The Official TTC Thread!

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 9:16:34 AM
Author: blushingbride

Date: 5/17/2008 12:22:54 PM
Author: Independent Gal

Date: 5/17/2008 11:19:31 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
Ok I have to tell you guys this: Today fertility friend confirmed that I ovulated on May 14, I am now 3 DPO. I am so relieved! All month I have been worrying that maybe I don''t ovulate, not for any good reason, but I still worried. So it is such a load off my shoulders to see the bi-phasic temperature shift and to know that things are working properly!


Phew.

I am having the exact same, probably irrational concern. Well, we''ll just see!

Ditto - I ovulated on Friday and this time, I was able to compare this month''s cycle with last month''s cycle and they are exactly the same. I ovulated on the same day AND for both cycels, I had a dip in my temp that day and then a rise afterwards. Plus, my OPK''s matched up with the day before I ovulated. It''s amazing!!

The only thing I need to look for now is the lenght of my luteal phase if it''s under 10 days, I''m calling my doc. We''ll see...I have been taking the vitamin B6 which is supposed to help lengthen it, but I made need to use progesterone cream too.

BB, that is cool that your charts are identical. The body is so mysterious... how does it know to release hormones at the *exact same time* each month??

Here''s hoping for a longer luteal phase! If not, the cream seems to be pretty simple and it seems to work... there are lots of charts on FF where women used it and got preggers!

As for me, temps are still rising after O, I''m now a whole .5 degrees celsius higher post-O than pre-O. I''m just sooooo hot

 

[lisa1.01fvs1]

NEATFREAK

I''ve got so gaught up in my chaos that I missed the part about your EDD.

I''m pretty much off the Preggo thread nowadays.

You must be in Jan? or late Dec?

Did u have an ultrasound yet? Heartbeat?

Inquiring minds want to know.

And PAVE? missed u too.

I know EBREE is Jan 17, 2009!

BB, Dreamer here''s to hoping u guys stay Hot, Hot, Hot for the next 10 months!

 

[AmberWaves]

Nothing for me here! I''m pretty sure we missed the boat last cycle. My temps are going up a bit, but I blame the fact that it was 71 degrees at 6am this morning. I''m dying from the heat.

Good luck to you, DD!!!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 12:07:52 PM
Author: AmberWaves
Nothing for me here! I''m pretty sure we missed the boat last cycle. My temps are going up a bit, but I blame the fact that it was 71 degrees at 6am this morning. I''m dying from the heat.

Good luck to you, DD!!!

Amber, if you are 6 days ahead of me you must be at CD 11 by now... when is AF due? If you missed the boat, oh well, there''s always the next one! The nice thing is that those boats come every month!

We BD''d 4 out of 5 days in my fertile window and FF gave me a score of "High" on the sex-o-meter (as Ebree called it, LOL

), so I guess we did the best we could. We didn''t BD the day before O, which I would do differently next cycle if need be. O day snuck up on me, I thought I would have more days based on last cycle, but I think I wasn''t monitoring my CF properly last cycle.

This charting thing is just so interesting! I''ve told some of my friends about it and some think it is really cool--learning about your body, collecting data etc-- but others think it is "trying to hard" and that one should take a more "easygoing" approach. That''s all fine and dandy, but those people aren''t actually TTC yet, and I think they will feel differently when they start and see that it isn''t *always* as simple as we might think. Sure, some people get knocked up the first cycle, but for many more it can take a while, not to mention the possibility of chemical prgnancy and early miscarriage, and I just think that charting can add a little peace of mind to the whole process.

Lisa: that''s great news that you are not anywhere close to menopause! That combined with your past history of getting pregnant should make you feel really good about the odds! I know it will happen!

 

[Independent Gal]

I thought I would NOT want to be too scientific about it. But when I asked DH if he would prefer knowing what's going on vs. not he said DEFINITELY he'd prefer knowing. And I guess it does remove some of the anxiety. The only thing we're not doing is timin' the lovin'. That was a little too much. So we just decided to get busy all the time. As anyone with a little knowledge of formal logic knows, if, for all X, X>Y, where X is a day, and Y is gettin' busy, then if Z (z=df days you could conceive) is a subset of X, you're Y on the Z days too.

Well, you said you wanted to get all formal and scientific about it.

And pleeeeeeease no offense to anyone, but I'm pretty sure DH would divorce me (with cause), if we started calling it "BDing." Seriously, if that isn't the least sexy, least romantic, all around cringe-worthy term of all time...

