Ovulation Predictor Kits!!!!

OPK's.....A woman's best friend! I had heard alot of internet buzz about using OPK's to help predict when you will ovulate. I must admit that I was a little skeptical because my cycle is pretty much like timework, but finally relented after our third cycle with no luck. For the most part OPK's are fairly easy to use. You POAS (pee on a stick) and read the results....sound familiar?

OPK's work differently than charting your cycle in that OPK's will tell you of your upcoming ovulation while charting will confirm for you after you have ovulated, most likely missing your fertile window unless you just know your body. Right before you ovulate your body releases LH or lutenizing hormone in a surge. OPK's will pick up on this surge. Once it has been detected, you will most likely ovulate within the next 24 to 48 hours. When you get the positive on the OPK its time to get to the business of making a baby!

If you visit your local Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Target, RiteAid...you will see so many brands you won't know wha to do with yourself. There are two main types...digital and non-digital. I'll explain the difference between the two.

1. NonDigital - These are your traditional sticks which you dip into a clean cup of urine for 5-15 seconds depending on the brand you use. You lay them flat on a nonabsorbant surface (not a paper towel or toilet paper) and wait for the lines to appear. There is a control line and a results line. When your body is not LH surging, you may have two lines with the result line lighter than the control line. When an LH surge is detected your result line will be the same or darker color intensity of the control line. When this happens...VOILA!!! Your LH surge has been detected and ovulation is coming up in the next 24-48 hours. **** Just a preface.....the first month I used OPK's I got a positive on Monday and Tuesday and confirmed ovulation on Tuesday **** Which means O can happen the same day.


2. Digital - These work the same way as the nondigital ones except you do not have to read the results. Usually you get a yes or a smiley face when the LH surge is present or a no or sad face when it's not. As simple as that. The digital version of course is much more expensive and can run into some major dinero if you have long or irregular cycles where you O at very different times during the month.

****A word of Caution****

While OPK's are highly effective in determing your LH surge, if you are using the nondigital version, you have to interpret the results for yourself. This of course can lead to a margin of error on your part. Some women never get a postitive, from what they can see, but clearly ovulate based on their charts. Others swear they got a positive but have annovulatory charts, where no ovulation is present. I highly recommend checking out the site http://www.peeonastick.com/ so that you can see how the progression from a negative LH surge to a positive LH surge looks like.

I will be posting my OPK's over the next several days up until I recieve a positive and a few days after so that you can see the progression of the lines.

Til the next time!

Jorasims!

Charting your cycle....

Today marks cycle day 6 of our fourth cycle TTC. (Remember the acronyms people!!!) I have to insert the wonderful information regarding charting. While I firmly believe that the use, or lack thereof, of birth control is a decision that a woman makes on her own, I have to plug in my shout out for the NFP/FAM method. So more acronyms you say?? Let me explain....


NFP/FAM stands for Natural Family Planning/Fertility Awareness Method...NOT to be confused with the Rhythm Method from the 70's and 80's which resulted in many of our mothers being pregnant with those of us in our 20's and 30's! After many years on hormonal birth control which started and ended with the Birth Control Pill, the hubby and I agreed that it was time to put that stuff aside. I just could not remember to take it and well...the side effects were less than pleasant. So with that said we started following the principles of NFP/FAM which can be found here http://www.nfpandmore.org/ .



To give you a brief synopsis, the method utilizes a woman's knowledge of her body. It takes into account her basal body temperature, the position of her cervix (CP) and her cervical mucus (CM) which changes throughout the month. When a woman stops taking hormonal birth control, it is an amazing thing to see and observe what your body does to prepare you for a pregnancy. Things that I thought were gross when I was much younger, was just my body doing it's thing.



In a nutshell, a woman buys a special thermometer like this one http://www.fun-kids-stuff.com/images/basal3.jpg and takes her temperature BEFORE moving out of bed. Yes this means before your morning potty trip or teeth brushing! A woman has to have had at least three hours of uninterrupted sleep AND temp the same time each morning. Cervical position and mucus are checked at the same time each day, usually in the evening so that the results are consistent. This information is put into a database aka your chart. Once a woman has a sustained thermal shift, ovulation can be noted on the chart.


Now the above is just a brief rundown of how this works. In order to be successful at charting, a woman needs to do her homework. Just don't take my notes and think you will be successful at it. A website which is a godsend to us NFP/FAMer's is http://www.fertilityfriend.com/ . It has tutorials as well as the interface to record your data is awesome. http://www.tcoyf.com/ also offers a software to use as well but its not free.


You can follow the link to see what my charts look like. I am a lucky one in that I ovulate every month and have every single month since stopping hormonal birth control in November 2007!!! Yea!!!!

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/15372d


So there you have it....A brief overview and plug for FAM/NFP! I do not recommend this method of birth control if you are not in a monogamous relationship and if a surprise baby would not be something you are up for. Remember no birth control is 100% effective....

Til next time...
Jorasims

Where are we now on this journey????

Today is CD (cycle day) 4 which means AF (aunt flo) is on her way out for this month.

Many women wonder, "what day is cycle day 1 of my cycle?" Many women experience a day or two of spotting before they actually begin their period. A great way to tell if this is spotting or your actual period is to note the color of the fluid. If it's more on the brown side and extremely light, its spotting. If it is full red flow, that is your period. Congratulations! Remember that spotting is not your period and should not be noted as the first day of your cycle. For those of you charting your cycles, is very imporant to know the difference between the two. If you note this incorrectly it can throw off our entire chart. I will explain charting later on in this post for those who are interested.

