She Says... What now?

Thank you all SO MUCH for your encouragement, support and advice over the past few days. Who knew this babymaking thing could be so complicated?!

Here’s a recap on where we stand:

• First round of Clomid (50mg) started on September 9th (if I had a cycle, that would have been on cycle day 3… since I don’t have a cycle, it was the day I got the drugs in the mail!)
• Started using an ovulation predictor kit (OPK) on September 16th (pseudo cycle day 10)
• I got clear negatives the first few days, and then got somewhat confusing almost-positives on September 19th & 20th
• Then I got the real deal — definitely positive on September 21st (pseudo cycle day 14)
• My willing husband and I “bumped it”, as he jokingly says, every night from September 18th to the 23rd (ok, I guess you all know that the last one was in the afternoon by necessity)
• Then Benjamin left for NYC for work and won’t be back until Saturday night

If the OPK reading was correct, we totally nailed it in terms of timing. In addition to the OPK, I definitely had some physical symptoms that indicate that ovulation occurred on the 21st, including the elusive mittelschmerz (which sounds to me like some sort of Yiddish insult… but is really the term for “middle pain” or cramping from ovulation). Not so comfy. Literally haven’t felt that in, umm, a least a decade… possibly ever! One can never be sure what was going on inside my body pre-birth control. There were a few other symptoms as well, but, in an effort to maintain some sort of personal boundaries, I won’t discuss the details of my cervical mucus on the blog. Ooops, I guess I just did.

So, one would imagine that I’m feeling pretty good right now. Except that I’m not. I’m nervous. And impatient. See, my trusty guide through this process, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, tells me that my temperature should shoot up 12-36 hours after ovulation. The author says a couple trying to conceive should have sex up to and including the morning of the temp shift. If I ovulated on the 21st, then my temp should have shifted this morning. And it didnt. Well, it did a TINY bit (for instance, my normal temps are usually between 97.6 and 98.0 and this morning was 98.2). I was expecting a more dramatic shift. I’ve literally been taking my temperature all day long (and before you respond to this post saying “your temp will shift throughout the day”, “you’re supposed to take it the same time very morning”, blah blah… I know. It’s not rational. But I can’t stop.). So now I’m beginning to doubt my mittelschmerz and the OPK and all the signs that pointed to ovulation a few days ago.

And the real bummer of it all is that I won’t be able to confirm or deny any of these things until October 6th. I have an appointment at Dr. P’s office for a pregnancy test. DID YOU HEAR ME?! MY VERY FIRST PREGNANCY TEST THAT COULD BE POSITIVE! Could someone please fast forward to then? Please?

Anyone out there in the blogosphere have experience with temp charting after ovulation? How much does it really go up? Is it possible that it won’t go up, but I still ovulated? How’s a girl to know?