It's Finally My Time.

[Cill]

Hello everybody!

I am very excited to be posting in TTC. I used to have a different account that I lurked with but I forgot the details!

My husband married 1y together 7 and I have started trying for our first child. I'm excited and just want it to happen straight away. Which I know it won't! The whole charting and codes confuse me. So far I'm just trying to dtd often and use a period tracker app!

Any tips would be awesome! It feels so surreal .

 

[MiaMama]

Welcome to this forum and congratulations for the TTC decision, big step in life

I would say the best way to track your cycle is an ovulation prediction kit. It helps you to know when you ovulate exactly. Its is very helpful, I mean this is my opinion. An app is very good of course but tracking hormones is even better!

Good luck!

 

[Aayla]

Here are my tips.

1) Start tracking your temperature. You start on cd1. Ideally you need to use a Basal Body Thermometer. This won't give you a heads up before Ovulation but it will tell you that you ovulated after the fact. The app Fertility Friend is a decent app to track it and other symptoms.

2) Have a lot of sex. There are going to be women on here that will tell you that it can happen with just once and while, yes, it does take just once it's not in your favor. What worked for me last cycle was 3-4 days prior to ovulation, the day of ovulation, and the day after (just in case). Yes it can be a tough schedule but it's worth it to see those 2 lines. Try to time it every 24 hours to give his guys some time to build up.

3) preseed is a great lubrication to have. It mimics cervical fluid and sometimes add a little help, especially if you don't have a lot yourself.

4) Keep a journal of everything you are feeling. The TTC place has a place for that. write down everything you are feeling both physically, mentally..just everything. Even if you think it's all in your head. I'm not saying obsess over everything but if you have a record of each cycle and what you felt you will know when something different happens. If you don't want to keep one online that others have access to then keep a journal at home.

5) and ask ask ask away. There is no such thing as a stupid question. We are all here to help.

6) ovulation predictor kits are a great tool. You can go expensive and go digital or go inexpensive and use dollar stores. The digitals are easier to interpret as they give you a yes or no or a smiley face but it can add up in dollars. This cycle I went with dollar store. I got 12 for $15 compared to 10 for $60. If you go with non digital a positive test is where the test line is as dark or darker than the control line. You will almost always get a second line as we have LH in our system at all times. It goes darker when your LH surges. This means that you should ovulate in 12-24 hours. If you haven't listend to advice #2 this is where you definitely need to have sex everyday.

Good luck in your journey!

 

[Cill]

I should have mentioned that I bought a box of ovulation sticks. Just not sure when to start using them! Someone said after my period. It's only a weeks worth though?

 

[MiaMama]

I have the advanced clear blue digital kit. I have a 28 days cycle and always start on CD8. In the box, you have the info, depending on your cycle's length, the day you have to start.

 

[Aayla]

I was told to start on cd 10 to start since I didn't know when I would ovulate. Now I know so if I went by the package insert I would be starting too late. I have 35 day cycles but a long LP (18 days). So if I went by that I would be testing for O after ovulation happened. I O on cd17 but the insert tells me to start testing cd18.

I say start on cd10 and keep going. You may want to pick a few more up. I always have extra just in case.

don't test with fmu. Do it in the afternoon or early evening. I testing with fmu on my last cycle and it was negative. Something told me to test again that evening and I tested at 7pm and got a positve. If I had gone with my first test I would have missed the surge. Although we were having sex everyday so we still would have caught the egg. Another reason to listen to advice #2. Sometimes you may miss the surge on an opk cause it happens at at different time than when you test for it. So BD as much as you can.

You can test, and pee on sticks, and temp and chart and everything else but when it comes down to it, having sex is the only way to get pregnant. So do it lots.

 

[Jaxie086]

Hi!! This is only my second cycle trying to conceive. The first cycle the only things I had done were to get an app for ovulation, take a prenatal, and do a lot of bding This month I'm still doing those things but I also picked up an OPK. It's cd10 for me so I just started using it today. Highly recommend an OPK if you want to know for sure when you're ovulating!

 

[ChiiBaby]

Welcome to the TTC board and good luck!