Monday, April 27, 2015

6-8 dpo Triphasic??

This has been an odd cycle and I'm hoping that's a good thing! I usually ovulate on Cd 14 but have had a late one on Cd 20, never and early one. Well, this time I O'd on CD 10! How odd?! But despite that being weird, it may work in our favor. I think I mentioned in the last post that our schedule has been way off with the late O a couple months ago and now thanks to this early O, we are back on track! K left for work last Friday so our timing on the night before (CD7) would've been pointless if I were to O on the normal day 14. BUT on Saturday I started getting positive OPKs (thought this is strange!) and they continued until Monday morning. Sunday (O day) I know exactly when I must have released the eggy because around 9-10 pm I got the worst cramps and pressure in my ovaries. I don't usually feel ovulation, just notice the ewcm and when heartburn starts a day after. I knew it had to be O with the cramps and the positive OPKs! Had another + the next morning (but I hear it's not always good to do an OPK in the am) and negative that afternoon.

I decided to start progesterone cream this cycle because looking back at my cycle with my youngest, that was the one month I did prog too and I think it has to help because I tend to have low post O temps which usually indicates low P (and that was an issue last time we TTCd as well, had to be on prometrium for first trimester. I am also taking food derived prenatals, vitamin D3, magnesium, and Vitex (this is supposed to also help progesterone and LP length).
Fast forward to my post O temping (for those unfamiliar with this term, temping is using a BBT thermometer to track temps throughout the cycle to pinpoint ovulation and possible pregnancy)...first few days my temps are the usual after O, 97.3 to 97.5 until I hit 6 Dpo, then it jumped to 97.7! 8 Dpo and 9 Dpo (today) it has been 97.9! This feels like a triphasic pattern but I'm not getting my hopes up too high because it could just be attributed to the progesterone cream. But I hope it's better than that!!😊

I am expecting AF to show up on CD 12 If my Lp stays the same as it was last month. But given this temp shift so early, I may test on CD 10! I hate to do that and then be disappointed but the sooner I find out the better so I can get in to my Ob early to start betas, progesterone testing, and get on my  methylfolate for the MTHFR and prometrium. Guess I should be on the folate already so I may go ahead and order some anyway. I have folic acid in the prenatals I take but due to the MTHfR, my body ignores or can't process it.

Well, I will keep temping and post to update soon! Praying this is it because I'm not sure if we will be trying as fervently as last time (stress and uncertainty about this even being a good idea are really getting to me!)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

CD4...On to April

Ugh...the "luck 'o the irish" was not with me in March so we are on to April! Having a hard time figuring out how our schedules will work out this month because AF decided to show up 2 days early, further confirming my suspicion that my LP progesterone levels are not so great. From the few cycles I've followed in the last 6 months, it looks like even though I thought I was ovulating like clockwork on CD14 with a 14 day LP (textbook 28 day cycle) that is apparently not the case..2 cycles ago, I O'd on CD21 and had an 11 day LP. Last cycle I O'd closer to day 14 but still with an 10-11 day LP. I'm assuming my LP is now consistently 11 days (since between O and LP, usually LP is more likely to be consistent). SOOoooooo, how do I get back on track? If this month is like last month, my O date will fall somewhere around the Wednesday during my hub's work week..same EXACT problem we had last time we TTC. (He works in another state, 7 days on, 7 days home) I was so sure that this time around we'd only have to try for a month or two since it seemed like my cycles were normal,  I know I'm O'ing on my own, and schedules were looking great..thanks again mother nature for throwing a monkey wrench in things :-(

After looking back out our BFP cycle in 2013, I forgot that I had been using progesterone cream that month. It gave me such awful headaches that I swore to leave it alone and just stick with what my ob gave me but I completely did not even realize that the only month I used it was the month we conceived little man! So looks like I need to get back on that awful stuff and get the progesterone to going again. I'm also going to pick up some V.itex (chasteberry) and hopefully between the two, my O date will get right and my LP will lengthen out. That would put our schedule back on track! But, despite all my well laid plans, I know that all of this is in God's hands. And like last time, He's probably going to surprise me when I feel like I've failed! Sure hope so! Just praying we don't spin our wheels for 8 months trying to get scheduling to work out..