OK, sorry. I just had to say it.

 

[AmberWaves]

DD, you mean 11DPO, right? If so, yes, that''s me! AF is due 5/23 (weeee), but you''re right, even if we missed the boat, it''s SO great to know everything is in working order, and I can almost easily tell when the signs are right. I''m playing on hubby''s competitiveness, as his cousin is also trying to conceive, and Paul says, "We need to have babies first". He''s usually very mild mannered, but his cousin is SO competitive with us. He and his wife had been engaged for 8 years with no need to marry (according to them), but when we got engaged they set their wedding for a few months before us. So yeah. It''s not a competition.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 1:34:20 PM
Author: Independent Gal
I thought I would NOT want to be too scientific about it. But when I asked DH if he would prefer knowing what''s going on vs. not he said DEFINITELY he''d prefer knowing. And I guess it does remove some of the anxiety. The only thing we''re not doing is timin'' the lovin''. That was a little too much. So we just decided to get busy all the time. As anyone with a little knowledge of formal logic knows, if, for all X, X>Y, where X is a day, and Y is gettin'' busy, then if Z (z=df days you could conceive) is a subset of X, you''re Y on the Z days too.

Well, you said you wanted to get all formal and scientific about it.

And pleeeeeeease no offense to anyone, but I''m pretty sure DH would divorce me (with cause), if we started calling it ''BDing.'' Seriously, if that isn''t the least sexy, least romantic, all around cringe-worthy term of all time...

OK, sorry. I just had to say it.

LOL!! Have fun!!

In all seriousness though, the window of fertility is about 4 days, and some sites seem to recommend giving it a break for at least 36 hours between "sessions" so that the swimming can build up, so every second day for the middle 3 weeks would probably work... but how it BDing every day LESS work than choosing to do it on the 4 or 5 most fertile days?

As for calling it "BDing", I only use that term here on PS. In real life, we use a term that is very dirty and I cannot use here without getting banned

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 1:42:49 PM
Author: AmberWaves
DD, you mean 11DPO, right? If so, yes, that''s me! AF is due 5/23 (weeee), but you''re right, even if we missed the boat, it''s SO great to know everything is in working order, and I can almost easily tell when the signs are right. I''m playing on hubby''s competitiveness, as his cousin is also trying to conceive, and Paul says, ''We need to have babies first''. He''s usually very mild mannered, but his cousin is SO competitive with us. He and his wife had been engaged for 8 years with no need to marry (according to them), but when we got engaged they set their wedding for a few months before us. So yeah. It''s not a competition.

I agree it is a big relief to know things are working right. And after 2 cycles I also know exactly what my signs are, which is good to know too.

As for competition, that is funny but also a little anxiety provoking, at least it would be for me! We have some close friends who got pregnant both times on the first month they tried, and the man in the couple likes to gloat about how special that is and how virile he is. In a joking way, but he also means it KWIM? So we didn''t get preggers the first month we tried, and who knows, it could take a lot longer! There is nothing wrong with that, it''s just nature. But I know when we finally tell them, they may ask, "So how long did it take?" and frankly, I don''t want to tell them and give him another opportunity to feel superior or to gloat or to say anything negative! I have heard the wife in that couple also comment on friends who took a while, or who had a miscarriage, saying (not to their face, just to us), "Well the wife is really inhealthy, she never excercises etc etc, so no wonder."

This makes me mad and it is so silly! People will find the most ridiculous things to be self-rightious about. I''m not sure how we will handle that situation because if they say any of that stuff I will just lose it.

 

[AmberWaves]

IG, I also use the term here only, for the same reason DD does!

DD, I agree about being stressful, but we're sure we'll be the only ones trying, since the wife is saying no, and he's saying yes, baby! He's mostly joking about it, but I think it comes from a lifetime of his cousin being called the ONLY grandson of his dad's side. So yeah, I'm completely with him on this, he's been treated like crap by that family and we're kind of tired of it. His grandma was at both our weddings, the cousin and ours, and at both weddings, she hugged the cousin, and said, "THIS is my grandson". Crazy bitch.

Forgive me, but it's just wrong. His cousin never corrects her, either.

