I love charting! You know, the process of taking your temperature every morning with a body basal thermometer in order to help pinpoint if and when you’re ovulating. I’ve been a charter for almost three years — since January 2010 when my then-fiance and I decided to use it to prevent pregnancy.

So I charted. I had seven months of charts under my belt before we got married. I charted for another 12 months that first year. Then we changed from “trying to avoid pregnancy” to “trying to achieve pregnancy”! I was lucky enough to get pregnant that first month.

Here’s the deal though: I don’t think it was all luck. Knowing where I was in my cycle at any given moment gave my husband and me the education we needed to do almost all that we could to raise our conception chances. I know that even with that knowledge, pregnancy isn’t guaranteed, and it can still take a healthy couple a year to get pregnant. I just think knowing your fertility can help boost your chances. It takes much of the guesswork out of the equation. One of the best parts is that it costs almost nothing to do! All you need is a BBT thermometer (around $10) and some graph paper.  You can even do it online using a charting tool.

And now that we’re trying for baby number two, I’m charting again. In fact, I started charting again as soon as my cycle returned at nine weeks postpartum. Honestly, without charting, I would feel lost! As an example, my last cycle was 80 days long. That is not typical for me at all. (It always seems that as soon as you try to get pregnant, that’s when your body starts doing things it has never done before!)  But I’m also only six months postpartum, so things are likely to be a little wacky for a while. With an 80 day cycle, I probably would’ve spent the last 50 days of that cycle absolutely convinced that I was pregnant if I wasn’t charting. Why else would I not have a period? I would have taken test after test after test and continued to get a negative result. I probably would have called the doctor in panic (“I’m pregnant, but these tests keep lying to me!” ) And I’d probably ask the doctor for an appointment and blood test.

The pregnancy tests wouldn’t have been lying. The doctor’s appointment would have been unnecessary. The blood test would be more wasted money. I simply hadn’t ovulated yet. In fact, I didn’t ovulate until day 68 of my cycle. Because I had that knowledge, I didn’t waste money on pregnancy tests. I didn’t waste my doctor’s time. I didn’t stress out about being pregnant. I didn’t spend hours angry that the pregnancy test makers were churning out defective products. I didn’t have to play the “Am I? Aren’t I?” game for weeks on end. I might have been confused about why my body hadn’t ovulated yet, but at least I knew that it hadn’t.

I’m convinced that there isn’t anything that’s easier and cheaper to help you get pregnant. While charting isn’t for everyone, it’s a great tool. For $10, you garner tons of information on your body. Even if you don’t get pregnant in that first year, you still have a wealth of information to take to your doctor. Your charts can help show whether or not you’re ovulating in the first place and can clue you into a potential problem later in your cycle. Your charts will help show that you’re timing intercourse correctly. Without charting, it adds a little more complexity into the situation. I love it and I’ll probably chart my way right into menopause (in many, many years!)

Did you chart your cycle while you were trying to conceive? How long did it take you to get pregnant?

We know when we’re ready to have a baby, but do we know when our body is ready for us to do the babymaking deed? Apparently not.

A survey conducted by Monash University in Melbourne Australia found that most women don’t know when they’re fertile. Researchers polled 204 women who were seeking treatment at assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinics in the city. They found that 68 percent of patients believed they correctly timed sex to their most fertile days, but  only 13 percent actually did so.

Lead researcher Kerry Hampton says knowing when to have sex is key to conception.

“Accurately timed intercourse on fertile days of the menstrual cycle may reduce the time it takes a couple to get pregnant, helping some to avoid unnecessary ART treatment,” Hampton said in an interview with MSNBC. She adds that the lack of knowledge may be a contributing cause of infertility.

Do you know when it’s time to conceive?

Plus more from The Bump:

Scary! Fertility Treatments Could Cause PTSD!

Tool: Fertility Chart

How to Deal When Everyone else is Pregnant (And You’re Still Trying)

My husband and I did everything “right”. We got married, we traveled, we saved money, we bought a house, and after five years of being married, we were ready to be parents on paper and in our hearts. We excitedly stopped using protection and assumed that would be enough to get pregnant and have a baby. Simple, right? Not so much. We did conceive reasonably fast, but I ended up miscarrying in the shower just after telling my parents I was pregnant. I dramatically cried out in shock – I had no idea that this was even possible (and I thought I was an educated 30 year old woman!)

