Taking Charge of Your Fertility with Ava

*I was gifted an Ava Bracelet in exchange for this post.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own.  Thank you for supporting the brands that support Lindsay’s Sweet World.

I have always been a planner so I like to research and have a game plan for everything that I do.  When Brian and I decided we were ready to try to get pregnant for the first time, my Type A planner mentality kicked in and pretty much went into overdrive.  I was just getting ready to turn 28 and my biological clock was already ticking, so I knew I didn’t want to take a “whatever happens happens” approach.  Once the decision was made to get pregnant, I wanted to be pregnant.  Immediately. 

I should also mention that I’m not a very patient person.  ;o)

All of my research taught me that the very best thing that you can do to get pregnant is to know when you are ovulating, so I purchased a basal body temperature (or BBT) thermometer.  In case you are not familiar with it, a BBT thermometer is a very sensitive thermometer that measures to the tenth of a decimal. If you take your temperature at the same time each morning before getting out of bed, you can detect the half-degree rise that occurs after ovulation.  Many things affect your BBT, so you have to be very consistent when using one of these thermometers.

It was a bit of a hassle since I had to remember to take my temp immediately every morning, and I also had to manually type the info into a fertility app right after.  Waking up at different times can result in inaccurate temperatures so I was also constantly worried about my waking up late on the weekends skewing the information.  Not to mention, the results from the BBT thermometer combined with using the fertility app really only detected my ovulation after I had already ovulated, when my fertile window was already over and it was too late to conceive that month.    

That didn’t give us much of a window. 

And also, what a pain.

Fortunately we ended up getting pregnant quickly, but the pregnancy ended in miscarriage (you can read more about that here), and after my miscarriage I wanted more than ever to be pregnant again.  I went forth with the BBT thermometer routine and we were blessed with another pregnancy shortly after we were cleared to start trying again. 

I used the BBT thermometer yet again when we started trying for Olivia, but by that point, I was completely over the whole rigmarole. 

I recently stumbled upon the Ava Bracelet and I thought, goodness gracious, if only this thing existed when we were trying to get pregnant!  It would have saved me so much hassle. 

The Ava Bracelet is a bracelet that you wear only at night while you sleep.  There are built-in sensors that gather data (more on that later) and it is clinically proven to track your cycle in real-time.  This means that you are informed at the very beginning of your fertile window as opposed to being informed after your fertile window is already over like with the BBT thermometer. 

Knowing the beginning of your fertile window gives a better chance of conceiving faster, who wouldn’t want that?  I know I did.

And on another note, did you know that there are only six days per month that you can possibly get pregnant?!  Six.  That’s it.  Ava is clinically proven to detect five of those six days so it gives you a better chance of hitting your window. 

In addition to detecting your fertile window, Ava also provides cycle insight and health data which is actually every bit as interesting to me as the fertility information.  Each night while you sleep, Ava measures the following:

Skin Temperature – this is one of the parameters that is used to confirm ovulation.

Heart Rate Variability Ratio – this shows how stressed you are.  The lower it is, the less stressed you are.  I think we could all use more info like that!

Sleep Quantity – this shows how many hours and minutes of sleep you are getting per night, and Ava is so sophisticated that it can distinguish the difference between lying quietly and sleeping.  That, to me, is mind-blowing. 

Sleep Quality – Ava also detects the percentage of light sleep and the percentage of combined deep and REM sleep that you get each night.  Sleep can affect your menstrual cycle and vice versa, so this data is also important in helping detect your fertile window.  Plus it’s nice to know if you’re getting enough or not.

Resting Pulse Rate – this shows how often your heart beats per minute while you are resting.  Resting pulse rate is also one of the indicators to help detect the very beginning of the fertile window, when your body is gearing up to ovulate.

Breathing Rate – this measures the rate of respiration per minute.

All of these parameters allow Ava to detect your fertile window in real time which is something that none of the other fertility tracking products can do.  

And Ava doesn’t stop working for you once you get pregnant.  Ava also provides day-to-day pregnancy tracking information to you so you know what to expect each week during your pregnancy.  I would have loved something like that during my pregnancies!

So why you ask, am I personally interested in Ava since we already have two kids?  The reason is two-fold.

First of all, (and I’m about to get pretty personal here, so bear with me) Brian and I are at the point where we feel like our family is complete, so we are currently trying to prevent pregnancy.  I have been on birth control since I stopped nursing Olivia two years ago and it just doesn’t make me feel great.  I have wanted to try a natural method for a while now, but I dreaded the thought of using the BBT thermometer again.  While Ava is not an actual contraceptive, I thought it would be a great tool to assist me on my journey with natural family planning since knowing your fertile window is also the key to pregnancy prevention. 

In addition to using it for knowledge of my fertile window, I also just love the insight that it provides regarding my overall cycle and health.  When you’re on a pack of pills, the pills dictate the cycle and that makes it easy to keep up with.  When you’re not, it’s a lot harder to remember and keep up with.  Again, Ava is not a contraceptive, but I’m really hoping between using that and educating myself more about natural family planning that we can manage everything without medication.  Who knows, though?  We could end up pregnant within a month, and I suppose the joke will be on us.  Haha.  Only time will tell.

The second reason that I wanted to write this post is because I have had many friends throughout the years who have struggled or are currently struggling to get pregnant, and I wanted to let everyone know about the product since it could potentially help someone.  Ever since I was a young child, all I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother, and I can’t even imagine what it would have been like having trouble conceiving.  I am so blessed and thankful for our two healthy babies here and our one baby in heaven, and I just want the same for all of the ladies out there who are also yearning to be mothers.  If this post even helps one person, then my job here is done. 

I have been using my Ava for about a month now and I absolutely LOVE it.  It is so easy to use – I literally put it on before I get in the bed, take it off when I wake up, and “sync” to the app in the morning.  The watch sends all of the data to the app on my phone via Bluetooth and it’s ready for me to view by the time I get my contacts in to read it. 

Super simple. 

And way more accurate than taking my own temperature every morning.

For more information, you can visit the website here.  The people at Ava are generously offering a discount code for all of my readers! All you have to do is enter the code SWEETWORLD at checkout for $20 off of your Ava Bracelet.

Are you trying to conceive?  Are you trying to prevent pregnancy?  I would love to know the steps that you are taking!

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