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FAM/NFP Help!!

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Shell_Ell 
#1 ·
I just started charting my cycles, since I started mentruating again after 29 monthes w/out a period (gotta love lactational ammenoheria (sp?)!) I'm charting to avoid concepcion...

I've taken a basal temp (oral w/digital thermometer) every morning for the past month or so, and checked cervical mucus a couple times a day... I'm fairly sure I'm still not ovulating, or at least didn't ovulate, because I never had a thermal shift, not did the mucus texture change. Temp stayed pretty much at 97 degrees +/- a few tenths of a degree, mucus was fairly dry all month, without variation. Cervical position was the only real variable, but that seemed to vary through the month.

I'm still nursing 14 m.o. through the night, and several times a day, and though she has a voracious appetite for solids and eats anything and everything, we never go more than 5 hours w/out a breastfeed.

So my question for experienced charters is this: could this have been an anovulatory cycle? How obvious will it be when I do actually ovulate? I've read TCYOF and a few other books on charting and FAM, so I'm familiar with the methods, but in practice, what is the learning curve for differentiating mucus types and such?

Advice and experiences highly appreciated! Thanks wise mamas!
 
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#2 ·
First, since you said that your temperature hasn't really varied, I'd say you should try two things: 1) get a new thermometer- the battery may be dead (if it's new, disregard) or 2) try temping vaginally. It's a bit more accurate than temping by mouth.

I think it's very possibly you could be having annovulatory cycles. It is fairly common for nursing mothers to have some sort of return of AF, and then not start ovulating for a few months. I'm experiencing this right now, actually. It's pretty normal. Your body is producing enough prolactin to suppress ovulation, but has dropped enough to allow the hormones of reproduction take back over in some ways, thus making you have a breakthrough bleed.

When you do ovulate you should see a temp shift of some kind. The CM might not be noticably different- I know lots of mamas have a hard time telling the difference between what they had while infertile and nursing and what they had while fertile and nursing.

If you want to know more about cervical mucus, you could read The Billings Method by Dr Evelyn Billings. It's an old book, but I highly recommend it, because it doesn't emphasize temps at all, it goes soley on CM. It's helped me to recognize patterns and observe BIP that I would have thought were fertile.
 
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