BBT charting for first time

[CatMum0306]

Hey, I have just got on the BBT train so just figuring things out. I have been reading past threads and comparing charts as I don’t have much of a clue on what I’m looking at when it comes to the temperature readings. The sense of community on these threads seem so nice so thought I’d have a go and make one myself rather than be a bit of a ghost reader. If anyone would like to join me I’d love the company!!
I’ll attach my chart so far in case anyone has any views or would like to compare.
I'm 29 (as of yesterday) have been trying since last July. Fell pregnant in August and just knew it was too good to be true so here I am now in January.

Happy birthday for yesterday! I’m not temping at the moment but have found it very useful. Just wanted to pop by and recommend two things I found helpful, the fertility friend app, and the excellent book Taking charge of your fertility, in case you haven’t yet come across them.

Best of luck!

Aw thank you so much! I have seen that lots of people are using fertility friends so I’ll have a look. Think I got influenced into getting Natural Cycles last month haha. Thank you for the book recommendation!! I’ll definitely look into that as might give me something to focus on too.
Wishing you the best of luck too wherever you are in your journey x

You’re most welcome. I’m currently 7 months pregnant and all going well. I picked up a copy of the book second hand on eBay. It’s a tome but so easy to read I rattled through the ttc bit in an evening and have referred back to it when I’ve had questions.

FF is great, the free option and the paid one. Definitely worth a go and easy to compare your charts to other people’s.

Really wish you the best of luck and happy to answer any questions if I can help.

@CatMum0306 I use NC and you seem to have a very wide range of fluctuation during your phases. Are you temping at the same time every morning before getting out of bed etc? I've attached mine which shows a much lower variation. I'm only trying to help in the sense I want you to have the most accurate date 😊

Oh so many congratulations ❤️ not long to go.
Amazing thank you, that is really helpful! I’m already glad I’ve put a message out there on here now.

@NewMrsC hey, thank you for showing me yours! So before my ovulation day I hadn’t realised the exact time would matter too much as I had read as long as it was within the same hour, but then just before I ovulated I read it needed to be the same time so from just before ovulation I have been taking it at 6.30 each day. So I think post ovulation my temps are hopefully pretty reliable as those were all taken at the same time.

@CatMum0306 As long as you take it within 2 hours either side of when you normally wake up after a good chunk of sleep for you (they recommend 4 hours but I don't get that!) then you're temps should be accurate, excluding alcohol etc. I'm lucky in that I get a clear temp dip before O which only became apparent recently looking at trends.

Honestly the amount you've BD in your fertile week I think you'll be fine irrespective of temp data! Fingers crossed for you that your temp stays raised! 🤗

@NewMrsC ooh thanks, that is good to know, they should hopefully be accurate then, I haven’t drank for 7 months now and get good sleep.

hmm you would think wouldn’t you, each month I think god we’ve really gone all out that must be it haha. We had previously been doing every other day as I know that’s just as good as every day, but this month we were like let’s try something different. The month we fell pregnant though we only did it once we got a positive OPK so who knows.

Hope you are ok and feeling good in your cycle 😊

@CatMum0306 I admire you're stamina! My CH is like..... waaaaaaaa it going on and why are we DTD so much 😆

You know when you got your +OPK so that's a bonus and they say the best time is 2 days before O which would (in most cases) be your +! You're already 5DPO so not too much longer 🤗

First cycle trying and gosh it's feeling long already and I really feel for those who are still going with no BFP!

We go on our honeymoon soon and my fertile week was supposed to be whilst we were away but typically it moved 😐

Haha ttc sex is so weird 😂 it feels so scheduled, well it literally is!

yeah 5dpo, I feel like I’m always unsure exactly how many dpo I am. NC seems to say I’m 5dpo, as does my Flo app (I’m using both), so I guess that must be right, but on Thursday my strip opk was still showing a peak in the morning but then went back down by midday. I don’t get whether that means I’d already ovulated, I thought maybe that meant I’d ovulated between the Wednesday (when I got my peak in the AM) and Thursday (when my LH started to go back down at midday). If so would I be 6dpo. Lol I don’t know.

I’ve been having sort of period type aches since Saturday which I guess is from progesterone. I swear I never got anything until just before my period before we started trying but maybe I just didn’t notice. As soon as I get them though I start to think it’s not going to happen, even though it is too early for anything to have happened either way.

omg such a shame it’s not during your honeymoon, and congrats on getting married. And also congrats on starting the ttc process because that is so exciting, I try to remind myself of that! Is it for your first?

