Charting to Avoid / Fertility Awareness - October

[capretta]

October 2010
Last Month's Thread

Welcome to the October 2010 charting to avoid and fertility awareness thread. We are all at different stages in family planning and our own fertility. Some of us are very ardently Charting to Avoid (CTA); most are CTA but would be thrilled with a BFP; and we even have a few who are "whatevering" , and continue to hang out here.

If you did not post in September, you may have been deleted from the list. If you were mistakenly deleted, or you would like to be added/removed, please PM me or post and let me know. I cannot promise to make all the changes requested in the thread, but I will try to get to everything. To those who are new, welcome!

Please double check I have your chart linked correctly. If I need to fix it, please link to your chart and ask in bold. Thanks!

You must post in October if you want to be on the November list!

Who We Are

AnnieA
Blueone
capretta
ColoradanMom
ekh
Guthu
HulaJenn
InMediasRes
K-Mom3
knittinanny
LionessMom
Maine Mama Doula
marinak1977
miss_honeyb
MissE
Mom2SammyJoe
RaraAvis
Smylingeyz
Spero11
theboysmama
Toolip
TrishWSU
Xerxella
ZinniaGarden

Graduates

Pregnant!

wholewheatchick - Due in Dec. 2010
OSUvet - Due in Feb. 2011
echospiritwarrior - Due in Feb. 2011
lyterae - Due in Feb. 2011
dex_millie - Due in Feb. 2011
annie2186 - Due in April 2011
katiedidbug - Due in May 2011


No Longer TTA

Baby_Cakes
BarefootScientist
jeninejessica
MovingMomma
Smokering

Good luck to those of us who are now TTC!

Summary of FAM rules (sympto-thermal)

Pre-ovulation rules:

1) First 5 Days Rule: You are safe the first 5 days of your menstrual cycle if you had an obvious temp shift 12-16 days before.

2) Dry day rule: You are safe to DTD after 6PM if you have been dry all day.


Post ovulation rules:

1) Peak day rule: the last day of fertile mucus is called the peak day (the day before your mucus begins to dry up). You are safe to DTD on the fourth consecutive day after the peak day. If another patch of more fertile mucus appears, start your count over.

2) Temperature shift rule: You are safe the evening of the third consecutive day your temp is above your coverline. If your temp falls at or below the coverline during the 3 day count, begin your count again.

BOTH rules must be satisfied to be considered in your infertile phase.


How to set a coverline:

When you see a temperature shift of at least 0.2 degrees F above the highest of the previous 6 temps, draw a line 0.1 degrees F above that highest temp.

Resources

Books

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler
Garden of Fertility by Katie Singer
The Art of Natural Family Planning by John and Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing by Sheila Kippley
Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition by Marilyn Shannon


Websites

TCOYF (Ovusoft) charting software, and brief fertility library
Fertility Friend charting software, and ttc charting guide
myfertilitycharts.com free software for ttc or tta
Garden of Fertility author Katie Singer's website
Mothering Magazine article by Katie Singer
Billings Ovulation Method info
Billings Ovulation Method Association, USA
Billings Centre, CA
Couple to Couple League (find an NFP instructor)
Creighton Model


Abbreviations

AF: Aunt Flo, your period
AFM: as for me
BD: baby dancing; bed dancing (sex)
BFN: big fat or bald faced negative (negative pregnancy test)
BFP: big fat or bald faced positive (positive pregnancy test)
BIP: basic infertile pattern
CD: cycle day
CF: cervical fluid (same as CM)
CHs: crosshairs (intersection of coverline and ovulation)
CL: coverline
CM: cervical mucus (same as CF)
CTA: charting to avoid
CTW: charting to "whatever" (not avoiding, not preventing)
DPO: days past ovulation
DTD: do the deed
EWCM: eggwhite cervical mucus/fluid
GIO: get it on
HTL: high temp level (4/10ths above LTL, temp rise needed to indicate O)
LP: luteal phase (between ovulation and menses, average 10-16 days)
LTL: low temp level (basically 1/10th below FAM's CL or on the highest of the 6 previous temps)
O: ovulation
POAS: pee on a stick (pregnancy test)
SR: seminal residue
TTA: trying to avoid
TTC: trying to conceive
TTW: trying to whatever
other common abbreviations

Happy Charting Everyone!!

[capretta]

Here goes nothing! Please let me know if you spot anything that needs to be fixed or updated.

MarineWife, Maine Mama Doula, MissE, Ligeia, InMediasRes, and K-Mom3. You all posted last month, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to be listed in the OP. Please let me know if you do!

Thanks again to Baby_Cakes for the instructions and for hosting the thread last month!

Happy October, y'all!

[Toolip]

thank you so much for starting (and running) the new thread!

[K-Mom3]

I'm still in, you can add me back on to the list.

Here's my chart.

I don't understand FF's method for setting the coverline. I thought it was supposed to be above the highest of the last six temps before the shift....

Anyhow, I'm having a strange month with my temps going up and then back down again. This is not typical for me and I'm not sure what to think about it.

[capretta]

Originally Posted by K-Mom3

I'm still in, you can add me back on to the list.

