Pre-Natal Vitamins

Well, I've just taken the last pill of my first bottle of prenatal vitamins.  Everyone knows that expectant moms need lots of folic acid, but I've been reading a lot about DHA helping promote brain and eye development in a fetus.  I intend to research this further, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I am taking a prenatal with DHA, though.  What can I say?  I've always been a sucker for "emerging research".  I've chosen a widely available brand and buy mine at Walmart since that is where the best price is available.  The brand also offers a rewards points program.  I get 55 points for every code I enter off of empty bottles.  At 500 points I get a $5 off coupon.  Well, I guess it's better than nothing.  And the $9.44 per bottle I pay is by far the best value when you consider that pre-natal vitamins with DHA sometimes retail for over $60 a bottle.  Ludicrous.  I know that everyone wants to give their baby the best start in life possible, but there is a not-so-fine line between wanting the best for your child and being taken advantage of by pharmaceutical companies out to prey on your good intentions and guilt you into paying too much.

Beginnings

My husband and I have been married for nearly eight months.  Having both started new jobs within months of the wedding, we didn't have the opportunity (or the cash) to take a proper honeymoon, so we plan on taking the trip of a lifetime on our first anniversary.  We're going to spend four days in Paris and then take the train down to the south of France so my husband can SCUBA dive in the Mediterranean.  We've decided that when we get home, I'm going to go off of birth control and we'll start trying to get pregnant.  We would have liked to have waited for a couple more years and maybe do some more travelling, but I'm turning 29 this month and he's turning 36 the day after.  The timing isn't the ideal that I'd imagined in my younger days, but it took me a long time to find such a great love, so we've had to adapt.

I'm trying to prepare myself for the pregnancy and being a mother, and my husband is working hard on preparing  the house we purchased this year.  I have a whole list of books that I'd love to buy to read up on how to prep for pregnancy, but as I suspect my husband has bought me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday, I haven't ordered any yet.  I have made a trip to the library to read a few chapters of "What to Expect Before You're Expecting" which recommends taking pre-natal vitamins a whole year before beginning efforts to conceive.  I wasn't quite that on the ball, and every other source I've found says that 3 months is enough, so I'm splitting the difference.  I'm almost to the end of my first bottle of prenatal vitamins (with DHA).  Every day that I take one, I feel like I'm that much closer to my goal of holding a baby in my arms.