New to Charting? Join other newbies here!

[bernina]

Hi all!

This is my first cycle (started Nov 19) officially charting with Fertility Friend. I thought I'd create a post for those who are new to charting so we can share our charts, get answers to questions, and just give each other support along the way. So far I have found that at the very least it has given me something to focus on while I wait for ovulation.


My Information
So far I am on cd 7 of what could be a 28 - 34 day cycle. I had my 2nd miscarriage back in August and my 2 complete cycles since then have been a bit longer than usual. I originally started looking into charting to help determine my luteal phase. I suspect that it has been 10 days or less for these past 2 cycles which could mean I have a luteal phase defect. I'm currently using the Clear Blue Fertility Monitor but am looking for a second way to pinpoint and confirm ovulation.

You can view my chart at this link (also in my signature):
https://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/bernina


Charting Basics
When charting there are several signs that you keep track of each month, the most important being cervical mucus (cm) and basal body temperature (bbt). These may sound like daunting tasks at first (and a bit gross) but they are proven reliable ways to determine if you are truly ovulating and to help identify the best days to do the baby dance (bd).


Reference Material
For those new to charting I highly suggest the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler (I picked up a copy at the library). If you prefer to start learning right away, there are some great tutorials over at Fertility Friend. You can sign up for free and look through their FAQs for answers to many common questions.

I purchased a digital basal thermometer at Rite Aid drustore (USA)for around $9. I noticed Walgreens also had their own brand and have heard that Walmart carries one as well. A good thermometer and Fertility Friend are really the only tools you need.
Some may also wish to use ovulation prediction kits (or ovulation monitors such as Clear Blue) to verify their chart readings.

It's also fun to configure a counter and include it along with a link to your chart in your signature (see mine for example). I really like the counters at www.lilypie.com. Lots of cute themes to choose from plus it's a great way for people to know at a glance what phase in your cycle you are at (you can even get ones that count down to ovulation and then to testing).


Please post a link to your charts and here's wishing us all BFP's very very soon!!!!

 

[want2Bamommy]

I will be learning to chart if gets me. So this thread will be a good help! Thanks for creating it!!

 

[bernina]

want2Bamommy, here's wishing you a BFP and my you never have to even bother with charting!!!!!

 

[want2Bamommy]

want2Bamommy, here's wishing you a BFP and my you never have to even bother with charting!!!!!

sounds good to me! lol I'm 15dpo. No signs of lots of creamy cm. Headaches. Backaches. Insomnia. Major acne. Hoping to get a tomorrow.

 

[magicvw]

I'm "old" to charting but thought I'd pop in here and let you know I'm always around if you need any help with them.

 

[holly]

Hi I started charting about a week ago too! i agree definately gives you something else to think about!! glad someone else is new to this too x

 

[bernina]

want2Bamommy, here's wishing you a BFP and my you never have to even bother with charting!!!!!

sounds good to me! lol I'm 15dpo. No signs of lots of creamy cm. Headaches. Backaches. Insomnia. Major acne. Hoping to get a tomorrow.

Those sound like some very promising signs!!!!! Lots of baby dust and crazy glue aimed at you right now!!!

 

[bernina]

I'm "old" to charting but thought I'd pop in here and let you know I'm always around if you need any help with them.

A big thank you to Magic!! You helped me so much by answering all of my crazy questions!!!

 

[magicvw]

No question is crazy when it comes to BBT!

 

[Seasidebaby]

Hi I'm new to tmTTC and charting as well and agree with you guys... This site has Bern my lifeline whilst waiting to OV (which I a at now on CD10, I've got uncomfortable cramps, backache, severe bloating & creamy CM...so it's BDing time!!). I also agree that magic is the best!... Thanks you've helped me soo much already hun!
I'm glad this newbie thread has been created.

Who else is TTC after coming off BCP's??? I've had implanon & BCP's so I am still unsure what my cycles are doing, hence not knowing if I am OVing or not!
Sending good luck to everyone!! Xxx

 

[MrsJ08]

Hi ladies

I would like to join you please. I am new to charting. I've sorted out my fertility friend membership but at the mo am only charting CM as after visiting 3 chemists am yet to find one that stocks fertility themometers! Pretty useless considering I am in London. I should make it to a big Boots store at the weekend so I will be able to start charting my temp. I think I am out for this month anyway as DH is in hospital and I am due to OV on Saturday. This is my first month TTC as we only agreed to try last Tuesday. The next day DH was taken into hospital. Is anyone using ovulation testing kits? I'm trying to resist as I think I will get obsessive about it and it's so expensive.

