I want to start off by saying that I am extremely new to this community (I think I just posted this question in the wrong forum even *blushes*) and have only for the first time thought to reach out to other women who are or hope to be pregnant for guidance. I appreciate everyone who has a few words of wisdom for me. Please forgive me if I spell lots of uneccesary things out, as I am even unfamiliar with many of the abbreviations I see a lot of you using.

Anyway, I think the center of my problem (along with the age-long wait to be able to take a pregnancy test) centers around trying to figure out when my next period will be, or if it will even come. I will explain. I often have shorter cycles (23-25 days) and others that are more 'normal' (26-28 days). Last cycle I had a stretch of 6 days with mild spotting - and when I say mild I mean not even enough to show on a pad more then once a day. This spotting was followed by 5 days of normal period. After this, my DH finally gave in to my desires to have another child (we have a 4 year old). As it just so happens, the day he 'gave in' happened to be what had a very strong chance of being ovulation day. Hooray - go me! Now being 5 days after that day, I can't stop wondering if conception could have happened.

I'm getting wordy, I'm sorry. Here is the problem: do I count the first day of all that spotting as the first day of my last period? That would make it the most unusual period I ever had, if so (11 days worth). If I go by 1st day of real period and an average cycle length of 26 days, my ovulation day coincided exactly with the day of possible conception, plus I felt quite certain later that same day that I felt the pinch of ovulation pain. In the days since, I have been feeling crampy, vaguely sick to my stomach and rather tired and moody. All of these things can either be PMS or possible early signs of pregnancy - but is not 5 days post-ovulation too early to feel these things? If I count my period from the very first day of actual period last month, then I am way early for PMS. Even if I count first day of last period from the spotting, I am still somewhat early for PMS. It's way early, I am sure, for a pregnancy test. So here I sit crampy, vaguely sick and totally obsessing over dates and everything I read online.

Any thoughts?

First of all, welcome to the world of online ttc (trying to conceive)! Don't worry about writing things out or doing things wrong at first. It taks some time to figure it all out. The women on these boards are very supportive and are full of information. If you don't know what something stands for or means, just ask, and you will get an answer.

I think you need to go by your first actual day of flow. That's great that you got DH to agree to your plans at "just the right time" !! How luck for you!, that's wonderful! I hope that all of your symptoms are early pregnancy signs and you got super lucky this month!

I, too, have a 4 year old, he was born in November. I also have a 2 year old (January), so my next baby will be at least 3 years younger than my last this time.

Well, good luck in your ttc journey!

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