New to this....need a little help!

Hi everyone,

Well i'm new to this whole TTC thing...i already have 2 beautiful little girls, but both were conceived accidentally. Now we want to have another one, but actually PLAN this one, and perhaps try to time things so we can improve our chances of having a boy this time :pray: I just finished my contraceptive pill and am on the last day of my period today, so we're ready to start!

Anyway...i've spent a bit of time wading through the tonne of info on this website and others, and now i'm totally confused with all this cycle charting stuff :confused:

Can anyone explain to me what all the abbreviations mean? And where can i just download a chart and print it off, i didn't really want to chart online, cos i share my laptop and can't always get online. And what is the best thermometer to use for taking my temperature?

And if anyone has any helpful tips i'd love to hear them, i'm kinda in information overload and now everything just looks very complicated :(

Thanks,

Eleshia :help:

Hi and welcome.

I'm not sure where to download charts. I'm afraid I like the ease and simplicity of charting online. And going by the confusion that even THAT causes, I can only IMAGINE the muddle that I'd get myself into if I had to chart it all manually and work things out for myself! :(

But...the best thermometer is a digital BBT thermometer. You should be able to purchase one of these from any good chemist, or I do believe that Lullaby Conception sell them online as well.

The most important things to remember about charting, any kind of charting (online or manual) is that you must take your temperature at as close to the same time each morning, preferably after a block of at LEAST 3 hours of solid sleep and before you do ANYTHING else, including talk. The whole point of the basal body temperature (BBT) readings is that they are your base body temperature, ie the lowest temperature before you do anything which will kick start your metabolism, this usually raises the temperature. In some women, this is a considerable difference in temps, in others it isn't as noticable, but you won't know which you are until you have been temping for a while and have a bit of an understanding of your own body.

Abbreviations....well, the most common are AF (Auntie Flo = your period), bd (baby dance - intercourse), dtd (do the deed, ie baby dance), CM (cervical mucus), EWCM (egg white cervical mucus - the most fertile kind of mucus your body can produce), CP (cervical position - another secondary fertility sign), BFP (what we all want to see - big fat positive), BFN (the bane of my life - big fat negative), HPT (home pregnancy test), OPK (ovulation prediction kit).

That should keep you going!! Good luck.

Lisa

Hey Eleshia
Sorry, don't have any answers to your questions, but I am in exactly the same boat as you!! I have 2 girls and we are trying for a boy too! I will be finishing my pill on Monday and then will start charting. I had a look on Fertility Friend, which a lovely person recommended on another thread. I can't wait to start, but am a little clueless too.

If you can monitor your cycle for several months to find out when you ovulate, you should make love on ovulation day and that should give you the best chance of conceiving a boy. You shouldn't have intercourse for 5 days or so beforehand to allow the sperm count to build up and to ensure there are no girl sperm (which live longer than boy sperm) remaining from the last intercourse.
The theory behind this is that boy sperm are faster and will win the race to the egg (on ovulation day) but girl sperm are slower, have more stamina and are able to hang around longer and lie in wait for the egg.
It's worked for me!

I think the other girls have covered it quite well, but there is a thread in the Introduce Yourself forum which is full of ALL! the abbreviations and jargon that you will find on this site. I'm sure you'll be speaking the lingo in no time!

Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions! It's been a great help. The less complex it is the better chance i have of not screwing it up hehehehe....so i think i just might make my own little calender up and see how i go. If it turns into a shambles, i'll give the online a try.

and JaZMum...we'll have to compare notes etc and give each other pep talks hehehe

Cheers,

Eleshia :)

Best of luck Eleshia with ur charting...the others have given u great advice. Remember if u get confused with anything just post here and we'll lend a hand :) Will keep my fingers crossed for u!

Eleshia, as for a manual, paper chart, I got one in the packet when I bought my basal thermometer. It has on the packet that it's an ovulation thermometer, but I can't remember the brand. You get a sheet of graph paper with the temp increments already written in for you and photocopy some more sheets to use. I started charting manually, and then transferred the data to FF. It might be helpful to do the same. FF has given me a coverline that I had worked out for myself (within .05 of a degree) anyway, but the FF chart looks much prettier than my scrawlings on the manual graph.

Hi Eleshia,

Firstly congrats on trying for a little boy :) Have you read the article on the main site on The Shettles Method? It's all about gender selection & might help.

For the abbreviations, check out this thread, it has most of the ones we use on there.

The best thermometer to use is a BBT (basal body temperature) one with 2 decimal places. However I don't think that's toally necessary, I just use a regular one & haven't had any issues. To chart your cycle offline would just be a matter of getting som grid paper & off you go. If you do chose to use an oline method I do know that Fertility Friend allows you to put in bulk amounts of data, so if you only get online once a week you can still put it all in.

It does seem very complicated to start with, but after a while you get used to it & you might even be able to help others with their charts ;)

In the meantime, why not come on over to the TTC 1-6months thread and join in the chatter with the girls who are also TTC.

HTH

Well....the temperature things is not working out so well lol....my one yr old is so restless during the night these days, i'm not getting a long enough period of time of rest to get an accurate BBT...it's all over the place lol. Is there a plan B?