WTO 3/20-3/26

[scoutradley]

Cycle/month:

CD:

What are you doing to GKU?:

RRCS:

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage?

[Rama]

Mar 20, 2017 10:09:07 GMT -5 alwayscheese said:

FF friend question. So it predicts my cycles lengths based on previous cycles but most of my previous cycles were while I was on hormonal bc, which made them a lot longer than they naturally are. Since my cycles are shorter now(last one was 26 days as opposed to FF predicting 30) can I manually change my average cycle length on FF or must I just wait till I have enough short cycles for FF to pick it up? And how long would that take?

You can choose to discount the BC cycles from stats, so it only uses the non-BC cycles to project. :)

On Desktop: go to Data > Cycle/Chart Management > Manage Stats/Averages > uncheck the "In Stats" box on each cycle you don't want considered.

[westiemom]

Cycle/month: 1/1

CD: 16

What are you doing to GKU? Clearblue advanced OPK and SMEP.

RRCS: I got flashy smiles yesterday and today! Hopefully my solid will be tomorrow. I have no idea when to have sex with SMEP and these opks so I'm just having sex on flashing smiles and solids and a few days after so I guess that's like 5-6 days of sex in a row. Exhausting. I'm not temping because sleep is too wonky so I can't really confirm when I do O.

GTKY: vanilla latte!!! Mmmmm

[teraiin]

Cycle/month: 3/3

CD: 14

What are you doing to GKU?: temping... opks soon

RRCS: I ordered some opks. I sort of hate "wasting" money on them with my cycles being so long and o being so unpredictable. But... I hate not knowing what's going on almost as much LOL

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? Oh jeez... I love coffees and lattes and hot cocoa and teas... I love warm beverages haha

[ajetter]

Cycle/month: 2/2 (3rd AL)

CD: 8

What are you doing to GKU?: OPKs and at least EOD

RRCS: Since the loss/D&C my periods have been so wonky. I know that's totally normal and it hasn't been that long. But I've been having tons of spotting post and I never had any spotting before my loss. I'm like for the love, CD8. I've had enough.

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? Raspberry hot chocolate from Starbucks or hot apple cider.

[bluehydrangea]

Cycle/month: 5/

CD: 17

What are you doing to GKU?: temping, opks

RRCS:

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? I don't drink a ton of warm beverages, but I guess I'd say white chocolate mocha coffee (caffeine free or else I'd end up bouncing off the walls).

[ldubhawksfan]

So glad to see this thread. I'm irrationally pissed about my chart again!!

Cycle/month: 2AL

CD: 10

What are you doing to GKU?: temping and planning on sexing (fighting over the weekend put a damper on that)

RRCS: my temps are stupid high and rocky. I also got a weird bit of spotting out of the blue on cd8. I just wanted a normal chart so I could be confident in my O this month. Still not planning on adding opks for awhile, though I'm already putting more pressure on myself after the loss now. I'm just feeling down about ttc.

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? I love a good hot chai latte

[ldubhawksfan]

Mar 20, 2017 16:44:39 GMT -5 alwayscheese said:

ldubhawksfan I wasn't too enthused about getting into opks either, but since we're TTA fur a couple cycles it gives me something to do.

It's funny because TTC #1 I got burnt out on temping and knew the timeframe with opks to O, so I switched to only opks. For some reason the tests stressed dh out, so he doesn't want to put that pressure on us again yet. I wasn't minding temping this time around...until AL when it's all gone to shit! I actually temped TTA before we were trying again and I really preferred it

[goldenbird]

Cycle/month: 1/1 of TTA until July
CD: 16
What are you doing to GKU?: TTA until July. Temping to get used to it and taking PNVs.
RRCS: I'm ready to get this cycle on the road. July feels so far away!!
GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage?
Tea with honey and milk

[frecklesnbrains]

Cycle/month: 3/3 postpartum but NTNPing/sorta TTA until June

CD: 13

What are you doing to GKU?: CM and OPKs trying to get my body figured out again, will add temping when we TTC

RRCS: Happy first day of spring y'all!!!

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? COFFEE DUH

alwayscheese, I'm also trying out OPKs while TTA for a few cycles and because I had a 50 pack of Wondfos that expired last month and I figured WTH I'll try them out. Still haven't turned one though...

[scoutradley]

Cycle/month: 1/1

CD: 10

What are you doing to GKU?: cycle tracking and temping.

RRCS: my temps are all over the place and it's frustrating. FF says I'm "probably fertile". I'm not sure how it is coming to the conclusion, especially since I've had a few sleepless nights and my temps had to be discarded.

