A few tips that I've read about charting to share with you:
- The first day of your period is Day 1 of your cycle. This does not include spotting. Start Day 1 on the first day that you need a pad or a tampon.
- Be sure to take your BBT at the same time every day. I plan to keep my thermometer under my pillow and take my temperature as soon as my alarm goes off every morning.
- Drinking, a lack a sleep, and other variables, my give you an inaccurate BBT reading. If you think that this is a possibility, you should mark you temperature for that day as "Questionable"
- You ovulate about 2 weeks before your period. This won't be helpful until you've charted for a few months and have a general idea of how long your cycle is.
- You can easily check your cervical mucus by taking a look at your toilet paper after you've wiped. This is definitely one of those extras that you don't have to track, but the more information you track the better you can predict you're fertility. If you're interested, read more about cervical mucus and fertility here.
- OPKs (ovulation prediction kits) are another extra. They are little strips that you can test your urine with and they look for a hormone surge which occurs roughly 36 hours before you ovulate. If you're interested, this is the set that I ordered.
- Timing is everything! Sperm can live for three to five days, but your egg only hangs around for 12 to 24 hours. This means that there are only 4 to 6 days every cycle that you can get pregnant. To cover your bases, they recommend having sex every other day starting 5 days before you ovulate through 2 days after you ovulate.