Here's my chart.

Added

[theboysmama]

Please addmy chart although dh and I talked last night and we might be moving into the whatever mode so I will keep you posted

[capretta]

Originally Posted by theboysmama

Please addmy chart although dh and I talked last night and we might be moving into the whatever mode so I will keep you posted

Added.

[Guthu]

hi

[LionessMom]

i am here. starting to get nervous though. lol. i have been charting but my temps are all over the place. sometimes they will be the same for 4 days then they go all wonky again. but i am still nursing and co sleeping. i keep checking my cf. most of the time it is dry but sometimes i find some creamy or whatever. i want to avoid for awhile but i am starting to get afraid it wont work. lol. i just cant tell when i am going to start af again. sigh.

[MissE]

I'm still in too...even though I still didn't O. Well, actually FF said I did O but I don't believe it. It's giving me crosshairs too. http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/2e80f5

My guess is, that I ovulated either on the 21st or 22nd and my temps were up a little more than in the past months anyway. I'm having either a cold or some allergies going on so I don't know if that was part in my pre-o temps being higher than usual. so if my prediction of Sept 21 or 22nd is right then I should be getting AF on October 5th or 6th as my LP is 14 days long (at least it was in the past four months). I sure am PMSing right now, being very emotional, bloated etc....

We'll see.

[capretta]

Added you to the OP, MissE.

[Toolip]

So I'm doing a little experiment. When I first started charting, I tried orally and I couldn't see O at all, so I switched to vaginal temping and it's been great. I actually like that I don't have to try to hold my lips around the therm and I can just stick it in and fall back asleep. I've been dealing with yeast lately and wanted to try switching back to orally. So this month, I've been temping both orally and vaginally, so I have 2 charts.

Here's the vaginal temps
And here's the oral temps

It's strange, my vaginal temps have been much more rocky then the oral temps which doesn't make sense and it was not true for me before. Also, my oral chart has O a day later then my vaginal chart. Maybe it's possible that the local area experiences a temp increase before the rest of the body Many times the temps have been dead on, exactly the same.

One little thing I have to worry about. We DTD on the evening 3 dpo according to the vaginal chart, which is only 2 dpo on the oral chart. My CM has been impossible to read because of the yeast. On that day, I had a lot of discharge that I'm almost certain was yeast. It was very crusty in my underwear and thick and globby, sticky at best. Anyway, do you think I should be worried if I was only 2 dpo?

[ZinniaGarden]

Hi, Ladies
I would like to join you here. I have always used signs of O to avoid but the last year or so, CM has decreased and my O is not quite as predictable (when I do O) so I am keeping track of temps now to see what is going on. I am 4 dpo on a (usually) 30 day cycle.

Toolip - that is really interesting about the vag temp being showing a different O day than oral. I vag temp because I have allergies and sometimes mouth breath when asleep. It really made my temps look low sometimes. I would not worry about DTD 2 dpo.

[capretta]

Welcome ZinniaGarden!
I've added your name to the OP. Do you have a chart link you would like me to include?

[capretta]

Toolip: Interesting temp comparison. I'm too new to this to have an opinion about what is going on, but I'm curious about how FF is determining a coverline. It doesn't seem to be using the rule listed here.

AFM: The junky thermometer I bought just over a month ago has died and I can't find a way into it to change the battery. Does anyone know of a good European source for basal thermometers? (Amazon refuses to ship me one from the US.)

[Maine Mama Doula]

Go ahead and add me! I'm not charting yet, but we are avoiding. I bought my BBT and had to retire it because I used it on the cat! So now I'm just watching CM for signs of O. I'm CD11 of a normal 29 day or so cycle. Last cycle was a m/c cycle and while I spotted for a few days on and off before AF, once AF truly appeared, it was it's normal 5 days and my cycle was 30 days long, not much off from my normal 29.

[capretta]

Added!

Heh. I think you mentioned temping the cat last month. I was wondering what would become of that thermometer afterwards! I hope kitty is feeling better and that your experience temping him/her was less traumatic than my last experience with cat and thermometer.

[Maine Mama Doula]

Funny you mention temping the cat I'm actually a vet tech so it's no very traumatic to me - I'm used to it! Poor kitty is having it rough though - he was amputated a couple of weeks ago and got an infection, skin's dying, not a fun experience. We've drained, placed drains, more antibiotics, flushing, etc, and the drains were removed yesterday. I have to bring him back again tonight because the skin is clearly not viable Aaaargh! He's going to be one special kitty. I have a picture that 4yo DD1 drew of him with his cone on to put up on his kennel tonight though

[Mom2SammyJoe]

I'm still in. I'm at CD 4 on our 6th month of CTA! I don't have a chart to share. I have tried using FF and really don't like it. It is so easy for me to temp by my bed and mark my chart in the night stand drawer. This is how am used to doing things and it works for us.

[Maine Mama Doula]

EWCM for me today which means no DTD. DD2 was conceived with a W/D! I forgot to mention that I ordered a copy of TCOYF yesterday so I expect that tomorrow or the next day. For now, we're just going to avoid until CM dries up I guess.