Help!! Charting advice-totally new totally lost

[wishing22]

Hi all, completely new to this so please forgive me if this isn't the right place. I've recently come off the pill and started charting but very confused. (I would add a screen shot of my chart if I knew how) at first my temp was fairly stable around 36.4 then shot up to 37, I thought I had ovulated, it stayed up there for two days then took a big dip to 36.1 for one day then back up to 37 the next. I didn't sleep well the night before I got the dip if that has anything to do with it. We would like to actively ttc in May and I'm getting so stressed my cycles aren't going to be back to normal by then. I'm finding this all consuming and all I can think off. Any advice much appreciated. Thanks,

Firstly, calm down...

A one day drop in temps is not neccessarily a big deal - concentrate more on general trends ... you can pinpoint ovulation once temps are staying high...so after 3 days of high temps you can see the rise clearly showing when O was. If you have a dip then, and then it goes back up, its not important, as the general trend is high temps

A lot of things can effect temps, a cold, drinking the night before, a bad night's sleep...on the FF app, you can choose to discount a temp that doesn't make sense if yyou want ... or just take it into account when looking at your chart

Thanks! I am new to this all and have concerns about everything returning to normal. We waited a year longer than we had wanted to ttc to try to get everything sorted, jobs, house etc and now are desperate for it to work soon! Thanks

Hi Wishing, I'm really new at this too and am just at the end of my first month charting. About half way through the month I felt the same as you, really confused about what was going on as it seemed really up and down but now I have a full month to look at I can see the general trend.

I think everyone is affected in different ways - for example if I have had any alcohol I notice a jump in temp the next day but I just make a note of that and can then see a pattern.

Good luck with it and try to relax. Although I am quite new to it too I am finding it really reassuring to get an idea of what is going on in there! I'm pretty sure I am out this month (all AF signs point to tomorrow) but am def going to keep charting next month x

Girls do keep charting, but don't be surprised if it takes a few cycles to be able to predict ovulation : as BBTs only indicate ovulation once its over, it can take a few trys to see a pattern emerging
And don't neglect knicker-watching ;-) the best predictor is CM

Thanks all!! Another question...(you can tell I am new to this) when I disregard the one dip in temp I mentioned fertility friend says ovulated last Wednesday. That was exactly two weeks after I stopped the pill. Could this be possible? I had my withdrawal period on 9th March then according to ff ovulated on 18th. Does my cycle start once I stop the pill or on the first day of my withdrawal period??

Thanks so much all for your advice, new to ttc, charting and these forums.... All a bit overwhelming!

The rule is that you count CD (cycle day) 1 as the first day of bright red bleeding, so CD1 if definitely not the day you stopped the pill. Though you can ovulate pretty much anytime after stopping the pill, maybe you shouldn't count the withdrawel bleed as a proper period, and count from the first day of your next period (which will be a "real" one). I don't think the cycle before you've had a "real" period is going to be very useful for establishing a pattern