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? I love it all. Coffee, hot cocoa, hot tea. Right now I'm into cappuccinos, but I always love lattes. The local place here has a great chai latte. Cider may be the only exception. I don't like warm cider.

[charliefox]

Cycle/month: 7/7 TFAS

CD: 11

What are you doing to GKU?: temping, tracking CM, Just started OPKs, and will probably start EOD sex tomorrow

RRCS: I got nothin'

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? A really good hot chocolate.

[Deleted]

Cycle/month:3

CD:1

What are you doing to GKU?:temping, OPKs, EOD sex, preseed

RRCS:I guess every day sex didn't raise our chances cause here I am not pregnant. No more of that because my vagina was yelling at me lol.

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage?: Coffee, black. I feel very stern with that answer. 😊

[Rama]

Mar 22, 2017 15:24:40 GMT -5 alwayscheese said:

Do different brands of opks have different instructions for times etc? I think I may be jumbling a few things together?
-use them twice a day
-fmu or smu?
-and then again in the afternoon before 7pm? And after holding for 2 hours? Or is it 4?
Am I way off track?

I obviously need to set a timer to look at mine after 5 min since I totally forget about it. How big a deal is the not reading after 5 min thing?(I'm using the wondfo dip tests I guess they're called) But I've seen pictures of people's whole line up of tests for the week, so obviously they're still looking at them later.

Edit, ya I'm way of trash. Lol

There's an OPK thread we did awhile ago that should be linked in the Newbie Blog thread.  I'll come back with the link if I can find it.

Different brands, in fact, DO have different instructions.  Most will say to use second morning urine (SMU), but a few (Target brand, I think) say to use first morning urine.

Using them multiple times a day is user preference.  It is really only helpful for those that have short LH surges: meaning they haven't surged by their FMU/SMU, do surge midday, and have already metabolized their surge by the next day's FMU/SMU.  That is why you will hear people talking about "catching" their surge.  *TYPICALLY* (though hey, typical is relative), you can expect to surge sometime in early morning (2am-4am-ish).  This is why many directions will say SMU, because it isn't in high enough concentration in your FMU to give you a positive.

All tests are considered invalid past their efficacy time, typically 5-10 minutes.  This is because dye can settle and provide both false positive and negative results AKA lines can get darker or lighter with time.  The idea behind saving your tests to line up are seeing the change in the line.  As they get darker, you can reasonably expect that you will ovulate. (More on this at 5, Jim.)  While this may work for some people, because of the nature of OPKs, it's not advised to do it *THIS WAY*.  If you like to compare lines, the most accurate way to get a reading on the darkening/lightening of lines is by taking a picture in the same place, with the same device (so, pretty much, on the sink sill with your phone).  You can then compare the lines by comparing pictures or cutting them together in one image.

So back to my Jim aside, OPKs are not and should not be taken as the holy grail of knowing when you're going to ovulate.  This is for several reasons:

• You may ovulate significantly (48+ hours) after your last positive OPK
  
• You may ovulate in the middle of your surge (meaning you get positives both before and after O date)
  
• You may not ovulate at all

The best use for OPKs is go to with a more reliable source of determining ovulation, such as taking your BBT or ultrasound.

Again, I get that it's a complicated process and it's a lot of info to remember.  You figure it out with time.  Just be patient with yourself and your body and you'll know what patterns you go through in a handful of cycles.  No one likes the wait and it's easy to get impatient, but that only leads to more confusion and frustration.  You've got this, good luck. :)

[Rama]

/novel, holy shit Rama

Here's that link: www.goodbyecb.proboards.com/thread/63429/gku-talk-all-opks

[Deleted]

Mar 22, 2017 16:56:16 GMT -5 alwayscheese said:

I'll just keep replying to myself lol. I guess I'll quit with the afternoon testing then esp since I drink so much that it's really watered down.
I'll see if I can take pictures cause I'm sure I'm gonna want a second opinion here soon. My phone has this lovely habit of blanking out whenever I try to use the camera function, bit new batteries *may* have fixed that. I doubt DH would be too impressed if I kept borrowing his phone and filled his gallery up with pictures of stuff I peed on. Lol

And yes I'm temping also to confirm o.

I'll add my non expertise opinion in as well. I did OPKs before I started TTC to get used to them. I only used FMU and got my surge beautifully both months and had an awesome chart. Then this month came when I was TTC of course, FMU wasn't working as well and got my surge with SMU and my chart was ugly. I felt like OPKs actually hindered me this month and I should have just done temps and CM. I also second Rama and say take pictures, that's what I've been doing to see the line get darker. I would recommend maybe testing twice a day until you figure out your "normal." Also, I've been using Wondfo and they said to read at 3 minutes and not read after 5. Honestly, my lines are normally the darkest they'll be pretty quickly, even before 3 minutes.

