[jlmschirm]

Hey folks, I need some advice please.

When we were TTC DS 5+ years ago, I temped/charted and had no trouble because I consistently got 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep and was able to temp at the same time.

Now though my sleep is VERY erratic. My son still wakes several times a night and co-sleeps with us half the time, my husband wakes much earlier than I do, etc. My usual night is like this: 10-11 go to sleep, wake between 1-2 when Anderson comes to our room/need to use bathroom, wake between 4-5 when DH wakes up, awake again at 6ish when the cat starts begging for food, up for good at 7ish.

So far I've been prioritizing 3+ hours of sleep for taking my temp, but I'm already noticing after just charting for a week or so how erratic things are. So if I can't have both, which is more important - 3+ hours sleep, or temping at same time? All my temps happened between 3-6am when I was able to get 3+ hours sleep. Here's my chart for reference: http://myfertilitycharts.com/webedition/20/fertilitycharts.aspx. It is brief I know, but hopefully you experts can give me some guidance! Thanks!

 

[jlmschirm]

I think you need to use this link to get to my chart:

http://www.myfertilitycharts.com/webedition/20/ovulation_chart.aspx?y=2011&m=5&d=25&a=1&ev=1&mc=1&dt=0&g=0&l=&fid=19249&pub=1

 

[Jaimee]

What program are you using? It took me a while to figure out what I was looking at! I'm just so used to Fertility Friend.

Anyway, I wouldn't say your temps are erratic at all. It's totally normal to have higher temps that drop slowly throughout AF. And now your temps are in the low 97's. No problem. So whatever you're doing seems to be working just fine. However, I have to say that I would not be happy about temping between 3-6am! I would just temp whenever you get up for the day UNLESS this results in wildly erratic temps (like swinging from 96 to 98... all over the place). I could wake up a million times in the night and get no stretches of sleep longer than 1.5 hours and still get a clear biphasic pattern. Definitely much more erratic than pre-baby, but still clear. Everyone is different, though, and some women are much more sensitive to changes in waking time, blocks of sleep, etc. But just based on what I've seen/read and my own experience, I would think waking time would be more important. Of course, you've already started this chart this way so if you switched to waking time you're likely to see a boost in overall temp, so just be aware of that if you decide to change when you're temping.

 

[tenzinsmama]

My nights are very erratic, as well, because of my 10 month old. Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, he is nursing every hour at least, before we finally get up for the day (we end up co-sleeping after the first wake up at 1 am). This past month I have been charting my temp daily, and I have gotten a clear bi-phasic pattern, despite the wonkiness. I try to have 3 hours of sleep in a row, so whenever that ends up being, is when I take my temp. So the time is not that consistent, really. And, the other thing is, there are nights when I don't get 3 consecutive hours, it is more like 2.5. It's been definitely worth still doing it, however, because not only do I see the biphasic patter but I can see that everything is lining up in terms of positive OPK, ovulatory pains, and cervical mucous.

 

[jlmschirm]

Thanks! Both of those replies are helpful! @Jaimee I chart at www.myfertilitychart.com. With DS I used fertility friend, but when I went back there this time around it seemed like so much had changed and you had to pay for all the "good" stuff. With myfertilitychart you get to try the "premium" membership for free for 2 months with all the good analyzing technology and then when you do actually have to pay for it, it is much cheaper than fertility friend. I think with the public link I included above you only see a bare bones chart, but with my membership I can chart all the usual symptoms, etc and it has a very thorough ovulation prediction system that takes into account temps, opks, cm, cp, etc. The discussion groups aren't great and some of those community extras are definitely better at fertility friend, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

It is helpful to hear that you all think my chart looks fairly normal. I'll stick with trying to temp after 3 solid hours of sleep for this whole cycle - see what turns out - and then adjust next cycle if needed. Hopefully there won't be a "next cycle" for a long time !

 

[jlmschirm]

it is actually www.myfertilitycharts.com. type-o, sorry!