My whole world crumbled and I felt totally alone, completely shouldering the responsibility for the loss and of taking away the dream of a child from everyone: my husband, the would-be first time grandparents. But as time is known to do, slowly, gently, I got my courage back. And like a bad re-run I got pregnant and miscarried again. When I confided in friends, I’d hear well-meaning things like “oh, it must not have been meant to be” (I’m not meant to be a mother?!), “chin up, you can try again” (yah, in two months when I finally ovulate again!), and the worst “well, at least you know you can get pregnant”. (Really? ‘Cuz either way I’m not having a baby.) I couldn’t get over how out of control I felt in the process. I was doing everything right and it still wasn’t working. What was wrong with me?

Almost a year of long, abnormal cycles followed. Hundreds of basal temperatures recorded and cervical mucus examinations later and finally I got pregnant a third time. But there were no celebratory cheers or calls made. The joy of getting pregnant was gone for me by then. How could I know it would last? I was more nervous and worried during that pregnancy than any other (to the point of heart palpitations so bad I needed a heart monitor), and I stressed out about being stressed out. But just to spite the friends that said “I’m sure when you stop stressing about it, it’ll happen”, this was the pregnancy that lasted. My son is 9 years old now and has defied “average” every step of the way.

Plus more from The Bump

How to Cope with Miscarriage

Emotions After a Miscarriage

Why Do Miscarriages Happen?

Trying to get pregnant can be a stressful process, but a new movie turns it into comedy.  I caught this trailer over the weekend and thought it was pretty hilarious. The Babymakers, starring Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn, is about a couple, Tommy and Audrey, who are having problems conceiving. After seeing a fertility specialist, Tommy and Audrey learn that Paul has a low sperm count. Desperate and worried about his marriage, Tommy recruits his buddies to help him rob a sperm bank where he had donated in the past (to get money to buy Audrey an engagement ring). Of course, hilarity ensues.

TTC can be a serious and sometimes scary thing to go through, but it doesn’t hurt to keep it light sometimes, right? It might be a good way to keep things positive. The movie comes out on August 3rd if you want to check it out.

What do you think of this movie? Will you go see it?

Plus, more from The Bump:

“What to Expect” Movie Has Enough Pregnancy Angst

All About Fertility and Ovulation

How Much Fertility Treatments Really Cost

Don’t pressure your guy too much if you’re trying to get pregnant. According to the Daily Mail, if you put a lot of pressure on your partner during ovulation time, it can drive him away. Researchers found that because of babymaking pressure, one in 10 men who’d been trying to conceive with their partners for about a year had an affair and four out of 10 men claimed the pressure to make a baby made them impotent.

When the guys were forced to have sex because it was ovulation time, their stress levels increased — which could have affected their testosterone levels. Experts wrote in the study, “It is clear that the greater instances of timed intercourse trials, the more incidences of erectile dysfunction and extramarital sex and the greater the desire to avoid sex with the intended partner.” Timing sex with ovulation made sex a burden for some guys. Researchers suggest that couples try timing sex and ovulation for no more than three months in a row and take a break for a few months in between to de-stress.

Do you think timing sex causes stress? Are you or your guy stressed about babymaking?

Plus, more from The Bump:

How to Stay Sane During the Two-Week Wait

Worst Getting Pregnant Advice Ever

Timing is Everything: Get Pregnant Faster

Europe’s tough fertility treatment rules have been getting a lot of buzz lately. In the U.S., it’s pretty easy for couples and single women to get IVF or artificial insemination. But according to CBS News, lesbian couples and single women aren’t allowed to get IVF in France and Italy. Austria and Italy ban sperm and egg donations, and Germany and Norway ban donating eggs only. Couples in Sweden have to prove that they’ve been in a stable relationship for about a year in order to get fertility treatments and in almost every country in Europe, couples can’t hire a surrogate.

Many experts both in Europe and the U.S. believe these restrictions are outdated and prejudiced. The reasons for these bans? CBS News reports that some countries believe it creates “unnatural” relationships between the donor, parents and children. For other countries, there are religious and cultural concerns behind these laws.

What do you think of these restrictions? Do you think these laws should be updated?

If you’re trying to conceive, you might be doing a number of things to track your fertility, like counting the days of your menstrual cycle and taking your basal body temperature. And now there’s one more detail that might help you know when you’re most fertile: The number of sex fantasies you’re having. According to LiveScience, a new study from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada women may have more sex fantasies when they’re ovulating.

Researchers got 27 heterosexual women (most of them were college-aged) to keep track of their daily sexual fantasies in an online diary for a month. The women weren’t on birth control and took drugstore ovulation tests during each of the 10 days they would most likely ovulate. The average number of sexual fantasies for each woman was 0.77 a day, but around the time the women ovulated, those fantasies increased an average of 1.3 a day.

Very convenient, since if it’s the right time of the month for babymaking, you’re going to want to have an increased sex drive.

Do your sexual fantasies increase when you’re ovulating? What do you think of this study?