Primal Decision
Yes, I am talking about that intense feeling you get that drives a woman to have a baby! It is such a primal feeling. But it hit! Hard. And so the conversations were sparked, the idea was given time to set in, and a year after marriage we were both ready!!
It was only after embarking on this journey that research revealed to me that there was so much I had not known about making a baby! All my life I thought it was just:
1+1= baby
No way! It's turned out more like this:
4 Months Before Conception
For the first 2 months after making the decision to discard all intercourse protection (yay!), we were just on a high checking and double checking for the very FIRST symptoms and signs that my darling husband's sperm won the race so we can celebrate and say "O my, what competitive athletes you have!" :) Oh but of course, the lining of my womb faithfully shed as it always did...and then the day came when we were booked into have a full body check at a wonderful wellness center. Oh my goodness, I can not stress enough how important it is to have this check done, especially if you are trying to conceive!!
What we discovered:
My iron levels were lower than low! This meant that I was getting through each day on adrenaline instead of energy and that in turn made my thyroid glands work 100 times harder than it actually should and so it was not in optimum health at all. And what ALL this means was that it was causing me to not ovulate(produce eggs) every month! So obviously the sperm race was in vain because they were racing towards a non-existent egg!
My folic acid levels were low - extremely important for pregnancy.
My instructions were to not make a baby until these levels were up first. It would be impossible anyway, because my body was not primed for pregnancy just yet.
And so began my next journey into making my womb an inviting and safe place for future baby.
I had also begun research into ovulation and that opened up so many doors of knowledge that I found absolutely crucial to know. It is something definitely worth sharing, so here we go:
Two very important things happen simultaneously when you ovulate and you need to become familiar with it...
1.) Cervical mucus. You need to recognize the different types of your mucus throughout your menstrual cycle to get a clear idea of when you ovulate. That means, feeling it, looking at it, smearing it between your fingers! YES! It does sound gross, but it's a part of your body and you get to know this different part of yourself that you never did! How awesome is that! I enjoyed it - I actually felt proud of my body after monitoring it every week and saw the developments and improvements :) (Well done body!!)
2.) Cervix positioning. Your cervix changes position 3 times throughout your menstrual cycle. You need to understand when and why those positions occur which confirm ovulation on another level. It means sticking your finger up there and feeling around to confirm which stage you're at.
Sounds fun doesn't it! ;)
Cervical Mucus: The Details
These are the stages of cervical mucus after your period ends:
dry, flaky or no mucus --> moist, watery, creamy --> thick, sticky, egg-white, stretchy
Checking your cervical mucus every few days to see which phase it is in will give you a pretty good indicator of where you are in your cycle and how close you are to ovulation. The key here is to catch the egg-white mucus in time so you can do the magical deed to conceive. The egg white, stretchy mucus creates a wonderful environment for sperm to survive, thrive and move through obstacles quick enough to reach your ovaries.
When you see this, drop what you're doing and drag your baby-making companion into the bedroom (or the closest convenient spot) ;)
Cervix: Where are you???
After your period ends, upon investigating, you should find that your cervix is positioned low and feels quite hard. Alot of people refer to it as the tip of a nose. So when you do decide to look for it, feel around for a hard nose :/
There is also an opening in your cervix that you may be able to feel. It's closed when the cervix is hard but as it softens, the opening becomes wider, more inviting so to speak.
As you proceed through your cycle, your cervix will begin to move a higher up and feel a little softer than it was before and nearing the end of your cycle, when you are producing egg white mucus (the most fertile), your cervix will be way up there and squishy soft. This allows it to open up and make it easier for sperm to travel into. It's like a light at the beginning of a tunnel for sperm.
low cervix, hard --> med cervix, med soft--> high cervix, squishy soft
If you are really interested in seeing these phases in full colour, I suggest you visit this link:
Beautiful Cervix Project. This woman photographed the inside of her vagina everyday of her 33 day cycle and commented on what you see in terms of cervical mucus, cervix positioning and body symptoms. It's worth a look!
Final overview:
dry, flaky or no mucus --> moist, watery, creamy --> thick, sticky, egg-white, stretchy -->
--low cervix, hard-- --med cervix, med soft-- --high cervix, squishy soft--
~infertile~ ~slightly fertile~ ~very fertile~
Woohoo! In my next blog, I will be touching on the instrument that got me waking up at 7am everyday. It's quite fun to use, a BBT thermometer! :) Measuring your Basal Body Temperature every morning and making sure if it corresponds to your mucus and cervix is so reassuring that you are on the correct track and that your body is playing ball!
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it! :)
Lots of Love,
Dhiya & Shahn
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