 

[blushingbride]

Date: 5/19/2008 2:02:55 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

Date: 5/19/2008 1:42:49 PM
Author: AmberWaves
DD, you mean 11DPO, right? If so, yes, that''s me! AF is due 5/23 (weeee), but you''re right, even if we missed the boat, it''s SO great to know everything is in working order, and I can almost easily tell when the signs are right. I''m playing on hubby''s competitiveness, as his cousin is also trying to conceive, and Paul says, ''We need to have babies first''. He''s usually very mild mannered, but his cousin is SO competitive with us. He and his wife had been engaged for 8 years with no need to marry (according to them), but when we got engaged they set their wedding for a few months before us. So yeah. It''s not a competition.

I agree it is a big relief to know things are working right. And after 2 cycles I also know exactly what my signs are, which is good to know too.

As for competition, that is funny but also a little anxiety provoking, at least it would be for me! We have some close friends who got pregnant both times on the first month they tried, and the man in the couple likes to gloat about how special that is and how virile he is. In a joking way, but he also means it KWIM? So we didn''t get preggers the first month we tried, and who knows, it could take a lot longer! There is nothing wrong with that, it''s just nature. But I know when we finally tell them, they may ask, ''So how long did it take?'' and frankly, I don''t want to tell them and give him another opportunity to feel superior or to gloat or to say anything negative! I have heard the wife in that couple also comment on friends who took a while, or who had a miscarriage, saying (not to their face, just to us), ''Well the wife is really inhealthy, she never excercises etc etc, so no wonder.''

This makes me mad and it is so silly! People will find the most ridiculous things to be self-rightious about. I''m not sure how we will handle that situation because if they say any of that stuff I will just lose it.

Eeeew...gross...people like that MUST have low self-esteem. How tacky is that!!??

I would tell them to be careful about "bragging" - I have friends who got pregnant on the first or second try and when it came to having another, it''s taken over a year or longer. You never know when karma will come back to bite you in the a*s!

 

[blushingbride]

Date: 5/19/2008 2:16:44 PM
Author: AmberWaves
IG, I also use the term here only, for the same reason DD does!

DD, I agree about being stressful, but we''re sure we''ll be the only ones trying, since the wife is saying no, and he''s saying yes, baby! He''s mostly joking about it, but I think it comes from a lifetime of his cousin being called the ONLY grandson of his dad''s side. So yeah, I''m completely with him on this, he''s been treated like crap by that family and we''re kind of tired of it. His grandma was at both our weddings, the cousin and ours, and at both weddings, she hugged the cousin, and said, ''THIS is my grandson''. Crazy bitch.

Forgive me, but it''s just wrong. His cousin never corrects her, either.

AW - did you use the preseed this cycle? I''m still thinking of ordering some and was curious what you thought.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/19/2008 11:50:53 AM
Author: lisa1.01fvs1
NEATFREAK


I've got so gaught up in my chaos that I missed the part about your EDD.


I'm pretty much off the Preggo thread nowadays.


You must be in Jan? or late Dec?


Did u have an ultrasound yet? Heartbeat?


Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks for thinking of me Lisa! I STILL have not had my first appt, they had no interest seeing me until I was at least 8 weeks, then I couldn't get an appointment until 9. So the 29th. But I still need to try and talk them into an ultrasound the first go around...I think I will just tell them that I have no idea when my LMP was...which is true, I just happen to know the day I ovulated, but I really don't know when my LMP was! And if I don't know that they just have to do an ultrasound to find out the EDD right?

My anxiety really needs the reassurance that there is a heartbeat there!

My EDD according to my best guess of LMP is Dec. 28, but using my ovulation date it is January 3. Pave should be the same if we are doing by O dates!!!

 

[AmberWaves]

BB, we did use the preseed, and I really liked it. We''ve used KY, astroglide and all sorts of lubes (my allergy meds make me *ahem*, dryish), but preseed really felt thinner, and definitely less goopy. I''d use it just for a lube even if we weren''t trying. Although the amount in the tube did seem like a lot for one encounter, ya know?

 

[blushingbride]

Date: 5/19/2008 3:39:52 PM
Author: AmberWaves
BB, we did use the preseed, and I really liked it. We''ve used KY, astroglide and all sorts of lubes (my allergy meds make me *ahem*, dryish), but preseed really felt thinner, and definitely less goopy. I''d use it just for a lube even if we weren''t trying. Although the amount in the tube did seem like a lot for one encounter, ya know?

Good to know! I thought I''d better order some since we''ll be BDing when I''m on vacation w/ family - that alone might cause me to dry up!

The thought of BDing w/ my parents in the next room is rather frightening.

