Hi June ladies, can I join?
Ravenlocks ttc#1 cycle 5 UCL28 CD 1
Nice to see some familiar faces on the bus, hoping it is a lucky one!
After a day or two of sulking and huffing and feeling very sorry for myself after not falling pregnant last cycle, I am ready to get back on the horse (or erm?bus). Big long post coming up ? it is therapeutic to write this stuff down.
Does anyone else make ?new cycle resolutions??? if so would love to hear them. Here?s mine:
April ? cycle 0
Decide to TTC. DH and I agree the time is right. We have had the genetic counselling appt after losing our little boy 2nd trimester and are told we should try again if we want. Yippee, nothing to hold us back.
Resolution 1: Stop taking contraceptive pill (kept this one, funnily enough!)
Resolution 2: Start taking folic acid every day (kept this one too)
What, a BFN? Ah, well was to be expected. You are supposed to have one ?real? period after stopping the pill before you conceive aren?t you? Something to do with lining on the womb being too thin I think. So this wasn?t really a real attempt, a practice run, so wasn?t cycle 1, I re-name it cycle 0.
May ? cycle 1
This is our first real cycle. No new resolutions. We conceived previously on the first cycle after my first real period so this one is it, obviously.
AF, what are you doing here, a day early?? I thought I was as fertile as a dung heap, what with conceiving very quickly last time. Oh well. Doesn?t happen for everyone first time does it? Friends of mine who have babies took a few months too.
June ? cycle 2
Ok, so I know my cycles aren?t text book 28 days long, they are 27 days long. How the pill masks these things. DH and I were doing the deed every two days and counting back 14 days from AF to when I ovulated last cycle, I realise that we didn?t actually do it on that day! That is why I am not pregnant.
Resolution 3: SWI on day 13 and 14, as well as the ?once every other day? thing from CD 9 (broke this one, you see later)
July ? cycle 3
Period is 3 days late, am obviously pregnant. Start working out when my maternity leave is going to start, when I will tell my parents/ friends etc, what upcoming social events I will need to side step or find an inventive way of hiding the fact I am not drinking.
You have got to be kidding me, BFN, how is that humanly possible!? AF arrives a whole 7 days late, a 35 day cycle. I count back 14 days, we were going at it hammer and tongs a whole week early. That is like throwing a dart, aiming for the bulls eye and having it land firmly on the floor, narrowly missing your toes. Whilst my egg was hatching and sailing down my fallopian tube, I was symptom spotting and definitely not shagging.
Resolution 4: Get informed (oh and I do)
I google and surf like mad ?irregular cycles?, ?when do you ovulate?? and a whole new world opens up. I discover a new language and things that I really didn?t know about my own body and how it works ? how can an educated women manage to get to the age of 31 and not know what a luteal phase is, how long sperm can live in the body, that cervical mucus means something?? I discover mumsnet conception talk threads and a community of women who know stuff, much more stuff than I do. A lovely lady called rockbird started a thread called, ?March is soooo yesterday, come and join the April bus?. March IS so yesterday, April is a much better month to have a baby. I join the bus. I discover that you can predict when you ovulate, and that you need to be able to do a bit more than count to 14 if you really want to get pregnant. And you don?t have to remortgage your home to do so ? you can buy OPK sticks on ebay at a fraction of the price ? (really? eBay?are they second hand?!). Knowledge is power, knowledge is power.
Resolution 5: Start OPK POAS to predict when I ovulate (kept)
Resolution 6: Since I will know when I will ovulate (refer res 5), SWI twice on the big day (not kept, energy seriously runs out)
Aug ? cycle 4
When AF arrives two days early before I even think about testing, I have the hump. 27 day cycle this time. I realise my error. First timer OPK I think I misread my first positive surge result. Thought the test line was just not quite dark enough to be positive and even with this, didn?t SWI that night. DH was out on a works drink thing and I couldn?t stand him stinking of beer and left him alone.
Resolution 7: Do the damn OPK thing properly ? if in doubt SWI, and SWI every day in the fertile window(kept)
Resolution 8: BBT temping! (kept, ish)
Now, I was not up for this a few cycles ago, taking your temp every day, same time every day, before you even move/ speak, is this really going to help me? I can?t really see how but gazziliions of other TTCers can?t be wrong. I order my BBT thermometer and chart, it arrives by CD7 and I am off.
Resolution 9: Give up alcohol (definitely not kept)
I read somewhere that if you drink more than 5 units per week your chance of conceiving is halved. Halved?! I don?t want wine more than I want a baby. I resolve to give up. I then think, the Internet is 30% useful, 70% guff, my source was not the BMA or anything reputable, but someone on a chat thread somewhere in the US many many months ago. I decide I do need wine, and have 9 months plus BF to be teetotal ? that particular resolution lasted one week.
Sept ? cycle 5
Right, so BBT was helpful. It told me a) when I actually ovulated when combined with OPK and it b) gave me advanced warning (by 2 days) that AF was on her way so I was spared 2 days of getting my hopes up and by the time she arrived I had mentally moved on to the next (current) cycle.
Resolution 10: Do the damn BBT thing properly!
Yes, the most important period to do BBT is in the days after your positive OPK, I lost the flipping thermometer on the morning following my positive OPK, would you believe it?! And because I got up and looked for it ? and had therefore moved/ spoken (aka shouting at DH, where the F**K is my thermometer), my opportunity to take my BBT that morning was gone forever. I also took the odd trip away and forgot to pack it.
Resolution 11: Pre-seed. I have read on these threads this is a must for ladies like me whose CM is almost non-existent. Will google/ shop for it v shortly.
Resolution 12: Zinc for DH ? also a lovely tip from these here threads. I don?t know why, but it is supposed to help. I am up for it and DH will be too, when I tell him.
Now that I have left you with no doubt I am out my tree, look forward to riding with you ladies.