trying to predict my ovulation date???HELP!

[KellieM2]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading the pregnancy forum and thought you guys really give some great information. I SHOULD KNOW all fo this because I already have two boys but I seem to have forgotten.

With my two boys, I went off the pill and BAM!! got pregnant the first month. In what I call the "Fertile Myrtle stage" --i knwo that right after some people go off the pill, it is very easy to get pregnant. Well this time, I went off in early January and am trying to track my ovulation to try to see if I could plan for a girl. I have always planned to have 3 or 4 kids and I hope no one is upset when I say that I am trying to plan for a girl. I know that I am truly blessed to have healthy children on my own. I love my boys and thought trying the CM and BBT methods during my 3rd planning stage wouldn't hurt anything so why not give it a try. I have been doing this for the last 3 months and feel like it is going well. The cervical mucus is definitely a easy way to tell (even though I thought it would be icky-its not really) and I just started the BBT method this month. I am at 12 days right now and seem to be having the Cm that indicates the egg is on its way. My temp hasn't risen but I am willing to bet that it will be high in the morning. I ahve the ovulation tests and they are what are giving me a perplexing message. I used one the last two days in the morning adn got NO result.

Now I am having a period so I must be ovulating-RIGHT??? Seems silly to ask but I am confused with the ovulation test results!!! Could I be missing the LH surge?? Once you see the egg white like mucus does that mean I have ovualted or am in the process of ovulating??

I would like to start trying in May or June so I have 2 more months to keep track. right now my cycle is 27 days long so I don't think the pill effected me very much.

Sorry this is so long but I really wondered about this and you guys seem so informative. Thanks, kellieM

 

[Lucy K]

Might be able to provide some info

Not sure I can answer all of your questions, though. First, just because you have regular cycles does not necessarily mean that you ovulate every month. Although I *think* that if your cycles are really regular (like every 28 days), then it is likely that you are ovulating every month. It sounds like you probably are, and that there's something else in play here.

With respect to the ovulation predictors. I know that some women love them and swear by them. Personally, they didn't do me much good. Of course, I have very long (50 day) and irregular cycles, which may be part of the reason. But the last couple of cycles, I actually ovulated more than a week LATER than the ovulation prediction tests predicted. I'm really glad that I was tracking BBT or I never would have gotten pregnant based on those things!

I've also heard some people say that different brands of ov tests worked better for them, and also that the tests were more accurate if you used them in the afternoon rather than in the AM. Again, since I was getting positives WAY ahead of time, I don't know if this is true.

As for the egg-white CM, I think that also depends on each individual person with respect to ovulation. Some women have the EWCM up until the ovulate and other have it for a few days, and then ovulate a couple of days later.

Frustrating, isn't it, that this isn't an exact science?? Sounds like tracking your CM and BBT is a great way to start and maybe after a couple more cycles you'll be able to see a pattern. Hope that helps a little.

Lucy

 

[ErinF]

Putting on my teacher's hat here

Hi! My husband and I have been teaching natural family planning for about 11 years, so let me see if I can answer some of your questions:

1. You can have periods, even regular ones, and not be ovulating. It's not at all unusual for the 1st few cycles after going off the pill.

2. The fact that you're seeing raw egg white like mucus is a good sign. It means that your body is getting ready for ovulation. You can have several days of that quality of mucus prior to ovulation, or just a few. It varies from woman to woman and from cycle to cycle. However you can't pinpoint the exact DAY of ovulation using the temps and mucus signs. All you can do is narrow it down to a particular window of time. The most frequent days of ovulation are the last day of the raw egg white type of mucus or the 1st day of either the tacky, stickier mucus after the other type has come and gone.

I assume that you've read some of the studies about timing to try for a girl, so you know what you're doing there. Another thing you might want to throw into the mix is drinking cranberry juice ( the real stuff, not the cocktails you buy at the grocery store ). Drinking cranberry juice has the effect of making the vaginal environment more acidic, and thus more friendly to the X-bearing sperm. Incidentally, it's also good to drink if you have problems with yeast infections. The acidic effect is also hostile to the yeast organisms.

I hope this helps!

Erin

 

[KellieM2]

RE: Putting on my teacher's hat here

thanks both of you for replying. I have a book that I have read through a couple of times called "How to choose the sex of your baby". This book is pretty good and has worked for friends of mine (3 couples). I have been doing pretty good keeping track with the two methods and usually only have 2 days of the EWCM. They do mention in the book that the girl sperm like the acidic enviroment and that diet could be a factor but failed mention any dietary things to do to help with that. Thanks for telling me about the cranberry juice!! I do drink that anyway for bladder infection help. I have the 27% juice is that at least better than the cocktail. I have searched for all pure cranberry juice and never found it. I do have crushed cranberry capsules though.

I have also heard that the ovulation tests work better in the afternoon or night but how that heck am I supposed to get all my water in and hold it for 4 hours. I could never make it through my workout. I will just keep track like I have been and hope that tomorrow my temperature rises. I guess I have months to get pregnant so when we start to try I will just give myself a bigger window of not doing anything with DH before the ovulation date. I can always start with stopping "you know" 3 days prior to when I think I ovulate and if that doesn't get us pregnant-- Switch to 2 days the next month. My hubby doesn't care anyway and is pretty skeptical of the whole thing

Thanks for advice-KellieM