Achieving Conception...
or, How to Catch the Egg

The more times you managed to have sex (sometimes known as baby dancing) during this time, the more opportunities your egg has of meeting Mr. Right. Your egg is viable for about 24 hours, more or less. Under the right conditions, sperm can live inside you for up to five days. The right conditions happen during that window of time when you have watery or eggwhite cervical mucus.

While it may seem that conceiving is extremely easy when you don't want to have a baby, it can suddenly seem very difficult when you're finally ready. Ironic, huh? Some women take their temperatures every morning before getting out of bed and keeping a chart. Temperatures will rise at ovulation and stay higher until your period comes. Combine that with observing your cervical mucus, and you can usually have a good idea of when ovulation occurs. If you still aren't sure, there are ovulation prediction kits you can use. They work similar to a pregnancy test, but instead of telling you that you are pregnant, they pinpoint the likelihood of ovulation.

Once you've ovulated, you begin the dreaded two week wait. If you've had any difficulty conceiving, this can be a time of obsessing over possible symptoms as you wait until you can take a pregnancy test. After an egg is fertilized, it takes between 6 and 10 days to travel down the Fallopian tube and embed itself into the uterine lining. Once there, your body begins to secrete human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). This is the hormone pregnancy tests detect. Once the egg is implanted, it takes a few days for the hormone level to get high enough for the tests to react to. So, if your egg finds the uterus faster, you'll likely have a positive test before someone who's egg traveled a little slower. This is why some women can get a faint positive test as early as 9 or 10 days past ovulation (dpo). Others don't get a positive until 14 or 18 days after ovulation.

Now, conception is easy, right? Well, knowing these things and keeping track of your cycle can increase your chances of conception. Age can also factor into this equation. It was a lot easier for me to conceive at 27 than it is now at 44. Another thing to consider is in your quest for a baby, you don't want to turn sex into work. Waving a positive ovulation test in hubby's face and saying "I'm ovulating, let's make a baby!" may be a bit intimidating. Some men become too self-conscious to perform due to the pressure to "make a baby." By keeping it spontaneous, fun and light, there is less stress on both of you and conception will happen easier than if you're stressed.

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