The stats listed at the top of this and following entries are the fertility signs that I monitor. For the benefit of those readers who have no inkling about what I'm talking, I'll try to elaborate a bit. I don't want to get too detailed and turn this journal into a lecture (I'm done with classes, thank you very much), but I don't want to be speaking Greek either.

Cycle 1, Day 13

Self-explanatory, I think. This is the first cycle we've been "trying," and I'm on the thirteenth day. The first day of a cycle is the first day of a menstrual period, hereonafter referred to as "Aunt Flo" or "AF" for ease of typing.

Temp

Basal Body Temps. Taken when I first wake up, usually around 6:15 AM. Normally these run low, but after ovulation they jump up and remain up either until AF or for the next nine months, depending on capricious fate. I've linked a chart of my BBT's for the month, so ya'll can help me obsess. Oh, and all temps are in Fahrenheit degrees.

Cervical Mucus

By far the most fun fertility sign to chart. Women's bodies do some really disgusting, yet highly helpful, things around ovulation to help them make babies. A few days before, the body starts making lots and lots of cervical mucus, which changes in color and consistency as ovulation approaches. Right now I have no discernible cervical mucus; I'll elaborate on what the various kinds are and what they mean as they appear.

Cervix

Well, obviously. But what you may not know is that it changes position as egg-time comes closer. It rises way up, the opening gets wider, and the whole thing gets mushy. It's tricky to check, but after a few cycles you get the hang of it.

So that's the scoop. Anybody thoroughly bored yet? Yeah, it's pretty dry stuff (at least, at this point in my cycle, snicker snicker), but I hope that's the last I'll be writing like that. I mean, once the definitions are out of the way, things liven up a touch.

Eric says he prefers to think of himself as "not not trying;" I think that's so he can both avoid disappointment and even be surprised if it happens. That's fine for him, but I'm afraid I can't operate that way. Knowing what all the symptoms are, how in the world could I not notice them? I guess we're only mostly actively trying, then, but once you've committed to having unprotected sex during your fertile time, that's pretty much as "active" as you can get without bringing in doctors.