Luteal Period

Try an at home ovulation test and don't worry about Lemomi D's response--she needs to mind her own business!! Good luck!

how about getting married first?

My recommendation would be go go get the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. There are a couple different factors you can use to estimate your ovulation date, but it might take a couple months of charting to get it right. Many women ovulate about 14 days before the start of their period, but unless you have a consistent cycle counting days won't be an accurate guide. You can also look for changes in your cervical mucus -- fertile mucus will be the consistency of egg whites, and your cervical position (this was too much for me). Good luck!

I'd recommend reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility, or contacting the Couple to Couple League (ccli.org) for resources on charting your cycle. Very briefly, to find out when you are ovulating, you can observe your cervical mucus and take your temperature when you wake up each morning. At ovulation there will be changes in the mucus pattern and changes in the temperature pattern. It's fascinating how much we can know about our bodies!

I think Lemomi's question is valid...being a mom is hard enough without being a single mom. The child, especially if it turns out to be a boy, will need a father in his life. If your boyfriend is committed enough to the relationship to want a baby, it seems logical to want a permanent relationship with the baby's mother.

That being said, www.parentsplace.com, if it's still around, had a great fertility calculator that worked like a charm 4 times for me. Good luck!

M.

You can purchase an ovulation monitor at your local drugstore, I used a saliva monitor when we were trying. As far as monitoring to conceive a boy... that is probably in the hands of God.

Good Luck!
E.

I hope you know that ovulating won't pick the sex of the baby out. That is the responsibility of your man.

Here is a great website for ovulation:
http://www.ovulation-calculator.com/preconception/preconc...

Here is fertility chart that you guys could keep track of together so you are including the BF:
http://www.ovulation-calculator.com/fertility-chart.htm

Good luck!

There are ovulation predictor kits available at drug stores that are supposed to do a fairly good job. If you have a typical 28 day cycle ovulation is likely to occur between days 11-14 of your cycle. As far as trying to conceive a particular gender there are no guarantees. I've read some things online that talk about when it is more favorable to conceive one sex or the other based on pH of the vagina at different points in the ovulation period, but again there are no guarantees. If you are not both on board with the possibility of conceiving a female child then you may want to re-think having a child to begin with. Best of luck.

You could buy ovulation strips (not sure what they are called exactly) at your drugstore. There are packets with 21 strips or so and then you can start testing around day 10 if you will be ovulating within the next 24 hours or not and do that every day to know when to go for it.
Good luck!

Most women ovulate somewhere on day 10 to 14 of their cycle. Day one being the day you start your period. My infertility DR. told me to have intercourse days 10,12 and 14. Dont know about the trying for a boy part. I'd leave that for the man upstairs! :) Good Luck!

The book Taking Charge of Your Fertility is great, you will learn a lot about your body. I didn't take the time to chart my temperature but did follow the cervical mucas information as Michelle talks about below. While the man determines the actual sex, the first time we had sex 4 nights in a row and had a boy. The second time we got pregnant we had sex once and had a girl. It may have just happened that way for us and is a fluke but if you really want a boy have sex several days in a row and see if it works. Both times, we got pregnant the first month of trying. Good luck.

Fertility issues are alot to go through and it puts your relationship under pressure. If you aren't married how do you know he is into you for the long haul! I would suggest that you get married first. God bless you.

Google..."Chinese Gender Calendar" to conceive a boy....

A wiser question to ask first would be concerning the level of commitment your boyfriend has to you and a future child, your level of commitment to your boyfriend, and your level of commitment to providing your child with a more secure parental base.

Your relationship status isn't any of my business, but often those who are older and wiser, and who have been there, can see pitfalls that we can't see (or don't want to see) in our own lives. It becomes the business of the community when a child is born and a mother ends up needing outside support of various kinds to raise the child (not just financially).

Why, oh why, are the two of you willing to make an 18+ year commitment to someone you haven't even met yet, but unwilling to commitment to each other?

You have no idea what needs that child will have, and not every child is born healthy, intelligent, and mentally stable. No one "plans" to have the child with major ADHD, learning disabilities, health problems, autism, etc. A difficult child can strain the best of marriages. How would the two of you stay together under that stress........if you can't even bring yourselves to "seal the deal" now?

I would start by charting your basal body temperature and primary fertility signs - you can get a copy of the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility or go to FertilityFriend.com and there is a great tutorial, message board, and lots of information and FAQs about how to do it - I would also begin using OPK's - ovulation predictor kits - some way to determine when you're ovulating - these can be simple test strips which you can get online for just a few cents each or monitors that cost hundreds of dollars

Read taking charge of your fertility!