I think it finally happened!

It looks like I probably ovulated yesterday (CD22). Better late than never! I was seriously starting to wonder if it was going to happen at all this cycle. According to FertilityFriend, my average ovulation day is CD21 (earliest CD17, latest CD28) but the past few months it's happened fairly early for me and I guess I expected the same this time around! Anyway, hopefully in a couple of days I'll get confirmation on my chart. Fingers crossed!

I had a headache and felt so nauseous yesterday afternoon, I had to take a nap. I feel that way now too, but it's not as bad thank goodness. I guess it's due to hormones (progesterone). I don't usually feel that way around ovulation but if there's one thing I've learned on this journey, it's that my cycles (and symptoms) can vary a lot! I think I've had almost every "pregnancy" symptom in the book since we started TTC, but of course I've never been pregnant. In the beginning I would get excited thinking that something must be happening, but now? Not so much! :)

The weirdest thing happened this morning when I used my microscope. I collected the sample as normal, messed about with my phone while it dried and then looked at the pattern. There was lots of ferning. I got my phone camera ready to take some photos, and when I looked again there was no ferning! I kept looking all around the slide, adjusting the focus, and eventually found a very small area with ferns. As I was looking at it, the ferns disappeared before my eyes! How bizarre. I can only assume that the sample wasn't 100% dry when I first looked, and the light dried it the rest of the way which caused the ferns to disappear. Very odd to see, though! I recorded it on my chart as "no ferning" - I figured that was the right thing to do since the ferns all disappeared.

I'm contemplating buying some cheap OPKs for my next cycle (if I don't get my BFP this time). I've never used them before, they might be useful. We almost bought some at Target the other day, but we put them back. At that point I was just super frustrated that I hadn't ovulated yet, but we cover our bases when it comes to having sex and I knew that buying the OPKs wouldn't magically make me ovulate. It's like buying loads of HPTs - sadly, that doesn't magically make you get pregnant! I wish it did, we'd have a baby by now if that worked!

I'm thinking positive, and hoping beyond hope that this time we'll get lucky. I know that compared to many couples we haven't been trying all that long, but these past 13 months have felt like an eternity to me!

Chart confusion

Hmmm. I'm truly baffled by my chart this time! I know I haven't ovulated yet, but there have been a few times when I've been sure I was about to ovulate. CD13 - because I had spotting and a high, soft, open cervix that day. CD15 - due to full ferning and cramping. CD17 - lots of cramping, full ferning and also because sometimes there's a temp drop before ovulation. Clearly, I was wrong about all of those days! I also thought I was possibly ovulating yesterday - not so! Now it's CD20 and I really don't know what's going on. I just hope that I will ovulate - I've been so optimistic recently and if I don't ovulate, that's going to come crashing down!

My chart looks nothing like my annovulatory cycle chart (from August 2011), so I'm hoping that everything will be OK this time. Maybe I'll ovulate today - I've had 4 consecutive days of temp drops, so I guess it's possible!  :)

The microscope is also confusing me: 7 days of partial ferning, 2 days of full ferning, 1 day of no ferning, 3 days of full ferning and 1 day of partial ferning. Huh?! I wonder if my body geared up to ovulate and didn't, so geared up again? I know that can happen with OPKs (pee sticks) but I'm not sure if the same thing can happen with the microscope. I'd hazard a guess that it probably can, though.

I've had a few weird dreams recently. I've dreamed a few times about getting my BFP, and once about having a baby boy (that wasn't really a good dream though; the baby was a preemie born at 28 weeks). I don't really buy into the whole dream interpretation thing, but it has been a while since I've had these kind of dreams. It's most likely just because of all the testing and stuff, it's obviously been on my mind a lot. I can only hope that I will get an actual, real-life BFP soon!