Am I crazy?

[ONEID]

my husband and I have been trying for over a year.
We got a surprise in Feb, that ended about as quickly as it started.

I am currently three days late on my period. I took a First Response digital this morning with the first urine, and it was negative.

I feel heavy in my lower tummy for the past few days and my breats feel large and swollen. I have woken up feeling not so great 4 days in a row.
Is it crazy to not believe the test? Everything just feels so familiar.

 

[ireadyermind]

I have heard stories of women taking weeks for enough HCG to accumulate in their urine to read as a BFP.

It's also possible that you ovulated a little later than you thought you did, and that'll make AF take longer to appear if she's going to at all.

Do you track your BBT? If your temps stay above the coverline for 18+ days after ovulation, it's a good indication of pregnancy even if HPTs come back negative. It'll also give you a better idea on when you ovulated, because it'll show when you have a sustained rise in temperature after ovulation.

Do you use ovulation predictor strips or anything else so that you know about when you ovulated? Were you sick at all this past month?

 

[ONEID]

Hello ireadyermind!
Thank-you for taking the time to write to me. This has certainly been a confusing time, and it helps so much to have someone who can level with me to talk to... because my hubby just thinks I am nuts!

I did use an ovulation predictor this month, my LH surge would have been May 29. What does AF mean? I have not been mapping my temperature at all, but bought a thermometer after all the reading I have been doing. (sorry, I am new!!) so I guess I am 13 days past ovulation?

How can I track what my baseline is, start from day one of my next period?

I do feel quesy, but I wasnt sure if perhaps I just got too much sun.

I have also read digital tests give more false negatives than ones with the lines?

 

[ireadyermind]

No problem at all!

My husband thinks I'm crazy too. I got all excited this month when it finally started to look like I was going to ovulate. I usually ovulate around cycle day 19, but this month it was CD35 for crying out loud... YOU might understand why I'd be excited, but HE didn't. lol!

As for temping.... yes.

You're going to want to start from CD (cycle day) 1, which is the first day your period (Aunt Flo, AF) shows up. You pick one time in the morning before you even get out of bed to take your temperature, and stick with that time all month long if at all possible.

You'll see lower temperatures before ovulation (mine are usually 97.3°F - 97.7°F), then a spike the day of ovulation, and your temps should usually stay high until AF shows up again. But everyone's a little different and you might have spikes or drops all along the way.

I personally use Fertility Friend to track everything for me. I have downloaded the app to my phone so that I can enter my temperature right after I take it in the mornings. It helps you predict when you might be fertile and when to expect AF, based on all the other patterns and charts it has collected from women over the years.

It's pretty handy and has usually been very accurate for me, so I recommend it!



And I have had problems with digital tests giving me false positives, but some people swear by them. There are issues with the digitals -- like the dye running all over, or faulty test sticks -- that the machine doesn't always know how to handle. Once I got a positive from a faulty stick and then nothing from a stick that should have read positive.

I personally use Wondfos dip strips. I buy them from Amazon. They're WAY cheaper than the digitals, and in my opinion they're easy to use. You compare the test line to the control line. If the test is as dark as the control line, that's a positive. Anything that is not the same color/darkness is negative.

PLUS if you're a pee-on-a-stick (POAS) addict like me, or you need to test many times a day to catch a surge, or you have really long cycles and you don't know when you're going to ovulate, then they're way better than wasting a ton of expensive digitals.

I hope I'm being helpful and not too confusing! I highly recommend taking a look a the Fertility Friend site. You could start tracking your temps tomorrow morning just to get into the habit. It doesn't really HAVE to wait until the next cycle day. The more info FF has on your cycles, the better it can help you predict ovulation.

 

[brokenoven]

If you're pregnant any test will tell you. Your symptom could be due to progesterone. But it is not unheard of for a test to be a false negative due to not enough hcg in the urine. That's why they have two tests in a box usually. Hope you're pregnant!

 

[ONEID]

Ok! I have downloaded fertility friend and have starting charting my temps already, this might be even crazier, but I wonder if my cramps were ovulation? My temp is very low, perhaps indicating I have not ovulated yet. I woke up crying this morning and very emotional. Breasts still larger than normal though. Maybe it's AF coming. I wonder if the "yes" I got from the ovulation predictor was false. This is so confusing. I am so glad I found this forum.

 

[ireadyermind]

What is your "low" temp? My temp today was 97.75F and I'm post-O.

 

[ONEID]

96.2F this morning... I see you are from California though! I bet its a lot hotter there than here! LOL!
I just wish my cycle would stop leading me on!!

 

[ireadyermind]

96.2F this morning... I see you are from California though! I bet its a lot hotter there than here! LOL!
I just wish my cycle would stop leading me on!!

lol yes, it does get pretty warm here. Just the other day, the outdoor temp reached 108°F (42°C) in some parts of town. We're only forecast for a high of 90° today though.

I don't know how much the daily temps affect my personal body temperature, especially not since I'm indoors with air conditioning pretty much all day long. lol

Mind if I ask where you're from?

