Em
August 8th 03, 10:22 PM
"Ilse Witch" > wrote in message
> This question came up in a thread about ovulation kits, so
> not all of you might have seen it, and it was on my mind to
> ask anyway: when AF comes around, as it did again this month
> (bummer!) I first have a few days of brown spotting, about
> two, and then the flow starts for a few days like it used
> to. This is new to me, started this way since AF returned
> after delivery. However, what do I count as the first day
> of my cycle??
Sorry that AF showed for you :-( I don't have an "official" answer to your
question, but will share my experience (I actually had your post in the
ovulation thread marked unread so that I could respond to that one, but I
will here instead!). When I went off the pill to TTC, I also had a pattern
of several days of brown spotting before the real deal. This was very
different that my pre-pill pattern (no spotting, much heavier flow). While I
noted those days on my calendar, I didn't count them as the beginning of my
cycle. I waited until I actually had real bleeding to count as day 1. The
other odd feature of my post-pill cycles was that I only had about 2 days of
real bleeding (and it was light) followed my 4-5 *more* days of spotting. I
did count those following days of spotting as part of my cycle and didn't
write "last day" on my calendar until they were gone (see what I mean about
not being an "official" answer?! ;-) It took us five cycles like that to
conceive (though the first three had mitigating circumstances that made
success those months unlikely). I didn't have any really noticeable CM
changes to help us decide when O-day was, so we just concentrated our
"efforts" around cycle days 12-18 (meaning 12-18 days since the first day of
real bleeding, so it looks like I was right to count it like I did, since we
did get pregnant!).
HTH a little! Good luck to you!
--
Em
edd 9/23/03
(33 weeks)
> This question came up in a thread about ovulation kits, so
> not all of you might have seen it, and it was on my mind to
> ask anyway: when AF comes around, as it did again this month
> (bummer!) I first have a few days of brown spotting, about
> two, and then the flow starts for a few days like it used
> to. This is new to me, started this way since AF returned
> after delivery. However, what do I count as the first day
> of my cycle??
Sorry that AF showed for you :-( I don't have an "official" answer to your
question, but will share my experience (I actually had your post in the
ovulation thread marked unread so that I could respond to that one, but I
will here instead!). When I went off the pill to TTC, I also had a pattern
of several days of brown spotting before the real deal. This was very
different that my pre-pill pattern (no spotting, much heavier flow). While I
noted those days on my calendar, I didn't count them as the beginning of my
cycle. I waited until I actually had real bleeding to count as day 1. The
other odd feature of my post-pill cycles was that I only had about 2 days of
real bleeding (and it was light) followed my 4-5 *more* days of spotting. I
did count those following days of spotting as part of my cycle and didn't
write "last day" on my calendar until they were gone (see what I mean about
not being an "official" answer?! ;-) It took us five cycles like that to
conceive (though the first three had mitigating circumstances that made
success those months unlikely). I didn't have any really noticeable CM
changes to help us decide when O-day was, so we just concentrated our
"efforts" around cycle days 12-18 (meaning 12-18 days since the first day of
real bleeding, so it looks like I was right to count it like I did, since we
did get pregnant!).
HTH a little! Good luck to you!
--
Em
edd 9/23/03
(33 weeks)