kept getting extended because hubby and I both had to travel overseas (and one of the things we were detoxing from is cosmic radiation) - we have finally started TTC (trying to conceive for those of you who don't regularly frequent online mommy clubs and infertility forums).

Our first time round we got preggers straight away, but I'm conscious of the fact that we are both now 5 years older and things might not happen as quickly. So we have started "trying" and while we have another week or so to wait for an official pee on a stick test, there are some early signs that may or may not mean I am pregnant... as the lovely people at the Mayo Clinic say:

"Unfortunately, these symptoms aren't unique to pregnancy. Some can indicate that you're getting sick or that your period is about to start. Likewise, you can be pregnant without experiencing any of these symptoms." But I do have almost all of the symptoms of pregnancy that they mention, so fingers crossed!

1. The first thing I noticed was that the smell/sight/thought of meat made me want to throw up. I thought I might have a stomach bug, since I was feeling poorly in other ways too, but the thought did cross my mind... could this be morning sickness? I didn't realise it could start so soon, and last time around it didn't kick in until I was about 8 weeks pregnant, so I didn't think much of it, until I started getting other signs, and googled morning sickness and found out it can start within days of conception...

2. My breasts became very sore. I was pretty sad when this happened actually, since it can also be a sign that you are getting your period, and again, I didn't get sore breasts until I was at least 4 weeks pregnant with my son... so I didn't think it was likely to be a sign of pregnancy, but a short trip down google lane and yes... you can get sore breasts within days of conception. If I am pregnant then it just goes to show how different each pregnancy can be.

3. I am really really tired. There could be many explanations for this... most of them involving chasing around a four year old jedi and three chickens, but still, it's another one of those symptoms of early pregnancy.

4. I felt like I was getting sick. This went with the feeling nauseous and being really tired, but it still seemed strange because I don't get sick very often, and no one around me was sick... but apparently when you are pregnant, especially in the early stages, your body lowers the immune response to make sure that you don't reject the new fetus. This is a good thing, but it also means you get sick more easily. I kept very good notes on my first pregnancy (back when I had a life and time for such things) and I noticed that the same thing happened then... I got sick around now. This lowered immunity has been put forward as one possible theory for morning sickness... we feel sick at the thought of any food that might contain parasites or pathogenic bacteria to make sure we only eat innocuous things like saltines and chocolate that are not going to make us sick, since our immune systems can't protect us like they usually do.

5. I started spotting. As in noticing very small amounts of blood in my (organic cotton) undies. I was pretty depressed at this one, since I thought it meant that my period was on its way (and early, to add insult to injury), but when it stopped after two days I realized that it could be implantation bleeding. This happens when a fertilized egg attaches to the lining of the uterus — about 10 to 14 days after fertilization, and the burrowing into the lining causes a very small amount of bleeding. The timing was right, based on when I thought I had ovulated... so I started feeling better. I hadn't noticed this with my first pregnancy, so it definitely doesn't always happen.

6. Raised body temperature. I have been taking my temperature for months now, using it as way to chart when I'm ovulating, and instead of going down in the second half of the cycle, my temp has stayed up. Again, this could be because I'm sick (which would also explain the nausea and fatigue) but still, it's one more sign...

7. Mood swings. I have been a bit quick to bite my hubby's head off this week...I think he'll forgive me if we discover the cause.

8. Feeling light headed and dizzy. I get this a lot anyway since I have very low blood pressure.

9. My hair is falling out. I haven't actually been able to find any conclusive evidence that hair falling out in the first few weeks after ovulation is a sign of pregnancy, but I'm pretty sure that it's a hormonal thing, so it would make sense. When I washed my hair yesterday I was left with a fistful of hair. Also, my hair has been greasier than normal the last few weeks, which is also hormonal I think... and it means I have to wash it almost every day, which is a pain, since who has time for that?!

10. Lastly, but certainly not least, I have a feeling I am pregnant. I've had this feeling since as soon as we started trying, but I had no proof... so I didn't give it much thought. We don't pay enough attention to our intuition and instincts, but they are powerful forces and when we do listen to them they make us much better mothers and people. I hope I'm right about this one :-)

how to get pregnant

For us getting pregnant was a journey that started two years before our son was born, when I bought the book The Natural Way to Better Babies: Preconception Health Care for Prospective Parents by Francesca Naish and Janette Roberts. The book was also published in America as Healthy Parents, Better Babies: A Couple's Guide to Natural Preconception Health Care. Around the same time, my Mother-in-law gave me a copy of The Chemical Maze, which is published in the USA as Eat Safe: The Truth about Additives from Aspartame to Xanthan Gum. Together these two books changed my life more than any others. I already thought I was being pretty green and healthy with my lifestyle choices, but this was my wake up call that a lot of products I was using in my house and on my body were not safe for me or the planet, especially not if I wanted to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby.

When I actually started reading all the ingredients (or tracking down the ingredients when they weren't listed) I found that I had to get rid of about 90% of what I was using. It took me a whole year to find effective replacements for all the synthetic chemicals in my life... I threw out mountains of personal care products and had to find a safe way to dispose of most of my cleaning products. It was during this year that I tried everything on offer in every health shop in Melbourne (not a cheap exercise). I found a few brands that stood up to my new criteria, ie nothing toxic. This is harder than you might think. Most of the products that claimed to be "green", "natural" or "organic" were mostly the same old chemicals dressed up with a couple of new ingredients, ie greenwashing. I had to educate myself as a consumer, and learn how to read a label and de-code all the ingredient names. I checked everything against the Chemical Maze (you can download a free excerpt of it here).

I was not being crazy, I was just a bit ahead of my time. Since then (five years ago) there have been many more books and articles published on how chemicals can decrease our fertility and increase our chances of health problems after exposure in the womb. Just this week Newsweek published an article on how exposure to chemicals (including BPA) as babies can make us fat later in life. And Gabriela Rosa has written books like The Awful Truth About Cleaning Products And Fertility Revealed and Protecting Your Fertility.

The concept of pre-conception health care has become so mainstream in the last five years that now even major pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer, which makes Elevit and Menevit, has published a booklet on how to boost your fertility. Amazingly, they have included a paragraph on "going natural" which states that naturopathy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicines, homeopathy, and hypnotherapy have all had reported successes in helping couples get pregnant. I can vouch for that, we did everything (except the hypnotherapy, but we used that for childbirth!) and we got pregnant the first time we tried, but of course that was after four months of detoxing, and a whole year of research and preparation before that. Normally I wouldn't recommend trying so many different tactics, but there's no harm done here (except for the cost) because all of these things (especially the detox) will help your general health and wellbeing, even if you could have gotten pregnant without doing it all.

The other things which have become more mainstream (and are recommended by Bayer) are to stop not just smoking, but to also give up alcohol and caffeine before you start trying. They point out that high caffeine intake can stop a fertilized egg implanting. It's not just women who have to cut out the bad stuff, it goes for men too, caffeine can increase sperm DNA damage and smoking and alcohol also reduce sperm quality. This is not some crazy health-nut idea, this is a major multi-national pharmaceutical company telling you this: if you're thinking about getting pregnant, or having trouble getting pregnant, then try cutting out alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine. I would add to that to replace all of your household and personal products with safe, natural, certified organic versions, such as miessence and Seventh Generation. It also helps to eat fresh, local, organic whole foods, sleep well, get plenty of exercise, fresh air and good sleep. Stress can actually play as big a part in (not) getting pregnant as anything else I've mentioned. So make some big changes, but try not to stress about them :-) Your body, your baby and the planet will thank you!