[*CrabLegs*]

I figure I already know the answer to this question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

How important is the timing of waking temps? I work a pretty weird schedud- 2-4 days a week my alarm goes off at 530am for work, the other days I get up when I like (which is usually 830am). On top of that, our dog likes to bark when he wakes up until someone lets him out and this happens anywhere from 4am-530am, but usually before either me or my DH is ready to get up . This leads to really erratic sleep in the early morning (on days that I'm off and DH has work, I often rush out of bed to try to quiet the dog before it wakes him too then I'll go sleep on the couch with the dog until DH gets up-ridiculous, I know). If I stay in bed for the minute that it takes to take my temp the dog barks and barks then DH gets woken up also (he's a deeper sleeper than I).

I know you're "supposed" to take your temp at the same time everyday and it's also supposed to be after 3 hours of solid sleep. I'm finding it really hard to do both, so I've been taking it when I wake at 530ish on days that I have work and then whenever I've had 3 hours of solid sleep on days I'm off (while missing some all together). Sometimes this is at 830-9am . . . Can I get accurate temps this way? We're temping to conceive so I figure it doesn't have to be THAT accurate, but I'd at least like to be able to tell if I'm O'ing or not. So far my temps are up and down but no obvious shift (and I've been having EWCM for the past 7 days, so I'm assuming this is another anovulatory cycle). I want to know if I'm just wasting my time trying to temp this way

P.S. I'm only a little over a month off the pill

[laceymm888]

I would suggest focusing more on temping at the same time everyday than getting the 3+hours of solid sleep. I get up to go to the bathroom every night and sometimes it is within that window but I don't think it has affected my temps at all. The time difference you are talking about can have a HUGE affect on your temps. If you have a thermometer that saves the last temp, you can set your alarm to wake up, take the temp and just roll back over and go to sleep. HTH!

[Wallflower]

Taking it at the same time every day is pretty crucial, since your temp can vary quite a bit between 5:30 and 8:30. And like the PP said, you can fairly easily take your temp at 5:30 every day, and then go right back to sleep on the days that you are not working. As far as I know, all BBT thermometers have memory, so it would save your temp until you wake up to really look at it.