Wishing you all lots of luck and and crazy glue
x

 

[sillymamaof3]

i would like to start charting, so thanks for creating this thread! i had my mirena removed in the beginning of july and just got my period november 9th! so im going to see how this cycle goes... we would really like a boy so it would be nice to pinpoint ovulation. good luck girls and im sure ill have lots of questions for you soon

 

[bernina]

Hi ladies

I would like to join you please. I am new to charting. I've sorted out my fertility friend membership but at the mo am only charting CM as after visiting 3 chemists am yet to find one that stocks fertility themometers! Pretty useless considering I am in London. I should make it to a big Boots store at the weekend so I will be able to start charting my temp. I think I am out for this month anyway as DH is in hospital and I am due to OV on Saturday. This is my first month TTC as we only agreed to try last Tuesday. The next day DH was taken into hospital. Is anyone using ovulation testing kits? I'm trying to resist as I think I will get obsessive about it and it's so expensive.

Wishing you all lots of luck and and crazy glue
x

Hi Mrs J! Glad to have you along for the crazy ride!! I am currently having a love hate relationship with my digital basal thermometer. I'm thinking for the next cycle I'm going to order an old fashioned mercury glass one online! Where you able to find one at a store near you?

This is my third cycle using the Clear Blue Fertility Monitor. I never had any luck with the ovulation testing kits. I only received faint lines and never a true positive test (where the test line is the same or darker than the control line). However with the monitor I have received positive results (called Peak on the monitor) for both cycles. It's too early to tell for this cycle (only on day 11 and usually ovulate late in my cycle). There are lots of great threads on here giving great advice for how to best use ovulation test kits. I have heard that it is best NOT to use first morning urine and to instead use them in the afternoon (trying not to pee or drink too much prior to using so you have concentrated urine). Also you may have to test twice a day as you approach ovulation to catch the LH surge. I didn't learn this until after I had become fed up and stopped using them.

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband and hope he is doing well.

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[bernina]

i would like to start charting, so thanks for creating this thread! i had my mirena removed in the beginning of july and just got my period november 9th! so im going to see how this cycle goes... we would really like a boy so it would be nice to pinpoint ovulation. good luck girls and im sure ill have lots of questions for you soon

Welcome sillymamaof3!! Glad to have you along.

How is your cycle going so far, are you getting good temperature readings? I set my alarm for 7am every morning and take my temp right away. I found the first few days of doing this I kept waking up tossing and turning starting a few hours before 7am. So I'm not sure how accurate my temps were. Lately I will get one day that seems high and then the next day low. It's a bit discouraging although Fertility Friend says that my temps fluctuate within normal ranges, so I guess that's a good sign. I'm just really hoping that temps along with cervical mucus will help me to verify and pinpoint ovulation.

Good luck with your charting!!

 

[Swanny]

Hi I'm on CD 1 today so this will be my 3rd cycle since m/c in Sept.

I'm confused about charting though, how do you know from the basal body temperature when you are going to ovulate? Cause I thought it shows when you are ovulating with a temperature increase but ideally I would want to start BDing around a week before OVing just to be sure?

 

[bernina]

Just wanted to check in with everyone and see how the charting is going?

I've been able to take my temperature at the same time every morning except for 1 day, so I think that's pretty good. It's no fun setting the alarm early on the weekends though, especially with the 4 day weekend we just had here in the US. But it's for a good cause so that keeps me motivated.

I've been using a digital basal thermometer but sometimes I think it's not very accurate. If you look at my chart you'll see it looks like a bunch of jagged peaks! Next cycle I may invest in an old school glass mercury thermometer and test vaginally like magic does. I feel a bit reassured by the fact that the Fertility Friend site indicates that my temp fluctuations are within the normal range.

I'm having a bit of an issue tracking my cervical mucus the past few days. I normally check my cervix position and cervical mucus in the shower every morning. The other day when I was doing that I found a few clots of blood and pink cervical mucus. So basically I'm spotting mid cycle. It's not due to ovulation, temps and fertility monitor show no signs of ovulation and it's much too early for me anyway. My only guess is that because dh and I did the baby dance a few times that I may have either irritated my cervix or the cervical polyp I had removed last month has started to grow back. The whole reason I had it removed was to prevent the confusion of mid cycle bleeding. So I'm a bit frustrated and am of course worrying that something is wrong with my cycle. But I need to relax and realize that the most likely cause is irritation or the polyp. It's so easy to work yourself up when something unexpected happens!

I'd love to hear how everyone is doing and if you're running into any issues or have concerns or questions.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!

 

[bernina]

Hi I'm on CD 1 today so this will be my 3rd cycle since m/c in Sept.

