Day one

So today is day one of what would be our 8th month TTC, but since James is going to be gone until April 8 (day 22), we're going to miss trying this cycle.  When he first left (last Sunday), I was feeling really down about the whole situation.  I just had this feeling that I wasn't pregnant (which I'm obviously not) and I was really bummed about having to skip a month and spend another month charting.  I just had this feeling of stress and just not really wanting to chart (which I really need to because I took the last 2 months off from it).  

Until....

I read this book.  Taking Charge of Your Fertility.  Now, I had been told to get this book when we first started trying and I already had a few books and just really didn't feel like I needed to get another one that was going to tell me the same thing that the ones I had were telling me.  Boy oh boy was I wrong. Just in the first 30 mins of sitting down with this book, I had already learned things that I didn't know about my body before.  This book is SO comprehensive, but easy to understand at the same time.  Some of the things were things that had been explained to me but I just really didn't have a great understanding of and some of them were flat out new to me.  In any case, I'll be buying the book as soon as I have to return this copy to the library.  Honestly, every female should read this book if she hasn't already.  It gave me a new understanding of what charting is and why you should do it.  It's about so much more than pinpointing ovulation.  It introduced me to the concept of charting being a privilege and something that you should be happy you get to do instead of thinking about it as some huge burden.

That being said, even though I'm a definitely bummed that my period is here and we will not have a baby in 2011, I'm excited to get a fresh start with charting.  I'm excited that I now feel like I finally understand what I'm looking for and I'm excited to learn how to interpret all the signs that my body is giving me.  I even printed out a whole bunch of charts and put them in a 3 ring binder so that I can actually sit and write everything out first thing in the morning before my day gets in the way.

Update

I decided to chart without temperatures this cycle again because I felt like I needed a fresh start.  I'm on day 27 of my 7th cycle trying to conceive.  I took a test (negative) on day 24 because James was leaving for a month and I didn't want to miss the chance to find out while he was still here, but I kinda knew it would be too early.  I had an appointment with my OBGYN last friday for my annual and to discuss where we're at with TTC and the fact that my periods are still really irregular since coming off the pill (I still haven't had 2 cycles back to back that are the same length).  I was pleasantly surprised that she told me pretty much exactly what I was hoping to hear:  that it's normal to have irregular cycles as long as I think I'm ovulating and to just continue charting for now and if I'm not pregnant by the one year mark to come back to discuss the next step.  I was just really shocked to here a doctor that didn't just want to prescribe me drugs right off the bat.  

So, I'm going to take this time while James is gone to chart and try to get back into a routine with it.  It's so much easier when he's not here to remember to take my temperature because he likes the alarm clock across the room and it's SO hard to remember to pop that thermometer in my mouth before running across the room to turn that sucker off.