Charting to Avoid/ Fertility Awareness September

[physics girl]

   September 2011  

Welcome to the September 2011 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); some are CTA but would be thrilled with a BFP; and we even have a few who are "whatevering" or pregnant and continue to hang out here.

If you did not post in August, you may have been deleted from the list. If you have joined recently, please double check I have your chart linked correctly. If you were mistakenly deleted, you would like to be added/removed, or you spot anything you would like me to change, please post or PM me to let me know. Remember, you must post in August if you want to be on the September list!

To those who are new, welcome! 

    Who We Are

aeiou

Angelorum

Ashley Payne

Buterflymomma

CarsonBookworm

Clavicula

Devaya

Erigeron

FaithHopeLove29

JenRN

jodi5 (STM/MM)

librarygirl

Lionessmom

Ovaova

physics girl

reborn

ThreeLittleBirds
Toolip 

WifeofAnt

Graduates

Pregnant! 

Jaimee (November 2011)

mommy2two babes (December 2011)

lactatinggirl (January 2012)

JMJ (March 2012)

alyadri (March 2012)

justKate  (STM) (April 2012)

miss_honeyb   (April 2012)
 

 Wiki Resources for Charting to Avoid

Reasons to Choose Natural Family Planning - Why would you want to use charting to plan your family, anyway?  Feel free to add your own reasons for charting!

Types of Natural Family Planning - It's not just the rhythm method.  They've got this down to a science with options galore!

NFP or FAM Methods While Breastfeeding - You have options in the postpartum period while your fertility is returning!

Resources For Learning About Fertility Cycles - Find books to read or websites to visit, find an instructor, post your chart online, and learn about how your diet affects your fertility.

Fertility Awareness Method - A quick-start guide to the Fertility Awareness, a version of the Sympto-Thermal Method taught by Toni Weschler in her book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

Commom Abbreviations for Charting to Avoid/Fertility Awareness - BBT, EWCM, TCOYF, and more!  Learn what all these crazy acronyms mean here.

 Happy Charting Everyone!

Edited by physics girl - 9/17/11 at 9:23am

[aeiou]

Hi everyone!! I'm new here! I'm just starting to actually chart more than just the AF days (started temping this cycle), so I'm looking forward to learning more from y'all : )

[clavicula]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I tried to insert my chart into my signature and also tried to pm it to physics girl, but I couldn't. Did something change? I inserted links here on MDC since like forever and suddenly it doesn't work. 

Anyway, just wanted to tell you ladies, that this is my first post-pill cycle (I am on CD9), I expect this to be wonky, will see. I did not ovulate since forever, maybe my body will need some cycles to adjust. 

[jodi5]

Nice to meet you aeiou.  Hope you enjoy charting.  I know I have since I started postpartum. 

[buterflymomma]

Welcome aeiou! I am on my second cycle since coming off hormonal BC. My cycle was totally wonky last month. I have been hoping this month will be better. :)

Well, my temp jumped WAY up today. We are talking a .7 jump. Yesterday my temp was 97.1 and today it jumped way up to 97.85. Also my CM seems to be drying up. I had a lot of EWCM yesterday and so far today nothing. Maybe I O'd yesterday? Funny thing though is I keep getting --- OPKs. Maybe I missed the surge?? Maybe my OPKs just suck..lol. Anyway, hoping my temps stay up so we can confirm O. I really do not want another 4 day LP like last month.

[jodi5]

buterflymomma, looks promising.  fyi, for what it is worth, the doctor on the marquette site recommends the clear blue easy digital opk.  It seems that those using it tend to get a positive one day prior to the monitor getting it so about 3 days or so prior to the temp shift.  Hope this is it and your temp stays up the next couple of days. 

[JMJ]

Welcome, clavicula and aeiou!

Clavicula, it looks like your chart got linked incorrectly.  I don't believe you can link charts in your siggy anymore.  Can you copy and paste the link into the text of one of your posts?

