Can I ask a stupid question?

Pink=Frosting

We're ttc #3 with our youngest child being 14.  I'm new to the world of ttc because it happened so easily with the first two.  So I'm waaaaay down low on the learning curve here.

I'm trying to chart my cycle because I haven't even kept track of it for over a year.  I have my period regularly, I've just never bothered to mark the calendar so I don't even know if I'm on a 28 day cycle or not.  So I've been waiting for this month's AF to come along so I can at least know when day 1 is and go from there.

So here's my problem.  For the last several months...maybe even a year, I'll get symptoms and realize I'm probably a day or two within starting.  Then I'll have a day where the flow doesn't actually start but I'll get a bit of spotting, but not even that really.  More like just a tiny bit of blood on the toilet paper when I wipe sometimes once or twice that day or sometimes each time I use the bathroom on that day.  Then, my period usually starts "for real" the next day.

So...which one of those days is day 1 of my cycle?  Anyone know which way I should count it?

Abeille

I go by the 1st day I need a tampon or pad.

danieleandwayne

I would mark day 1 as the day when you get enough flow that you have to at least use a pantiliner.

I'd mark that other, previous, day of barely spotting as simply spotting.

Pink=Frosting

Thanks ladies ~~

tcfreedom

That's what my cycle is like too. I mark day 1 being anything heavier than spotting. 

technigirl

My doctor told me to count day 1 as the first full day of bleeding.  In other words if you start spotting (or even getting some flow) on a Sunday afternoon, count Monday as day 1.