 

[AmberWaves]

I totally know what you mean. We were in my IL''s beach house, not only with my MIL, but also my BIL and SIL and THEIR kids, and we were just like, let''s just write this day/night off.

 

[Independent Gal]

Date: 5/19/2008 1:56:46 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

In all seriousness though, the window of fertility is about 4 days, and some sites seem to recommend giving it a break for at least 36 hours between ''sessions'' so that the swimming can build up, so every second day for the middle 3 weeks would probably work... but how it BDing every day LESS work than choosing to do it on the 4 or 5 most fertile days?

Well, silly logic aside, this is more like what''s actually been going on.

I read that statistically, there''s no difference in the ROGKU (that is, the Rate of Getting Knocked Up... a technical term, I believe) if you''re at it every day or every other day. Every 36 hours sounds like a nice tidy compromise between every 24 and every 48.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 4:17:41 PM
Author: Independent Gal

Date: 5/19/2008 1:56:46 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

In all seriousness though, the window of fertility is about 4 days, and some sites seem to recommend giving it a break for at least 36 hours between ''sessions'' so that the swimming can build up, so every second day for the middle 3 weeks would probably work... but how it BDing every day LESS work than choosing to do it on the 4 or 5 most fertile days?

Well, silly logic aside, this is more like what''s actually been going on.

I read that statistically, there''s no difference in the ROGKU (that is, the Rate of Getting Knocked Up... a technical term, I believe) if you''re at it every day or every other day. Every 36 hours sounds like a nice tidy compromise between every 24 and every 48.

LOL... let''s add this to the abbreviations list!

 

[Blenheim]

Lisa, I''m so sorry.


I thought that I had read that the ROGKU (haha) in a given month is 25% for those who DTD everyday and 22% for those who DTD every other day, which would be statistically significant. I''m pulling those numbers out of my head, though, and can''t remember the source. (The term "BD" makes me want to cringe, although I completely understand why people use it -- terms we use at home just wouldn''t work here. "DTD" strikes me as more neutral. I dunno.)

Date: 5/19/2008 1:56:46 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

In all seriousness though, the window of fertility is about 4 days, and some sites seem to recommend giving it a break for at least 36 hours between ''sessions'' so that the swimming can build up, so every second day for the middle 3 weeks would probably work... but how it BDing every day LESS work than choosing to do it on the 4 or 5 most fertile days?

As for calling it ''BDing'', I only use that term here on PS. In real life, we use a term that is very dirty and I cannot use here without getting banned

I just had 3 days of creamy CM followed by 8 days of EWCM (not uncommon for me), so every other day would have been less work than the "easier" method of trying to get the fertile days.

I''m finally ovulating, but the ovulatory pain makes me just want to curl up on the couch and hubby has to stay at work late tonight and is going to be really tired and ready for food then bed when he gets home. The competetive side of me wants my TCOYF software to say that we had "best" chances of conceiving (right now it''s giving us "good"), but at the same time I don''t want us to force it, you know?

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/19/2008 5:51:19 PM
Author: Blenheim
Lisa, I''m so sorry.



I thought that I had read that the ROGKU (haha) in a given month is 25% for those who DTD everyday and 22% for those who DTD every other day, which would be statistically significant. I''m pulling those numbers out of my head, though, and can''t remember the source. (The term ''BD'' makes me want to cringe, although I completely understand why people use it -- terms we use at home just wouldn''t work here. ''DTD'' strikes me as more neutral. I dunno.)

Why would a difference of 3% necessarily be statistically significant? We don''t know anything about the sample size, or values between the two groups. The confidence intervals could still overlap quite a bit...

Sorry just playing researcher here.

 

[Independent Gal]

Teeheeee! Now I feel like this thread IS getting a bit p*r^-ish. Like "Hot Stats! Nerdy girls trying to get knocked up!"

"Oh honnnnney... could you come over here and take a look at my... regression? Do my residuals look...well plotted to you? Do you think we could get away with, uh, massaging the data a little? You know, to get the results we were hoping for?"

OK. I'll stop.

Am I banned from PS yet? But I was just talking about statistical analysis! I swear! Aw, c'mon!

 

[Independent Gal]

OK, from now on, I'm going to read "F-statistic" for "BD".

NOW I'll stop.

 

[Blenheim]

I was just thinking that a 12% difference was statistically significant*, but you''re right that I don''t remember any details about things like sample size, or if the 22% and 25% were even the right values.

