Adventures in Charting

So I realized before I start posting random vents about my chart (which I really, really, really wanted to do today) it would probably be good to write that intro post that I promised earlier. That way no one thinks I'm crazy.. well too crazy anyways.

The wonderful ladies over on the Getting Pregnant board on The Nest are to be credited for introducing me to the world of fertility awareness or "charting" as we often refer to it. This will be the shorter-than-Cliff's-notes version, but for what I consider the best information on the topic I highly recommend reading the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" and/or visiting Fertility Friend, which will provide you with free lessons once you sign up to use their charting program (the basic version is free and I find works perfectly well without paying for the extra stuff).

If done properly fertility awareness can be used to help increase the chances of getting pregnant, or as birth control. This is not to be confused with the often warned about "rhythm method" which makes many assumptions about a woman's cycle that are just simply not true for every woman.

I choose to follow two main fertility signs: basal body temperature and cervical fluid. Both of these are tracked on a graph, which can be done by hand, but I find it easier to use the computer. It all reality it take about 5 minutes out of my day to get the information I need and track it on my chart.

Basal body temperature (BBT) is your true temperature the minute you wake up, before you've gotten out of bed or done anything else. It can and will increase slightly the later you sleep, so it has to be recorded about the same time everyday. I purchased a digital basal body thermometer at Wal-Mart for less than $10 and use my cell phone alarm to make sure I take my temperature at the same time each day. Most people will not find it as useful to track BBT alone as you will only see when you ovulated after it has happened. This is because once ovulation has occured the progesterone released the rest of you cycle will cause a shift in BBT which will be higher than before ovulation. Once again, Taking Charge of Your Fertility gets into the nitty-gritty of the how's and why's of this whole process including the cycle of hormones that makes this all happen.

Tracking cervical fluid is just about as simple, and J likes to say it's just an excuse to feel myself up everyday. For those that have never really paid attention it can be an eye opening experience learning about what your body does to help you get pregnant. Your cervical fluid has different consistencies throughout your cycle, becoming what most describe as "egg-white" consistency closer to when you will ovulate. It can be checked internally or externally, but I find internal checks work best for me. Seeing the pattern of consistencies your body produces will give you a clearer picture of when you are gearing up to ovulate. Just remember everyone is different and just because the textbook pattern isn't what you're seeing in your cycles doesn't mean something is necessarily wrong.

I use these to signs together by recognizing when I am entering the fertile phase based on the consistency of my cervical fluid and confirming that ovulation has actually occurred with the pattern of my BBT. I sometimes also use ovulation prediction kits (OPKs) to pin point my most fertile day, but they aren't absolutely necessary.

As for my vent? J decided that the first even remotely warm night of the year required the A/C to be cranked up to full blast causing me to wake up freezing the next morning and showing a temp dip where I knew there shouldn't be one, and the only way to get Fertility Friend to read my chart right was to discard that temp... and I NEVER discard a temp, so I was throughly annoyed. And yes, I know this makes me sound obsessive and just a little bit crazy, J thinks so too.