I should know this

A

Andrea

Guest
My husband and I decided to go for it this month and I am wondering how the days work out in my cycle.

What day does ovulating start?

How long does it last?

Do I start counting from the first day of my last period?

I want to know when I might possibly be preggo because I want to start modifying my exercise program at that time. I miscarried my last one and I don't want to take any risks whatsoever.
Thanks
Andrea
 
ovulation

Hi Andrea. How long are your cycles? Are they regular?? Ovulation occurs about 14 days BEFORE your next period starts. So if you are regular at 28 days, then you ovulate on day 14. If you are regular at 30 days, then you ovulate on day 16. Did that make sense?? When I was doing the infertility thing, I was told that having sex about every 36 to 48 hours during that middle week of your cycle is the best way to achieve pregnancy. An ovum is only viable for 8 to 12 hours, and sperm live in your reproductive tract for 36 to 48 hours, so if you have sex every 36 to 48 during the week that you expect to be ovulating, you'll have the bases covered. HOpe that makes sense. OH, and you start counting from the first day of your period. Day one of your period is day one of that cycle.
 
A couple more clues

You can tell when ovulation is approaching by watching your cervical mucus. It will go from being thick and sticky to very stretchy and clear, kind of like raw egg white. After ovulation it will go back to the thick and sticky type again. The most frequent days of ovulation are the day before you CHANGE from the raw egg white type back to the sticky type ( Since you don't know when this day is until is over, the main point to to practice, shall we say, due diligence, during the days when you see the stretchy mucus.
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) and the 1st day back at the more sticky type of mucus. There is a lot of controversy about whether you should be "diligent" every day when the stretchy mucus is present, or every other day to allow sperm count to build back up. The numbers I have as a teacher of Natural Family Planning are a little different from what Susan got from her doctor. ( Since when does anyone in the scientific community agree?
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) We teach that egg life is from 12 to 24 hours. You can also have a second ( or more ) ovulation in a cycle, but it will occur within 24 hrs of the 1st ovulation due to progesterone levels in the body post-ovulation. Sperm life can be up to 5 days, although longer than 3 days is more rare. Since we're teaching both couples who are trying to achieve pregnancy and those trying to avoid pregnancy, we use the more conservative numbers.

Once conception has occured, implantation takes place at 6 - 9 days. It would be a good idea to start taking prenatal vitamins now, to insure that your baby gets absolutely everything he/she needs even before you now that you're pregnant, especially folic acid. Incidentally, during the too-soon-to-know stages of 1 pregnancy I was craving, of all things, CHICKEN LIVERS. After I got enough of my brain back to wonder, I looked it up, and found that the number 1 dietary source of the all important folic acid is: you guessed it, CHICKEN LIVERS.

Good luck! I hope you have wonderful news for us very soon!!!!

Erin
 
Another question

My gosh you guys are VERY educated! I did not expect such in depth answers, thank you! Since you mentioned prenatal vitamins, Erin, I am wondering if you know anything about the chewable kind. I just recently read that they are out there. I am not a pill swallower. Especially those horse sized prenatal vitamins. Right now I take chewable calcium and multi. I'll have to check the folic acid amount in my multi.

Andrea (hoping I don't crave chicken livers haha)
 
Chewable pre-natals? YEAH! :)

I would have LOVED a chewable prenatal vitamin when I was pregnant! Those things are usually such horse pills.
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If the vitamins have a decent list of vitamins and minerals, I say, "Go for it!" You do want to make sure you get 800 - 1000 mcg of folic acid, according to my "What to Expect" book, as well as no more than 8000 IU ( and 4000 - 5000 would be better ) of Vitamin A. Too much vitamin A is toxic. I usually just took whatever my doctor prescribed, since my insurance covers prescriptions, but over-the-counter is probably fairly similar. You might also be able to just suppplement your current daily vitamin with folic acid to get you up to the right amount, but those don't come in chewables.
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A really great book you might want to check into is called "Expecting Fitness" by Birgitta Gallo. It's great! It's very informative without overloading you with the scientific language. Plus it has a lot about how to modify your current exercise program, and a whole chapter of exercises you can do while on bed rest.

