First time on birth control?

So I went on the birth control pill this past month. I got my prescription and ordered through Nurx. I haven’t used the pill before, so I’m pretty unfamiliar with it all. I know that I messed up taking it a few times, I’d forget to take it when I woke up so I’d take it a few hours later when I remembered or when I got home. (I started carrying it in my purse after I forgot a few times). I purposefully didn’t have sex on my predicted ovulation day (or for like a week and a half after) but earlier that week I had. I have been really stressed out, so I’m hoping that’s all it is, but how long when you start taking the pill until you are actually covered?