HELP ! ~ Trying to Conceive

 Hi everyone... Its been ages since i've been on here, but i'm now 18 months post surgery and we are TTC. We have been trying for 2 months, with no success. This month i've bought an ovulation test kit - so hopefully that will increase our chances even more, but I have TONS of questions and can't seem to get a "real" answer. 

I've been doing reading and heard that Asparatme and artificial sweeteners can cause birth defects. As a Bypass patient, i can't eat sugar (because I dump really bad). Everything has those sweeteners in it - crystal light, mio, any diet drinks. What can I drink? Has anyone used/heard of Truvia? 

What about vitamins. I was told that too much of a vitamin can cause problems. My OB isn't really "up" on bypass patients, so I when he tells me to limit my vitamins, I get nervous. Any help? 

Has anyone else tried to ovulation kits? Do they work? How long until you became PG? 

Any other helpful hints/thoughts on what I can do pre-pregnancy? 

Thanks Guys !

 oh honey, buckle up, this is gonna be a long and bumpy ride. i hope you get pregnant right away. but more often than not it won't happen right away. in fact most women with no issues take from 6 months to a year to conceive. naturally some women are super fertile, but not all of us are that lucky. i was just like you. when i decided i wanted to conceive i thought i would get pregnant right away. in fact the first time i had sex when TTC i was like..this is it. LOL. not to say thats how you're thinking, thats just how i was. i got really frusted when the months went by and nothing. 

OPK (ovulation prediction kits) are great. once you get the hang of them you start to know when your surge days are. and the more you try, the more you get to know your body, you'll start to feel when you're ovulating. but even sometimes when you're ovulating normally, you're having sex at the right time, and nothing is wrong with you, you can still not get pregnant. its so frustrating. TTC is an emotional roller coaster.

i read about the vitamin A too. but i just stick to my prenatal (which took the place of my multivitamin) and prenatals won't have a dangerous about of vitamin A. are you taking an actual vitamin a supplement? i didn't have bypass but i don't think you have to take a seperate vitamin A supplement. but i could be wrong. the prenatals should really be able to replace most of the vitamins. but thats what bloodwork is for. i take a prenatal, iron, b12, vit d (took that before i had wls) but i just recently did blood work so we'll see if i need to add or subtract anything to that. 

i read all the stuff about artificial sweeteners as well. all i can tell you is that you have to take all these things with a grain of salt. it seems like anything you eat or drink that isn't nutritious is dangerous for the baby. my doc was like, look, don't worry too much about it. just be sensible. obviously there are things you absolutely cannot eat or drink. but some other things are questionable. people are on the fence about lunch meats. some people say stay away, some people say its not a big deal. my doc said it wasn't a big deal. but just to be safe i'll microwave it for 5 seconds first. 

now when it comes to artificial sweeteners, i get kind of irked when people say not to drink these. i'm sorry but i don't drink soda or juices or anything. all i drink is crystal light and other powder drinks. now you wanna take THAT away from me??? come on man. give me a break. the way i look at it is there are women in this country that drink nothing but mountain dew and eat mcdonalds and they have perfectly fine babies. yeah its not good for the mom's health but it doesn't necessarily hurt the baby. of course we want the baby to have good nutrients. i'm just saying, there are places around the country and the world where women consume worse things than artificial sweeteners and they turn out alright. so i'm not losing any sleep over it. but its a personal choice. i know some of the women on here refrain from all artificial sweetners. and god bless them. but i can't do it.

anyway i hope some of this helps. welcome to the club. this is a great support system. :)

Welcome to the group and good luck with your TTC endeavors. OPK's do work, but they're sometimes hard to read. Most have you continue to test until you get a result where the test line is as dark or darker than the control line. Don't be fooled into thinking that two lines means you're about to ovulate, because if the test line is still lighter then it's not so.

As for the artificial sweeteners, I have used Truvia before to sweeten my plain greek yogurt and stuff, but never to sweeten drinks. I think it tastes pretty good but it doesn't take much at all to sweeten.

I can't help much with the vitamins and OPKs, but here is my 2 cents on aspartame... as I "speak" I'm having my "3 o'clock Diet Coke" fix... if I don't get this little bit of me time, I'm a bear.  Both of my kids survived my afternoon soda withour any extra appendages forming.  Granted, I'm only a case study of one, but I agree with Meli, you have to pick your battles!

I highly recommend the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility." It explains in detail how your cycle works and how to identify your most fertile window each month etc.
Oh, and the American Pregnancy Association says aspertame and splenda are totally safe in moderation.
Good luck!

 i actually have the book nikki is talking about. if you send me your address i can mail it to you. that way you dont' have to go out and buy it.

Hey neighbor!  I see you had doctor McDreamy do your WLS. LOL.  A few friends had him too.  Anyhow... I tried for 6 cycles before successfully getting pg via IVF.  We agressively progressed there because of my age - I'm 41.  Anyway, I tracked my fertility for several months before TTC and during TTC via taking my basal body temp every morning (literally for almost a year) and tracking it on fertilityfriend.com.  Get a basal body thermometer from any drug store and keep it by your bed.  You'll start to see the trend in your body temp as it rises when you ovulate.  OPK's are also very helpful.  Be patient... it takes time to get pg.  Some women get pg without even trying.... you know those "oops... i'm pg!" girls.  We don't like them. haha. jk.  It takes time and patience.

I also had RNY and I used to use artificial sweeteners in a lot of things as I too dump big time.  But yes, since I was TTC and now my pregnancy, those artificial sweeteners are out.  I switched to Truvia in my decaf coffee and its pretty tasty.  There is an adjustment when what we can take in for sure.  But then again there's an adjustment for all pg women regardless of WLS or not.  Do your research and be patient.  Fun stuff!  Good luck

I don't know about Asparatme and artificial sweetners.....if I was unsure I always looked at the March of Dimes website on anything related to birth defects.

I took a prenatal and an iron caplet. I have a band so my needs may be different.

As far as OPK's.... it worked for me. I had my Mirena taken out in March and started charting my cycles via fertilityfriend.com. I did my temp before I got out of bed every morning. I just did my oral temp with a regular ol' thermometer and charted it. My temps would always rise around ovulation by a fraction of a degree or two. I also had a ferning microscope because I was curious- it did show what it was supposed to but it's about the hardest thing to determine for sure if you're ovulating or not. I watched for the different textures of "liquid" when I went to the bathroom. My least favorite method and I didn't really follow the rules on it cause I'm pretty squeamish that way. I also used the OPK's. My short term disability insurance became effective May 1 so I charted for two months before we started trying. May 1 I got two positive lines, a rise in my body temp, crystals on the microscope...I was pregnant by May 2. I was 37 too...so my probabilty was supposed to be less than a younger person's. Being an older mom, my husband and I decided that we would try for a few months and then give up if nothing happened. I wasn't going to put my body though fertility drugs and such (we already have four kids). With that stated- I wanted to give every month trying my most educated effort. BTW- It took the whole two months for me to figure out how the surges in my body worked to test on the OPK.

Oh- and one more thing....start taking Folic Acid now. Taking it BEFORE you get pregnant actually decreases your chances of most birth defects. Read about it on March of Dimes.

Good luck!
Tracey