Charters Anonymous Volume 7. Charting and shagging our way to victory!

[digitalgirl]

Previous thread here

Join us in egg-hunting, cm analysing, chart-stalking and plotting our way to a bfp. Or just generally losing the plot. All welcome!

Congrats poppy

have fun SWI isla

Had the most positive OPK I've ever had this morning (for some reason I've gone a bit mad this cycle I did them at 3pm, 6pm, 7am today, will do one later. I'm intrigued to see when the surge ends). So hopefully some more SWI later

Scrummy - how are you - interesting chart!! Any testing going on?

digitalgirl - hope that ovulation happens soon. I am awed by your SWI abilities! 2 nights in a row exhausts me!

And good luck in the 2WW Vintagenancy

and sanity - I paid for VIP membership. Its was less than £30 for a year I think. It feeds my obsessiveness but I missed all the features when they disappeared when my trial VIP ended. So far I've had 5 months out of it so it hasn't been a waste of money (unfortunately!)

p.s. But I'm sure you can still have a home page for your chart without VIP membership, so its not essential.

Massive congrats poppy

Nice looking chart scrummy!

I'm back from my gynae appointment, I've written a long post with all the details on the ttc6monthsplus thread if anyone is interested. Basically, we've got the ball rolling and I have to go back for day 3 blood tests and an ultrasound.

Congratulations Poppy!

Hope everyone is well, just back form the docs as Ive been having balance problems, GP thinks a bit of bone has broken off in myear and this is causing it plus he discovered my bp was high to. Not really in the frame of mind now but I need to start swi as this is CD 11, ho hum.

congratulations Poppy!

Oh dear duckdodgers, something else to add to your woes, theres always something isnt there?

Took a dip below coverline this morning tho just 4dpo and thats normal for me, but im pleased with my pre ov temps, nice to see I have a normal chart for a change - for now at least anyway. Pleased to see ff moved my ov day to cd18 which is where I thought it should be, anyway here's my chart

IslandIsla - hello! I wasn't too bothered when my vip membership ended but they've given me it back for a few days and it's nice to have it back for a bit. If it helps you during what is a difficult time as ttc is hard work emotionally then go for it, its a small price to pay!

mrsden will look for your post

mrs den, glad you are moving forward now, ive had the ultrasound scan and it was far better than I imagined, they did use plenty lube so a pad was useful to have for afterwards, plenty sheets to keep me covered so it wasn't as bad as I expected and hardly felt a thing. There seemed to be a bit of confusion with DH's SA as they wanted it within an hour of being produced which seemed fine, 15 mins drive to hospital and even with finding a parking space then wandering about looking for the correct department to hand it to it was within the time but then by the time it got tested it knocked it outside of the hour which seemed to affect results. Not ideal but could a sample be produced in the car, somewhere discreet, my gyn told tales of people having to use the toilets at the hospital as well. I also had to wait with pregnant women and new born babies while waiting for my scan just to rub salt into the wounds. But all in all it's been fine so far and even the dreaded hsg was no where near as gruesome as it was described to me by my gyn.

thanks bossy I might make DH do a trial run to the lab to see how long it takes him! Did you manage to keep the sample at body temperature? They have given us a huge pot, it's like a test tube inside a larger tub. I haven't read the instructions yet, I thought I better wait for DH to get home.

Thats good to know about wearing a pad for the ultrasound, I wore one today just in case and I'm glad I did because I've had some spotting since, she must have knocked something with her poking around.

Not testing until Saturday, unless of course AF shows her face! Have a theory that I might have ovulated between CD10-12, as I was travelling at that time that might have affected my temps, so sat would take me to 16DPO even if it was CD12 I ov. Spotting today, but was told I would for couple of days after my exam, so no way of knowing if that might be it or pre-AF spotting instead. Cramping like I never have a couple of times today and suffering from indigestion after every meal,which I've never done before. Also felt like I was coming up with a cold today. Anyway, I'm still not putting my hopes up and expect AF on every visit to the loo.

