This post is sponsored by First Response. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I found out I was pregnant just about a year ago and it was the best news ever! It took my husband and I a while to decide on having another baby and then changing up more things in our lives like a career change for me, figuring out if we wanted to move to a bigger house and a few more things. So once I knew that we were ready, I wanted to have the best tools available to help the process. My age also had something to do with it as I had my first baby in my 30s and here we are 5 years later trying to have our 2nd. After years of being told that having a baby late in your 30s would get harder, I went in with the expectations that it would take a bit more time.
The best tool we used to get pregnant
One of the tools that we used to help was the First Response™ Ovulation Test Kit that helped pinpoint the days that I was most fertile and most likely to conceive and I truly believe it was one of the best tools that we used in our journey of making our 2nd baby!
The First Response™ Ovulation Test Kit is over 99% accurate in laboratory studies in detecting the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge in your urine. The LH surge indicates when you’re most fertile and likely to conceive. By using the test kits, you can pinpoint your two most fertile days in just minutes-and that is the time you are most likely to get pregnant.
The test kit is super easy to use and it’s not something that will take up a lot of your day. And for me, it was totally worth it to know the exact days that I was ovulating so I could let my husband know as well. Let’s be real, we are all super busy and especially with a 4 year old who has a busy schedule of her own with us taking her to pre-school, ballet classes, swim lessons, etc… to be able to know the exact days of my ovulation really helped relieve the stress for me.
How to maximize your fertility in 2019:
I wanted to talk to an expert to get some tips for any of you that may also be on the journey of making a baby so here are some top tips from Yale University’s Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Mary Jane Minkin, M.D for trying to conceive:
Predict your most fertile days:
Accurately predicting your most fertile days is easy. In general, you ovulate about 14 days before you get your period. So, if you have a 28-day cycle you are probably ovulating around day 14-15 (counting the first day of your period as day 1). If you have a 35-day cycle, you are probably ovulating around day 21. However, to give you the most definitive information, the First Response™ Ovulation Test Kit will tell you when your LH surge happens so you know when to have sex to maximize your chances of conception.
The lube you use can affect your ability to conceive:
Lubricants can be tricky-because obviously, knowing that you have to have sex at a certain time can be stressful and take away from spontaneity (and natural lubrication of your own!). So many women do find themselves a bit dry in these situations, and a lubricant can be very helpful. However, many lubricants impair sperm motility or damage sperm vitality. One brand recommended by many fertility doctors is Pre-Seed™ Fertility Friendly Lubricant which is specifically formulated to mimic the pH, osmolality, and viscosity of fertile fluids. It is clinically shown to be fertility-friendly. Don’t feel badly that you need to use some lube-just use a sperm friendly variety.
She also recommended a few things to help get pregnant like making sure you are close to your ideal body weight as you can –both being underweight and overweight can contribute to infertility. Stop smoking and also make sure to take a vitamin enriched with folate.
How to be confident with your pregnancy test result
As I’m sure with most women who are trying to conceive, I tracked my periods each month to make sure I knew the timeframe of a missed period. At the beginning of our journey I bought quite a few of the First Response™ Early Result Pregnancy Tests so that I could test as soon as I could each month as it is the only brand that can tell you 6 days sooner than your missed period(1).The First Response Pregnancy tests are over 99% accurate(2) which is why I really trust their test but I can’t be the only one who tests multiple times to be sure of my result! That’s why the First Response™ Triple Check Pregnancy Test Kit is perfect for women like me! The kit offers three unique tests in one convenient kit. Each test offers a different way to learn your result. More ways to test means added reassurance when it matters most.
I feel extremely lucky that with these tools we were able to get pregnant fairly early into our journey. I know getting pregnant is a different process for each woman but I hope that these tips can help you out as well!
(1)First Response™ detects the pregnancy hormone 6 days sooner than the day of your missed period (5 days before the day of expected period. In laboratory testing, Early Result Pregnancy Test detected pregnancy hormone levels in 76% of pregnant women 5 days before their expected period. See package for details about testing early.
(2) For Early Result and Digital Pregnancy Tests: >99% accurate at detecting typical pregnancy hormone levels from the day of your expected period. For Rapid Result Pregnancy Test: >99% accurate at detecting typical pregnancy hormone levels from the day of your missed period. Note that hormone levels vary. See insert.
