take charge of my fertility

keeps telling me to do this.

I’ve done it, so shuddup already!

I succeeded with this so well that I got pregnant during our third cycle trying. It was such an interesting thing to learn about.
My cycles are getting back to normal again now that my son is 7 months old, so I’ll start doing some minor tracking again, pehaps ramping it up when we want to have another baby.

I’m doing great at this and it is so interesting and empowering. I’m charting cervical fluid, temperature, and ovulation microscope information. I’ve been using the fertility friend website to record it.
My aim is to have a baby, not avoid one, and I think that this is really helping. I’m also learning a lot about my own body.

S – specific
– Is this goal specific? No, this isn’t very specific. When I added this goal I had vague notions of keeping up with my natural family planning charts each month, and becoming an active partner in my reproductive healthcare.

M – measurable
– Is this goal measurable? No, it isn’t very measurable. I could change this to another goal that is more measurable.

A – attainable
– Is this goal attainable? It’s hard to attain something that I cannot measure and which isn’t specifically defined.

R – realistic
– Is this goal realistic? On a meta-level, yes, this is specific.

T – timeline
– What is the timeline for finishing this goal? I don’t really have a timeline for this goal.

Given that this goal does not satisfactorily meet any of the criteria, I will either merge it with another goal, or mark it as complete or ‘I give up’. I think I can merge this with ‘get pregnant’ and it will be effectively the same.

Well, quite to my surprise, there is nothing wrong with my glucose or insulin levels. Testosterone and androgens and some other things are also good. So the only thing wrong (from what initial blood tests can tell) is high triglycerides, which isn’t enough to mess with fertility (as far as I have read). So this is a bit perplexing!

I’m glad I’m not sick in this way, but it does eliminate an easy answer.

I have two more weeks of having my progesterone tested, then we’ll go from there.

Some of my blood results came back—my cholesterol is good, and my good cholesterol is nicely high. My liver and kidney also look good. My triglycerides are high, though. This may signal a precursor to diabetes. They took my blood to test for fasting levels of glucose and insulin, and I should get the results in a few days. Apparently blood sugar has a lot to do with fertility.

I’m going to have my blood drawn every week for a month.

I have an appointment with a reproductive specialist on the 20th of March. She is located in Des Moines, so I will have to take time off from work to go to the appointment. Thankfully, my boss says I can count that as a sick day!

I tried going to my local doctor first, but she didn’t appear to really understand much about fertility. We spent a frustrating appointment going in circles with her saying I should use an ovulation kit to tell when I’ve ovulated, and me saying an ovulation kit isn’t going to help me if I’m not ovulating at all! It looks to me like a new cyst is forming. I’ll find out on the 20th whether I’m PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome). I have a couple of the symptoms, but not a whole lot, so I’m not sure.

Well, it wasn’t exactly as we expected but now in a few weeks we’ll be the proud parents of our second child.

I guess there’s truth in the ‘just give up’ theory.

I keep having the problem where I’ll dream and falsely remember that I’ve taken my temperature that morning (you’re supposed to take it first thing when you wake up, even if it’s early morning). Then I start to go about my day thinking I took my temperature when I really didn’t!

My doctor suggested that I try out FAM/NFP after I complained about depression when on artificial birth control. I started out by reading ‘Taking Charge of Your Fertility’ then borrowed a friend’s ‘The Art of Natural Family Planning’. I really enjoy the philosophy behind Natural Family Planning, so we’re doing that. We’re going to reinforce the book knowledge with classes starting on the 17th.