OPK Craziness….

So if you are trying to conceive (or TTC – but I will save my annoyance with abbreviations for another post), more than likely you have peed on your fair share of ovulation predication kits (OPKs).  I recently joined that little sorority and was floored by how difficult it is to use these tests.

Now, my husband and I do not have fertility issues.  We got pregnant with the twins on the first go around and they were spontaneous twins (thus contributing to Baby A’s problems).  No drugs used.  A couple of beers but no drugs.  My heart BLEEDS for people with fertility issues because I have spent the last 3 months LONGING for a baby.  I couldn’t even look in the direction of the baby department at Target with crying.  I actually changed tables in a restaurant recently because a woman and her newborn boy (it’s boys that bother me the most, obviously) sat down in eye view.  I may not know the length and depth of your pain but I have tasted a bit of it and it sucks.  I am so sorry.

Anywho, because I lost the twins a mere 3 and 4 months ago and DH and I are wanting more babies sooner rather than later, my cycle is a little unpredictable and while I am cleared medically for “baby-making,” it’s a little hard to tell when I am going to ovulate.  I enjoy sex as much as the next married woman but to accomplish the “end goal” (ie baby) without determining when I am about to ovulate would require sex every other day for 28 days until I got a positive test or my period.  That’s a lot of sex.  Seriously.

The doctor recommended a plan of sex every other day starting around Day 10 and then at Day 14 start using the predication tests.  Okay, so Monday I pee on the test stick.  One dark line and one darker line.  Now I read that a positive (meaning ovulation will occur within 12-36 hours) is the first line is as dark or darker than the second line.  Ummm, little subjective but okay, well it’s not as dark but parts of it are.  We did just in case.  The next day, the same thing but we didn’t “do it..”  The next day, the first line is faint and the second line is dark.  “Oh crap,” I think, “I’ve missed it – I ovulated WAY earlier than I was supposed to and I have missed it because I can’t read these dang tests.”  I am in a panic.  I am a classic overachiever and I don’t fail things.

So I call the company.  Apparently, unlike a pregnancy test, you are not supposed to pee on the stick first thing in the morning.  Now the directions do not say this.  More than likely, the representative tells me, the previous readings were false positives and I need to retest in the evenings.  I need to “trust the test to work,” she says.  Ummm, okay.  But I can’t let it go.  I am obsessing.  I am not rational.  I can’t stop thinking, “we missed it, we missed it.”  And then I look at the calendar, “okay, we did it here and here and here so that may be okay, we might be okay.”  DH looks at me and says, “get in the car, we are going to get something more easy to read because this is crazy, you are being crazy and you are making me crazy.”

Anyway, I will keep you posted.