40 days and 40 nights...and counting

I was debating on whether or not I should blog this since I try to keep some aspects of my life personal and private, but it's obviously a HUGE part of my life and consuming my thoughts. I'd much rather just get it out instead of sit and stew on it.

I chart my cycles. My friend got me hooked on fertilityfriend.com and I've been using it for a good 2-3 years. Through this I've noticed that I have cycles that are like CLOCKWORK and I've come to love how in-tune with my body I am. I know I spot 2-3 days prior, I know that I ovulate early and have a 14 day luteal phase, and I know that my cycle is not the average 28 days, rather it's anywhere from 24-26 - usually resting on 25.

As of today, I'm running on a 40 day cycle. Yes, you read that right. 40 days.

Here's my chart:
My Ovulation Chart

The line in the middle is me playing around with my estimated date of ovulation, but to be honest...I'm thinking that isn't correct. As you can see, I've taken multiple tests - all negative - and so I'm at a loss. The whole thing has consumed my thoughts, from pregnancy to PCOS to ...

I will be heading into the good ol docs next week should I not get a visit from the period fairy and, yes, I will update.

Suggestions or thoughts are encouraged below.

Continuing our quest for Baby G.

Baby G. is already proving to be incredibly stubborn and the little monster hasn't even been conceived yet (or that we know of).

S. and I got off of birth control (well ok, so it was just me, but I digress) in April/May of 2008. We weren't looking to get pregnant then, but between gnarly side effects that I was experiencing and the fact that we knew it would be soon and we wanted to get the drugs out of my system I had to stop taking them.

Thing is we didn't use any protection during this time and I really followed my charting calendar that based my "expected date of ovulation" on my cycle length rather than the big 3: temp, cervical mucus, and cervical position. This being said, we should have gotten pregnant in those 7-9 months we "weren't" trying.

But we didn't and so began our quest for baby.

Here it is something like 9, 11, 13 (I don't know really) cycles later and still no baby.

We're getting antsy and I'm fighting something fierce with Jesus. After a few conversations, we decided the next step for us is testing.

In the meantime, we keep on keepin' on.

Obstacles overcome, small victory for us.

I really owe this to my friend, J.D., who pushed and pushed me to temp. Here's an update on what was floating in our minds and why I consider this a small victory:

1.) I wasn't ovulating. According to FF (so far) I have indeed ovulated and that is one step closer to baby.

2.) I was ovulating later in the cycle. This would mean I had a shorter LP - or luteal phase - and could possibly not have enough progesterone to sustain a pregnancy or not enough time to implant before my menses. This was not the case as the cycle showed I ovulated on Day 10 2 days earlier than my calendars had been telling me and earlier that I anticipated. This brings really good news as it means I have a longer LP!

3.) We weren't timing things right. I looked back at my pathetic charting from the previous months and saw we were all over the place. Sometimes we were consistent and others not so much. I felt like I had wasted time and if I had just started this process earlier, we probably would have a baby by now. Yet I also know Jesus is trying to tell us/teach us something.

I feel refreshed and ready for this. Maybe this is our cycle, maybe it isn't, but at least if we continue on we have the tools needed to carry on. Who knows, there may still be a problem, but at least we can narrow down the list using the information we've received.

:)

Fertility Awareness Method

I was introduced to this what feels like eons ago. I bought the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler, I started to read it, and I religiously began charting my cycles. Then I put down the book like 1/4 of the way through and I never took the 2 extra steps needed for successful charting: temping and charting CM.

It has been almost a year of trying using the ovulating guesstimation dates, given from simply charting my cycle start and stop, and I finally decided to add in those 2 extra steps.

I started temping 3 days ago and for those of you who follow my blog and like to be kept on the up and up (this will get you REAL TIME) here is my chart for your stalking pleasure: MY FF CHART

I'm excited to see results and pinpoint exactly when I ovulate. Here's to our continuing quest for baby!