Charting to Avoid, November 2009 - Page 11

[laurelg]

Well, FF decided to give me crosshairs.

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/1dd523

I checked my past cycles in FF and it seems like 97.7 is a pretty consistent coverline for me - though I usually have a bigger thermal shift. (I put the cycle I conceived DD on my FF page, for reference.)

I think I'm mostly confused/thrown off by my CM - pre-baby, I had VERY obvious EWCM, which very obviously dried up the day of O. My postpartum CM has been all over the map - I've never gotten really good EWCM, and it seems like I get many, many days of creamy/watery with one lonely "glob" of stretchy stuff in there. I guess I'm supposed to mark those days as EW, right? I'm just not used to that since it's so different than what I had before. Is nursing the likely culprit for changing my CM patterns?

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by Eresh

I've been ordering vitamins, lots of vitamins. Was it AnnieA that recommended Rainbow Light? I ordered their complete prenatal vitamin system off of Amazon then went ahead and ordered more Nordic Naturals Omega-3 vitamins, a multivitamin for DS from Source Naturals, a chewable Vitamin D supplement for DS, and a 1000IU Vitamin D supplement for me. Lots of vitamins.

Oh, and check out this page on Vitamin D --> http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

Actually I take The New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatals.

[hippy mum]

smilingz-I hope it all works out for you.

AnnetteM-what type of therm do you have? I picked up a bt therm at Target for not alot and it holds the temp, which is nice because I don't look at it until later.

D3 here and only spotting, so a weird af compared to last cycle. Will start temping tomorrow, for what it's worth.

[annettemarie]

I have the Target one. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by laurelg

I've never gotten really good EWCM, and it seems like I get many, many days of creamy/watery with one lonely "glob" of stretchy stuff in there. I guess I'm supposed to mark those days as EW, right? I'm just not used to that since it's so different than what I had before. Is nursing the likely culprit for changing my CM patterns?

Yes, I think you are supposed to mark ewcf even if it's only once and just a tiny bit. Nursing can definitely affect your CF. TCOYF covers this. Breastfeeding can cause you to have days and days of semi-fertile CF, creamy, before you actually O. Have you tried to determine your breastfeeding BIP? To do that, you need to track your CF for 2 consecutive weeks without any interference (that means no sex). If you have unchanging sticky CF for those 2 weeks, that would be your BIP. You might have unchanging creamy CF and, although you are not supposed to consider creamy a BIP, that might at least help you figure things out a bit more.

[Eresh]

AnnieA: Oh right .. yeah, I looked at New Chapter as well and they also looked good. I've just gotten a lot of recommendations for the Rainbow Light ones. We'll see how they go. Right now I'm taking the Nature Made ones from the grocery store so either one would be better, right?

I also bought 100 Healthiest Foods During Pregnancy cause I'm so baby crazy right now. I must be nearing O ...

MW: Almost all prenatals have 400 IU Vitamin D since that's the recommended dosage from NIH. However while that is a dosage that will keep you from getting Rickets, there seem to be clear advantages to taking a dosage to maintain a blood serum level in the 40-60 ng/ml range (which is way more than 400 IU / day for most people in high latitude and/or winter conditions). Recent studies find that 2000 IU / day is very reasonable for most people. We're talking no appreciable toxicity until 200 ng/ml and most people are in the 20ish ng/ml level. I'm debating having my levels tested now vs. waiting for further into winter when my levels would be at their lowest. I'm leaning towards having my Vitamin D and iron levels both checked now though before I try getting pregnant.

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I have the Target one. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Is it white with a light purple tip? Did you buy it before they changed all their packaging to "Up and Up"? If so, that's the same one I have (and the one I want again but they're gone forever!). To retrieve the temps, you have to press and hold the power button until you see the number 1 show up on the screen. Let go of the power button and it will display your temp. Hit it lightly again and it will display the number 2 and then show you yesterday's temp. It will hold five temps. I love that therm and they aren't making them any more!

[MarineWife]

Woot! Woot! I think I've Oed. My temp jumped this morning to 97.6, up from 97.2 yesterday. My CL is 97.5. Plus, although I did have some ewcf yesterday it wasn't much and definitely a lot less then the 2 days before. Of course, I don't have enough data to confirm it yet but this is exactly what I was expecting. I'm so excited at the prospect of maybe having a somewhat normal pattern.



This is also good because, if I did O yesterday, I'll be just getting over when dh returns.

[BarefootScientist]

Originally Posted by bbrandonsmom

D3 here and only spotting, so a weird af compared to last cycle. Will start temping tomorrow, for what it's worth.

We really are synched up aren't we? Wait...are you me?