@CatMum0306 Yes our first, we've been together 11 years but only very recently married. I'm 33 so started the conversation last year about how we needed to 'throw caution to the wind' sort of speak because I'm not getting any younger (although appreciate I am still young!) but my own head it's been planned with military precision!

Is this your first?

Aw that’s lovely!! Yes this will be our first, we got married in June last year. We’ve been together 13 years, it’s so weird to be with someone for so long and then get to that point of trying for a baby isn’t it. Like you spend soooo long trying not to get pregnant haha. Exciting times!!

@CatMum0306 100%! You spend so long making sure you don't and then weirdly decide to 😂

Hi all. Thanks so much for starting this thread :) i wondered if anyone can help me. I have been measuring bbt for 5 months, I do it at exactly the same time every morning as soon as I wake or move etc as recommended. My temperature chart always makes a very zig zag pattern (see 1st pic for example!) But this month it looks completely different (2nd pic). Does anyone have a chart that looks like my second picture as I've only seen bbt charts that look very zig zagged before! Only thing I've done different this month is religiously take proceive plus 🤔

Hey @Tbark thanks for joining 😊 I’m no expert at looking at charts at all, but it’s rising so I’d say it looks good. From looking at past threads I’ve seen people have smooth upward charts like that and get their BFP, and also seen very up and down ones that get their BFP so I don’t know that there’s any real telling until you get to the end of the cycle at it stays risen.
Are you 9dpo?
Mine seems to be going up quite smoothly now after todays reading. I’d say if it’s quite different to your previous charts maybe that’s a good thing.

@CatMum0306 thanks so much for your message. I'm 10dpo today so hopefully not to much longer to find out, although I've been getting cramps the last few days so I'm not hopeful this month 😅

That's really helpful about the charts thank you. I'm 36 in a couple of weeks and where it was so different from my previous charts I guessed I'm just a bit panicked that maybe my hormones are playing up abit! Lol. The only positive I have is that my temp Dips seem to have been marrying up with my positive opks xx

@Tbark definitely stay positive, I think it looks good, and yes you have a very clear ovulation dip.
Do you normally have cramping before 10dpo?
For quite a few cycles now I have mild achey sort of cramps literally for the whole luteal phase. It really gets me down each month but then I think but it can’t be because I’m not pregnant because it’s too early to be that. Maybe I’m just a bit sensitive to progesterone rising 🫤

@CatMum0306 thank you so much for the positivity, I definitely need and appreciate it 🥰

Do you know before I started charting I would've said no but since charting I've noticed I do cramp on and off in the luteal phase and maybe get a blood stained mucous once a day from now until AF shows up. Isn't it mad what trying to conceive makes us focus on that I've never noticed in the last 20 years 🤣🤣🤣

@Tbark haha yeah you notice everything 😂 oh well it will happen!! Love that I’ve added yet another thing to obsess over by adding in this temping each day 😂

So just for the fun of it I did an OPK - I'm 12dpo and it came up with a pretty strong line so I did one of the cheapy tests that came up and I'm freaking out as I swear I can see a line?! Just need to know if anyone else can see it or if it's maybe an indent?!!!!

@Tbark omg amazing, I can fully see it!!! Congratulations!! Bet you’d get a good solid line one a first response.

I’ll add you to my prayers for everything to be as you hope. I’m not religious but pray to something/someone just in case haha

Thankyou @CatMum0306 that is so very lovely of you and I really appreciate it. I convinced myself I'd wait until tomorrow to test on a FRER but couldn't wait.......I'm just hoping it's a sticky bean in the right place 🥰 my dog looks less than pleased hahah!!!

@Tbark Aw wow that photo is so good haha.
You knew your chart was looking different! ☺️
Did you say this was your fifth month trying or just your fifth month charting?
Do you have any symptoms or just your usual ones before your period?
My temps are looking good, it dipped a bit on 9dpo but then has gone back up higher but I don’t know, not holding out much hope really.

@CatMum0306 it was the fifth month of charting and actively trying, but we'd not been careful since our wedding in March. I'd only been using OPKs for two months though and I used proceive max this month as I'm nearly 36.

My temp dropped a bit as well so don't count yourself out just yet 🥰 I've attached my chart so you can see.

I have had different symptoms compared to the usual ones since 4dpo which sounds mad! The main ones are reflux which I never get, loss of appetite which is unlike me, restless legs, really vivid dreams, waking up every day at 4am without fail, sensitive nipples and constant cramping or an awareness if my uterus if that makes any sense! Today the sickness feelings have started but I wonder if that's all in my head haha. Xxx