* |25-22|/( (25+22)/2 ) = 0.12

 

[Independent Gal]

I think Neatfreak just meant that there's always a margin of error with statistical analysis... the amount by which the statistician might have got it wrong... and that + or -3% would, in most studies, be a pretty common margin of error. That means that, conceivably, the numbers could even be reversed in 'real life' if we could find a way to sample and analyze that with complete certainty!

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/19/2008 7:12:14 PM
Author: Independent Gal
I think Neatfreak just meant that there''s always a margin of error with statistical analysis... the amount by which the statistician might have got it wrong... and that + or -3% would, in most studies, be a pretty common margin of error. That means that, conceivably, the numbers could even be reversed in ''real life'' if we could find a way to sample and analyze that with complete certainty!

Right O Indy! And we are SUCH nerds.

But that''s ok. Men like nerdy ladies!

 

[Blenheim]

Ahh, that makes complete sense. Thanks for explaining.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Ok I go away for like 1 hour and miss all this super awesome stats talk! We are all big nerds, it is official. I think we need to find a way to put all this excess brain energy to better use...I know, lets start a poll in hangout and then we can write a paper and all get authorship. Since I came up with this brilliant idea, I call first author.

Let's just all BD, DTD, and F-tastic to our hearts content and see what happens, eh?

Blemheim: you have a longer fertile period than me, mine is only about 3 days, so I can see that every other day would be easier. Sorry about the ovulation pain! I don't seem to get that... ETA: I love your yellow gold wedding set BTW, every time I see it I want to go over to the yellow side!

I am still amazed at the variation in women's bodies--- 8 days versus 3 days of EWCF, 22 day cycle versus 35. Is there this much variation in other bodily function as well? Do two people's stomachs work so differently, do two people's hearts? And if not, then why would the fertile cycle be so different? I'm guess it is something to do with the complexity of the hormone cocktail...

Ok, I'm getting nerdy again. Signing off.

 

[Independent Gal]

Ahaha! Of course F-statistic has to become F-tastic in this context.

 

[Blenheim]

IG, that''s how I initially read it too!

Dreamer_dachsie, thank you for the compliment!

I have an abnormal amount of fertile cm though, and actually asked my midwife about it during my annual. I had read in TCOYF that it can indicate low thyroid levels or PCOS. I don''t have any other symptoms of PCOS, and only mild symptoms of low thyroid so she wasn''t particularly concerned for the time being. She thinks it''s more likely that my body''s still over correcting from hormone levels on HBC (which I discontinued in October), and she had some super nerdy explanation as to why that I just can''t remember right now. She also said just to assume that I''m super fertile unless we have something to indicate otherwise. I can deal with that.

Oh, she also said that Vitamin C can help with making the sperm smarter (or at least better at reaching their target), so Hubby''s been taking Vit C and talking about his super sperm. He also got (jokingly) upset with me for not telling him when I started getting EWCM, because the boys still thought we were avoiding and he had to give them a pep talk about finding and fertilizing my egg.

 

[lili]

Oh wow EBREE, congrats!!
I haven''t been following this thread in a while....so I just found out.
Why don''t you mosey right over to the preggo thread and join the other preggo in waiting

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 5/19/2008 8:19:51 PM
Author: Blenheim
IG, that's how I initially read it too!

Dreamer_dachsie, thank you for the compliment!

I have an abnormal amount of fertile cm though, and actually asked my midwife about it during my annual. I had read in TCOYF that it can indicate low thyroid levels or PCOS. I don't have any other symptoms of PCOS, and only mild symptoms of low thyroid so she wasn't particularly concerned for the time being. She thinks it's more likely that my body's still over correcting from hormone levels on HBC (which I discontinued in October), and she had some super nerdy explanation as to why that I just can't remember right now. She also said just to assume that I'm super fertile unless we have something to indicate otherwise. I can deal with that.

Oh, she also said that Vitamin C can help with making the sperm smarter (or at least better at reaching their target), so Hubby's been taking Vit C and talking about his super sperm. He also got (jokingly) upset with me for not telling him when I started getting EWCM, because the boys still thought we were avoiding and he had to give them a pep talk about finding and fertilizing my egg.

I have had DH on super vitamins for the last few months, so maybe that will help him too!

That's cool that you can see a midwife for your annual. I don't think we have that option here in Canada, but I plan to use a midwife for my pre-natal care and for the labor and delivery and after care.