I'm confused about charting though, how do you know from the basal body temperature when you are going to ovulate? Cause I thought it shows when you are ovulating with a temperature increase but ideally I would want to start BDing around a week before OVing just to be sure?

Welcome Swanny, glad to have you on board!

I would highly recommend looking for the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It does a great job of explaining how taking your temperature AND tracking your cervical mucus can help you to pinpoint ovulation. I put a link to the amazon entry for the book in the very first post of this thread.

Also, check out www.fertilityfriend.com and take a look at their FAQ section (it's totally free to sign up for their basic membership).

Here is my basic understanding of how it works, but you really need to do temping in conjunction with tracking your cervical mucus so that you can know before you actually ovulate.

Tracking your basal temperature you will notice that the day you ovulate there should be a spike in temp about 0.5 degrees (F). The temp does not really give you enough warning in order to maximize your peak window of fertility. It just confirms that you did ovulate and can tell you what day you did so.

This is where cervical mucus comes in. As you approach ovulation your cervical mucus (cm for short) will change. Right after your period most women will notice very little mucus, then they go through a stage where there is some cm but it's usually kind of sticky and crumbly. After that it will begin to get a bit thinner and be sort of a lotion consistency (that's the stage I'm at right now on cd 11). After that it will become more watery and get more and more like egg whites and very slippery and there can be a lot of it. This is called fertile quality cervical mucus and as soon as you notice this stuff you want to start doing the baby dance! They say your absolute peak day is your last day of this egg white like mucus. Of course you don't know it's your last day until it's already past, so you want to try to do the baby dance each day the fertile mucus is there. Keeping track of cm on your chart will help you to pinpoint when to do the dance.

I hope this helped and please let us know if there are any other questions. There are so many experienced charters on this board who are eager to help.

Wishing you lots of luck and baby dust!!

 

[bernina]

Oh I just had to share a silly little thing that happened to me over the weekend.

My 8 year old cousin received a necklace that had a small vial of "fairy dust" attached to it. She went around dumping little bits in everyone's hands. When she gave me my dust I secretly went into the bathroom and rubbed it all over my belly. I pretended that it was baby dust and I figured a little extra luck couldn't hurt. So I walked around with blue glitter on my belly the rest of the day, but it made me laugh and like I said, definitely can't hurt.

Here's wishing some magic fairy dust to us all!!

 

[MrsJ08]

Hi Bernia

Sorry I've been a bit quiet. I still haven't got around to buying a thermometer I've had a busy weekend so didn't make it to the shop. Yesterday I was helping out at Christmas Fayre. I'm going to go to Boots tomorrow. I've been doing my CM though and I'm a little confused. I'm CD15 of my cycle and thought I OV Friday night or Saturday as I had what looked like EWCM on Saturday morning but this morning (Sunday) when I woke up I had a lot more although haven't had any for the rest of the day. Therefore, I think I might have actually OV last night or first thing this morning. Not entirely sure??? Doesn't really matter in that as DH has just come out of hospital BD is last thing on his mind, so there is no chance of conceiving this month. I've re-read the emails FF sent me about charting but I'm still confused about how many days to expect EWCM before OV. Can anyone help?

I really hope he starts to feel better and we at least have a chance at it next month. I should OV christmas week and I would love to have a September baby. I think all kids love being one of the oldest in the year at school - LOL! I should be calling the doc tomorrow for my blood test results but I might leave it until Tues because I know I will be disappointed if I call and they are not back. I had a letter arrive on Friday about my ultrasound and have an appointment of the 7th Jan.

I can feel my stress levels about the whole TTC thing starting to rise and know that will only make TTC harder. Aghhhh! I wish I had met my DH in my 20's when I wouldn't have been worrying about my fertility and re-assuring myself I had loads of time

Hope all you ladies are well.
x

 

[magicvw]

Hi I'm on CD 1 today so this will be my 3rd cycle since m/c in Sept.

I'm confused about charting though, how do you know from the basal body temperature when you are going to ovulate? Cause I thought it shows when you are ovulating with a temperature increase but ideally I would want to start BDing around a week before OVing just to be sure?

Hi Swanny!
Bernina is right - charting your temperature really only shows you that you have indeed ovulated. It's not very useful for predicting when it's going to happen - it's possible that you might get a sharp dip in temps the day before you ovulate, but it's not always the case and plenty of temp dips don't indicate ov.

You need to examine your CM or do ovulation tests if you want advance warning of when you're going to ovulate. The CM and OPK's tell you "you're going to ovulate soon, get busy" and the temperatures tell you "OK hun you've OV'd ....and relax!"