So ladies, if any of you have had similar issues, what did you do? Any natural supplements help? I'm determined not to go the medical route this time (C.lomid and all that) and let it happen naturally. I know God's timing is perfect and all my manipulations of hormones and whatnot could all be for naught, the control freak in me is hard to silence! lol Anywho, here we go, round 2!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Here we go again...2 years later!!

WOW! I can't believe it's been 2 years already! Our C man turned 2 on April 3rd and all of a sudden, his daddy and I feel like we are ready for another! Are we crazy? Maybe slightly lol our family would certainly say so considering this would be #6 for him and #3 for me! As terrible as it sounds, the day I found out he was going to be a boy, I was already dreaming of trying for another when he turned 2! I haven't even considered it up until now which is so crazy that it's 2 years exactly since then! I think at the time my logic was that his oldest half sis would be 18 and heading off to college. Well, she is 18 (as of Dec 26th) but this last year was WAY different than any of us expected! In April of last year (shortly after C's 1st birthday), she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in her femur. Long story short, she spent 9 months in treatment at St. Jude in Tennessee (6 hours away, many many many long weekend trips!!) but we are so blessed because she is still with us and if you saw her on the street, you would never know what she went through or that she has a titanium femur and knee now! She got to come home in January of this year and was given the "all clear" so she is doing great! She has a couple of lung mets that have been there from day one but they aren't growing so they are just continuing to watch those at her 3 month scans. Well, despite that arduous and crazy journey, she is still going to graduate with her class and go to college in the Fall!! What did I say..blessed!! God is amazing!!!

Now, back to our "plan"..about a month ago, my bff found out she was expecting #2 (her 4 yr old is my sweet God son :-)) and that did it! lol Baby fever bug attacked me with a vengeance! For some odd reason I was having prego symptoms that came out of nowhere that month (even though hubs and I were taking all preventative measures except BC) but turned out it must have been sympathy symptoms! lol I kept telling myself NOOO this can't be, I can't handle another! But in the back of my mind I couldn't help but start hoping lol Well that was it, I knew I wanted to try for another but have been so anxious and hesitant to move forward since we live in such a small house, are trying to remodel and sell it this year, and of course the thought of H having a relapse and going back into treatment is always at the back of our minds :-( But, hubs and I talked it over (after he spent the last year telling me he was way too old to have another at 37 lol) and we both feel like maybe we might get our little girl this time but of course, we had that same plan last time and God had better plans! :-) So this time, while I dream of ribbons and pink everything, I am going into it knowing that even if God decided to bless us with another little man, I would still be thrilled!!

So this has been the first month "not trying not preventing" since I have to jump into charting and all that again and I don't know what's what anymore in my cycle. We have agreed to not go crazy this time and just accept God's will whether we fall prego or not and we won't be doing treatments or doing all the hormone testing and all that. We just are going to trust God's will is perfect and if He means for us to be blessed again, we will be! I DO know that after having C, all my periods came back completely regular and I have been ovulating on my own (as far as I know, I get tons of EWCM like clockwork around day 14 so I must be.. right?) so I think that this round may not be as difficult as the last (I'm praying so!!) and we won't end up spending a year TTC but just a few months maybe? Recalling last time, I was dealing with major PCOS issues after having the awful M.irena IUD removed and none of my cycles were regular and I wasn't ovulating.

But.. here I am in the TWW at about 10 dpo. Symptoms so far have been a bit odd this cycle but seeing as how I've spent the last 2 years ignoring all symptoms throughout every cycle, it may just be that I'm paying attention now. For the first few days after my "assumed" O date (last Sunday, CD14), CM dried up of course as usual and I had major indigestion for about 5 days. Temps have hovered around 97.6 with a dip on 6 DPO down to 97.4 then back up to 97.6. UnfortunatelyI've had quite a bit of cramping, bloating and small pulling type twinges. I can't recall ever having cramping in my LP but again, maybe I was and ignored it! I do know that I never have AF cramps until the day she shows up so we shall see if I do that this time! I don't seem to have any breast tenderness and after looking back at this time 2 years ago, I did have that so that's discouraging. One weird thing that has happened this cycle is last night I woke up at 2:30 a.m. to a major night sweat which I can't ever remember experiencing before. Then when I temped at my usual time this morning, my temp was all the way down to 97.3..very odd and I don't know whether to look at it as a good sign since it's out of the ordinary or a bad sign..Anyway, I will probably test tomorrow morning since I'm obsessive like that. And keeping my prayers going! So there it is guys, here we go again! :-D