It appears that Aunt Flo might be making her appearance soon. I have some very slight spotting today. If I start for real tomorrow, I'll call today Day 1 of my second independent cycle, because I'm tired of this confusing mumbo jumbo with 2 possible days.
So I must admit, that I got slightly confused about my cycle. You see, I've been reading How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby by Dr. Shettles, but I had checked it out from the library and had to return it last week. Well, I've come to realize that some resources a person just needs to have at their disposal at all times just in case.
Let me explain.
I had signs that ovulation was starting on Saturday, and it was confirmed on Sunday via the ovulation test strips. The ovulation test strips test for a hormone commonly referred to as LH (or Luteinizing Hormone). This hormone is released prior to ovulation and is usually detected for 24-48 hours in the urine. (I unfortunately had no tests with me on Saturday, and had I tested then, I'm sure it would have been positive, making my LH surge on the long side at 48 hours or so.) But since I didn't test on Saturday my first positive test was Sunday at 1700. I continued to test positive at 2200 on Monday, with my first negative test on Tuesday morning at 1100.
The positive LH surge signifies impending ovulation, it does not necessarily mean that ovulation has occurred, which is where I got confused. The "fertile period" begins about 4-5 days prior to ovulation and ends 24-48 hours after ovulation. This means if a couple is not trying to get pregnant they should abstain or use a condom beginning 5-6 days prior to ovulation (which gets tricky if, like me, your cycles are new to you and/or not regular), and continue until 48-72 hours after suspected ovulation. In my head, I was thinking that Saturday was the day I ovulated, so on Tuesday, the day I had my first negative LH test, I thought we were in the clear. We had unprotected sex on that day. Now, I realize that I was possibly ovulating on that day and should have waited 72 hours after Tuesday. (Which, if you do your math is actually today.)
It isn't likely that I'll get pregnant, but there is a chance.
Confused? Join the club. ;) Even as a nurse I feel overwhelmed with the planning, timing, and details of conception and fertility. It takes a while to get a good handle on all of this fertility craziness, and that is why I decided I needed to purchase some resources so that I could easily reference them if I had a question or concern. I ended up with the following:
I actually enjoyed How to Choose the Sex of your Baby book, even though there are some chapters that I skipped over as they talk about the history of sex selection. People have wanted to be able to pick the sex of their baby for a very long time. It was kind of funny reading about some of the ways they used to increase the chances of having a boy (or girl, though I think it was more common for people to prefer to have male offspring.) The methods in this book are not 100% effective, because there is always a chance of having either sex, though you can increase your chances of having either a girl or a boy if you time intercourse at a certain time.
I will love any baby I am blessed with, but I really want to have a daughter. I also want to have a son, but I am my mom's last chance to have a granddaughter, and I promised her way back when I was 19 that she would get one. I just love little girl clothes etc...
Fertility and Conception, was a book I picked up because it looked like a good one from the outside. After perusing it a bit, I found that it was very colorful with lots of pictures and looked like it had a variety of information, so I chose it for a simple resource. It also looked like a fairly simple read, and looks like it has a bit of humor as well. Let's face it, when you're reading about cervical mucous, positions of the cervix, and timing of intercourse, a person needs a little humor.
And finally Taking Charge of Your Fertility is a book that I had heard of, and also googled online and got it because it spans the lifespan of a woman. It features explanations of how to conceive, how to naturally avoid pregnancy, and generally teaches about reproductive health. It looks dull, upon flipping through it, and since it is pretty thick, it will be a daunting read, but the reviews say that the text is easy to understand and enjoyable. We'll see. It might be one of those books that is more effective to use by going to the index and reading what you desire at that moment in time...(The reason I say it looks dull, is because the pictures are in black and white, and there appears to be a lot of text, in pretty small font. I didn't even read a word out of it, so I don't know how it flows.)
Hope you all don't mind hearing about my reproductive parts in action...
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