How Will I Know?

So now I'm in the follicular phase and planning my meals around that but the next phase is ovulatory and I have no idea how I'll know when it's time to switch to that.

There are a few methods for telling when you are ovulating...

1. taking your temperature (as explained beautifully in Taking Charge of Your Fertility)
2. using ovulation test strips (I'm super tempted to get a fancy ovulation tester like this one!)
3. checking your cervical mucus

Taking my temperature has not worked for me in the past (probably because I have not been ovulating at all). It makes me stressed out to see a number I don't want on the thermometer. I also have trouble doing this one because as soon as I wake up I need to take the dog out. There's no time to lie in bed waiting for the thermometer.

I have some ovulation test strips that a friend sent me. She got a box of, like, 500 and didn't want that many so she sent me half. I may try those again this cycle after about ten days of follicular. Those also stress me out because I've never seen a positive on one.

There are fancy fertility monitors that I'm really tempted to get. It's not that expensive when compared to infertility treatments. I just don't know if I would get any kind of response on them either, though.

I should keep an eye on discharge too and see if I can recognize cervical mucus.

I should also make some meal plans for ovulatory and try to have the ingredients on hand so I can leap at it. My husband also says the ovulatory foods will be good for him and his body too around that time. How about salmon crusted in walnuts, he suggests, for maximum Omega-3.