Cervical Mucous, Temperatures, both??? Trying to figure things out

Hi Everyone,

I'm realatively new to the site. This whole TTC has been very confusing and a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. A bit of background, I'm 31 and my DH is 29. Before I had gone of the pill (I was about 25) my cycles had always been quite regular. I've been off the pill now for a few months (about 10 now I think actually it's probably been closer to a year) and my 7th cycle of TTC has just started (AF is due to leave hopefully tomorrow). I'm saying cycle and not months becasue well, I've been anything but regular. They started off being 28 days and have gotten progressivly longer, my last one was 45 days :wall:

Since my cycles now appear to be so irregular I thought I'd have my best chance of falling pregnant if I knew when I ovulated. Which of course has led me to finding out about (but not really understanding) temperatures and cervical mucous. And boy do they have me confused :o Which one should I try, should I do both? If I do temperatures do you just get a regular thermometer or do you need to get a special one? I'd love to hear some advice from someone with experience with either or both.

Thanks!!

Hi taleutia. When I was ttc I did temping. I never found the cervical mucus thing very clear, although I did check it and it gave me a rough guide that I was about to ovulate (within a few days). There are some great articles on BB about CM and what to look, as well as temping in the TTC section.

With temping, take your temperature first thing in the morning as soon as you wake, before getting out of bed, having a drink of water etc. Try to take it at the same time each day. I didn't manage the same time every day because of shift work but do your best. The BBT digital thermometers from the chemist or supermarket are best, they're only about $10. I used Fertility Friend an online program for charting my cycle, it was great and really helped me work out when I was ovulating. It's a bit tricky at first but doesn't take ling to learn....

Good luck TTC :D

I would suggest jumping on the Fertility Friend website and signing up for their tutorials. It's really helpful in understanding, step by step, how to chart your cycle.

I agree re Fertility Friend - I had never temp'ed or mucus watched in any of my cycles and then decided to in Jan and fell pregnant - not that the temping or mucus things helped - I pretty much knew when I ovulated but thought I would start knowing my body a bit better. So I am not that experienced at it - got a shock when my temps stayed high the first cycle I was charting :lol: thought I must of done something wrong ....

Good luck, once you start you will find it easy. Once you start observing your mucus daily too you will notice a change as you go through your cycle - I never thought I had any change until I started observing.

Hope your TTC journey is a short one.

Well I just signed up for the fertility friend 20 day course. I guess I'll start there and see how I go. After more than 6 months with no luck I have to start doing something.

Thanks

I had similar cycles when TTCing DS's 1 & 3. Easy to tell in hindsight but at the time not quite so easy.
I think you'll find using mucous observations easier than temping for predicting O but using both together will help see a pattern.
Fertility friend has some great information but I found the best help for me was using the Billings Method as it's more detailed and not as temperature based.

If you want to try using the temp method then I would say to get a thermometer designed for it. I had a single decimal point one and I was missing the thermal shift as it was showing several days of 36.6 but then once I got the BBT 2 decimal point one they showed slight differences like 36.68 and 36.65 etc.

Hi there
You sound like me before i got pregnant and let me tell you it wasn't an easy journey either.
Maybe go onto Lullaby conceptions website and you can get all you need like the Basel Body Temp. thermometre thingy you will need to take your temps, you can get bulk ovulation prediction tests and even pregnancy tests as well.
My cycles were anything from maybe 35 days up to a whooping 50+ days....so so annoying so i know where you are coming from.
I ended up falling pregnant the month that i didn't temp or stress and we just happened to have done some baby dance two days before i noticed my fertile cervical mucus and then two weeks later when i did a pregnancy test it was positive. I also went and saw a Kinesiologist and changed my diet and went onto a herbal formula made up by the "Sharkey's Healing Centre", they are also on the internet, i was also doing some detoxing a few months prior, so to be honest it was probably a combination of a couple different things that ended up working.

GL

Hi Raven,
So I obviously am not up on all the TTC tactics.
What's the billings method?

Google it ;)
It's a natural contraceptive method that uses your fertile mucous observations to avoid or achieve a PG!

Look up the billings method (google) - DH and I will be using it once I go off the pill. It's great for TTC and as a form of natural birth control.

SNAP Raven!

Hi There
I know how frustarting it can be having irregular cycles. This was the case for me when I first came off the pill (14 wks longest and 6 weeks shortest cycle) and it took us 12 months to get preg with DS. I didnt use any temping or CM obs or any method really!!
This time around I went to a Trad chinese med practitioner for herbs and acupuncture - she had me on a 30 day cycle 1st cycle off mini pill (and stopping bfeeding) and then preg in the 2nd cycle. i was temping too which helped. I highly recommend it if you are interested...

Hi Taleulia,

I am in the same boat as you! We have been TTC since coming off the pill in March this year. Since then I have only had 4 AF's! Longest being a whooping 67 days and the shortest being 39 days, I am now on my 5th cycle currently at 30days with no sign of ovulation yet. I started temping in September and found it quite helpful knowing that I had actually ovulated or so my chart said at day 57 after my temp rose, I have also been checking my CM and recording it in fertility friend though so far that has not helped with any ?clear? signs, this month I am also using OPK?s so far no positives so I guess I will just keep on waiting and hoping. I have heard plenty of people say that acupuncture works wonders and I am considering booking myself in next week to try this, I will keep you posted if you like.

Here is a link to my chart if you want to take a look what it?s all about.

22bd93 Ovulation Charts

It's encouraging to see a couple of you saying you were irregular like me and are pregnant now. Sometimes I wonder if it's every going to happen. It seems like it's hard enough when you know when you ovulate, let alone when you don't have a clue and everything is all over the place. And then you get the ones who say they weren't even trying that it just accidentally happened :o If only it were that easy for the rest of us!

I tried to get myself a double decimal point thermometer yesterday. Unfortunatly I live in a tiny town and neither of the two chemists had one. Well they had an ear one, but I'm sure I read somewhere that you aren't suppose to use an ear one. So I went online this morning and bought one. Hopeufully it doesn't take too long to get here.

I think I'll try using CM as well, but I'm a bit confused on that. Probably TMI, but I never seem to have any (that I can tell) :redface: Do you have to go in and find it? Or is it usually external. I think I read somewhere that you get it with two fingers (so I'm assuming you have to reach up and get some out) but then I've seen other posts from women who appear to be checking their underwear and getting it off that. I can't say I can remember ever having any on my underwear :redface:

Good question re the CM - I'm keen to know this too. Is it as simple as checking your underwear?

Preagainpan, how do you go about finding someone to do the herbs and acupunture? I'm not even entirely sure there would be someone near me that does anything like that. I am definitely interested in finding out more about it.

Kylnor - It's nice to know there's someone else going through what I am (not that I'd wish it on anyone, it's just nice to know I'm not alone). Would definitely like for you to keep me updated. So far I've seen a few people say acupunture has worked for them, so if it does for you as well, it might be worth an hour trip every week or two.

If you have a Herbalife store (or similar) they generally have a natropath that practices there (or that they can refer you too).