Butterflymomma, that's looking promising.  Maybe the OPK's just missed your surge.  That is quite possible.  Have you been using +/- ones or qualitative ones that you compare the color of the lines.  Sometimes the surge happens so quickly that if you're only testing once a day, you miss the surge, and some women have surges below the threshhold that would cause a test to be positive.  Conversely, many women experience enough LH to trigger a positive OPK at several points in their cycles.

Jodi, I would take the recommendation for the Clear blue OPK's from Marquette with a grain of salt.  Marquette and Clear blue work very closely together since the MM uses the CBFM.  Now, it is true that Marquette chose the CBFM because it is such high quality (and I assume that their OPK's are high quality as well, but many of the issues with OPK's are just with OPK's in general, not just one brand or another, and most brands are fine at measuring LH in the urine.

[jodi5]

JMJ, yes I realize that they are closely involved with clear blue easy and it may not mean it is the ideal test out there.  I was more intrigued with the timing of the opk test vs the temp rise and the fact that people seem to be having good success with the new digital when you used in combination with the monitor, it seems to be quite consistent so likely not a bad one to use and worth trying if the peak is being missed with one opk.  Like you said above, if the peak is being missed with the monitor, it is often suggested to use an opk in the evening to avoid missing the peak altogether. 

[clavicula]

JMJ, the link works in the first post. 

I started spotting again, but I guess it is normal after the pill. My own hormones should wake up soon....

[jodi5]

I'm having a wierd chart this cycle.  I had a peak on the monitor several days ago, my cm is drying up and my cervix is firming and I have not had a temp shift yet.  LC is convinced I have though I think as it is predicting yellow for tomorrow and green the following day so I think when I went up to 97.3, it guessed that was my thermal shift.  I don't think so though, that is too low for me.  I also had that werid spike on day 12 which I have not experienced before.  I guess we will see what happens the next couple of days. 

ETA:  Just thought I would add that LC doesnèt always actually do what it prdicts so even though it is predicting yellow for tomorrow, it could always change based on my temp tomorrow.

Edited by jodi5 - 9/4/11 at 10:21am

[erigeron]

I've been charting for 13 days now from the randomly selected day that I started on. I've found that it doesn't seem to make a big difference how much sleep I had before temping or if I do something requiring a small amount of physical effort like taking the baby out of her swaddle blanket before I temp, so I've been temping around 5 almost every day which is when she wakes me up. So far I've had creamy/opaque CF almost every day and my temperature has been low. I'm not really sure what to do with this information. If this is a BIP, it seems too close to a fertile pattern for me to feel comfortable regarding as infertile. I only charted 2 cycles before getting pregnant, and on the first one I never had CF that looked any more fertile than this. (I took guaifenesin on the second one, where I conceived, so I can't really determine what a "normal" pattern was for me then.)

[buterflymomma]

Jodi~ Thanks for the info! I wish I could afford the digital OPKs, but they are so expensive.

JMJ_ I am using the qualitative kind. I have actually been testing 3 times a day. Last month my surge didn't even last 12 hours, so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it this month. I found a great deal on Amazon for the Wondfo brand OPKs and got them for like  19 cents a piece. That has been allowing me to test multiple times a day.

I finally got a positive yesterday afternoon and it is still positive this morning. Apparently my surge has lasted a bit longer this month.  I think that high temp on CD16 was a fluke, TCOYF has used the rule of thumb to X it out. I am still having fertile CM and my temp hasn't shifted yet. With the ++OPK yesterday, I am thinking that I should ovulate by CD19 at the latest. Hoping a temp shift/cm dry-up will confirm. I have had a lot of days in a row this month with fertile CM. Yesterday was the most stretchy EWCM though. If I wasn't using opks, would that be a sign that ovulation is close?

[jodi5]

buterflymomma - sounds like you have something that works and for a nice price.  It is comforting seeing the surge.  Hope you get to see your temp rise soon now.

I think I may have shifted this morning.  My chart won't show it since Reid woke up at 4am and stayed up so I couldn't test at the right time but at that point, my temp was already 97.3 so I suspect it would have been high if I had my regular sleep.  i have tested before to see how much my temp increases with extra sleep time and it usually is pretty close to following the 0.1 increase per half hour which would put me in the range of where I normally am after I shift.  We will see what happens the next couple of nights. 

