Weddingbee boards

I've been trying to get into the habit of charting, though I fell off the bandwagon a little because I got sick, we got foster bottle baby kittens, and I was at day 20 and still not seeing any changes (my cycle is still way off from going off of BC). But while I was doing it, it was confused as to whether or not I'm supposed to take my temp every day at the same time, or do I just take it when I wake up before I get out of bed? Just wondering because on weekends, I tend to stay up much later and sleep in longer, so if I take my temp at my usual 9am, I don't always have the recommended 8hours or whatever. Thanks for any help!

Chart at the exact same time every day. For me, I set the alarm on my thermometer to go off at 7 AM. On weekdays, I just get up afterward. On weekends, I just go back to sleep afterwards. Every hour late increases your temp by 1/10th of a degree, so if you were to take it say 3 hours late on the weekends, you would see all these inaccurate 3/10 degree peaks on your chart. This will make it extra hard to determine both where your coverline should go and also when your temp spikes.

Thanks :) I had been taking it at the same time every day when I was doing it, but with the kittens that made it hard cause I had to get up at random times to feed them. I'm going to hopefully start back up once I get my period (though who knows when THAT will be).

oh, and I want to add that I've heard good things about that book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, but since we aren't TTC or anything (just trying to figure out my cycle since going off BC) I'm reluctant to buy it.

While you are getting off BC, temp at the same time every day. Make a note in the margin if something was funny (you got up a lot during the night, drank a lot the night before, woke up late, etc.) so that you can take that into account if the pattern looks off.

Regardless, while you are getting the hormones out of your system it will probably be hard to see a temperature pattern. It was for me for about 2 months getting off BC. Give it a few months and you should start to see the rhythm and get a feel for what your normal temperatures are for certain parts of the cycle. Like pre-ovulation my temps are usually around 97.6-97.8 and post-ovulation they are 98.2-98.4. Yours will be a little different though I'm sure, but the 0.4-degree difference will be the same.

Now that I have been doing this for several years, I find that taking my termperature a bit late does not really impact my readings. But before you get lazy I would try to be very consistent about it! Also, Taking Charge of Your Fertility is not a book about TTC; it just explains the charting method for all situations. You can probably find it at your library if you don't want to spend the $. 

I've been off of BC for almost 6 months now. It sucks. I've had 2 periods (not including the withdrawal bleed right after stopping). Tomorrow will be day 40 of my cycle and still no period. I take a pregnancy test every now and then just to be sure, but still. I think I'm just going to have to go to the doctor soon.