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Hi! My name is Melissa. I'm 31, married to a wonderful dh, and the mom of the most amazing and wonderful 19-month-old boy ever!
This got a little long, so if you want to skip the history lesson, and just get to my question, which is what I really need help with, please skip down to the ---!
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We had a hard time ttc ds (check out my post in the "philosophy of ttc" thread). I did not want to put a lot of pressure on us with charting and making sex all about ttc. The result was that dh and I both felt pressure but didn't talk about it, and every sexual encounter was subconsciously about ttc! I wasn't telling any friends or family we were ttc, because I did not want to keep hearing "are you pregnant yet?" We were already getting enough pressure to have a child without the added stress. I also had no idea boards like this existed. So, I spent a lot of time depressed with no support (since dh wouldn't TALK, either). My "no pressure" plan backfired big time, lol!
So, I'm determined this time will be different. I may not be able to control the length of time it takes to get pg, but I can definitely change how we go about it! I recently bought TCOYF and I am astounded by how little I used to know! I had thought I was relatively well-educated on the biology of it. Wrong!
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I started charting on day 13 of my cycle, which is when I got the book. I figured charting now would help me get used to how it's done so I would work the kinks out and be all set to really start next month. I know the start date and length of my last period, so I know the cycle day I started. But I think charting halfway through has just confused me! I've been through the book several times, including the appendix, but I don't see any explanation for what I've seen recently.
Temperature taking has been a bit of a challenge. I cosleep with ds, who still sometimes wakes up once a night. Other times he sleeps through until closer to 5. I'm taking my temp around 5/5:30. I roll over to nurse ds, and then grab the thermometer. I know I'm not always getting 3 straight hours of sleep, prior to the temperature taking. However, I usually only wake up briefly to nurse; I'm not getting out of bed or staying awake long. Anyone know how much this affects the temp charting?
Cervix and fluid checking is taking a little while to get used to. I did not have much luck chekcing fluid externally, so I'm doing it internally. Since starting at day 13, I had white and watery for a couple days (13 & 14 creamy); clear & a little stretchy(15 creamy), clear and a little more stretchy (16 eggwhite?); opaque and stretchy(17 eggwhite?); clear and 2" stretchy (18 eggwhite). That seemed very normal, and the cervix pattern of medium to soft seemed to follow along. I also had a slight temperature jump right after the day 18 clear and stretchy eggwhite day. I don't have enough consistent temp history without interruptions before that to draw a coverline, however. My previous highest temp was 97.3, and this was 97.5, so it did jump 2 tenths.
I really thought that was my ovulation, but the next three days have been really confusing. It seems like my cervix is still open and soft, but not as high -and perhaps not quite as soft- as it was on the last eggwhite day. I know it's not supposed to close all the way since I've had a vaginal birth. But it doesn't seem firm, either. I have consistently been getting cervical fluid that is goopy, smooth, light yellowish and a little bit stretchy (only a few centimeters of stretch). It forms a smooth, slippery ball when I rub it between my fingers. I've called this "creamy" on my chart. It doesn't feel sticky. I've definitely had a wet vaginal sensation, but not the symmetrical circular pattern on my panties that the book says to look for. My temps for these 3 days were 97.5, 97.6, and 97.6, so they've stayed "higher".
Today, my temp jumped to 98.3, which is quite a bit higher than anything else I've taken. Yet my cervix check this morning still yielded the same goopy cervical fluid and the cervix still seemed soft. Although if this signaled the end of ovulation, I suppose it could still dry up later today?
Has anyone had cervical fluid like I've described? Is three days of creamy after eggwhite normal? Would the last eggwhite day still be considered my peak? Was the first temp jump on day 18 the start of a "stair-step" pattern, or more likely just part of a normal low temp variation? If the true ovulation wasn't until day 21, could the goopy cervical fluid mean there's something wrong with it (not sperm friendly)? Can a "closed" post-vaginal-birth cervix still feel rather mushy?
Maybe there's no answer to these questions until I've been able to chart for a whole complete cycle. I really wish the book had arrived a little earlier so I could've had more temps, and felt what a closed cervix felt like right after menstruation ended.
I'm sorry this turned into such a book. Thanks for reading this far! Any thoughts, support, or advice would be helpful... even if all you can tell me is to be patient and it will all become clear at the next go round, lol!
