Question about Sleep and temping

Babyberg1012

Hi all. My name is Susie. I've been lurking for a while now and posted a few times in the past. This group had opened a whole new world to me by recommending the book, Taking Charge of a Your Fertility! What a great and interesting read! As I mentioned in past posts, My DH and I lost my son, Ryan, in December 2014 at 25 weeks. He was our first child and we got pregnant with him during my first cycle trying...Fast forward almost 5 months after our horrible loss, we are ready to try again for our rainbow baby. I've read TCYF cover to cover and refer back to it frequently! I've also started to track cm and temp. My question is about temping. I have a hard time sleeping for 3 straight hours. It almost never happens, but I've been temping around the same time every morning. This is my first cycle temping as I was wondering if anyone has been successful with their charts with wacky sleep patterns? Is sleeping for 3 hours straight the only way to get accurate readings?

KadzoKimbia

Do you get up after 3 hours or stay in bed and fall back asleep? Ideally it's after a full nights sleep but for those of us who don't sleep the whole night it's about finding your normal. I think the more important thing is to be consistent.
There are some articles I have seen about people temping who do shift work. It might help.

Babyberg1012

Hi! Thanks for your response. I am a very light sleeper, so i wake up frequently thought out the evening, never really more than 2 hours at a time. I think you are right, I'm just going to stick with the same time to be consistent. I've read that our body temperture changes often throughout the evening...

Also, being a newbie to temping, I find myself getting excited and looking forward to temping in the am, which disrupts my sleep too. My temps seem a little wacky this month, but hopefully I get to know my body more as I continue with it.

Thanks for the advice.

TheBorg7of9

Hi. I think you should just try for one month with a "same time" rule and see if it works for you. I just wouldn't get out of bed. At this point, since I've been temping so long, I do t worry that much about the time I temp. If I wake up within 90 minutes of my temp time. I temp, pee and go back to sleep. If I wake up more than 90 minutes before, I try to go back to sleep until my normal temp time. You could experiment and see what works for you. Good luck!

KadzoKimbia

TheBorg7of9 said:

Hi. I think you should just try for one month with a "same time" rule and see if it works for you. I just wouldn't get out of bed. At this point, since I've been temping so long, I do t worry that much about the time I temp. If I wake up within 90 minutes of my temp time. I temp, pee and go back to sleep. If I wake up more than 90 minutes before, I try to go back to sleep until my normal temp time. You could experiment and see what works for you. Good luck!

100% agree with this! The temp time can be a range and if you are like me an alarm in the morning raises my hr so it can alter results. You want to be relaxed! I never use an alarm unless I need to catch an early flight cause I usually wake up around 430 anyway...

Babyberg1012

Thanks, ladies! I've been sticking to the same time for this cycle. There's a huge learning curve with all the information I've got from reading TCYF. I guess you can say I've learned more about trying to conceive than I ever did in any health class! This month has been about getting to know my own body as far as cm, temps, and cervix. Hopefully, I will be able to find some sort of pattern after my first few months. Again, thanks for your input, I've learned a lot in the last few months just by lurking in this board!

Kristin83

I'm new to this board and just noticed your post.  I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for the loss of your precious Ryan.  That is so unfair.

I am an awful sleeper and almost never sleep 3 hours straight, especially when it gets to the AM hours.  I usually tend to wake up around 5 AM on my own, then go back to sleep till 6 AM on work mornings, and more like 7ish on weekends.  So I take my temp real quick when I'm awake at 5 AM since I figure it's consistent. 

If on the off chance I sleep really good and sleep in, I record the temp as is, and figure that's that.  I love how the author of that book makes it sound like it's so easy to get 3 consecutive hours sleep!  LOL!