Charting to Avoid / Fertility Awareness - June - Page 5

[alyadri]

Thanks for the warm welcome, JMJ!

I'm not quite sure how to post my FF page.....I just signed up for  it about 2 weeks ago but today was the first time I charted my temp.  I had my PPAF about 3 months ago when my milk unfortunately dried up.  I was super bummed to see AF :-(   The past few months, we've been using condoms and the not so good pull out method.  We're at the point now where we don't particularly want another baby but, if it happened we wouldn't mind.  DS is 9 months and we also have a 3.5 year old girl :)

I had read TCOYF a month before we decided to try and conceive - so unfortunately, I was never able to chart.

Good to know about FF.  Do you have any recommendations on a better site to chart??   I'm sure I will be utilizing MDC lots more for all of my questions too. 

I currently use a BD basal thermometer orally.  Do you have to take your temp at the exact same time in the morning or is it still safe to be within a half hour of a certain time??

I'm interested in taking a class or finding an instructor to help with NFP but have NO idea where to even start looking.  We live in rural MN near Sioux Falls SD. 

Thanks in advance for the help ladies!! I'm really excited to have such wonderful help with this!

[Ecologystudent]

Originally Posted by alyadri 

Thanks for the warm welcome, JMJ!

I'm not quite sure how to post my FF page....

If you look at your chart, there are a bunch of buttons at the bottom, and one says "share". That will give you the code to post. :)

[alyadri]

Simple - sorry I didn't figure it out :-)

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/35de42

[jodi5]

Welcome Alyadri! 

Ecologystudent, glad you got some input from JMJ.  She is very good at the comments and writing in general.  She is right, it will take some time to sort out what works and doesn't work for you.  I know for me, if I even stand up, my temp drops, lol.  Congrats on your first chart. 

[librarygirl]

Hey everyone,

Still letting boyfriend digest and process the FAM stuff. He still doesn't quite understand female cycles. I said I was PMSing last week and then yesterday mentioned I had cramps. He asked why. I said because I'm going to start AF tomorrow. He said, 'I thought that was last week..." (still getting over a kidney stone/UTI stuff so we haven't been too intimate for a couple of weeks). I said, "No, I had PMS last week". He said, "Isn't that the same thing?" 

I love this man but he's clueless about women. :)

So, I broke down and bought a new basal thermometer tonight. I'm sure the old one will turn up now, of course. I'm on CD1 so hopefully I can get a nice pretty chart, complete with temps, this month, to share with him and hopefully we can start using FAM in the next month or so.

Welcome to Alyadri and anyone else new!

[JMJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alyadri 

Thanks for the warm welcome, JMJ!

I'm not quite sure how to post my FF page.....I just signed up for  it about 2 weeks ago but today was the first time I charted my temp.  I had my PPAF about 3 months ago when my milk unfortunately dried up.  I was super bummed to see AF :-(   The past few months, we've been using condoms and the not so good pull out method.  We're at the point now where we don't particularly want another baby but, if it happened we wouldn't mind.  DS is 9 months and we also have a 3.5 year old girl :)

I had read TCOYF a month before we decided to try and conceive - so unfortunately, I was never able to chart.

Good to know about FF.  Do you have any recommendations on a better site to chart??   I'm sure I will be utilizing MDC lots more for all of my questions too. 

I currently use a BD basal thermometer orally.  Do you have to take your temp at the exact same time in the morning or is it still safe to be within a half hour of a certain time??

I'm interested in taking a class or finding an instructor to help with NFP but have NO idea where to even start looking.  We live in rural MN near Sioux Falls SD. 

Thanks in advance for the help ladies!! I'm really excited to have such wonderful help with this!

I added you and your chart.  I'm sorry to hear about your milk.  I hope that next time, you can get some more support to prevent that from happening again.  If you haven't already, look into your local La Leche League, and attend meetings even when pregnant, and you can always call a leader if you have a problem.  Some women have a very easy time with making enough milk even into toddlerhood, but some women struggle a lot more, and for those who struggle, the support of a knowledgable mother may make the difference in whether a woman is able to continue breastfeeding or even to breastfeed at all.

There is not really a better site than FF.  All of the websites out there are really geared toward TTC and don't provide enough information for CTA.  The only program that I could recommend for CTA (because it divides it up into pre-o infertility, fertility, and post-o infertility and uses conservative rules for determining infertility) is CyclePro, produced by the Couple to Couple League.

When taking your temperature, for most women, if they take it within half an hour of their normal time, there isn't a problem, but for some women, it is.  This is one of those areas that you can learn where your own limits are.  For your first couple cycles, I would recommend setting an alarm and actually taking it at the exact same time if at all possible (I know it's not always possible with kids), going back to sleep if you can, and then when you've got a pretty good idea of what your body is doing, you can add in some flexibility and see what happens.  The most important time to be as close as possible to your set time is the time just before and after ovulation.  If you have disturbed temperatures during that time, it will result in needing to wait longer to declare yourself in post-O infertility.

