Period Math, Conception and Preparation

My husband and I have will just be starting four months of trying to have child #2. Before this I never really knew "period math." This post may seem too personal but what is a blog if not personal? I first started menstrating at age 8, yes that is no joke, and to me, there was no reason to count. I only marked the start and end of each period so I could know how long I would have to worry about pads and tampons, and that was good enough for me.

With Evelyn, we tried one time and it worked but this time it's not as easy. I didn't realize how much work some people have to put in to getting pregnant. So I have been trying to map out my ovulation time but I found that I have a very long cycle. I knew it was long but with my cycle being an average of 36 days, and it being irregular, makes it hard to know exactly when I will ovulate. I really didn't realize how blessed we were last time.


The Way Period Math Works:

Day 1 is the first day you start bleeding. You continue that count until the day before you start to bleed again. Example: You begin to bleed on July 1st. July 1st is Day 1 of your menstration. You finish bleeding July 5th, Day 5. The next time you start to bleed, if your menstral cycle is average, you should start to bleed again on July 29th. Ovulation is about half way from start to finish, on Day 14 if you have the average womans cycle, 28 days and it is regular, meaning every cycle is exactly or with in a day of being 28 days long. The actual ovulation process lasts a max of 24 hours. That leaves a very small window to concieve. Luckily, sperm can live for 3-5 days waiting for the egg to drop. Having sex every day can lower sperm count in each ejaculation. Doing it spearingly can do the same thing. I am not an expert in any of this, but from the research I have done online for the past three months, researching almost everyday, I would say, the best thing to do to concieve, is to have sex every three days and be sure that you have sex the day before, the day of and the day after you calcutated your ovulation in case you are off on your numbers. The absolutly easiest way to make sure you know when you are ovulating is to use ovulation detection. You can get them at any drugstore and places like Target and Wal-Mart. It gets expensive if you still aren't getting pregnant for months, but if you have been trying and you're unsure about your ovulation period...I would say spend the money, it may work that first time you use them.

My example is based on the cycle of the average, young, healthy woman. It is very important to mark on a calender the days you start to bleed. If you are not trying to concieve it is still a very important thing to do. A change in your menstral cycle could be the sign of different medical conditions that you could not be aware of or that are beginning to arise. It will take several months to really know the average days of your menstral cycle and if you are young, in your teens, it will change with time giving you another reason to keep track of your cycle. As well as if you are in your 50s reaching menopause age, the cycle will lengthen and eventually end entirely. Some women are very regular and are the same every cycle. Some women, like me, are very irregular. My cycle,this year has ranged from 30 days to 41 days. That makes it very hard in my situation as we try to have another baby. I knew that my cycle was long because I started about the same time each month growing up. When I hit about age 18, my cycle got a bit shorter. I have gained a lot of weight in the past five years, and now my cycle is very irregular because of it.

Usual factors that can cause irregularity in a womans menstral cycle:

-excessive weight gain or loss -being overweight or underweight

-hormonal changes, example: hitting milestone years, 18, 25, 30 etc.

-stress

-sudden lifestyle change; becoming sexually active can throw your period off at the start or change it permenatly, starting an intense exercise program especially if you don't normally exercise or even just suddenly starting to exercise can change your cycle

If You are Trying to Concieve

When trying to concieve you need to treat yourself as if you are already pregnant.
 

1) Keep yourself as stress free as you can. I know that can be difficult having a family, home and all that implies but learning breathing exercises can help enough to ready your body for a baby

2) Take your pre-natal vitamin with DHA in it or supplement with a DHA pill

3) Do low impact exercise such as yoga or walking, keeping heathly helps keep away stress also

4) Eating healthy

5) Getting plenty of sleep

6) Don't carry very heavy things. The fetus is very sensitive and putting too much strain on you body can cause damage.

7) Do not at-home-test until you have a missed period. I say this because I get very excited and in doing so I waste home pregnancy tests and it started to get expensive because I get too excited about baby #2

Preparation is key to having a child. If you prepare your body, your baby will have a safe environment to grow. If you prepare the nursery, your baby will have a safe place that is their own or one they share with a sibling to grow in. If you prepare yourself to teach your child about what is right and what is wrong they will have a strong will to be able to grow in this world that we live in. Preparation is key.


What I need to Do to Prepare for Baby #2

1) cut majority of fatty foods

2) get Evelyn on regular sleeping schedule

3) get myself on a regular sleeping schedule

4) remember to take prenatal pill

5) have patience, remember that the best things in life are worth waiting a lifetime for!

