10 DPO and, as always, confused.

Well, my BBT was slightly down this morning yet still above the coverline. Completely consistent with my usual 10 DPO but not quite as low. My boobs are still really sore, though, and that usually goes away around 8 DPO for me. I'm having crazy vivid dreams and a lot of them have to do with taking care of children, adopting children, finding children, being pregnant, having a little baby, etc.

I've started this thing called Lunaception. The theory being that before electricity, most women experienced their menstrual cycles with the phases of the moon and at more or less the same time as all other women. The method uses light to control ovulation. In practice, all light should be blocked from coming into the bedroom at night. During the three fullest days of the moon (the day of the full moon and the days preceding and following), a small light should shine throughout the night in the room. This can be as simple as a small night-light or desk light. After several months, the menstrual cycle should come into balance with the light. When attempting to conceive, intercourse is had on those three nights when the moon is fullest.

I ovulated this month on the day of the full moon. We started darkening the bedroom and you would not believe how much light you find from little things throughout the house! Now that the bedroom is completely darkened I am having super vivid dreams, even more so than my usual. I fall asleep faster and sleep much more soundly with the darkened room, as well. Since I've struggled with insomnia since the age of 14 I'm glad to have some relief. My insomnia is not consistent and it did rear its ugly head last night but the darkened room seems to help. I told Eric that if we conceive while trying lunaception we're going to have to name the baby Luna if it's a girl! Our little moon baby. So....if for nothing else lunaception is doing great things for my quality of sleep.

On a completely unrelated note, I colored my hair yesterday. I had some great coupons for hair color and snagged a box for like 19¢ but the only color they had left was Dark Auburn. I bought because I thought it would be fun and I used to dye my hair red all the time in my 20's so it's also nostalgic. It's a demi-permanent color that just lasts through 28 washes anyway so it's no biggie if I don't like it. It's pretty red. I look like I poured a bottle of Maraschino Cherries over my head. Not quite as red as the Phoenix from X-Men phase of 2006 (see picture!) and honestly that picture doesn't do it justice. My hair was RED back then. And it was permanent. I was seriously going for a Phoenix red. I know, I'm a Sci-Fi geek.

Back in the TWW

I'm 9 DPO today and, as usual, I am obsessing about symptoms. Every little symptom I have makes me wonder if I could be pregnant and of course there's no way to really know until I test in a few days. Every TWW I'm in I end up obsessing over my charts. I eyeball them until they start to blur together. At this point, though, I am starting to see some consistencies in my charts. I have a longer follicular phase and shorter luteal phase and my symptoms in the luteal phase are rather consistent. Theoretically I should just relax and wait until I can test but my mind goes crazy wondering anyway. I both love and hate the TWW. It's exciting and maddening! I tend to start having some cramping and back pain at 10 DPO and then spotting 11 DPO so the next couple of days will be quite indicative of AF or future kiddo!

Valentine's Day, Kindle Joy, etc.

I've been a little lax in the blog department lately. We've had family visits, family melodrama galore, and the common cold floating around. I'll write about the melodrama later, but for now it's too fresh and if I write about it there will be many curse words. Let's just say for now that ex-wives can be demonic.

So, obviously last month's cycle came and went and I'm onto another. I have one more day of high temps to confirm ovulation and then I'm officially back in the TWW. My cycle has been odd lately with longer follicular phases and shorter luteal phases. I was happy when my usually short luteal phase lengthened with the B6 by several days but it has shrunk down a bit. Meh. It's still longer than it used to be so I shouldn't complain. The lengthening of the follicular phase is a little peculiar, too. Sometimes I just want to scream. But....given the fact that I went years without even having but a couple period per year, I should be tres happy that I have periods at all!

We had a great Valentine's Day this year with mucho romance and fun. I used a computer program called Rasterbator (I know...) to make a huge wall mural of Eric and myself and hung on the wall in our bedroom and then decorated the rest of the bedroom with lots of candles and a giant Hershey's kisses heart of the bed. Cheesy, I realize, but also very fun. We went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and had what is becoming "our usual" there, the spicy tuna roll and the spicy salmon roll. So delicious! My darling Love got me a Kindle for valentine's Day and I absolutely love it! It even passes the bubble bath test. I was a little scared the first time I ventured into a lovely bubble bath, where I love to relax after cleaning or exercising and read a book but I kept a very firm grip on it and it stayed high and dry and worked out fine. Plus I can play games on it. I'm a nut for work puzzles of all kinds, especially things like Wheel of Fortune and the games like Every Word where they give you a set of letters and you make as many words from them as possible. Love 'em. So now I'm really a geek and play Every Word on my Kindle during the commercials of Wheel of Fortune on TV!

My supplies of bath and beauty products have grown so much since becoming a couponer that I've had to get creative with organization. Yesterday we bought an over the door shoe organizer that we attached the the back of the bathroom door to store more stuff. It works great and now I have much more space. I made a list of all the things I'm not allowed to buy because I'm so stocked up and it's pretty long! I can only get those items if they're free. The problem is that there really are a lot of free things I can get every week. I have so much toothpaste it's crazy. I've started just shopping at Rite Aid and Meijer weekly and then I go to the other store only if there's a deal I just can't pass up. I have to hit Kroger today though because I won a prize from an online contest and have to go pick it up there. I usually don't shop there because it's more expensive than Meijer but I will take my coupon binder (I call it my bible) just in case!