As to classes, the closest Sympto-Thermal Method class I was able to find was through the Couple to Couple League in Marshall, MN.  It begins Friday, July 15 at 7:00 PM, so you would be just in time to start a new series of classes if that is a realistic option for you.  CCL teaches a method similar to that taught in TCOYF, but the rules and language used are slightly different.  They also teach NFP from a Catholic perspective (The Catholic Church is opposed to contraception.) with a good amount of Catholic theology on marriage taught alongside the method.  If that would be interesting to you, this could be a really good option for you.  Otherwise, I don't know of any other classes teaching the STM anywhere near you.

There are a couple Creighton instructors in Sioux Falls, SD showing up in this search.  The Creighton model is a mucus-only method that is comparably effective to the STM, but only if you take one on one instruction from a certified instructor.  It does not require temperature observations, just observing several qualities of your CM at various points throughout the day.  It is taught by a Catholic organization from a purely scientific perspective.  This also has the advantage that it is connected to the most advanced system of OBGYN care, so if you found a physician trained in NaPro Technology, you could take your chart to your OBGYN and s/he could make diagnoses from your charts and help trace the root of your problem.

From the search, it looks like there's also a decent Billings (another CM only method) presence in MN (though I don't know where those little towns are in comparison to where you are), so you might look into that  In the abbreviations for methods STM/CCL is Sympto-Thermal Method taught by the Couple to Couple League.  BOM/BOMA is Billings Ovulation Method and CrM/PPVI is Creighton taught by the Pope Paul VI Institute.

There are also correspondence courses for most of these organizations, so if that would be more reasonable for you, I can help you get connected to them if you would like.  If you want to do the STM and really prefer not to hear all about Catholic marriage theology, TCOYF is designed to be able to be learned without the support of an instructor, and we can give you a decent amount of support here.  NFP International also designs their manual to be able to completely learn the method from their book.  I personally like their method because it gives a very broad understanding of all the symptoms and a great number of options for rules based on different kinds of dry-up and different kinds of temperature rises.  It's hard to use that method for charting on Fertility Friend because I want to put in so much more information on CM than it allows, and I want to draw my own lines on my chart.  It is taught from a very conservative Catholic perspective with very traditional views of gender.  The couple running this organization has done the most up-to-date research on breastfeeding amenorrhea and the return to fertility after childbirth.

Originally Posted by librarygirl 

Hey everyone,

Still letting boyfriend digest and process the FAM stuff. He still doesn't quite understand female cycles. I said I was PMSing last week and then yesterday mentioned I had cramps. He asked why. I said because I'm going to start AF tomorrow. He said, 'I thought that was last week..." (still getting over a kidney stone/UTI stuff so we haven't been too intimate for a couple of weeks). I said, "No, I had PMS last week". He said, "Isn't that the same thing?" 

I love this man but he's clueless about women. :)

So, I broke down and bought a new basal thermometer tonight. I'm sure the old one will turn up now, of course. I'm on CD1 so hopefully I can get a nice pretty chart, complete with temps, this month, to share with him and hopefully we can start using FAM in the next month or so.

Welcome to Alyadri and anyone else new!

Librarygirl, that's pretty funny!  Good luck with helping him to get it.  It's hard to teach him when you're still learning yourself, but a lot of guys eventually really get into the science of it all.  Enjoy the adventure!

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by JMJ 

Librarygirl, that's pretty funny!  Good luck with helping him to get it.  It's hard to teach him when you're still learning yourself, but a lot of guys eventually really get into the science of it all.  Enjoy the adventure!

So, last night, I wanted to check in here before going to bed and he asked me what I was looking at. I told him and he wanted to know what we talk about. I mentioned charts and he said, "explain" so I pulled up a few charts and actually explained it all to him. I've been charting for 8 months, just without temps for the last three so I've got a pretty good history. We had a great talk and I think we're just about there! :)

Yay!

[JMJ]

Yay, librarygirl!

[alyadri]

JMJ,

Thank you so much for such a in depth answer!  You're AWESOME!

RE my unfortunate milk supply, it's something I've been dealing with since having my 1st child.  From day one my supply was horribly low.  My midwife, doula and I tried absolutely everything under the sun.  I went to LLL meetings, pumped every two hours, took all sorts of supplements and herbs, changed my diet, drank beer, and even broke down and tried prescription Reglan (spelling) The list could go on and on.  I did what I could for both kids and made it to 6 months.  For whatever reason my body just quit making milk.  I tried pumping around the clock and would only produce a few drops (which of  course would get stuck in the membranes)  Anyway, sooooooooooooooooooper frustrating for me because breastfeeding is such an amazing experience that I hate to see it short lived for health and bonding reasons.