MrsD glad to hear you had a good experience with your gyn and thanks for sharing your story.it's interesting to compare notes.

not sure we did tbh mrsden, it's so tricky getting accurate results on anything when there are so many variables

temp zooped up today after yesterdays dip which was nice to see as slept for a few hours before it was taken and I took it straight away on waking, so hopefully a nice accurate temp for a change!

good luck scrummy, symptoms sound promising

Glad to see you've got fertility investigations underway MrsD, there's something very reassuring about booking appointments for tests and getting results. Makes you feel as though you're actually taking control of something that's been out of our control.

Am really quite bored of waiting to ovulate now.

Boring chart here

Temps seem to be stabilising though, which usually happens just before ov. However, cervix has been closed for the past few days and still is, plus no sign of any ewcm so maybe it'll be cd25/26.

digital - hope that ov happens soon.

I've had my third day of positive opk in a row. Well this is weird. I've not used this test brand before (from access diagnostics). The first positive was Tue 6pm (it was negative earlier that day), the last positive FMU this morning, so maybe not too unusual - 36 hrs of positives. its just I've seemed to have a short surge previous months. I'm hoping it'll go negative when I test later, otherwise maybe that egg is not popping out. Hopefully some more SWI later, if we are up to it! We are off to the inlaws tomorrow and I really want to ovulate before we go!! Temps seem all over the place too, on the face of it a rise today, but not sure its accurate.

good luck scrummy, those last few days are the worst and seem to go so slow.

I read your other post mrsden, it seems you've got the ball rolling. It always makes me feel better if I have a plan of action. Walking across the room half naked - you have my sympathy, something similar happened to me once - awful! I realised afterwards there was a big window which people walking into the gp surgery could have seen too!!

Hi ladies, is this an appropriate place to ask some stupid questions about OPKs etc? I'm new to this TTC scientifically business. I've been temp charting since a mc in March and my first cycle post-mc showed a fairly clear temperature jump just like there's supposed to be, but this month it's been all over the place. Anyway, charting (if it works) is great for telling me "you ovulated a day or two ago" but not so good for saying "you're ovulating RIGHT NOW, go jump your dp."

I haven't taken the plunge re. OPKs yet and would like some advice - what different sorts are there, what's the best, do they do different things? I don't want to spend an absolute fortune but accuracy / ease of use is probably more important to me than cost.

Also is it true that it's best to POAS later in the day with OPKs, rather than first thing in the morning for pg tests?

Thanks in advance for any / all advice.

mitzi sorry to hear about your mc. I too miscarried in March but have only just got round to my first cycle. Good that you got a clear temp rise too, as it means you probably ovulated so body is back to normal. Can you think of why your temp might be all over the place this cycle? Have you been travelling, waking at different times, sleeping badly? Stressed? Be good if you could link to your chart so we can all have a go at analysing it!

As for OPKs I actually prefer the CBD ones that give you a smiley face, there's no staring at a line and wondering if it's as strong as the control. However, with my long cycles I can't really afford to pee on £2 every day for 10 days so I'm currently using some very kindly donated internet cheapies. I've also used the boots ones and found that they were similar to the internet cheapies. If you think you ovulate fairly late in your cycle then it's worth buying a pack of 30 of these cheap test strips off Amazon or Access Diagnostics.

The best time to test is in the early afternoon as that is supposed to be when your LH peaks. However, if you get through a whole cycle without a positive opk it might be worth testing twice a day - say 11am and 6pm - as it might be that you just have a very short surge.

To be honest - if your cycles are regular then once you've worked out your ovulation day from charting, your best bet is to start SWI 5 days before you expect ovulation, then keep going till you've got a clear temp rise.

Speaking of which....I think I've got a positive opk tonight. Its not quite as strong as the control but its a hell of a lot darker than anything I've had over the last few days. I reckon it's the start of the surge and I'll get another positive tomorrow and maybe ov on Saturday. Woohoo!

