Lessons Learned from Cycle 1

As my first cycle charting has come to a close with the appearance of AF this morning, I'm reflecting over then things I've learned from charting this first cycle:

1. I'm ovulating! Woohoo. I was so nervous that my body wasn't back in the groove yet and I wouldn't be ovulating.

2. I learned that my type A personality doesn't mesh so well with TTC. I've been trying to temp every morning at 6:15, but I'm such an overachiever that I get up at 5:30 half the time. I know it may result in some open circles, but I'm just going to relax about the whole temping at the same time thing. I need to get some sleep.

3. I learned that having a BBT actually matters. I've charted this whole cycle with a digital thermometer. About half-way through I got around to buying a BBT. They show similar trends, but the digital almost always shows a higher temp than the BBT. Even though they are both showing similar trends, using an actual BBT gives me some peace of mind that my chart isn't being governed by some glitch with my thermometer.

4. I learned what my CM looks like. It makes so much more sense now that I've seen all the different types of CM.

5. I learned to check my cervical position, but am still clueless about the texture and opening stuff.

6. Lastly, I learned that it's called a 2 week wait, not a 2 week obsess over every twinge you feel, or a 2 week pretend you're already pregnant. It's a time for waiting, which I suck at.

Overall, I'm a little bummed that this cycle didn't work out, but I'm not particularly surprised. I went into this thinking it would take me awhile to get pregnant. However, once I ovulated and saw that our timing was good, I did get my hopes up a bit.

My luteal phase was just 10 days, which is on the short side. The good thing about it is that my 2ww is actually just a 10 day wait, but that bad thing is that I need to give any prospective babies time to implant. My overall cycle was 34 days, which is the shortest I've had since I've been off BCP. Shorter cycles = more chances, so that's good news.