Erin
 
exercise

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON May-05-00 AT 10:06AM (EST)</font></center>

andrea-
You got great answers to your real question, but I just want to add something. I don't know how much exercise you are doing, or why you think it may be responsible for a miscarriage, but as you have heard with vitamins, it is recommended you begin prenatal vitamins before you get pregnant, so you are getting all you will need, right from the beginning. I would look at your exercise level, and see if maybe it is too much for yo. If you are exercising strenously enough to cause a miscarriage, it may be too much to get pregnant. You may want to scale down to a maintenance level before conception.
Just a thought, as I have no idea what you are doing, and don't want to imply in any way that I think exercise is bad for pregnancy. If you are thinking of taking it WAY down, at least try to keep walking, and maintenance weight lifting. I think it did wonderful things for me and my son, including speeding up his birth by 13 days (yes he was full term, that is just compared to his brothers timeing). But if you think you are putting too much stress on your body, I would deal with this before pregnancy- although what pregnancy will do to your energy levels will have to be experienced to be believed.
Linda
 
Pre-conception fitness strategies and incidence of miscarriage in exercisers

I just wanted to jump in and make sure that you all knew that there has never been any scientifically documented research that linked exercise to miscarriage "in any shape, form or fashion."

In our certification course we have an entire section on pre-conception fitness planning. We tell our students in this course that if they have clients who are attempting to get pregnant that they advise their clients to take the appropriate exercise precautions after they discontinue birth control. This does not necessarily mean that they always have to decrease their level of training. We advise clients to stay well hydrated and not to push their "anaerobic threshold." In other words, stay away from interval workouts and make sure that you can always talk while you are working out. Also when we have clients who are "trying," we advise them not to do anything that could possible increase their body core temperature too high (i.e. run a marathon, exercise in extreme heat, etc). In other words, we treat our clients who are trying to get pregnant about the same as our newly pregnant ones, because most people trying are usually not 100% positive when they went from "trying" to pregnant. Hope this makes sense.
 
Or if you're impatient, like me . . .

You can buy an ovulation predictor kit at the grocery store. They are not cheap, but I was antsy, so it was worth it.

They're the same type of little sticks you pee on just like home pregnancy tests. If you know approximately how long your cycles are, you start taking the test on the day indicated in the pamphlet and when it comes back positive, you've had your "LH surge", which means ovulation will occur in the next 12 to 24 hours. Then you make sure to do the deed within that time frame (but don't do like me and think that the minute the test turns positive, you have to go jump your husband right then--you actually should wait until that night or the following morning. It took me two months with no luck before I figured that one out). :)

Good luck!
 
Chewables

There are chewable pre-nates! Same as other Pre-nates prescribed by your dr. My Dr gave me samples of both and I really thought they tasted kind of gross and wasn't interested. Then I find out this is what he wrote the prescription for. Being to lazy to change it I had it filled and now think they aren't so bad. Definitely alot quicker in the mornings when you are trying to get 3 kids to school and 2 more dressed and ready to go to the class I teach!
 
ooops-

What I was really trying to say was that you should figure out an apropriate level of exercise, and start that now, instead of changing when you think you might have ovulated, or concieved, or implanted, or whatever you think the dangerous time may be. That way you will continue your program, instead of drastically changing it.
BLinda
 
Maybe you're having a boy!

How funny Hazel. I felt like I just read a page out of my pregnancy journal...........purchasing an ovulation kit since I was too antsy to figure out when I actually ovulated, doing the deed too soon for two months before I finally re-read the directions and realized I should have been waiting a bit, finally conceiving, and then having a beautiful, healthy boy. Lets see how it turns out for you
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!
 
Thank you and

I didn't mean to say I though exercise caused my last miscarriage. I know it didn't because I was sick and had quit doing anything but getting my son and I off to the sitter's and work at a decent time. But I do like to push it on the weights and usually do one interval workout a week, so when I said take my level down I just meant to a more moderate one. For instance I walked hills today instead of running and won't be upping my weights. And it will all probably be for nothing cause the dreaded sickness will come. But...I don't want to have another miscarriage because I'm not sure I want to go through the sickness any more and that is my main reason for taking extra precautions. Make any sense? Thanks for all the great info!
Andrea
 
Yes!

I will definitely be asking for them. And if the taste makes me gag I can at least crush and mix them with juice or something.
Andrea
 
You may very well be right, Cathe!

My intuition has been telling me it's a boy since I was about 9 weeks along. I felt very aggressive and short-tempered during my first trimester, so I just felt like maybe there was some extra testosterone floating around in my system!

Now that I'm obviously pregnant, everyone's convinced by the way I'm carrying (low and all out in front) that my suspicions were correct. In fact, my boss claims he has never been wrong in predicting these things and swears it is definitely a boy (he does not use the high/low or front/side methods, but otherwise will not divulge his secrets).

We were so excited to actually get pregnant that I will be happy to have a healthy baby of either sex, but it will be interesting to see how much stock you can put in mother's intuition and old wives' tales!
 
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