Help! Timing advice needed

[AmyPDX]

Okay, bear with me while I lay out all the clues...

Chart is here: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/amypdx

My cycles can be quite erratic. I've been doing acupuncture, maca, diet and exercise to see if I can alleviate that. So far so good - last month ovulation was on day 15, after two high days and two peak days on CBEFM. Last month was our first actively TTC - my partner and I did an IVI at home on the morning of the second peak monitor day, but no luck.

This month, we're on CD 19. My CBEFM started reading high on CD 11, and still no peak. I've been supplementing the monitor with OPKs in the afternoon, still no positive. We've also added visual cervical checks this month - my cervix is definitely the most open it's been this cycle, but I don't have a point of reference for how it looks at its most open, or how long that window is. We'll be checking it again tonight before bed and again in the morning.

This afternoon - starting a few hours ago - I started to get great EWCM (I've been checking many times a day). Not a ton of it, but excellent quality, very stretchy and slippery. Last month, I had lots of EWCM the morning before we did the IVI.

So given my lack of info from the monitor and OPKs, I likely have to focus in on CM. This month, we're doing at-home IUI, and have one vial.

We've got one shot here, folks! What's your best thinking for our timing?

(Making all of this even more, uh, entertaining, our tank from the bank is only guaranteed to stay cold enough through tomorrow - so we've had to spend the last two days chasing down local storage or refill options. Which we figured out about 30 minutes before I noticed EWCM. Of course!)

many, many thanks in advance!

[finnegansmom]

What OPKs are you using? are they a brand that is cheap enough?
I use some cheapies from amazon and when I see other signs of O (EWCM, tender breasts) I use them more than once per day. It's amazing how a test can go from neg to pos in under 6 hours...
If you normally get + OPKs before ovulation I might wait until you get one...
Good luck!

[karmab]

whew. this is a tough one. im gonna start small. first thing i notice is your temps are warm and vary quite a bit- you are using a bbt therm right? not a fever therm? are you temping vaginally- they are warm like that, although usually they are pretty steady vaginally.

second thing is re: cervix checking- you can/should check cm as often as you feel like it- when im close to o'ing, i check every time i pee. as far as cp, you can check i suppose anytime you want, but you should pick one time a day and record it at that one time- like if you always do it first thing in the morning. cervixes move during the day- for me, it's always higher in the morning, so if i want to be careful about position, i may check cm during the day, but i only note the cp once at the same time- otherwise, you can confound your findings!

i dont know much about cbfm, but no one, well, a whole lot of the women here have problems with them.

for me, i usually have about maybe 2 days of fertile mucous (ew or watery) and then a + opk, then o like 36 hours later. of course, it's gonna be different for everybody, but that does seem to be fairly typical, if that helps. keep trying with the opks. sometimes they go from nothing negative to blaring positive in a day.

the folks that do iui's, it seems to do the inseminations pretty close to the o. i do not know anything about the timing, cuz like if i had to pick one day to have sex, i'd want to do it maybe 24 hours before o, but it might be different, so cant offer much help with that. i think there is an iui thread here, not sure if those ladies are doing at home or with re, or both.

good luck!

[AmyPDX]

Originally Posted by finnegansmom

What OPKs are you using? are they a brand that is cheap enough?

Dollar Tree, except I'm all out at home! Used the last one this afternoon. I plan to stop by a store tomorrow. I had some faint lines earlier in the week, this afternoon was stark white.

Originally Posted by karmab

whew. this is a tough one. im gonna start small. first thing i notice is your temps are warm and vary quite a bit- you are using a bbt therm right? not a fever therm? are you temping vaginally- they are warm like that, although usually they are pretty steady vaginally.

BBT vaginally for consistency.

Originally Posted by karmab

second thing is re: cervix checking- you can/should check cm as often as you feel like it- when im close to o'ing, i check every time i pee. as far as cp, you can check i suppose anytime you want, but you should pick one time a day and record it at that one time- like if you always do it first thing in the morning. cervixes move during the day- for me, it's always higher in the morning, so if i want to be careful about position, i may check cm during the day, but i only note the cp once at the same time- otherwise, you can confound your findings!

i dont know much about cbfm, but no one, well, a whole lot of the women here have problems with them.

for me, i usually have about maybe 2 days of fertile mucous (ew or watery) and then a + opk, then o like 36 hours later. of course, it's gonna be different for everybody, but that does seem to be fairly typical, if that helps. keep trying with the opks. sometimes they go from nothing negative to blaring positive in a day.

the folks that do iui's, it seems to do the inseminations pretty close to the o. i do not know anything about the timing, cuz like if i had to pick one day to have sex, i'd want to do it maybe 24 hours before o, but it might be different, so cant offer much help with that. i think there is an iui thread here, not sure if those ladies are doing at home or with re, or both.

good luck!

IUI, we do want to get close to O. I'm aiming for a morning, assuming O in the afternoon/evening.

I haven't been charting for very long - really started with learning about it two cycles before this one. Last one was great, and the monitor gave me such clear signals (that my temps verified) that I finally clearly understood the difference in CM types. How 'normal' is it for people's CM patterns to be consistent cycle to cycle? Last cycle I didn't see any EW until the day before O. How safe is it to assume I'll see a similar pattern this time? i.e., that tonight/tomorrow is the "day before"?

[karmab]

for me, it's usually been consistant, although this month i did have ew for 1 day earlier than i have before.