TTC - Your First Child

Hello - I am a newbie here and wanted to introduce myself and ask a few questions.  I am 34 and my DH is 42.  We are TTC our 1st child.  I went off of BCP at the end of my cycle in August and we started trying right away.  I purchased a CBE fertility monitor and began using it on the first day of AF on 9/24.  It showed my 2 peak fertility days as 10/11 & 10/12.  According to the directions and what I have read I am assuming that I O'd on the 12th.  I began spotting a week later on 10/19 and AF came back with a vengance on 10/23 :(   .  That is only 11 days after I should have O'd.  Could I have LPD?  or am I just being overl concerned?  I spotted pretty much everday from 10/19 till the beginning of AF.  At first I was hopeful that it was  IB because of the timing and my breasts were also tender & sore.  If it is a LPD is there something that I can do on my own to help?

  I also purchased an ovulation saliva microscope and am going to use it in conjunction with the monitor and see of the results match up.  I am anticipating that I should O sometime this weekend. The monitor had me begin testing yesterday. I am also going to try using Pre-Seed when we BD on my high & peak fertiltiy days.  Has anyone had any success with preseed?

Anyone else expecting to O this weekend?

One more question - I am using FF and inputing my FM readings.  I checked to override FF and use the FM results, but my calender is showing both the monitors results as well as when FF thinks I should be fertile an O'ing.  Anyone else experience this?

Welcome! The women here are fantastically supportive and knowledgeable; you've come to the right place ;-)

I'll answer what I can, but the other women here will probably be able to help more, as DH and I are just on our 2nd cycle as well. My understanding is that an 11 day luteal phase is not problematic. If you get below 10 days, you have to take some steps to correct for that, I think.

I haven't used pre-seed, so can't tell you anything on that. Also not helpful on your FF issue, since I just do temps and OPKs.

I'm hoping to O sometime between now and this weekend (but have been hoping that for a few weeks now). I stopped the pill in mid-September, and am having a super-long cycle (after last month's 22-day cycle) this month. There's a group started under Waiting to O where you'll find more of us expecting to O this week.

Seems like you and DH are going like gangbusters! I'm 32 and trying for our first (DH is 29), so can understand taking all possible steps right away to speed things up! Good luck to you!

I don't know many of the answers to your questions. It seems like you know a lot about TTC, which is awesome. I hope you do O this weekend and have lots of time for BD :) I will be spending my weekend trying NOT to test too early (I am in the 1WW I think)

But I do want to say "welcome" and while I don't have many answers for you, I know for a fact that some of these ladies do.

Also, did you do a preconception visit with your doc? I feel like he/she might be able to answer some of your questions and make recommendations. Good luck to you! I hope your stay here will be short and pleasant!

-liv

Hello,

I have been using the monitor for a long time. I O regularly and my cycles are very predictable but I did not O all the time on Peak Day#2.
Most of the times it was day 2, but sometimes it was day 1 or the day before day 1 or the day after the second peak. What I want to say that the monitor alone is not perfectly reliable to pinpoint O. Temping is.
Oh, and there were couple of months when the monitor did not detect Peak only High's and I still O'd on High. It took a while to figure out the moniotr but the lesson I learnt not to trust it 100% and not worry when it does not cooperate.

Hope this helps,
Baby Dust
erika

Thanks to everyone for the welcome!  This definitely seems like a great community to share & find information and support.  I have purchased a BBT thermometer - I just have to remember to use it every day.  I have a preconception appointment this Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

Colleen - good luck - hoping you O this week!

Olivie - good luck also with the 1 WW - I know its hard to keep your mind preoccupied - hopefullly this will be the last month you have to do it!!!