[Deleted]

Mar 22, 2017 21:30:25 GMT -5 alwayscheese said:

Huh. Weird that different wondfos have different directions. Does one of us have the knockoffs they talked about? I double checked and mine definitely say 5 min.

I've used Wondfo brand in the past and right now I'm using Easy@home which is still a Wondfo test. My Easy@home definitely says 3 minutes. I'm out of the Wondfo brand to double check but I thought I remembered it being the same but I could be wrong now.

[frecklesnbrains]

Rama that was super-helpful and awesome, coming from another woman new to OPKs. I was also looking for that link. Thank you! I think I'm going to call you OPKdiculous now.

[veganontuesdays]

I go here now.

Cycle/month: 2/2

CD: 1

What are you doing to GKU?: OPKS, sexing H up, will add temping soon just wanted to get back into the swing of things.

RRCS: Nadda

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage?
Coffee with a crap ton of delicious creamer.

[Rama]

Mar 23, 2017 7:18:04 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Rama that was super-helpful and awesome, coming from another woman new to OPKs. I was also looking for that link. Thank you! I think I'm going to call you OPKdiculous now.

Hahaha, deal. Although, I'm sure I could make similarly long novel posts about other topics.

[westiemom]

Mar 23, 2017 8:33:47 GMT -5 Rama said:

Mar 23, 2017 7:18:04 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Rama that was super-helpful and awesome, coming from another woman new to OPKs. I was also looking for that link. Thank you! I think I'm going to call you OPKdiculous now.

Hahaha, deal. Although, I'm sure I could make similarly long novel posts about other topics.

You are seriously the best. But you already knew I love you. 😘

[Rama]

Mar 23, 2017 8:39:40 GMT -5 westiemom said:

Mar 23, 2017 8:33:47 GMT -5 Rama said:

Hahaha, deal. Although, I'm sure I could make similarly long novel posts about other topics.

You are seriously the best. But you already knew I love you. 😘

😍😍😍

[westiemom]

Still WTO! Damn CD 19 and 5 days of flashy smiles. I'm over sex so I think I may just give up this cycle. Obviously feeling a little down today. Lol

[Rama]

Mar 23, 2017 10:43:22 GMT -5 westiemom said:

Still WTO! Damn CD 19 and 5 days of flashy smiles. I'm over sex so I think I may just give up this cycle. Obviously feeling a little down today. Lol

Clearblue Advanced Digitals?  Those are NOTORIOUS for never giving solid smileys.  I'd highly recommend just using the non-Advanced digitals with smiley-no smiley options because those are far less of a headache.

Seriously, I've seen some ladies get 7-9 days of flashing smileys.  They nEVER END.

[teraiin]

Mar 23, 2017 10:43:22 GMT -5 westiemom said:

Still WTO! Damn CD 19 and 5 days of flashy smiles. I'm over sex so I think I may just give up this cycle. Obviously feeling a little down today. Lol

Well boooo


AFM, I got a positive OPK on cd15. Currently cd17. It's not uncommon for me to have multiple surges before ovulating but I'm still going to keep my fx.

[westiemom]

Mar 23, 2017 10:55:11 GMT -5 Rama said:

Mar 23, 2017 10:43:22 GMT -5 westiemom said:

Still WTO! Damn CD 19 and 5 days of flashy smiles. I'm over sex so I think I may just give up this cycle. Obviously feeling a little down today. Lol

Clearblue Advanced Digitals?  Those are NOTORIOUS for never giving solid smileys.  I'd highly recommend just using the non-Advanced digitals with smiley-no smiley options because those are far less of a headache.

Seriously, I've seen some ladies get 7-9 days of flashing smileys.  They nEVER END.

That's good to know! I will do the other ones next round then. They are cheaper anyways and these are stressing me out! I had all the other ovulation symptoms and I solid smiley.... I also need to get my rear in gear and start temping.

[holly321]

Cycle/month:2/1

CD: 62

What are you doing to GKU?: We didn't do anything special this cycle, but I plan to temp next cycle.

RRCS: my rant is I had to start provera yesterday to hopefully start a period. I am having wishful thinking that I will have a 1 in a million chance of ovulation happening, but realize that is unrealistic.

GTKY: What's your favorite warm beverage? Dirty chai

[scoutradley]

My temps still haven't risen, but I'm definitely having O symptoms. I just want them to rise so I can tell how good our timing was. Also I'm already hating how long the TWW is gonna feel.

alwayscheese you got this girl!