TTC My First...Please Help

[girlttc]

Hi,
My husband and I have been trying to conceive for about a year now. I had a miscarriage in January. This past June I took a home pregnancy test and it came out positive but a few days later it came out negative and I had to go to the ER for a UTI. At the same time, my period came. I am pretty sure the UTI came from putting my legs up after intercourse, which is something I've heard helps, but now I'm scared to do....

I truly feel discouraged and just need some advice or what we should do next. Monitoring my temperature and CM just aren't accurate enough indicators for me...my husband and I want to know when I'm ovulating so we can just try then...and not worry about trying on pointless days, or missing the day I am ovulating. I still believe I can get pregnant naturally. I do use apps and webmd etc to calculate my fertile days, but the range is quite large. I was thinking of using a store bought ovulation kit in addition to the fertile date range, but I found in the past that they are so hard to read. Plus, what if they come out negative, do we still do it on that day just in case???

Please help. I am more than happy to use my personal email as well, for anyone that has a lot of knowledge and would be willing to reach out to me and my husband.

Thanks

 

[RForReal]

Welcome! I'm TTC #1 as well. I don't know how much advice I can give since I have never been pregnant but I use OPKs and temp so I have both to go by. I use the wondfo super cheap OPKs and then if it looks positive, follow it up with a digital with the smiley face. Those are super easy but expensive so I use them sparingly.

We DTD every other day, regardless of what the OPK says but it helps me confirm the temping so I know when I'm officially in the TWW. Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[ArmyWife1984]

I would definetly use opks. Not sure what brand you used before but i've had pretty good success with them as far as getting pos. Results.

It did take me 15months with DS. I really think opks helped because we weren't wasting baby batter on pointless days

I know with opks you need to test in the afternoon, evening to get the best results. I always took one a day at 2pm starting around cd10.

I went on amazon and bought a huge pack of opks that way each month i could really pinpoint what cycle day i O'd.

I never got into temping or checking cm....opks were reliable enough for me.
I made dh hold his load for almost a week before the pos opk...all the other months we dtd very often so i figured why not try the opposite and not bd until its postive. Finally worked.

Hope i helped somewhat...hope you get a bfp very soon!

 

[girlttc]

Thank you guys so much for your advice. I already feel more confident...

The opk I am going to use this month is a drug store brand called Walgreens Daily Ovulation Predictor Test Strips

Not sure what you guys think about this one. I found the reading to be subjective, however, that was when I was trying much earlier this year, perhaps I will be more confident in my reading now. It is the most affordable for me - if I could afford it, I would absolutely get the clearblue digital but they are $55 at my drug store

Anyway, I have heard to have sex 5 days prior to ovulation and 2 days after for good measure. Since I don't know when I ovulate still, we have sex every other day for 2 weeks, which works well for my husband and falls within the suggested range of webmd, apps, etc. however I was thinking to do this, in combination with the ovulation kit?

Also what do you guys think about the fact that when I plug in my cycle history into webmd, it tells me my cycles around 30 days, while babycenter says 31, and my app says 32. I plug in the same cycle history into all three, so its just baffling that it spits out a different number. 30, 31, and 32 all give different fertile days, so I want to know what my true cycle number is

 

[RForReal]

You probably vary by a day or two, its completely normal. I am usually 26-27 days and have been 25 and up to 29. That's another reason to use OPKs so you can pinpoint ovulation.

I think that your best chances of getting pregnant start 3-4 days before O up til the day after. Every other day should cover you in any case.

 

[girlttc]

ArmyWife,
Which brand opk did you use? I can get the same one, but would prefer to buy them in-store if possible...Thanks!

 

[girlttc]

RforReal,

In that case, webmd and my app does say to dtd around the 17-22. Do you think instead of the full 2 weeks of dtd, I should just use the expensive ovulation kit that provides 7 test strips, and use them during the dates above and also dtd? Sorry for so many Q's...just very confused.

 

[ArmyWife1984]

I have used wondfo, babi blue cross and answer brand. Answer brand i bought from walmart. The other 2 i got a good deal on amazon for like 50 strips for 10bucks with shipping included!

I. Would say sex every other day for 2weeks may be a bit much...at least for us it seemed like it. We tried dtd everyday, everyother day. It got to be not enjoyable after a few months.

With the 3 pregnancies i've had, surprisingly less was more for us, and worked.

First preg: dh and i stopped having sex tuesday, and we were gonna wait until the pos. Opk but on sunday i couldnt wait anymore so we bd twice that day, morning and night and on monday i got a very positive opk. We bd once that night too and that was it! So 3 times around O

With 2nd and 3rd preg. I only bd the day of pos opk, that was it!!

My cycles varied a few days here n there but i always seemed to O around cd14.

Maybe try the bd everyother day until you can see what day you ovulate around. Once you know that, i would hold from sex until the day before ovulation

 

[RForReal]

RforReal,

In that case, webmd and my app does say to dtd around the 17-22. Do you think instead of the full 2 weeks of dtd, I should just use the expensive ovulation kit that provides 7 test strips, and use them during the dates above and also dtd? Sorry for so many Q's...just very confused.

No worries, this TTC thing is confusing! It's hard to say without knowing when you ovulate. They are probably basing the fertile window on the average LP of 14 days but not all women fall into the norm. My LP is only 11 days so I ovulate on CD15 or CD16. I would suggest starting the OPKs around CD10 unto, you see a positive. This is based on my limited experience so others may have different suggestions.

 

[girlttc]

Thank you both so much. I will keep you updated. There is so much support through these forums after all...Btw, I am on CD4, just ending AF and gearing up for next week. I have decided I'm going to purchase the First Response Ovulation Test, $13 from Amazon for 7 test strips...I'm going to see if they're cheaper at Walmart. Will be buying 2 packs. Sorry for all this unnecessary info! Haha.

 

[ArmyWife1984]

I'll be stalking!

 

[KittyKan]

Fantastic advice on here! Thank u x

 

[lxb]

do you have link to your charts? I find that I usually have a temp dip before i Oed~ After temping for a while, you can see your approximate O date (it sounded like you have regular period of ~30-32 days?).

the brand of opk i used is clearblue.. Eek! $55 is expensive~! I got mine for ~$30? I test once a day from CD10--when I get positive. As one of the ladies mentioned, opk is best NOT with FMU. Best to test at the same time everyday. I usually test at around 10-11am. And if I kept getting negative, and I felt like i'm ovulating (with the watery/ewcm), I would test once in the evening time (~6-7pm) just in case.

And after I got a positive, I usually have a temp rise ~2-3 days after.

Like other ladies said, best to do every other day from CD10-'til maybe you have a temp rise if you chose not to use opk.