Melissa
This got a little long, so if you want to skip the history lesson, and just get to my question, which is what I really need help with, please skip down to the ---!
We had a hard time ttc ds (check out my post in the "philosophy of ttc" thread). I did not want to put a lot of pressure on us with charting and making sex all about ttc. The result was that dh and I both felt pressure but didn't talk about it, and every sexual encounter was subconsciously about ttc! I wasn't telling any friends or family we were ttc, because I did not want to keep hearing "are you pregnant yet?" We were already getting enough pressure to have a child without the added stress. I also had no idea boards like this existed. So, I spent a lot of time depressed with no support (since dh wouldn't TALK, either). My "no pressure" plan backfired big time, lol!
So, I'm determined this time will be different. I may not be able to control the length of time it takes to get pg, but I can definitely change how we go about it! I recently bought TCOYF and I am astounded by how little I used to know! I had thought I was relatively well-educated on the biology of it. Wrong!
---
I started charting on day 13 of my cycle, which is when I got the book. I figured charting now would help me get used to how it's done so I would work the kinks out and be all set to really start next month. I know the start date and length of my last period, so I know the cycle day I started. But I think charting halfway through has just confused me! I've been through the book several times, including the appendix, but I don't see any explanation for what I've seen recently.
Temperature taking has been a bit of a challenge. I cosleep with ds, who still sometimes wakes up once a night. Other times he sleeps through until closer to 5. I'm taking my temp around 5/5:30. I roll over to nurse ds, and then grab the thermometer. I know I'm not always getting 3 straight hours of sleep, prior to the temperature taking. However, I usually only wake up briefly to nurse; I'm not getting out of bed or staying awake long. Anyone know how much this affects the temp charting?
Cervix and fluid checking is taking a little while to get used to. I did not have much luck chekcing fluid externally, so I'm doing it internally. Since starting at day 13, I had white and watery for a couple days (13 & 14 creamy); clear & a little stretchy(15 creamy), clear and a little more stretchy (16 eggwhite?); opaque and stretchy(17 eggwhite?); clear and 2" stretchy (18 eggwhite). That seemed very normal, and the cervix pattern of medium to soft seemed to follow along. I also had a slight temperature jump right after the day 18 clear and stretchy eggwhite day. I don't have enough consistent temp history without interruptions before that to draw a coverline, however. My previous highest temp was 97.3, and this was 97.5, so it did jump 2 tenths.
I really thought that was my ovulation, but the next three days have been really confusing. It seems like my cervix is still open and soft, but not as high -and perhaps not quite as soft- as it was on the last eggwhite day. I know it's not supposed to close all the way since I've had a vaginal birth. But it doesn't seem firm, either. I have consistently been getting cervical fluid that is goopy, smooth, light yellowish and a little bit stretchy (only a few centimeters of stretch). It forms a smooth, slippery ball when I rub it between my fingers. I've called this "creamy" on my chart. It doesn't feel sticky. I've definitely had a wet vaginal sensation, but not the symmetrical circular pattern on my panties that the book says to look for. My temps for these 3 days were 97.5, 97.6, and 97.6, so they've stayed "higher".
Today, my temp jumped to 98.3, which is quite a bit higher than anything else I've taken. Yet my cervix check this morning still yielded the same goopy cervical fluid and the cervix still seemed soft. Although if this signaled the end of ovulation, I suppose it could still dry up later today?
Has anyone had cervical fluid like I've described? Is three days of creamy after eggwhite normal? Would the last eggwhite day still be considered my peak? Was the first temp jump on day 18 the start of a "stair-step" pattern, or more likely just part of a normal low temp variation? If the true ovulation wasn't until day 21, could the goopy cervical fluid mean there's something wrong with it (not sperm friendly)? Can a "closed" post-vaginal-birth cervix still feel rather mushy?
Maybe there's no answer to these questions until I've been able to chart for a whole complete cycle. I really wish the book had arrived a little earlier so I could've had more temps, and felt what a closed cervix felt like right after menstruation ended.
I'm sorry this turned into such a book. Thanks for reading this far! Any thoughts, support, or advice would be helpful... even if all you can tell me is to be patient and it will all become clear at the next go round, lol!
Melissa
