Cycle day 1 starts with the start of my period.
Each and every morning, at the same time every morning I wake up and take my temperature with a basal thermometer. This is a normal thermometer...it just reads more accurately. You need to take your temperature at the same time every morning (and make sure it's after 3 hours or more of uninterrupted sleep). I then chart this number into my FF app. Throughout the month my temps will show a distinct pattern. Before ovulation my temps will be low. Once I ovulate, temps will spike and stay high again until I either get a positive pregnancy test (ha, right) or they will drop and my period will show up.
On CD (cycle day) 6 my Clearblue Fertility Monitor starts asking for sticks...so each morning upon waking and temping I then pee on a stick and place it in my monitor. This monitor gives me a reading of low, high or peak. Low means that there is little to no chance of conception. High means that there is potential to conceive now and peak means I should ovulate within the next 2 days.
Around CD 8-9 or when I start seeing noticeable signs, I will start OPKs (Ovulation Prediction Kits) to see if my LH is spiking. LH is the hormone that triggers ovulation. You will get a positive OPK right before ovulation. Testing with these could be once a day to multiple times a day to catch the surge.
Obviously once all signs point to ovulation its go time.
During my cycle I take a prenatal vitamin and Vitamin D supplement. Depending on what my regimen is for the month I could also be taking Pregnitude, green tea, red raspberry leaf tea and mucinex. Each of these last things have added benefits to ttc (trying to conceive) but I like to change things up each month so I may not take them all each month that passes. This month I am skipping the Pregnitude but drinking the teas.
After ovulation is confirmed with a temp shift of 3 high temps, its a waiting game. Most positive pregnancy tests can be confirmed before missing a period, but you will normally have to wait until at least 8 DPO (days past ovulation) to begin testing to see.
By 11 dpo I can usually tell by my temps whether or not my cycle has been successful (pregnancy) or not. By then I have tested a few times and with my temps declining I am just waiting around for AF (aunt flow) to start.
Rinse and repeat over and over and over again.
Now why, do you ask, do I bother with all of that? Well, I know a lot about my body and cycles at this point. I can't un-know this stuff now so even if I wanted to take a month off and not pay attention to all that is going on, its impossible at this point since I have been doing it for so long. Doing these things each month is easy to me now...I don't even think about it when I do it. No missing a temp in the morning...nothing. I actually think it'll be weird for me not to temp when I get pregnant since I've been doing it for so long. I also know that if I hadn't started doing all of the above stuff I would have missed my peak times each and every month. See, I have a usual 28 day cycle most of the time but I ovulate around day 12 and I have a 16 day LP (LP is the second half of the cycle after ovulation). So while I am still your typical 28 day cycle person I would never conceive on day 14 like all the books tell you. Knowledge is power....lol.
And if you missed yesterdays post you can click here to read it.
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