T.M.I.

I'm just going to be brutally honest. Don't read this blog if you don't want the details of pregnancy. If you want the cute kid at the end of the process, go read our family blog at Team Camwell.

Let's talk cycles.

Still not pregnant...at least, I'm pretty sure I'm not. But I am approaching the 70-day mark of my current cycle. In the days before pregnancy tests, I'm pretty sure I would be convinced I was pregnant. Confession: I am taking a fertility drug. I did for Harrison, but this time it's Femara. A friend said, "get ready for triplets!!" but the doctor told me the risk of multiples is low like Clomid. Anyway, I'd been on the drug for one cycle, did not get pregnant, and the dates when I would have taken the drug for the second cycle would have caused me to ovulate while Dave was in Thailand. I'm pretty sure you can't make a baby without the daddy...but what do I know? ;) Anyway, I decided to skip it for a month...and the month is still going on!!! I also chart my cycles using the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), which I highly recommend for any woman to help know her body better. Due to illness and travel, I did not ovulate. I lost my thermometer (well, the airline did) for a couple of days, and of course when I resumed taking my temps in the morning, they were up, which is one indication of ovulation. The misconception of taking your temperature to determine ovulation is that people think, "yeah! I'm ovulating!" when actually, by the time your temp is up, it is too late, the egg is gone. Knowing your other body signs is important. Don't rely solely on temperature. Anyway...this just means I couldn't pin-point when I ovulated, so I have no idea if I'm pregnant or when I can take a pregnancy test and have the result be accurate. My guesstimation is the end of this week.

I talked to my doctor (via her nurse...gotta love big offices), and she prescribed progesterone for me to cause me to start my period. Confession: I have not taken the drug, even though I'd taken a pregnancy test. The test was almost two weeks ago, and although it was negative, if I truly hadn't ovulated, not only was it a waste of money, but it was so because it would have been way too soon! Sooo...I was going to start taking the drug, but my temps have stayed up. If you're in an "anovulatory" cycle, your period will simply start without having ovulated, and the biggest indicator is that your temperature never jumped up and stayed up (the "luteal" phase when the fertilized egg is implanted in your uterus, or the 10-18 days before your period begins--unfertilized egg). So, on the teensy weensy chance that I'm pregnant, I am not taking the drug! When does my 18-day window end though? That's the frustrating part! And a 70+ day cycle? I'm sorry if it's T.M.I., but that's just freaking ridiculous.