appointed time · baby dancing · Infertility · journal entry · trying to conceive

Mid-cycle woes and post-Thanksgiving musings

I don’t have anything profound to share. I’m just sitting here mid-cycle again….and trying fairly unsuccessfully to not obsess over every unclear OPK and erratic temperature reading and lack of fertility signs…

I had two days of positive OPKs immediately following my HSG, which was earlier than I’d ever seen but we got busy. Then I had two days of negatives, what looked like a temp shift (!!!)….and then two more days of positive OPKs. For the past seven days the OPKs have been negative, but a lot of them are borderline. The LH has not dropped off like I imagine it would if ovulation had happened.

  • Fertility Friend put in an ovulation date based on the first OPKs on CD11/12 and initial temp shift…but then with the additional positives and a subsequent temp drop…it took it away. It has yet to identify a clear temp shift or possible ovulation date since.
  • Glow is sticking to an ovulation date consistent with the second set of OPKs; and that’s the one I think is most accurate given that I had watery mucus those days, an acne breakout, and one of those days after we BD’d the semen didn’t leak out so my cervix must have been open (no, I don’t believe I had an orgasm).
  • AVA is saying I ovulated on Sunday, though I have found her to be pretty wrong sometimes, and given that she will proclaim that I have entered my fertile window before even analyzing my data from the night before…I take her with a grain of salt (Yes, I have personified my fertility monitor). Also I have had no clear fertility indicators since last week. But none of my parameters are doing what they should if I did ovulate last week…they aren’t even doing what they should if I ovulated on Sunday.

I was planning to wait to test until my birthday (December 8th) assuming AF hadn’t shown by then….and given the first couple possible ovulation dates, I’d be 18-22 dpo. If I was pregnant, there’s no way a test wouldn’t pick it up. However, if I ovulated Sunday, I’ll be 13 dpo…so higher chances of a false negative. And if I haven’t even ovulated…well…my birthday won’t even be at point where I could legitimately test anyway. So that’s a bummer.

We have a follow-up appointment with the fertility clinic December 13th. I’m still hopeful we don’t have to use it. But if my extra-irregular data this month does indeed indicate that I may not be ovulating after all and AF arrives in early December…we just went back to square one and I lost one of my three ‘extra fertile’ months following the HSG.

So here I sit. At least the uncertainty about whether I’ve even entered my TWW or not is keeping me from symptom spotting. Small blessings I guess. I’m still hoping for a really great birthday present and trying not to stress about it…but it gets harder every month. People who haven’t dealt with this don’t seem to understand that simply saying “just don’t track or think about it” is not as easy or relaxing as it sounds. Nothing about this is relaxing, nothing about this is easy.

At least I wasn’t on my period over the weekend when my sister and brother-in-law had their gender reveal party. It’s a little easier to deal with the pregnancy and baby related things when I’m at a point in my cycle where I’m still hopeful I have a chance to join those ranks.

And as a random aside…I got to watch my husband interact with our four month old niece over the weekend as well, and he is so sweet and good with her. I just want to give him babies and make him a dad already.

 

Infertility · trying to conceive

A stats and timeline post

This is my data from the last year plus of trying. Just for kicks…just in case some random fertility specialist happens to find this and can pinpoint exactly what’s wrong based on this. Just kidding. Mostly.

July 17th, 2017; start of period. First BD’ing, wedding night August 7th.

  • August 28th: First positive pregnancy test. Repeated positive at the MD’s office, repeat home tests positive on the 30th and September 1st.
  • September 3rd: Heavy bleeding/cramps, most likely miscarriage. Confirmed September 5th when ultrasound showed no evidence of pregnancy.

September 3rd-October 12th: “cycle.” Likely not ovulatory due to recent miscarriage, no tracking

October 13th-November 12th: 31 day cycle. Still not tracking, assumed we would be able to conceive again fairly quickly

November 13th-December 22nd:

  • 40 day cycle.
  • Likely ovulation on CD 27, confirmed by BBT shift.
  • 13 day LP

December 23rd-January 24th: purchased AVA watch at start of cycle, began wearing it around the end of period.

  • 33 day cycle.
  • Likely ovulation CD 21 based on a positive OPK this day and a temp shift CD 22.
  • 12 day LP
  • AVA thinks ovulation occurred CD 20

January 25th-February 28th

  • 35 day cycle
  • Ovulation CD 20 or CD 25: OPKs positive CD 20 and 21, no temp shift until CD 26
  • LP 14 days or 10 days depending on ovulation
  • AVA confirms ovulation CD 20 per ‘biphasic shift.’

March 1st-March 30th

  • 30 day cycle
  • Ovulation CD 20 based on very dark OPK on CD 19 and temp shift CD 21, also AVA’s prediction
  • LP 10 days
  • AVA thinks ovulation occurred CD 18

March 31st-May 4th

  • 35 day cycle
  • Unclear ovulation: positive OPKs CD 20 and 21, watery mucus CD 21, no temp shift until CD 25 but AVA indicated that ovulation occurred CD 21 (with biphasic shift confirmation).
  • 14 day LP, negative HPT May 3rd (assumed I was late due to recent shorter LP’s

May 5th-June 19th

  • 46 day cycle
  • Ovulation per temp shift CD 32
  • 14 day LP, negative HPT June 19th AM.
  • AVA found biphasic shift/put ovulation on CD 21 (making LP 25 days….)

June 20th-August 2nd

  • 44 day cycle
  • First temp shift CD22, likely ovulation per second temp shift CD 33, but first positive OPK CD 29, 4-5 days of positive OPKs this cycle
  • 11 day LP; though unsure because ovulation unclear
  • AVA thinks ovulation was CD 31 (making LP 13 days)

August 3rd-September 1st

  • 30 day cycle
  • Ovulation likely CD 19, positive OPKS CD 17 and 18.
  • 13 day LP
  • AVA confirms ovulation at CD 21 (making LP only 11 days)

September 2nd-October 2nd: took a break from tracking everything, 31 day cycle

October 3rd-present: started fertil-aid mid cycle.

  • currently on CD 31, positive OPK CD 23 so likely ovulation CD 23 or 24; 9-10 DPO.

So basically nothing is regular. Cycle length, luteal length, ovulation day.

I can’t depend on AVA, I can get up to 5 days of clearly positive OPKs when you’re supposed to get maybe two, and I have never had any fertile mucus other than a gush of watery somewhere in my fertile window.

Good luck to us.