I think just 5 goals at a time will be the best way to go. I bought a dry erase word bubble from Crate and Barrel that I had kept in the kitchen with notes on it. I put that into the bathroom with a reminder and check list of taking my prenatal and I have #5 up there too. I get too excited about the possibility of becoming pregnant again that I test too early and end up just wasting a test. They get expensive when you jump the gun too much. So I remind myself with the word bubble.

Remember, the best things in life
are worth waiting a lifetime for.

Updates of Goals

Well, let me say first that I'm sorry that I am a horrible blogger! I don't know if anyone out there has read my blog but I am back!

Updates on what I have done with my house. My goal was to simplify. I rid myself of the entertainment unit we had that was no longer needed and I rearranged, again, to help the living room feel cozier. Before, it was too open for the amount of things we have.

I rearranged the master bedroom and I think I prefer it the new way. When we get our little girl out of our room, along with her toddler bed, we can buy a nice chaise or a chair and ottoman for a reading/sitting corner which is something that I have always wanted in a master bedroom.

We also took the bed out of the guest room, wrapped them and stood them up in the one car garage. So now the office is only an office, only it has become the room that we put things in so Evelyn and the cat won't get them. So that needs to be worked on.

The kitchen is mostly the same. I took an extra cabinet from when my husband and his father put in the kitchen before we met, it had been sitting in the masterbath not being used, and put it in the kitchen. It is now my "can cabinet." Other than that the kitchen is still the way I want it and like it to be.

With part of our tax return we did a micro remodel on the house bath; new curtain rod (the curved type to give us elbow room), new hooks and new curtain. Just a couple of days ago I added a few new touches to the bathroom to complete it. When we moved in, two of the walls in the bathroom were painted brown. Yeah, brown? The family that was renting before us had the theme as whales and bubbles taken from a hand towel and it had brown circles so they painted two walls brown and had brown vinyl circles on the other two white walls. We took down the circles right away and intended to paint the whole room white with a little yellow duckies scene because that was the theme we had. The new shower curtain is fabric, white backdrop with a large brown tree and two blue birds. Since we had a ducky theme we had blue towels and a blue rug. It worked out so perfectly I was suprised. I alao traded a yellow cup we kept our teeth cleaning supplies and put them in a Mason jar. I also put Yardley lavender bar soap on a larger Mason jar with the lid on to keep them feesh. Also the lid is a stainless steel look which is the finish on most of the fixtures. Another neat occurance. I cleared out the top of the counter leaving only mouth wash, vitamins and a large pump bottle of lotion.

Evelyn's room needed some totes and boxes to organize the ever growing amount of toys she has. A few years ago, my husbands family went to Disneyland. We didn't get to because I was due with Evelyn that week of the trip. It had been planned just when we found out, before we told anyone. At Disneyland they bought a big Mr. Potato Head and filled it with all kinds of pieces. The boys didn't play with it much, it only made a mess so that was pasted down to Evelyn. She loves Mr. Potato Head. My mother bought some "school boxes" and that helped to contain the chaos.

The livingroom, that is a story. I rearranged it four times in one day to get it where it is now. We have one of those old big screen tvs that my uncle and aunt gave us when the bought a giant flatscreen. I put it into a corner next to our large window and put our section back together. I had seperated it to give us more space but that eneded up only making the livingroom look as if it was empty. We bought a cheap black tall shelf from Wal-Mart and put all our movies and some books, albums and family binders on it. After rearraging the tv and sectional, I grabbed a drifter piano bench and made it the coffee table. It worked nicely, had space for a medium basket with books and two lap blankets under it. I bought a wooden sign with glass style nobs on it from Hobby Lobby, was only $22 on sale from I think $60. Love those sales. I hung that up in the foyer, we have a distictive foyer now instead of empty space! I hung large tags I made and wrote our names on each one. I have been wanting to buy a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster. It's red and that is the accent color in the livingroom. Wal-Mart had one, with their "I'm a cool college dorm room poster" section with frams to accent them with. I got a black frame and the red Carry On poster. The frame wasn't big enough so I had to use black Duck Tape to "reframe." It still has that sheen to it and you can only tell something is different if you really look at the poster.

A long post to make up for taking so long to post again. I hope I get better at this. I will add a few pictures soon to show my work of the house.