Ain't no stopping us....

Is it considered obsessive if I make it through three ovulation tests in one day?

Most days of my cycle (anywhere from 21 to 36 days) I get a big blank in the test window of my stick.
cycle day (CD)10, I get suspicious symptoms and test on a whim - faintly positive. CD 11, three slightly stronger positives. I'm torn.  It looks like we're building up to a surge: today is day thirteen and the line is almost there. Cm still says no-go.

Last night, we sat and talked it through.  Today, I'm going to sneakily test at work (yes, I'm a pee-on-a-stick addict at this time of the month) and if cm is more receptive, we're putting in a call and going for it.

See you on the other side :D

Counting Rainbows

So, it turns out that this month wasn't going to be our month.
After waiting on hot coals for what feels like forever, I got up one morning (the day of our city's Pride parade, no less) to a raised basal body temperature (bbt) and signs of fertile mucus (ewcm)

We had by that time given up on the likelihood of my ovulating this month and were planning to meet up with R for the Pride day festivities in town.  Needless to say: if this was going to be it, we would probably have to edit our plans a little.  I took an ovulation test around breakfast and then, being me, I took one after lunch just to be sure - both negative, no matter how hard or how long we stared at them. Not even a maybe-tomorrow shadow of a line.

We were disappointed but we're choosing not to dwell on it. The way we see it, we could be in for a long ride and we can't start getting bogged down before we've even had our first attempt. As it was, we went into town and had a great day and our camera is full of photos (like that one on the bar, for example) that we might not have taken. And it's probably for the best that Felix's due date would not be the same week as my birthday. With birthdays so close together in my family growing up, it always seemed more pleasant to have birthdays spread out over the year.

R was also disappointed, when we told him. He's been living the my-body-is-a-temple diet for weeks now and focusing on the fertility boosting foods we've found from our research.  When I asked him if we could buy him a drink at the festival, he smiled and shook his head. "I'm keeping myself in readiness for the next time," he said.  And whilst we assured him that for the next two weeks at least, he could relax his diet a little, he insisted on keeping to the fertility regimen.  Bless his heart.  We have been so lucky to find such a wonderful man as our donor and future uncle to our child.

So whilst this week has had a little disappointment, our life is still full of rainbows.

Got that Friday Feeling!

As I open my locker and reach for the familiar plastic container, I can feel the curious eyes of my colleagues following each movement.  Despite being considered somewhat of an eccentricity by most of the people I work with, my herb stash still generates a great deal of interest months after I started feeling comfortable bringing it in to work.  For a moment I pause, as if contemplating (it's almost funny, watching them feign interest in yesterday's free-newspaper whilst trying to see what will come out of my little box next) Then, pushing the box aside, I reach further in for what I was after - the jar of cinnamon.

Whilst I am not a qualified medical herbalist, I spent a couple years studying towards that goal at university when I was younger and herbal remedies are usually my first response for my own minor ailments.  There's just a few essentials I like to keep with me including, my preferred digestive, cinnamon.

It's not as a digestive that I'm using it today, though.

In July 2007, Fertility and Sterility published a pilot study in which cinnamon was shown to reduce insulin resistance in women with PCOS as cinnamon increases the effectiveness of insulin. It also slows down the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine which slows down the breakdown of carbs, increasing absorption, regulating blood sugar and aiding in weight loss. Score!

And why am I pulling out the fertility spices today? Our plans have started moving forward. R's screening passed muster and he's been loading up on fertility foods like oysters, sweet potatoes and pomegranate juice.

Today is day 5 and it's looking good!