Any charting advice? :)

[Diedrek]

First off for all of you beautiful ladies, Happy Valentine’s Day!! But secondly, for all of you who chart and have any answers to my questions or advice! I’m sorry but his WILL be long

So I just started temping a whole three days ago I’ve tried it in the past but with the whole NTNP approach I never stayed on top of it. I also have the hardest time waking up in the morning and usually at different times. I literally have to set every alarm in the house. So along with our cell phones I made a point to set the alarm clock across the room so I would physically have to get up and out of bed to turn it off. Therefore, waking my butt up and staying up! But temping wouldn’t work after getting up and laying back down, plus the sound of the alarm going off while I laid in bed temping had driven me crazy. Not to mention my SO Poor Guy! Haha. But I found a solution! Alexa! Who sadly doesn’t get enough use as it is. But now every morning I have a reminder set for 7:30 AM to temp and I’ve been successful for the last 3 days from 7:25-7:30. Now that I’m actively TTC and will be temping every morning, I have a few questions!

#1: After doing some charting research I’ve read that as long as you temp within 30 minutes around the same time every morning that’ll work. True? I work 2 minutes from my house so I’m blessed but sometimes I range from waking up from 7:20-8:00 depending on how early I decide to get into the office. 7:30 has been my normal temp time this week but if I’m off more than 30 minutes is it even worth temping that day??

#2: I also read that a lot of women don’t even bother temping ALL month. They only start temping right before O up until Af. What I figured is that was more for experienced charters who basically know when they’re going to O and just want to see if their temps rise or drop to either expect af or not. I’d like to chart every day but even during af? Not sure on this one ladies!

#3: This was my biggest question I’ve been wondering & im sure it’s maybe very obvious. Coverline! I get that’s what my normal temp is & that when I drop below or rise above that it’s indicating O, Af, and even hopefully bfps one day lol. But how long does it take on FF to show my coverline? Like how many consistent temps whether it’s weeks or months to record until it shows that coverline line on my chart? I currently only have 3 lines connecting my temps so far. I’m sure it’ll take a while to give me some accurate info on what’s “my normal” but I was just wondering how long that took for you ladies? I wanna see that coverline on my chart one day!

Also from what I understand besides coverline, is that triphasmic is when FF detects O by your temps going up for three or more days in a row? Then temps will either drop significantly indicting Af coming or they will keep rising indicting pregnancy. Or do they plateau but still high and not drop below coverline if you’re pregnant? I know this is so much to ask of you girls but I honestly need to know if I’m understanding this correctly to have the best chance of having a LO one day

Also if anybody has any temping advice I’d truly appreciate it I know checking cm is a good idea as well to track it along side temps. I’ll be doing that as well! Really exited to be TTC like a pro, but super overwhelmed and feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing. Really hoping I’m not just winging it here and missing out on my chance every month! TIA & happy V-day again Hope you ladies and your SO’s or loved ones had a beautiful day! I had a great dinner with my guy and exchanged gifts.. but was very sad to hear what happened in Broward county today with the school shooting since I’m down in South FL as well Praying for all the kids involved and their families!!

 

[Nixnax]

Hey die, I’ve charted a couple of times. I tend to do it between 6am and 6:30 am, as that is when my SOs alarm goes off. I don’t always have to get up at that time, I just temp then go back to sleep. I temp vaginally because I’m a ‘mouth breather’ when I sleep, so vaginally is more accurate. I start temping the day after AF has gone. Once you ovulate, your temp will go up, when you have 3 temps that are raised, FF will then put your lines (crosshairs) in, this will then tell you that you are 3DPO and your cover line for the month.

If you experience a dip in temps after ovulation and then another rise for 3 temps or more, that is when it can be triphasic. That’s never happened to me personally. Mine just tend to stay consistently up.

My temps tend to drop the day AF is due. Some people’s start to drop a little earlier. You’ll soon see a pattern in yours and you’ll get know how your body is working.

I don’t really check cm very much. But I do use opks around ovulation, to help pin point it.

It’s quite fun to see the workings of it. Hope this helps

 

[DobbyForever]

1. For me, that 40m window wouldn’t affect it dramatically BUT for some women it does. Once you’ve charted a few cycles, you can get a better sense of how much time matters. I just set an alarm to temp at 5:30 and kept my bbt thermometer on my nightstand. Because that’s the earliest I wake for work. So my alarm goes off, i temp, I put it in FF, and i’m Back asleep within 5m or I get up to get ready for work

2. Agreed once you know your patterns you can skip days. I coupled with opks as well. I usually only temp the first couple days of af just to be sure it is a proper af then I stop for a week and pick back up when I start doing opks.

3. You don’t get a cl until you FF confirms ovulation with three distinctly higher temps or other ovulation signs.

4. None of my triphasic charts were bfps. For me, my temps became sporadic with many rises and dips above cl. If you overlay my two bfp charts, they are scary similar in pattern. I know some women who get bfps with some triphasic charts but not others. You just can’t really tell from temp alone as fun as it is to have something to obsess over in the tww

5. The temp drop of doom can be gradual or sudden. For me, my temp drops about half a degree (still above cl) the day before and then again to below cl the morning of. But I also spot the day before.

