We had been trying to conceive for 11 months before I decided to start charting my temperature in the hope of understanding my body a little better. I had heard a lot of people talking about it on the internet forum I frequented but having looked at a couple of charts thought it all looked a little complicated! More over I had been so determined to be “laid back” about all of this trying to conceive malarky and charting would just come across too obsessive…….but who was I kidding! I was already obsessed! If anything I hoped that at this point charting would help to calm me down as, all going well, it would reassure me that my body was doing what it should be doing, i.e. ovulating.

I went out and bought a digital thermometer and signed up for free on the Fertility Friend website (www.fertilityfriend.com). It really was rather simple! The essence of “charting” is you have to take your temperature at more or less the same time every day, that is when you wake up first thing in the morning, after at least 3 hours of consistent sleep, and take it before you do anything, i.e. don’t get out of bed, don’t go to the bathroom, etc.

I was still too embarrassed to admit to my husband that I had started to track my fertility..…..I didn’t want it to become a passion killer (!).I used to put my mobile phone under my pillow with the alarm set so I would be a diligent charting student taking it at the same time each day. Once semi-conscious I took my temperature quickly, all the while maintaining a horizontal “I’m still asleep” position to ensure a) minimal movement and b) not to make it obvious to my still sleeping husband that I was up to anything! Once the reading was complete I shoved the thermometer under the pillow as soon as it started to beep, again so as not to rouse any suspicion with the father of my future child, and as soon as it had stopped took it into the bathroom to make a note of that day’s reading. All I had to do after that (phew) was input my temperature onto the website on the appropriate day and the program did the rest for me - informing me when I had ovulated, what my most fertile days had been, etc, etc. Perfect!

Or was it?

To be continued