[laurelg]

Eh, there went my crosshairs.

MW, thanks for the CM info - I have a copy of TCOYF but it's on loan to a friend - I need to ask her to bring it back when they come visit for Thanksgiving. I'd like to re-read the postpartum bits.

I haven't specifically charted my breastfeeding BIP - thanks for the suggestion!

[annettemarie]

Argh! My thermometer did it again! It will keep the temp in memory the first time I check it... and then it flashes by so quickly, I don't see it.

[clark]

I've just been reading along.

I'm cycle day one. My last cycle was my first since my mirena was out...I kinda expected it to be longer or weird because of the mirena. but nope, 28 days TYVM.

My temps seemed all over the place to me, but FF was able to figure it out. I wonder how much cosleeping with a 2yo affects the temps.

My Chart

[momtokimari]

Cd1.

[elonwy]

I take the Rainbow Light Prenatal One's. I take it right before bed, then by the time its ready to upset my stomach I'm sleeping, so it doesn't bother me.

[MarineWife]

laurelg ~ What happened to your crosshairs? Did you have a low temp or more ewcf?

annette ~ I had a thermometer that did that. I think I got it at Wal-Mart. It was several years ago. It saved the temp at first but once you viewed it it was erased. It would flash so quickly I couldn't get it a lot of times. Drove me crazy! I love my BD thermometer. It has a light so I can look at the temp right after I take it. Plus it saves the temp. It doesn't save multiple temps, though, I don't think. The other thing I really like about it is that it beeps continuously while it's working. I know that bothers some people but I like it because then I know it's working in the dark. Whenever I use a thermometer that doesn't continuously beep I get worried that it's not working and have to sit up and turn on a light. Then I can't get back to sleep.

clark ~ That is a bit ambiguous. It can take a few cycles to get the temping down. My first chart is crazy.

I checked the moon phases just to see. I got last time on 10/31, 2 days before the full moon. Now, assuming I Oed yesterday (I've had some ewcf today so now I'm not as confident), that's 3 days after the new moon. will be due on the full moon. Also, I don't know if I mentioned that I thought it even more interesting that my neighbor and I both got a day late but on the same day after you all explained to me that pills don't control things down to the day. That makes me think that maybe our cycles are synching up a bit.

[AnnieA]

MW: That would be really cool if your cycle is synced up that way with the lunar phases!

AFM: No clue how many DPO I am. Breasts are getting more tender which leads me to believe that I am 8 DPO instead of 4 DPO. But who knows?

[wholewheatchick]

MW: Oh, I hope you O'd!

AFM: CD 27, no O in sight. But I'm maybe having a bit less crazy EWCF than last time...http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/277407 so maybe there's hope! No soy for me right now; interested to see if that really ends up making a big difference.

[MarineWife]

Annie ~ I'd still go with cd17 O, so 7dpo.

WWC ~ Your temps look like they might be dropping and leveling off a little. My temps usually do that for about a week before O.

My temp shot up even higher this morning, 98! I'm not sick and there's no other explanation that I can think of except O.

Does anyone else get really tired, low energy around O? This past week I've just felt like I had no physical energy. Yesterday I drank a coke and then promptly laid down and fell asleep in the middle of the day. The only other time I can ingest caffeine and fall asleep, especially during the day, is when I'm pregnant.

[AnnieA]

MW: That certainly does look like O! Hope your temp stays up tomorrow!

AFM: Yeah I think it's a toss up either way about which day I did actually O. I'm just going to plan to see AF some time next week.

My chart: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/1f0436

ETA: I just discarded the temp on CD 16 and FF gave me solid crosshairs for CD 17. So now it's saying I am 7 DPO. I'll just go with that for now.

[wholewheatchick]

Originally Posted by MarineWife

Annie ~ I'd still go with cd17 O, so 7dpo.

WWC ~ Your temps look like they might be dropping and leveling off a little. My temps usually do that for about a week before O.

My temp shot up even higher this morning, 98! I'm not sick and there's no other explanation that I can think of except O.

Does anyone else get really tired, low energy around O? This past week I've just felt like I had no physical energy. Yesterday I drank a coke and then promptly laid down and fell asleep in the middle of the day. The only other time I can ingest caffeine and fall asleep, especially during the day, is when I'm pregnant.

Yeah, it kind of did that last cycle, too. But thanks for alerting me to that particular pattern! Definitely looks like O for you, yay!

I'm tired all the time. Seriously. I'm 22 years old, I have no children, and therefore no excuses. And I'm tired all the time. So, can't really help you there! TCOYF says that you're "supposed" to feel more energetic around O.