i'm a slacker:)

so what's been going on with me? currently i'm in what's called the luteal stage. i call it waitin' around. it's the second half of my cycle. i'm just patiently (haha) waiting for cycle day 1.

i had one odd thing happen yesterday. i took a couple days off of doing the ovulens, thinking nothing would really show up at this stage. well i did it yesterday morning and much to my surprise i had a full strong lens of ferns. i'm not sure what it was exactly that caused this, but anna and i have a couple theories. tuesday night i had alot of trouble falling asleep so i got up to have a snack. i had an apple with peanut butter and a mug of soy milk. when i went back to bed, i didn't brush my teeth again. theory one is that the salt from the p.b. affected the results, or perhaps, less likely, the estrogen that is in the soy milk (naturally occurring) affected it. the second theory is that i'm having enough of a late cycle spike of estrogen to show up.

i'm leaning more to the second theory because this morning had the same results. the fern weren't as large. i made sure to brush my teeth thoroughly after my snack. hmmm...

we got a new book "taking charge of your fertility". it seems to have a lot of the same things i've already discovered, but i'm still liking it so far. it had some color pictures in the back of nifty things (not for the squeamish). it showed the cervix before ovulation, at ovulation, and after. way cool. it also showed different types of cervical mucus. yes, this is kind of an icky concept, but seriously who hasn't wondered "is this normal?". pictures are a good thing.

speaking of icky concepts and how this makes us feel uncomfortable. i'm finding out so much about my body that no one ever talked to me about. it shouldn't be this way. the more we know about the natural workings of our body, the more we are able to help ourselves. we can have control over our reproduction, our health, our ailments. it also isn't complicated! i still trust doctors and those in the medical profession (my RNP is totally supportive), but by being more personally aware we can have a better relationship with these people. doctors don't need to be scary. we don't need to have unnecessary tests. we don't need unnecessary prescriptions.

i was surprised recently when i was talking to wonderful friend who i adore. she admitted that she was weirded out reading some of my blogs because i talk about things like mucus. this concerns me because if she's weirded out reading this maybe she won't feel comfortable talking with a doctor about what's going on with her body.

just a bit of rambling:) i just care about all my lady friends and think they should know their lady bits.

ovulation!

so i did my bbt* this morning at my usual wake-up time and it read 97.66. this is much higher than my reading yesterday, 97.13. thus, OVULATION! hehe:) my ovulens also was half full of ferns, big ones at that. so most likely, i ovulated yesterday.

i've read a bit more about the ovulens because i wanted to know exactly what it was showing me. during the first half of your cycle (cd-cycle day, starts with your period), also called the follicular phase, your estrogen level is rising. when this happens the salinity (concentration of dissolved salts) in your saliva is increasing. so when i spit on the little ovulens and let it dry, what i'm really seeing is crystallized salt. when progesterone kicks in, after ovulation, this salinity drops away.

also, your temperature is lower when your estrogen is pumping, and higher with progesterone. the second half of the cycle is called the luteal phase.


it is sooo interesting what your body does. i had no idea about all of this till a month ago. i mean i read about it in 'the new essential guide to lesbian conception, pregnancy, and birth', but to see it is very different.

some the info i put in here today came from this website: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/gettingpregnant/understandingovulation.html

*basal body temperature