 

[ONEID]

No Problem!
I am from Edmonton Alberta! growing more and more confused.
I really cant thank you enough for all your help and advice. Its no nice to have someone that relates with these things. I am so happy I found this forum #thestruggleisreal.
What about you? Did you get a BFP yet? or missed this cycle? I have been watching video's on the charting, and i think i have an understanding of it. It will be interesting to start my next cylce to fully get a grasp on it.

 

[ireadyermind]

No Problem!
I am from Edmonton Alberta! growing more and more confused.
I really cant thank you enough for all your help and advice. Its no nice to have someone that relates with these things. I am so happy I found this forum #thestruggleisreal.
What about you? Did you get a BFP yet? or missed this cycle? I have been watching video's on the charting, and i think i have an understanding of it. It will be interesting to start my next cylce to fully get a grasp on it.

Oo, it's definitely warmer here than there! Haha. No wonder your temps are so low in the mornings.

I still have 3 days minimum before I can test. The wait is killing me! You can see my chart in my signature. If my graph line turns from blue to green, that means I got a BFP. ^^

I'm happy to help you! I can remember being new and having lots of questions. It was frustrating! Plus, helping you and being active on the forums here kinda helps make the Two Week Wait go by faster. It's a win-win situation!

 

[ONEID]

I am sure hoping for your BFP!!! How can I get my chart in my signature? does it link up with FF? not only am I new to the site, but a little technology handicapped. hahaha.
So, another user said that its possible that my body was gearing up to ovulate, but didnt actually release an egg. Do you know how that works? will it still release one this cycle if it missed its "time"?
I told the hubby that its not over till AF shows up and we should keep trying. He doenst seem to have an issue with that!

 

[ireadyermind]

That person is correct. Your body won't release an egg every single time. I don't know what causes it, but for example, that's the most likely reason that I am currently on cycle day 41 but only 7 days past ovulation. It looks like my body tried to ovulate a couple of times before it succeeded on CD33.

From the Fertility Friend website, you have a menu option at the top of the page that says "Sharing". Look for the "Get Code" option which is under the "Charting Home Page" header. You'll want to use the code option called "bbCode Code". Copy one of those, then come back to this site and put the code into your forum signature in your control panel. Then it'll show up every time.

 

[ONEID]

ok, so if I a understanding correctly, even if I didn't ovulate the first time my body was gearing up, I will still ovulate at another time in the same cycle? I guess that is why charting is best?

I hope I did my Signature correctly!

Baby dust to you girl! Promise you wont leave me though!! hahaha. I am such a confused mess!

 

[ONEID]

PS... am I reading your chart right that you already tested! silly bean!! that's torture! I totally see what you mean in your chart about your body trying to ovulate!

 

[moonstar_004]

hello there. i think we all get a bit crazy during ttc. did a lot of symptom spotting before, but i did a pretty good job of ignoring symptoms just this past cycle. i'm religiously temping though, as i need this to indicate ovulation because i have pcos.

when will you test?

 

[ireadyermind]

PS... am I reading your chart right that you already tested! silly bean!! that's torture! I totally see what you mean in your chart about your body trying to ovulate!

Yeah, I had had this crazy dream the night before about someone telling me I was pregnant, and the whole dream centered around us driving around trying to find a clinic who was open and could test me, that by the time I woke up, I couldn't help but take a test! lol. It was on my brain all freakin' night!

But I have like 40 Wondfos HPT cheapies. They're included in the kit when you buy large quantities of OPKs, so it didn't really hurt me to test. I knew it'd be negative, but I had to get that out of my system after that ridiculous dream! lol

 

[ONEID]

hello there. i think we all get a bit crazy during ttc. did a lot of symptom spotting before, but i did a pretty good job of ignoring symptoms just this past cycle. i'm religiously temping though, as i need this to indicate ovulation because i have pcos.

when will you test?

I have already tested... Sunday was my last test, I am officially a week late but no BFP yet. I have learned lots about charting and bbt, so I think that will help me significantly. When I got a positive ovulation indicator, we had intercourse those two nights then didn't really pay attention after. Now I know that it's possible for a body to gear up to ovulate but not actually do it. This site has been crazy helpful.
Nothing is over till AF shows up

 

[ONEID]

PS... am I reading your chart right that you already tested! silly bean!! that's torture! I totally see what you mean in your chart about your body trying to ovulate!

Yeah, I had had this crazy dream the night before about someone telling me I was pregnant, and the whole dream centered around us driving around trying to find a clinic who was open and could test me, that by the time I woke up, I couldn't help but take a test! lol. It was on my brain all freakin' night!

LOLOLOLOL!!! It's so much better to share the crazy! I swear the above would totally be something I would say!!!

 

[ireadyermind]

LOLOLOLOL!!! It's so much better to share the crazy! I swear the above would totally be something I would say!!!

I think it was best that I tested, 'cause otherwise it'd have been nagging me ALL day, and probably today, and tomorrow... Oye! At least that way I got the urge out of my system. I'm trying to wait til 10DPO to test again... longer if at all possible. This TWW is my undoing every time!

And it's worse this time around, because I am already 41 days into my cycle! Aarrrggg! Usually AF is over by now and I'm at CD6, waiting to ovulate.