BBT is great but it’s really an after the fact method. My cm was never ewcm and I hate checking so I prefer opks and bbt to confirm O. I used wondfos because cheap on Amazon, and I also used the Cb advanced digital. I liked know when I was close to O and then O is imminent. So it was worth the crazy price tag.

Fxed and baby dust!

 

[happycupcake]

Ok, so it is still worth temping even if it's a different time, the app will just leave a hollow circle instead of a blue dot to show it may not be accurate (if you're using Fertility Friend, I'm unfamiliar with most other apps and use this as I found it the most reliable and helpful).
I have found anything up to an hour seems fine, anything more or less tends to throw things off a little, but it is still worth doing it. Also, if things are really off then you can discard the temp, or you could use a calculator online to find what your temp would likely have been, although I'm quite wary of these as it can't possibly predict it with perfect accuracy.

I temp vaginally as it's more reliable and less erratic than oral, in my experience. Therefore on my heaviest af days I miss it. It doesn't make any difference because temps tend to be all over the place during af anyway. So don't worry about that.
Whether you continue on into your lp and throughout is up to you, although for the first few cycles I think it's definitely worth doing as it can show up potential hormonal issues, say if your temps can't sustain themselves during your lp. If they drop and stay that way mid lp then it's something you should have checked out, to ensure your hormones are ok, particularly progesterone as this is the dominant hormone during your lp.
If you find after a few cycles your temps seem fine, then I don't see any reason why you can't comfortably stop temping after you confirm ovulation as it can sometimes cause a lot of stress. What many don't remember is that we have a couple of oestrogen surges during our lp which can cause dips in our temperatures, and many panic about that. Also, even if your temp stays high, it doesn't mean you're pregnant just as if it does dip and doesn't increase after, this doesn't mean you aren't pregnant. Many pregnancy charts I have seen have been up and down, or have dipped and stayed that way. The concern is when they dip, stay that way and you don't seem to be conceiving or you do but they always result in early loss. This can indicate hormone problem as above.

You will see coverline, or crosshairs when the app detects ovulation. So with Fertility Friend, it does this after three days of higher temps, higher than the previous six temps. This is when it will confirm things and this is when your coverline appears.

Most charts are biphasic. Triphasic charts are more likely to happen in pregnancy but not always and by the same token, a triphasic chart doesn't always equal pregnancy. This happens when it looks kind of like a stair case, so it will increase and confirm ovulation, then it may stay the same or dip, but it will increase above the first increase, and so on, so you have that up up and up look to it. I can't explain it fabulously! Probably best to Google images of triphasic charts or read Fertilty Friend's info on it.

Don't take charting as gospel. It isn't always perfect (rarely, actually!), it's helpful and can give you clues to potential issues and can give clues to pregnancy, sometimes, but in my experience my charts don't tell me a whole lot except that I ovulate each cycle and before I was on progesterone it showed that my temps weren't sustaining properly, they would start to dip mid lp and carry on that way.
I would definitely choose vaginal over oral because there are less variations to contend with, you can't be sure with oral temps if a change is caused by sleeping with your mouth open or if it's a change that would have happened anyway.
Note your cm and cervical position down, particularly around your fertile days as they all give helpful clues when used alongside temping, and using OPKs. I would use OPKs as they can give you a heads up to ovulation, whereas temping will only tell you you ovulated already. Over time you can sort of predict when you're probably going to ovulate if you stay in a regular pattern. But things can change, so it's best to remember that even if for ten cycles you ovulate on CD14, the next cycle you could ovulate earlier or later than this. But hopefully you won't have to have ten cycles

 

[Diedrek]

Thanks girls!! I’m going to have to come back to this every time I need to remember what’s going on with my temps Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it over the next few months! I’m ordering my Opks off amazon on Friday. FF detects ovulation on the 24th so I’ll definitely be ready with my Opks by then! I was looking into buying the clearblue monitor one but so many of you just use the ones with the lines && they work just fine and are obviously much cheaper. I’ll have to start trying to find some find some good opks by tomorrow. Day 4 of temping and going strong

Oh also I noticed I don’t have the “VIP” section of FF and I should pay for the upgrade to have all the extra features. Do all of you girls do the VIP route or is the regular version good enough? I figured I’d just pay for it or else I’d be missing out on important stuff!?

I’m actually REALLY exited about day 4 of temps haha but of course.. I mean it could help me have a Lo so of course I am I do get EWCM but only a day or two if even followed by what seems like days on end of super water cm. I never lack that lol. I usually just BD with my SO every other day during those good cm days and hope for the best. But I’ve been missing something obviously And this is why temping and opks are going to become a big part of my life... not so big that I go crazy and end up in a psych ward .. but just the right amount

Thanks again ladies I really appreciate your help! .

 

[happycupcake]

I pay for the VIP version, I find it much more helpful than the basic version. I bought it whilst on offer, it was half price at the time for a year upfront.
Aren't they giving you the free trial? They gave me a free trial of the VIP version for a month I think, and then I paid for a month, and another ... then I gave in and bought a year when half price lol