I don't get it.... Explain

[MrsRV]

Ok so I know you have your period, then you ovulate, then you conceive hopefully & then you miss a period and hey presto! (Like its that easy!!). What's a 2ww and what does Dpo mean? I have a DD aged 13 months & we tried for a few months & were very lucky to conceive quite quickly. I remember having an app that worked out how long my cycles were & when my "window" was. I've forgotten it all now though and recently came off pill & TTC (I know that one!) for baby 2. I was convinced about a week ago I was preggers. Tested today & a big fat NOWT. And i totally dont feel preggers. So now I have to wait for next month?? Confused & can't remember anything from last time!! Help.

Dpo is days post ovulation
2ww is the two week wait between ovulation and AF so the 2 weeks you have to wait before you can test
Hipe that helps

Hope even!!

Thanks! Just in the process of downloading an app for all things conception. Started off playing it cool and just "seeing what happens". It's taken 3 weeks for me to become a control freak & totally obsessed all over again!

If you know most/a lot of this please excuse, but I thought it might be helpful to someone to have a quick guide in one post . Anyone who spots any mistakes please feel free to correct!

If you mark down the first day of your period each time you can count the days to your next period and get to know your personal average cycle length, after a number of months. The average cycle length is 28 days. The average day of ovulation is day 14. The days that follow ovulation are known as DPO. The two weeks that follow, from days 15-28 in the average example, are what's known as the 2WW (two week wait).

To pinpoint ovulation accurately, you could take your temperature every day (plenty of info online, but in brief you need a suitable thermometer and must take waking temperature orally, vaginally or from behind not in your ear (unreliable)) and/or use ovulation predictor kits (OPK's) you can establish the day you normally ovulate in your cycle after a number of months spent tracking. With temperature, you are looking for a shift upwards which will show that ovulation has occurred. However the shift can happen 1-3 days after ov so that on its own does not pinpoint ov (eg it's not as simple as saying ov happened the day before the shift upwards).

Although the average day to ovulate is day 14 in a 28 day cycle, obviously this varies. It's not always 14 days just like it's not always 28 days in length. This is useful to know because some women might have a 32 day cycle and not ovulate until day 19, but assume ovulation to be occuring on the more common day 14. In which case they won't be DTD (doing the deed!) or BD (baby dancing(!)) at the right time, especially if they are not tracking their cycle.

When you ovulate, the egg lasts for around 24 hours. Sperm can last up to 8 days (apparently, however it's rare) although the closer to ovulation the sperm can meet the egg, the better and generally more successful the outcome. Sperm living so long is why you can get pregnant long before you ovulate. That's also why some women are "sure of their dates" (ie know when they had sex) but are confused when the scan shows a later date (ie the egg fertilsed 5 days after during ovulation, rather than on the night they had sex).

Hope this helps

Ha, spotted my own mistake! "sperm living so long is why you can get pregnant before you ovulate" I mean, sperm living so long is why you can get pregnant even if you DTD long before ovulation. That's better.

I recommend fertility friend app (free) and also using signs like your cervical mucus to see when you're most fertile. Ignore me if you already know this, but around the time of ovulation, you get EWCM (egg white cervical mucus) which is literally cervica, mucus (discharge) that looks like raw egg white - all stretchy and clear. That's a sign that ovulation is happening. The last day hat you see EWCM is your most fertile day.

Good luck!

Great help. I read somewhere last time (and this is quite possibly the only thing that has stuck in my head) is that it's actually best to DTD every other day? So to make sure you make the most of the "window" is it best to just DTD every other day from day 7 to like day 20???

Ha! Sorry for "like" at the end there... Slipped out. I really am not an American teenager

Well, if you can manage to DTD every other day from day 7 to day 20 then go for it!!! The only trouble is if you get, ah, fed up with that and/or it feels a bit mechanical

Ha ha... Best intentions... Until it comes to it & we both want to go to bed at 9pm TO SLEEP!!!

So, last pill was 24th March, AF 28th March... So I may well be in 2ww??? Tested too early by testing today? (and last sat -). Thought I had every early pregnancy symptom for whole of last week - dizzy, hungry, indigestion, bloated, cramping, constipation... Too early to have early preg symptoms though? Explains why perhaps all symptoms gone this week (still feel dizzy though). Whole body aches now, sore throat & glands in neck hurt so more likely they were symptoms of coming down with something. Booooo.

If you had AF on March 28 you might well be in 2WW. If you have an average cycle of 28 days with day 14 for ovulation, then you would have ovulated around April 10. (that's only if you have an average 28/14 cycle though).

Re the pregnancy symptoms though, it would be too early to have those last week as they don't kick in until the fertilised egg has had chance to implant which is 6-8 days past ovulation. and the earliest you are likely to implant would be ... around now!? (that's if your cycle had immediately sprung back to life and it follows the average 28 day length) so any symptoms would be from now (at the earliest) onwards.

Good luck tho!

Thanks for your help! No doubt I will be back with more questions soon! Nice to think I'm in 2ww & all hope is not lost for this month. Lets hope I have a "spring backy" cycle!

What's your story JellyKitten? If u don't mind me asking of course... Just being nosy really!

You're welcome!

I personally haven't struggled with fertility, but my eldest sister has, so I did a lot of research for her, as she wasn't the research type herself I found there is quite a lot of confusion out there surrounding some elements of conception and so when I spot this I like to be able to share my knowledge in a hopefully easy to follow way

PS Happily I now have two little nieces which I slightly lay claim to!

I would suggest charting your temp because I'm currently on cd25 and my temp still hasn't gone up so I'm ovulating late this month/having a longer cycle than usual... So we are still dtd as much as poss!!!!!
Ie, don't stop dtd on cd20.. Dtd as much as you can until your temp rises! If I wasnt charting my temp I probably would've given up dtd days ago!

gillywillywoo do you use a centigrade or farenheit thermometer may I ask?

Ummm.... cd25??? Clueless!!

So charting temperature... U take it every morning before u even get out of bed... Once it's shifted upwards that means you've ovulated & can give up DTD!?! I think this will do my head in. Ask me in a few months time though after a few negative disappointments & I bet I'm all over it!!!! How long have u been charting your temperature for? Is this the most accurate way of working it out? Last time I did a bit of poas for ovulation tests but soon gave up!!

I use the babymad thermometer off amazon in Celsius x