Do OPK lines HAVE to be dark? When is it actually positive?

[cosmosis]

Thank you, Burakoam and Atomic.

One of the big issues with us is that we don't stay up late. I'm in bed by 8:00PM and I wake up at 4:00AM, so I can't test so late and by the time 10/11AM comes along, my pee is diluted and as per the test instructions, I've waited until that time to test(10/11AM). I"ve tested twice per day and up to 4 times per day lol. You know, the reason I started this thread is because I had a MASSIVE hunch that my surge would happen during the night based on what happened last cycle where I got a positive late in the evening and a negative the following morning.

I feel very deflated because went against my intuition of making sure we BD on the AM and PM of CD 13 and 14. It looks like I did wind up getting my surge overnight and I skipped BD the morning of the positive test on CD14. It just wasn't dark enough to consider positive, but once it dried, I realized it is the darkest one of all my OPK's. By the time I realized this though, we had already skipped BD in the morning, so we ended up having an attempt at night just in case. I'm so glad we did! Here are my tests from CD12 (PM) to This morning, CD15 (AM). I took the test at 8:00AM on CD14 and again at 11AM, look at the difference. I should have been taking them earlier all along since I get up so early. Live and learn.



Ovulation is a funny thing isn't it? lol. Yesterday I was VERY irritable (not great when you have to BD!), fatigued and had very painful O pain, but no real EWCM. Today, my BBT spiked very high, I have some EWCM, no real positive OPK and very mild O pain. So who the heck knows. I didn't think getting 3 attempts in was going to be so stressful. It's mainly the OPK issue. Now I don't know if my attempts sway boy or girl, but I did my best, or should I say we.

Here's my chart so you ladies can have a look. It is what it is, there's no looking back now. I marked both CD13 and CD14 as +OPK based on the image above.




*Let me stress that even if your partner loves to BD, there's something about being on demand that makes them less cooperative, or all these things just HAPPEN to get in the way (especially if you have kids). It also made ME less cooperative. haha.

I must add some advice for those reading; LISTEN to Atomic when she tells you how to BD . Everything she warned about happened to us, so glad I followed through or I may be crying right now lol. BD every other day is much better than every day. At least I know I'm covered because We BD'd on CD11 and CD13 so the swimmers had plenty of time to capacitate. If I O'd yesterday or today, they will catch the egg (hopefully!). We'll get in one more attempt tonight and another tomorrow morning, then we take a break and EOD thereafter. We used preseed at every BD session, btw.

That's my OPK drama. Hope it helps somebody!

[Wantanother2017]

Like this? Yikes. This is early for my usual cycles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Burakoam]

Does look like you surged later the night of the 13th (when you couldn't test) but that's great imo.. puts you right on track for CD14-16 for ovulation if everything went as planned!

I stress that I never said not to test in the morning but to be careful because you can get a positive at night as well as in the morning and your actual surge would have began the night before. Clarification for anyone else who reads this thread

With that nice temp jump I think you ovulated nice and fast in the window too. Gl this 2WW!

[cosmosis]

Like this? Yikes. This is early for my usual cycles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a nice gradient! Very clear to me

Does look like you surged later the night of the 13th (when you couldn't test) but that's great imo.. puts you right on track for CD14-16 for ovulation if everything went as planned!

I stress that I never said not to test in the morning but to be careful because you can get a positive at night as well as in the morning and your actual surge would have began the night before. Clarification for anyone else who reads this thread

With that nice temp jump I think you ovulated nice and fast in the window too. Gl this 2WW!

Thank you! The test instructions say between 10:00AM and 8:00PM, so that's what I did. I kept wondering if I should change it due to my early wake time, 4AM would still technically be night time no? LOL. I feel lost

My temp dropped right back down today and now I'm utterly confused.It could be a fallback rise, but that's never happened, so I'm not sure why this time would be my first but hey OPK still negative. All other O symptoms are gone, except cervix being high. Should we skip BD today and just resume EOD tomorrow? Decisions Decisions.

[atomic sagebrush]

Re when to test, between 10 and 8 is just fine and dandy. Don't worry about when you wake up. I'ts more primordial than that and has to do with day length. It peaks in your body sometime during the night and then gradually makes its way out in the urine starting lunch thru early evening. Between 10 and 8 whenever it is convenient.

Yes it's really next to impossible to tell it to the day except in retrospect. If you think you've Oed, I'd go to every other day. If you're still not sure, then hit it tonight.

[business.woman]

Umm , I really don't know about this , as I used opks one cycle before !
And it's darken gradually leading up to a dark line ,
I will use it in my next cycle and I hope it will work fine[emoji26]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cosmosis]

Good Morning!

My temp went up today We made one last attempt last night and I'm ready for a break! lol.



So I personally feel I O'd for sure, and I'm pretty certain it was CD14, which makes me 3DPO today with a fallback rise. We'll know for sure tomorrow, God willing.

Atomic, would you still consider my attempts to be boy territory?

As far as the tests, OPK's are now negative and none have reached the darkness my other two did on late CD13 and early CD14.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm going to wait for crosshairs if that's ok with you

[cosmosis]

Houston, we have [solid!] crosshairs.



My temps are oddly low for this time in my cycle though, I'm a skeptical because yesterday I had a temping issue.

The night of CD17 I made it to bed at my usual 8:00PM and was asleep by 9. I woke up at 12:30AM the morning of CD18 to toilet (this has been happening since CD14, its a huge pain) and apparently had no pants on and light blanket over me, which isn't my usual. It's winter and I'm up north, the house was very cold (60-65F). I took my temp because I wasn't aware of the time at that moment and my temp was 96.78F! I went back to bed, put pants on and big blanket on (as other nights), had a couple of wakings between then and wake time(this is normal for me), but I didn't get up. I took temp for the second time at 5:00AM and got 97.82F

My usual wake time is between 4:00AM and 5:00AM sometimes even 3:30AM and I always just temp at the time I wake up for the day and only once. Some nights are restless, some are not and it hasn't really affected my patterns in the last few months I've been temping. So I went ahead and used the second temp because it is my norm and so whatever lol. I'm annoyed. I should have just taken my temp once.

My cover line for last cycle was 97.29, this cycle is 97.30 and I have never dropped so close to the cover line unless AF is around the corner so I don't know what to think, except just keep temping lol. All fertile signs are gone. I was just left with light AF cramps that come and go since CD15 and very painful boobs today.

Sooooo, now what? Stick to EOD until further notice?

[Burakoam]

I would just in case. Not entirely sure with your temps that this was an ovulatory cycle for you.. could still happen so be on the look out.. are your OPKs stark white?