NFP & Marriage

I thought I'd give an NFP update now that I'm married. Stop laughing! I know I've only been married 14 days! :P

Right before the wedding, my sister mentioned that I hadn't blogged about NFP much lately, so I gave her an update, but didn't have time to update the rest of you. Part of it was because I was super busy with the wedding, and part is because I go back and forth about having the nerve to write really personal thing son such a public forum. My latest feeling is that I want to share it because I've benefited so much from reading personal stories and experiences of other women. I just cringe at the thought of someone finding my blog and learning something they really don't want to know about me... and that I don't want them to know about me! But I did a 12 second cost/benefit analysis in my head and I feel like it's worth the risk.

The update? Don't have a 10 day luteal phase and then be around 3 women who are on their periods the day before your wedding. You know that thing about your cycles regulating with your close girlfriends? Not sure how true it is, but I do know that I had my first 8 day luteal phase ever. So yes, I started my period on the wedding day (Beth Anne, I hate to confirm your worst fears, lol!). And to answer the question you may or may not want to ask, yes, I'm going to be treated for my short luteal phase. It's on the low end of normal, but since I have PCOS the doctor wants to go ahead and lengthen it a bit. I have a progesterone injection scheduled for Monday (at $40 a pop and a two hour round trip drive to get it, I certainly hope he switches over to a different form!).

Back to the wedding day period, I kind of got over it for that day. Nothing, not even our videographer not showing up (details coming soon to a blog near you), could mess up that day, so it wasn't the tragedy I thought it would be. Luckily it was a fairly light day, so I didn't have to panic all day. Diva cup, for the win because I knew I had 12 hours tops, and only went about 8 hours between checking it. I refused to check it while in the dress. Usually my first day is pretty heavy, so I was beyond pleased.

But back to that marriage part of NFP. You know one of the beauties of NFP? It's not "breaking the rules" if you and your husband talk about it and agree. Ok, maybe it's breaking the rules if you talk about it in the heat of the moment and then later want to slap yourselves, but luckily we haven't let that happen. We talked and talked and talked some more, and then decided to do a wee bit of rule bending on the honeymoon. I told Steven that my only requirement was that we were both able to say that we would be overjoyed if God gave us a baby. Though we knew the chances were very slim for many reasons (PCOS being one, me not usually ovulating until day 30-33 being another, etc), I didn't want us going into it saying "We can bend the rules this time because our chart history shows we probably won't get pregnant". We had to go into it saying "we are going to bend the rules and we accept that there is a slim chance it could result in a baby and, if it does, we would be happy". Of course it will be a conversation that we have every month, but the plan right now is that we only bent the rules because it was our honeymoon but won't be a regular occurrence for us.

You guys seriously weren't kidding when you have talked about how much using NFP increases communication. We were having some pretty deep discussions about 24 hours after our wedding, discerning if we felt comfortable going outside the guidelines (which sounds way better than 'breaking the rules'). I already knew I loved using NFP, but I really didn't expect to see the benefits one day into our marriage! I'm not saying it's been easy, but some parts of it have actually been fun. We have the 'every other day' rule throughout our whole cycle for various reasons, and it's created excitement and anticipation. Now ask me again after 9-14 days. I'm sure I'll be slightly less gung ho!

And because I have sooooooooooo many wedding pictures I want to share and this post had the word 'marriage' in it, here ya go!

 This picture looks cool, but was a bit of a nightmare to get. Not only could I not move in that direction in that dress, but I also felt like Steven was going to drop me because I couldn't feel his hand through the dress. So I spent the majority of this shot with a scared look on my face, but the pros managed to get a beautiful shot out of it. I love, love, love our photographers. I told Steven I want to get pictures of Buttercup done just so I can hang out with them again.  We will definitely use them for maternity/baby shots in the future.

 I love this picture because it's not traditional, but even more because, in a few years, the Cathedral will move and this sign won't be there anymore. One day, our kids can look at this and tell us how old we are since we got married when this church was still the Cathedral! 

Our getaway car was one of my most favorite parts of the day! I felt like royalty!