The Birth Control Quest Update.

Well, since I've invited all of you into this private part of our life (here and here), I figure I might as well keep you up to date on it.  Josh and I have officially been practicing the Fertility Awareness Method (slightly modified version of "Natural Family Planning") since the beginning of July. 

I'm here to say that we have been quite successful with it!  I am a person who is downright rotten at following-through on things, but this is something that I have done an excellent job of consistently keeping track of.

Every morning for the last 5 months an alarm on my phone has gone off and (almost) every morning I have taken my body temperature.  Often I am half asleep and nearly passed out with a thermometer sticking out of my mouth, but I do it.  I don't usually look at the results of my temperature until late at night when I sit down to chart it out.  I keep track of my body fluids as well, and just by keeping track of those two symptoms, I can tell so much about my body.  Primarily, when I ovulate.  I am happy to announce that I have fairly consistent cycles and I am getting really quite good at figuring out when I am most likely to get pregnant and when I am not.

An interesting thing has happened the last several months, though, as I have embarked on this journey.  I have never been more proactive about NOT having a baby, and I haver never wanted a baby more in my entire life!  This, it would seem, is a bit of a paradox, but a delightful one to be sure.  I just know that right now, as much as it's up to us, is not the best time to bring a child into the world.  The result every month of my efforts to naturally plan our family is that I am happy with what happens no matter the outcome.  It sort of feels like a game, actually.  Did I do it right?  Did I get the timing correct?  If I do not get pregnant, I consider it a success.  If I do happen to get pregnant, I will be one happy, happy FAM 'failure'.  It is an entirely "win-win" situation.

The best part about this is that I have a feeling as soon as we start actually trying for a baby, I'm going to REALLY enjoy my FAM planning method.  I will have almost a year's worth of charts which means I will know exactly when to "try" for a baby once the time comes.  This is worth the daily efforts at 7:00am!

So that is the update.  It's going well.  It's not that hard.  I feel healthy.  I feel empowered.  I feel amazed at what my body does every single month, and I have never felt more in tune with what is going on inside of me!