First Response has developed a new test that seemed to be calling my name every single time I went into Walgreens which comes in this pretty pink and green box.

So I was lured in by that wonderful question at the top of the test....see it? "Are you able to get pregnant?" If I can pay a cool $25 to find out if I am able to get pregnant and skip the fertility doctors then hell yea! I'll POAS to find out. This test looks stikingly similar to a traditional two line pregnancy test and the results come out the same way, but the way the results are read are very different.

So just a few tidbits on the test.

• Test with your first morning urine AKA FMU


• You must test on the third day of your menstral period


• It takes at least 30 minutes for your results to show up


• MOST IMPORTANT -> the test only measures FSH which is a hormone that the female body excretes that helps to determine your ovarian reserve

I have posted the link to the information that is actually contained in the box. This gives you a more complete idea of how it works.... http://www.firstresponse.com/fertilityTestInsert.asp

From my own personal experience...it was just as easy as using a pregnancy test and put my mind at ease..for now at least.

My results were good...It showed a normal level of FSH which is an indicator of normal ovarian reserve and good quality! Yea!!!!! That means my eggs are as good as when they come outta the chickies hatch!

Here's a pic of it...

If you notice the test only has one noticeable line which is a good thing! As long as you have one line or two lines where the left one is much much lighter than the right one you are are good to go. I would definitely recommend taking the test BUT don't rest your entire fertility on the outcome of just one test. There are many factors attributed to fertility and this test considers just one factor.

What does BD, AF, and all those other two letter words mean?

In the beginning of this journey I was thoroughly confused with all of the lingo that my fellow TTCers were using on the message boards. What in the world was AF...what was BDing and how did it all relate to trying to make a baby. When we started this journey we assumed that making a baby would be as easy as turning on some mood music and doing what it is that married people do. But oh no! If it was that easy then there would be no need for TTC blog right? So to ease up the confusion, here's a whole list of what all the two and three letter words that you are most definitely going to see. Its much easier to type acronyms than it is to type out the entire word.

So see below!

• 2WW: Two-week wait (until you can take a pregnancy test)


• AF: Aunt Flo(w), your period (menses)


• BBT: Basal Body Temperature


• BD: Baby dance, sex


• BFN: Big Fat Negative (test result)


• BFP: Big Fat Positive (test result)


• BMS: Baby-making sex


• CD: Cycle day


• CF: Cervical fluid


• CM: Cervical mucus


• CP: Cervical position


• DPO: Days past ovulation


• DTD: Doing the dance, sex


• EW: Eggwhite (re: consistency of cervical mucus)


• FMU: First morning urine


• hCG: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (pregnancy hormone)


• HPT: Home Pregnancy Test


• LH: luteinizing hormone


• LMP: Last Menstrual Period


• LP: Luteal phase


• O: Ovulation


• OPK: Ovulation predictor kit


• TTC: Trying to conceive

Now there are LOTS more acronyms but I won't list them just yet unless they start to apply to our particular situation.

For a little comical relief....I saw this shirt online and it tells the truth! Anyone on this journey knows that TTC sucks....BUT....the outcome in the end is what we all want which is a healthy, bouncy, and most definitely cute little one.

The Historical Perspective

Greetings! Hello! Hola!

Welcome to our story on the pathway to parenthood. A little background about us. We are a crazy, laid back, completely in-love couple who just happen to be married and working on our first little one. We've been together for eight years and counting and after many years of unapologetic selfishness, we are trying to concieve our first baby! Let me preface by saying that while it seems like we have been at this for awhile, by the Fertility Specialists of the World's standards...we just started. They should try doing to the do without results.

After getting married we were repeatedly asked, if not harrassed, by friends and family members, when we were going to have a little one! Any woman who is newly married knows EXACTLY what I am talking about. While you appreciate the fact that everyone wants you to get to doing to the do and procreating ASAP, it become more than irritating and a little intrusive. Over the years we have learned to politely dodge that question. But alas...here we are in a great place to start our little...or big depending on how much I like this motherhood thing....family. And now....noone seems to ask us the question any more at all! AHHHH!!!!!

A little background about our TTC journey. This all started early 2009 when we decided it was now or never...we are slowly approaching 30 although in my mind I am 21 and holding. Bump what the calendar says. We talked and planned and talked and planned and practiced, but didn't really try perse. July 2009 was the official start of all of this. We charted, we checked all kinds of fertility signs (more on that later), we did the do like we had just met (not that we had sex before marriage...surely not).....July '09 resulted in the dreaded arrival of dear AF (Aunt Flo). I was not upset...disappointed but not upset. On to August '09....by the time I ovulated I was tired...he was tired....we missed the window of opportunity....I think...In any case...AF showed. I remember this cycle because when I got the negative on the pregnancy test I cried....literally cried. I had spent my entire early twenties trying not to get pregnant and now it was alluding me! On to September '09....we charted, we checked fertility signs, we used OPK's, we used PreSeed, we timed the love making just right and even threw in a little Maxwell since I was told his music was a sure fire in baby making.... Again AF showed up and yep I cried again. But quickly got over it.

So here we are on cycle #4 trying to make this little one to get our family started.

I promise to explain all of the acronyms so that you can really get a grip on whats going on here and hope you enjoy it.