[jodi5]

Just thought I would update that this morning, my temp was high so I suspect I have now had a temperature shift espeically with what I saw yesterday.  Also my cervix is now definitely firm and closed.  Well see if it stays high now, I suspect it will with what I have seen. 

[buterflymomma]

Jodi~Sounds like you got your shift. It is looking promising that it will be high again tomorrow.

I am thinking I may have O'd yesterday. My temp was above my coverline today and I am having a noticeable dry-up of CM. My cervix is high and medium. So a couple more days of high temps should confirm. I am really hoping this is it, because that will mean my LP is lengthening. I am really KMFX for no more 4 day LPs in the future.

[LionessMom]

YAY sept! 

well i went camping this weekend and wanted to temp but it didnt work out. but this morning i still had a lower temp so i dont think anything happened yet. i think it will soon though as i am getting more cm. i did buy some opks to see if i could more accurately pinpoint o. 

[FaithHopeLove29]

So this is my first month trying to temp while going to school full time - my schedule isn't the same two days in a row... So I started setting a super-early alarm and thinking, I'll take my temp and go back to sleep on the days I don't need to get up, right? Well, twice this week, I fell asleep with the thermometer in my hand before I managed to take a temp (I'm a mouth-breather, so I usually take a minute or two with my mouth closed before I take my temp, it's been very reliable), and then when I woke back up and took a temp my temp was way high. I've had temps between 98.2 and 96.8, I'm on CD14, so my chart should have calmed down by now I think. Well, just wanted to share my struggle. Maybe someone has suggestions? (for what it's worth, I don't know how you moms do it! major kudos to you all... Just more proof I am so not ready for a little one.)

[JMJ]

FaithHopeLove, have you considered temping vaginally?  You can temp right away when you wake up, and if you doze off a bit, it's not a big deal, though if you're one to fall completely asleep and try to roll over with the thermometer still in, I'd be more careful, though you might be able to handle an alarm and then a snooze button to help you take your temp.

[buterflymomma]

FaithHope~ I have my alarm set for 4am. I am also a mouth breather and sleep with a fan on all night. My temps were kind of weird when I started temping, so I decided to temp vaginally. So far it has been working great. I did feel weird at first, but now it isn't so bad. Maybe that would work for you? If it does you wouldn't have to wait that extra couple of minutes with your mouth closed. That would give you less of a chance of falling back to sleep.How early is your alarm? How different is your schedule those two days? I don't think not staying awake means your not ready for a little one...lol. You just kind of adjust when the baby gets here. I have learned to live on very little and very irregular sleep. Last night alone, I got woken up 3 times by the kids. It's funny because some nights none of them wake up (minus the baby) and other nights they all wake up. It really is a crap shoot..lol.

Well my temp was high again this morning. My sleep was disturbed, but I don't think that messed with it. It was pretty close to yesterday's temp even with taking it 45 minutes early. So, maybe my body has adjusted to my irregular sleep patterns over the years. CM is still drying up too. We will see what tomorrow brings, one more high temp will confirm O.

[librarygirl]

Happy September, ladies!

I am finally getting over my crud. I've had a sinus infection/ear infection for a month. On my second round of antibiotics + antibiotic ear drops + steroid nasal spray + cortisone shot a few days ago.

Today, though, I'm a little worried.

I've not been temping because of the illness and trying to get back into my routine, so it's hard to know from temps. But typically, I am dry until CD12 (or 13). Yesterday was CD8 and dry so we didn't worry about a barrier last night. Midday today, I had tons of EWCM! Yikes!

I was mostly dry this morning so I don't think it was um..."left over" from last night.

I've never had a cycle like this since I started charting. I always slowly build up over 5-6 days from sticky to EWCM, usually starting around CD12.

Should I be worried? I'm not going to do Plan B- if I get pregnant, I'm pregnant and I wouldn't be too terribly upset about it, but as it's not planned, it wouldn't be ideal right now. Could the meds have affected my cycle or the CM?

(I'm not nearly as frantic as this message sounds. Just a bit worried).