Charting

After reading several posts from people online talking about charting, I decided to see what it was all about. The basic idea is that by tracking your natural fertility signs, you can time intercourse appropriately to give you the best chances at pregnancy. The most popular site that I read about was fertilityfriend.com. It's a pretty cool site. You enter in your information, like basal body temperature, cervical mucous consistency, etc. and it will track your cycle and tell you when you are likely fertile, when you should expect either a positive test or your period and all sortd of other cool things. You can also track your mood, energy, possible pregnancy symptoms, when you have sex, and all sorts of other things.

Here is my chart so far:

There's not much to it yet because I'm only 7 days into my cycle, but I expect it to look much like the one below when I'm done with the cycle.

This website also has a fertility course that they will email to you, one lesson a day, that teaches you how to look for your own fertility signs, how to chart them using their website and how to get the right timing knowing your fertility signs. This may seem a little overly obsessive, but the biggest problem that most couples trying to conceive have is not having sex on the right days. There's realistically only about a 12-36 hour window of opportunity and if you're not looking for it, it's easy to miss.

My new favorite quote is, "A goal without a plan is just a wish." I've decided that having a baby is a goal, not a wish, and this is my plan to make it happen. :)