So yes, about a month after I turned 30, I met S. We met on a short hike with the Outdoors Club (http://www.outdoorsclub.org/), and on our very first date he asked me whether I wanted kids. He's a psychologist, and he's not really into playing games or holding back. Our relationship felt good from the beginning, and by October of that same year, we were talking about getting engaged. Sure enough, we got engaged on the weekend of our one year anniversary (late February 2006), and we got married on October 1, 2006; about 19 months after the time that we met. We decided to keep our engagement short because...why wait?!

In the course of hanging out with S on a regular basis, I no longer ate Lean Cuisine and other ultra-low cal fare every day and I gradually gained back about 12 lbs. I now have settled into the 132-134 lbs range, size 8 or possibly 10, and I'm fine with that. Although, honestly, my body looks best at 125 lbs.

Backup for some info on my periods. I got my period in sixth grade, a few weeks before I turned 12 years old. My cycles have usually been about every 33 days or so, although they have occasionally been 28-29 days and sometimes up to about 45 days. I must admit that they were getting really irregular right before I met S, at my lowest weight. I figured that it must be my hypothalamus screaming in hunger. Meanwhile, I did notice that my skin was kinda annoying. Instead of the forehead/hairline type pimples that I got as a teenager, I started getting occasional pimples at the far lateral cheeks, along my jawline, and sometimes on my chin and around my mouth. Ugh!! When S and I started dating, I did get onto the pill (Yasmin) for probably about 18 months or so and my skin did clear up.

By the time that we got married, I was 31 and S was 39. Career-wise, it seemed like third year of fellowship would be the ideal time to have a baby. So, I went off the pill after just about 1.5 months of wedded bliss. ;) And, yes, we do move fast. About 3 weeks after getting married we also found a house proceeded to buy it!

I remember the very first time that we had post-pill, no birth control sex. I really believed that we might possibly get pregnant from that very first encounter, but I knew that I probably ovulate later (based on previous cycle lengths). I knew about Taking Charge of Your Fertility (TCOYF) from my mom (more on that later), so I bought the book immediately and started charting my daily temperature. Cycle day 14, 15... 18, 19.... 22, 23 passed, but no temp rise and therefore no ovulation. It was really frustrating as S and I were trying to have sex either every day or every other day, but my temperature stayed stubbornly low. My first ovulation was on CD26! I was elated to know that my body seemed to be working. I blamed the delayed ovulation on having just come off the pill.

I became pretty active on forums.ovusoft.com, participating in various TTC forums, etc. I remember thinking that it was probably going to annoy people (namely, people who had been trying for a long time) when I got pregnant after just a few cycles. I thought that I would definitely be pregnant in just a few months, if not immediately.

I also remember my very first pregnancy test. I took it on Christmas Day, 12DPO of that first cycle, and I was so excited that I could barely sleep the night before. It was negative, of course, and we walked on the beach that afternoon. I remember telling S, "it's OK, we'll probably have a baby or I'll at least be very pregnant by this time next year." My temperature dropped a few days later and I got my period.

Cycle 2 was a bit of a bust because I noticed some egg white CF but we didn't have sex on the best day or two because we had a bit of a stupid argument and it just didn't happen. The egg came on CD15 that time. My body seemed to be back on track! I knew it was a longshot, but I tested on my 32nd birthday anyway. Another Big Fat Negative (BFN, to use the lingo of most TTC boards out there).

Cycle 3, I ovulated on CD20. Our timing was decent but we got another BFN. The stress of trying to time sex to ovulation was starting to get to us. S noticed that the volume of his ejaculate seemed to be less with multiple subsequent days of sex, too. So, we decided to go ahead and try some Ovulation Predictor Kits (OPKs) for Cycle 4. I was actually a bit reluctant because it seemed to make it feel a bit more like a science project, and less "natural", somehow. Ha! If I knew then what I know now...

The OPKs were frustrating at first (negatives for 10 days in a row), but they finally correctly predicted my ovulation on CD25. We again had good timing, and I had a beautiful temperature chart, but alas... another BFN. We tried again for Cycle 5, and another BFN. At this point, mid- May 2007, I began to suspect something might be wrong, so I made an appointment with my OB/GYN.

To be continued...