Think I'm out for this month (cycle 1), any advice for cycle 2? (OPK?)

[mrh2790]

Hi ladies. I’m new to this forum. Thought I wrote and intro post yesterday but it doesn’t look like it posted.

Don’t quite have enough time to write all of the things I’d like to as I have to get to work but this is my first time TTC. Husband and I decided to try 10 months earlier than we originally planned because of unexpected life changes and we’re both super excited.

With that being said though, I don’t think we were nearly as prepared this first month as I originally would have liked to be. We both smoke small amounts of weed and only had time to stop 1 week before starting to try when we originally wanted to stop 6 months ahead of time. Also, I wanted to be very diligent in the 6 months leading up to trying about tracking my period and again, did not have the foresight to do that so I only had a very loose tracking of my most recent periods and they haven’t all been regular.

Today is the day of my expected period. Typically, I follow a 29 day cycle, but last month my period was unusually late and it was a 34 day cycle. I took a Walgreens brand early detection test on Sunday and got a BFN but attributed it to being 2 days early and also I had urinated at 1am, 4:40 am, and took the test at 6:20am so it wasn’t very concentrated. Bought some Dollar Tree cheapies yesterday so that I could test this morning. Made sure not to drink too much water in the evening and went to the bathroom before bed at 10:30 but still I had to pee at 3:30am so I tested then (still didn’t look as concentrated as it could be) and it was a BFN again, so I’m counting myself out this month :/

Was wondering if you ladies have any recommendations about OPK. What do you use and where do you buy them? Also, we BD on days 8, 10-16, 18, and 20 this past cycle (but now I’m thinking that maybe we should have BD later as well if my cycle is becoming longer). Don’t know if we want to try something similar this month or maybe just do every other day throughout the month? Those 7 days in a row were a bit difficult but I was hoping that I was ovulating at that time, but since I didn’t us an OPK I can’t be sure that I was.

Thanks in advance and good luck to you all!

 

[CheshireDucky]

Hello and welcome!

First about OPKs: Most of us will get internet cheapies. Because the amount you have to use them it's best to get the most for your money. I personally use Wondfro which I get from Amazon. They're easy to use (pee in a cup, dip for 3 seconds, lay flat for 5 min, read test) and you can get a lot for not a lot of money.

You'll also see a lot of people around here talk about temping. Have you looked into that much? I know for me both temping and OPKs have helped me learn my cycle. The temping will confirm ovulation so using the both of them together really helps.

If you're not using an app to help track your cycles I recommend Fertility Finder. It has a place to log temps, OPK results, pregnancy test results, CM, and a lot of other things. It's free to use but does have a paid version (I've been using the free version since Feb).

With FF it'll learn your patterns and predict your fertile week and O day, as well as your period start dates. Everyone has their own way of BDing around their fertile window. Some will do every other day with doing it 3 days leading up to their O and the day after their O, some just do it every other day after their period ends, some will do it just every other day their entire fertile week, etc. Just a matter of finding what works for your husband, switching it up if need be.

When I first started someone recommended the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility to me and it really helped with temping and learning my body. This board is also full of information so don't hesitate to ask questions. It's what we're here for!

 

[mrh2790]

Thanks, Cheshire Ducky! I'll definitely look into that book and consider temping in addition to OPK and the app.
Still no period, so I guess I just need to be patient. Once I got over the initial upset of seeing a BFN on the day of my expected period, I realized that it still might be too early to tell for sure, especially if my cycle is longer than I was expecting it to be (which like I said, it was 34 days last month and today is day 30). Thanks again and good luck to you!

 

[zooloochick21]

Hi, I am still pretty new to TTC myself, but remember that you may not have done anything "wrong" this month. It seems like if you have 29 days cycles, you should have ovulated around cd 15. If you BDed days 10-16, you timed it correctly. This just may not have been your month; there's only a 20-35% (depending on your age) chance of getting pregnant in a given month if you get everything right. I've had to remind myself of that the first couple of months.


I use the dollar store brand and clearblue digital opks. I use the digitals to confirm if the cheap ones are positive.

I hope this helps!

 

[mrh2790]

Thank you zooloo! Yes, now that I've had some time to process things, I've realized I can't be so hard on myself and I didn't do anything "wrong." At the end of day 30 right now and still no AF. So trying not to get my hopes up. If my period is following a cycle more like last month, I might not be due until this Sunday, so I'm trying to remain calm until then. Might try to use one of the dollar tree tests on Friday if AF still hasn't shown up by then