Hi all

just checking in, have not temped yet, bloody dogs are preventing me actually getting 3hrs sleep in a row. Only CD9 though so shall start some experimental swi tomorrow I think xxx

I fear it wasn't to be. Temp slightly up, but AF showed up her ugly face this morning. And I can't have my day 2/3 bloods done either cos of The weekend!! How inconvenient. Oh well, onto cycle 9 we go

Sorry about your mc mitzi. *digital has covered all the bases re OPK. I tried the cheepies, but also prefer the digi's and I do mine on FMU and get a clear positive each month. I'm regular enough to only test for 2-3 days a month, so it's for assurance really.

Oh poo scrummy

Thanks digitalgirl and Scrummybumb for the explanations / suggestions; very helpful. Sorry for your loss digital and that AF got you, Scrummy

A couple more stupid questions, if I may:

What's FMU?

CBD = Clear Blue digital?

When the OPK detects the surge of LH, that's what triggers ovulation (if there's a nice ripe egg ready to go, presumably) but are you saying that the actual ovulation i.e. most fertile time is a day or two after that? Sounds like it'll take a few cycles of using OPK and temp charting to pin it down.

I've only just signed up to Fertility Friend so haven't got any charts up there yet. Hoping to find time to enter figures very soon. I think the "lessons" they're emailing me will probably answer a lot of my stupid questions, too.

Thanks again.

digital and mitzi thanks for feeling my pain.

FMU=first morning urine. CBD= clear blue digital. The guidelines say that you will ovulate 12-36 hours after the surge is first detected. You can see from my charts that one month I had two days of when the surge was detected, so that would take ovulation up to 36 hours from first result. I've now learnt to take them as long as they give a positive, supported by the temping of course. I really wish I'd had the digi's with me this month....

FF is really good, albeit addictive! I spent hours this month looking for others pregnancy charts trying to compare to mine. And there's loads of info to hand.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask. We're all more than happy to help. And we love stalking each others charts, so you're welcome to stay and share yours if you want.

www.fertilityfriend.com/home/Scrummybumb

meh! Sorry about Af Scrummy :(

Well clear blue says I am high, so the swi will commence tomorrow am me thinks.

Friend just had her baby boy, Raffael Raffi for short. Looking forward to seeing them once I've finished marking exams in a month.

Realised today that if it doesn't happen I've still got an awful lot in my life to be happy about made me feel quite calm about it all.

Thanks for the VIP advice Isla. Guess I'll wait till it ends and then prob sign up as I am fairly addicted now. Lol at the wanting it to be a waste of money...

Sorry that it didn't happen for you this time Scrummy.

digital, am sharing the pre-ovulation impatience with you, although your chart looks like things might be happening now?

I'm new to charting too Mitzi, but loving it. :o If you want to use charting to work out when you're about to ovulate you have to check signs like cervical fluid and position. As you say, the temperature change should only happen after you've already ovulated. The lessons should help, or if you want more info there's a book called 'Taking Charge of your Fertility' - that's where I started.

Thanks for the positive perspective on things weimy - good thought to start the weekend with :)

duckdodgers I was reading through some 'stuff' this morning and found this statement from a trustworthy source: How embryos attach and implant into the womb remains a mystery , hence we didn't get to see this on that documentary I guess.

weimy I'm trying to convince DH that now would be a good time for a little puppy.....

I got my follow-up gyn appt letter this morning - in September!

Sorry to hear about AF's arrival scrummy... A september follow up - that seems a long wait. Maybe you can try and get a cancellation if you hassle them?

weimy have fun swi! Thats a good attitude. I always try to remember how lucky I am too. Its not always easy to do - but it does help when experiencing those the rollercoaster highs and lows. We can only do so much on this TTC journey - a lot of it is up to the gods.

FF has put me at 3dpo today - Chart here I'm about 99% sure this isn't right. I thought I ovulated on Thursday evening as I had a sharp pain on my right side (which would put me at 2dpo), but my temps aren't playing ball, although CM has dried up completely. I'm using a different thermometer this month - I already don't like it, since my temps seem all over the place, but can't swap halfway through the month, that would completely mess my chart up! Shall try to swi every other day just in case - only trouble is we're at the in laws which doesn't exactly aid the romantic mood May override FF in a few days if I feel like it!