Well Kay will...i think that does work for some...my DH and I started out with that attitude. We have been married for 2 years but have been together for awhile and so when we got married we decided to just let it happen I really didnt worry about ovulation or what day to BD and didnt even know what a 2WW was ...lol...WELL 2 years later i decided we needed to think about a different option..... it didn't "just happen" for us so the last 2 months I have started to use OPK and it actually made me relieved to know I do ovulate. I think everyone is different and every relationship is different....I had the same thought in the very beginning of my TTC journey.

~Ashley

I think it depends on your stage in life. I'll be 32 this year and the first couple months, we didn't track anything. Then after talking to a couple people, who weren't ovulating at the times they thought they were, I started tracking my cycles. Then I did the OPKs just to make sure. And then I think it snowballs because I know we want more than one, but I want to keep my risk factors down, so anything to help it along is what I personally need to keep me mentally ok with being almost 32 an not pregnant yet. But I understand what you mean Kay. That method does work for a lot of people. A friend of mind who is trying was talking to me this weekend and I asked her if she knew when she ovulated and she said 'I dunno. It'll happen when it happens.' She's also 27 and has the luxury of saying that. I admire it a LOT.
I just think it just depends on a lot of factors and personal preference

This topic has been mentioned a few times before. Mostly by people who have just started, so for sure it's different for others trying for awhile. I am curious if there are ttc'ers who are taking this approach, who've been trying for a long time. I mean, it totally makes sense, Kay. Stress is bad for ttc. But it's WAY easier said than done.

I agree with Lisa & Ashley. It definitely depends on your background. For me, I'll be 27 in 4 days, DH is 30. So, still youngish. But we had wanted to start a family when I turned 25 - things weren't going right, so we're sorta 2 yrs behind schedule. When we starting trying in January, we took the laid back approach. Basically, we made sure to BD extra during my fertile period. After 4-5 months, that approach did not work. I guess it all depends on your answer to the question "Why do you want a baby, so badly, why now?" I've got a bunch of different answers - some are probably not good reasons, others are. Some of them include:

I am shy and quiet, and can't wait to have all this attention on me!
We'll finally have something to talk about at family gatherings!
We are really looking forward to all the fun things we can do with our kids, while we're still relatively young - active things, like hiking, etc.
We want to retire fairly early - lol!
My grandmother has cancer, and I have already lost 4 loved ones to the disease, and I want my child to have lots of family. But at this rate...
My 94 yr old great grandmother knitted me a baby blanket, because she thinks her time is coming, and she wanted to get it done before she passes. I want her to be able to see her great-great grandchild in that blanket.
I had a pregnancy scare last October - seeing that BFN made DH and I realize that we are soo ready.
Why so desperate? After so many months of trying, what might be wrong with me?

Then, I'll say the benefits of this horribly stressful experience: DH are so much closer and have a much stronger relationship, going through this together. I'm more in tune with my body. I've learned so much about the body.

Other points: I don't know about others, but the BDing is always good for us. (TMI?) And that's after 10 months. It's just tiring, and hard to schedule it in with work and class. But it's always fun. So, maybe that will make the newbies feel better? Like, it doesn't have to become boring in the bedroom.

I agree that it depends on where you are in your life. I didn't get married until I was 35 (I waited a long time for Mr. Right!) and we started trying this summer right before I turned 36. Because of my age and other health issues (PCOS), we didn't want to mess around with leaving it up to chance. I started charting my temps and CM and was thrilled to find out that I was ovulating. We still had fun BDing, but we made sure to really target the time around O day. We were incredibly lucky and got pregnant on our second cycle TTC. I'm not so sure that we would have had that success had I not been taking my temp every day and watching my CM. I had been off of the pill since May, but didn't get pregnant until early September. I believe it's because we knew the right times to BD to get pregnant after I started charting in July and weren't just BDing all over the place just for fun-- although that still happened too!

I am 35 years and consider myself to be pretty healthy and I am trying to be patient. But I guess when you are ready to have a baby your body may not be. I don't know if a full moon has to occur or the stars have to align at a certain angle in order to get pregnant. Unfortunately, we had to wait too start our family due to deployments so I can't be mad that our time was later rather than sooner. But I hope we all can be successful real soon.

I'm 31 and DH is 35, so we're pretty anxious to have a baby, especially after trying for over a year. But I think we've come to this conclusion........I take my temps and do everything else I can to try and pinpoint ovulation. We try like crazy in the days leading up to ovulation, but the rest of the month we make sure we just relax and enjoy having sex just for the fun of it. No point in trying when you know you're not fertile, right? If you've been TTC for any length of time I think you eventually HAVE to come to that conclusion or you're going to put some heavy strain on your marriage.