I emailed the lady about the couple to couple league and can't wait to start!  I thought it'd be good for my husband to be able to join in and understand what I'm learning.  Even though it's my body, I still feel like he needs to take an active role in our contraception choice.  Thank you so much for finding it for me!  It's only 30 minutes from our house and dh and I are catholic - SCORE!

I had something kinda weird happen today.  For whatever reason I spotted a little in the morning.  I only noticed it after going to the bathroom and wiping.  Just a very faint pink on the toilet paper.  Could it be that while checking my cervix I irritated something thus causing the spotting? Should I be marking it down even if nothing came from it? AF isn't due for another week and a half or so.

[alyadri]

Just out of curiosity, how long has everyone been charting ???

[jodi5]

How neat you found a class.  My dh is not Catholic but I had heard it was a good course so was interested in going.  I did a search on the site when I was getting started and the nearest teaching couple is in Winnipeg which is about a 4 day drive away from here.  There is no class within 100 miles, not sure if further than that.  Luckily, I am pretty good at learning things by reading etc. and got the book that comes with the home study course and the postpartum book as well and found they were both a good read.  I had previously read TCOYF which I found to be a good book too.  It has been so nice to see the different approaches to the rules. 

I have not been charting for long, mostly postpartum when I was awaiting my first cycle which happened not long ago.  I caught my first ovulation with charting and am on my 2nd cycle now since then. 

Jodi

[JMJ]

Alyadri, I'm sorry to hear about your milk supply.  I'm sure it's comforting to know you tried everything.  It sounds like you're pretty amazing to make it to 6 months.  I'm glad to hear that you'll be able to take the CCL class.  They were founded with an emphasis on both spouses being involved in the process to the point that they do not have individual teachers, only teaching couples.  Was there any mucus associated with the spotting you experienced?  Sometimes, spotting can be a sign of ovulation coming, especially if you observe mucus at the same time.  I would mark it on your chart and make a note that you're not sure if it's related to fertility or irritation.  Always make sure your hands are clean, and watch out for your fingernails when you are checking your cervix.  That is one reason some methods, such as Creighton, discourage internal observations.  CCL, on the other hand, encourages them.  Everybody has their own opinions on that, and I think it's good to know that it's a kinda controversial element of charting in the greater NFP world.  It's an option, but if it's a problem, you don't have to do it.

How long have I been charting?  That's a more complicated question than you'd think.  I've been paying attention to fertility (though not always charting) ever since my menarche, so 11 years.  My mom encouraged me to pay attention to my CM and mark on a calendar the dates of my period.  I was not able to tell anything from my mucus observations (probably due to a chronic yeast infection that was not diagnosed or treated until several months after I was married), so I didn't understand much of what was going on, but I sure tried.  I charted temps for a year or so my Junior/Senior year of high school, but my sleep was pretty erratic, and I didn't know that I needed to take my temp at the same time every day, so that wasn't much help.  I started temping again when I got engaged 5 years ago, but things still weren't making much sense for about 9 more months until I got some help from a friend who was training to be a CCL instructor.  Thankfully, I got about 4 good charts (temp-wise) before I got married almost 4 years ago.  I stopped charting when I got pregnant (planned) and didn't officially start charting until 18 months after that when I started to get CM fertility signs, but I was paying attention to fertility signs all along even if I wasn't writing them down.  I was able to chart my first ovulation a little less than 3 months after I started officially charting again postpartum.

[justKate]

  Hi everybody, just checking in. 

Librarygirl, I'm glad your BF is coming around.  I agree it's great for our partners to be involved in contraception. I think it has been good for our relationship.

I've been charting since my 1st PPAF--so October/November 2010. Beginning next cycle we'll be TTC.  I plan to continue until/after pregnancy until we're ready to do something more permanent.

So JMJ, since you'll no longer be CTA next cycle either, do you want to do the July thread, or should I, or is there someone else that would like to take over?  Sorry I've been sort of MIA. I probably mentioned it before, but I just became a SAHM and I don't get nearly as much screen time as I used to.  Which is great, of course. 

[JMJ]

Hi Everybody, I started the new thread here.  Thanks for offering, JustKate, but I'll handle it this month with the goal of getting all those wikis together this month and making the first post of this thread less cumbersome... even though I'm hoping that I'm already pregnant now.  Everybody consider being the thread keeper next month.  It's pretty easy to do (if you're not reorganizing the whole thing like me), so let me know if you're interested.  You don't have to know everything.  Everybody's here to help answer questions.  All the thread keeper really has to do is start a new thread each month.