Trying to conceive a child can really be an anxiety-ridden experience. Once you become emotionally committed to parenthood, you want it to happen immediately. The Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor helps to eliminate some of the guesswork. I used one of these when I was trying to conceive my middle daughter. It is very easy to use. The computer tracks your cycles and tells you when to test each month. The more you use it, the more it gets to know your cycle. The only downside is that you can only test once a day. This is fine for most women, but if you need to pinpoint your hormonal surge more exactly (especially if you are undergoing fertility procedures), you might want to use this in addition to an ovulation predictor kit. My method was to start using the kit strips every four hours once the monitor started reading “high” fertility.

Overall, I think this is a great product that was well worth the expense. I passed mine along to a friend when I was done. You can purchase one from most drug stores or online at $169.95 at early-pregnancy-tests.com. There are also generally a large number of these for sale on ebay. You can save a lot on a new one, or even more if you are willing to buy a used one (just follow the directions to reset it so you aren’t using someone else’s information).

When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I went a little ultrasound crazy. I desperately wanted to know if she was a boy or girl, so we took a weekend trip to go to a private ultrasound studio three weeks before I’d have the big diagnostic ultrasound with my midwife. I found out I was having another girl (much to my delight), and got some great photos and video footage to share with friends and family. We went back at 32 weeks for a 3D/4D session. Those pictures were great. We could see her big chubby cheeks, and I think it helped my older daughter prepare for the reality of a new baby.

We might have done the same thing this time, but the drive was a bit much with a toddler in tow, and a closer studio didn’t take appointments before the diagnostic one at the doctor’s office. While many people are against these “recreational” ultrasounds for a variety of reasons, I was pleased with my decision. I really felt it was a bonding experience for the whole family, and I think my daughter will enjoy seeing those pictures one day.

I wish I had them for all three of my girls. Of course these studios cannot diagnose medical conditions. They were completely unaware that I had placenta previa, for example, which was diagnosed by my midwife a few weeks later. There are also concerns about the overuse of ultrasound and possible risks to the baby, although I was satisfied from what I read that there is no reason for concern within limits. Ultimately, everyone has to make their own decision. If you are interested in getting a private ultrasound, you can find one in your area at 1800sonogram.com.