Charting During Pregnancy?

[girlonabridge]

Anyone else continue to chart during pregnancy? I'm fairly early on (5w5d) and have continued charting. I've had all the usual symptoms -- sore breasts, feeling tired and nauseous -- but this morning my temperature dropped 3/10 of a point. It's not near my cover line, but it has made me really anxious. Now I'm second guessing whether my symptoms are going away and whether my breasts are less sore this morning. Should I be worried about this?

[JessieBird]

I'll be the first of many to say this - walk away from your thermometer right now. As soon as you get a BFP, you must stop charting. Temps and symptoms are all wacky during pregnancy and they are different for everyone. Charting now will only stress you out. I know it's hard to break the habit but try to see this as a nice long charting vacation.

ETA - Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MaerynPearl]

charting will do NOTHING for you except add a huge amount of stress over every little variation when none is called for!

[girlonabridge]

Thanks guys. But just because I'm wondering, wouldn't it also give a warning of early miscarriage? I'm particularly nervous about this pregnancy because I have PCOS and have been repeatedly told about how hard it is for women with PCOS to carry to term.

[JessieBird]

Originally Posted by girlonabridge

Thanks guys. But just because I'm wondering, wouldn't it also give a warning of early miscarriage?

No and no. Again, no.

Keep testing like the rest of us crazy ladies, call your doctor for repeated blood tests, or do whatever else it takes to feel better EXCEPT do not continue to take your temperature or place too much stock in your ever-changing symptoms.

Breathe.

[MaerynPearl]

again, agreed. It wont tell you anything but will put a ton of stress on your system. its normal for our temps to vary during pregnancy, even going below what would have been our coverline... our progesterone levels are different now (normal post O is 5-15, normal pregnancy is 10-200), and our bodies are getting used to them.

all charting is for is to let you know when ovulation occurs and in some lucky women, signal you are not pregnant the day before/day of AF showing.

[girlonabridge]

Thanks. (Sheepishly). I haven't had a blood test yet and won't until next week, but I haven't taken a test since week 4. Maybe I'll go out and purchase another one today.

[JessieBird]

Originally Posted by girlonabridge

I haven't had a blood test yet and won't until next week, but I haven't taken a test since week 4. Maybe I'll go out and purchase another one today.

Okay I was half joking with that advice to keep testing and get blood tests. If you do test again, as many of us can't resist, be forewarned that they never get darker as fast as we'd like them to. How quickly they get darker is just as meaningless as your temps are now. And blood tests are not standard in most cases. Only one is required to confirm pregnancy, two are required to confirm development of the pregnancy but still that is only a snapshot of that period in time, it can't really predict the future. Numerical HCG numbers from blood tests are very stressful and over-analysis is irresistable for most. Many women decline them for this reason.

Best thing to do is buy yourself a bottle of prenatal vitamins and chill out for, oh, about 34 more weeks.

[CherryBomb]

LIke everyone else said, stop charting! I use Creighton Model (tracks cervical mucus) and I stop right away when I get pregnant. CM and temps both fluctuate during pregnancy, so it's pointless to track them

[girlonabridge]

I know, I know. I told an IRL friend who charts to avoid, and she said she was going to come over and let herself into my house to take the thermometer. I am going to take a test to make myself feel better, but I know I need to relax. It's having it be outside of my control that is so hard -- charting feels like something I can control. (Even though it has no impact.)

[summerlilies]

I charted during pregnancy and saw my temps steadily dropping. Sure enough I had a miscarriage. I was glad I charted so that it wasn't such a shock.

I charted again during this pregnancy and was so relieved every morning when my temps were still up. I am now 17 weeks pregnant.

I will chart with every pregnancy - it gives me peace of mind.

[m0xxie]

Since I'm taking supplemental progesterone, I suppose charting my temps might not tell me very much anyway. How nice to be free of this daily ritual!

[is it puppies?]

I charted for a couple of months, and things would fluctuate a bit but not a lot (overall anyways).

[girlonabridge]

Much to my partner in crime's chagrin, I insisted on taking another test last night, and it's still positive. Out of curiousity, I took my temnperature again this morning, and it went back up. So thank you everyone. I'm going to put my thermometer away now.

[*Jade*]

Originally Posted by girlonabridge

Thanks guys. But just because I'm wondering, wouldn't it also give a warning of early miscarriage?

Plus, there's no point to an warning of early miscarriage, IMHO. They completely suck, and learning about them earlier can't really help.

Congrats on your pregnancy!!

[MacKinnon]

Put down the thermometer quickly, and walk, no, run away! I kept it for a while too, but really there isn't a point and it was vastly stressing me out! Congrats and best of luck for a healthy and happy pregnancy!

[bamsmom]

Oh ladies I'm so glad I found this thread!
I've been lurking for over a week...afraid to join my DDC because I'm paranoid about getting too excited too soon! Anyhoo, I've continued to chart temps because my first pregnancy was a m/c and we didn't find out about it until there was no heartbeat at the 12 wk ultrasound and the baby had stopped developing at 7 wks (right around the time we started telling people we were pregnant) I always wonder if I had been charting then, wouldn't my temps have dropped and maybe we would have known something was wrong and could have avoided having to face people that had known we were pregnant but hadn't yet heard about the m/c (we live in a small town so news travels fast, but apparently bad news doesn't travel as fast!)...so that's why I've continued to temp, but after reading this thread, I'm convinced to stop! My temps have not steadily gone down...they've just been a little wonky...pretty steady (w/in 1/10 of each other) until it went up 3/10 one day then back to normal then up 2/10 again then dip 4/10 then back up 4/10, then down 3/10...it's just all over the place but definitely not going waaaaay down and staying there, so thanks to you ladies, I'm going to hide my chart & thermometer for a good long while. I've been so paranoid about everything (to add to normal worries about m/c that mamas often have, I had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst in March, so I'm worried that will affect things even though my OB says it shouldn't) and there's nothing I can do...my OB's office won't see pregnant mamas til they're at 8 wks so I can't get my HCG or progesterone levels checked.

So anyway, sorry for rambling ...I just wanted to thank you mamas for making me feel better about the crazy temps! I will be putting my chart/thermometer away ASAP! Good luck to all of you and I hope to be chatting with you more often in the coming 8 months!