Creighton Model Intro Session

On Monday, I roped DH into attending an introductory session of the Creighton Model of Fertility Care with me.  It was a one hour session with an RN who has additionally done another 13 month training in fertility care/charting.


As you all know, I've been watching and learning about my cycles for years (like at least 11 years) but I still learned a couple things.  I highly recommend this class for anyone wishing to avoid pregnancy or for trying to achieve it.



After our first miscarriage back in 2006, I started charting my temps and watching my cervical changes to tell when I ovulated.  I did for that for over 3 years and got completely burned out by it.  I was able to learn enough about my body and know exactly when I ovulated without charting, so I stopped.  Obviously a lot can (and has) changed in my body since almost 8 years ago  We decided to try the Creighton Model for charting and will be meeting with Cathy (our fertility care manager) over the next several months.  I've never had a professional look at my charts before so I'm excited (is excited the right word??) to see what she has to say about them.
 


It's all about the cervical mucus people.  For real.  And I'm going to talk about it so if you're squeamish, look away now!




The Creighton Model of charting is kind of what I had been doing in the past, but on steroids.  Taking my temps every morning isn't necessary but totally acceptable as I'd like a secondary way to show I ovulated.  Like I said earlier, it's all about the mucus.  I have to record every day the type of cervical mucus I have.  Fun right?  Is it stretchy? Cloudy? Clear? Is it sticky? How wet is it?  How FAR does it stretch? One inch? Two?  I record any pain in my ovaries, and what color AF is.  My goal is to find my "Peak" clear stretchy mucus day.  My charts should be able to show abnormalities in hormones, if I have enough fertile days, etc.  I will get referred to a doctor in the area (Cathy works with two) who are trained in NaPro Technologies if anything abnormal is found so they can continue my care.  I've never had to be so descriptive with my mucus before.  When charting about my CM (cervical mucus) in the past, I used 4 labels such as "dry, creamy, wet, or egg white" now I have like 25 ways/codes to explain my discharge. Ha!




I do need to get blood work done.  I'm concerned about my FSH levels at the moment.  I did take a menopause indicator test which measures FSH levels over 25iu in urine.  I'm fairly sure it was negative but I could tell where the "test" line was so I think it's best to have that looked at.  (Though, from what I'm reading, you can't do much about a high FSH level anyway.)  Amazon had a bunch of cheaper tests but all got really bad reviews.  This one from Walgreens was much better so I decided to try it.

What do you guys think? It's one test where I actually didn't want to see two lines!
Top line is the Control.

Fertility Massage

I did my first self fertility massage with a castor oil pack! I roped DH into watching the massage video with me and while he felt it was a bit silly, he's been encouraging and helpful.

Castor oil pack: I covered a piece of flannel with castor oil and placed it on my lower abdomen. I then put on a layer of plastic, added a hot herb pack, and topped everything with a towel. It was way hotter than I was expecting it to be! I was supposed to lie there with all of that on me for 30-60 minutes. I think I made it to 20. 

Then came the massage. I used a product called "Radiant Womb" oil and I have no idea the quality of oils in it but it smelled nice. I've ordered a bunch of essential oils from Young Living but the radiant womb oil will do for now. 

I'm supposed to do the castor oil pack and massage a minimum of 4 times a week for 4-6 weeks. The massage itself is a bit uncomfortable. My stomach (as in the actual stomach organ) is tender but I've read that that should ease up the more I do this. We'll see! 

Back at it

Wow!  It's been WAY too long since I've blogged! I was on a herb fertility kick for a while but honestly, I haven't done much in the way of anything fertility related for a LONG time.  Well, I'm here to say that I'm back to it.


In the back of my mind I had made a decision that we would continue to TTC until I was 35.  Friends, it's getting close.  I have just under two years until 35.  I've been praying and asking God to guide us in the decision to push TTC again (or not). And you know, I actually feel at peace right now about pursuing this one last time.  I'm going to give it a shot (ha! no pun intended) and see what happens. 


A bit ago, my mom discovered NaPro Technologies and got me to look into it.  It's intriguing. Read about it if you have time.  It's more than just for infertility as it's really family planning, but it's something that I've now decided to try.  We'll be doing the Creighton Model through Fertility Care Programs and our first introductory class is this Monday night.  I'll be charting my BBT again (yay! NOT!!!!!) and tracking fertility signs and changes to see where abnormalities lie. Success rates are high, and even those with failed IVF cycles have still achieved pregnancy.  For obvious reasons, I'm not getting my hopes up here, but it's cheaper than IVF and much less invasive.


I've ordered a new BBT thermometer (since I'm assuming I threw mine out a while ago since it's NO where to be found!) , along with OvaBoost , more Ubiquinol (both of those are for egg health) and an at home FSH hormone test. 


I'll do my best to keep you all updated on our progress this time around!

****I've hyperlinked NaPro Technologies, Creighton Model & Ovaboost for your reading pleasure :)