Thoughts on NFP from a Procrastinator

So it's the tail end of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week and many of the Catholic bloggers have written great posts about NFP from every perspective possible - the hyperfertile, the subfertile, the infertile, the overcharters, the undercharters, the noncharters.   I've been a little torn about throwing in my two cents for several reasons.

First and foremost, my body is deeply craving the progesterone it needs to (sorta) balance out my hormones and my mood this week.  Because of that, I have written some deep dark mean posts in my head.  Thankfully, there's no "publish" button for the thoughts I think to myself and God has given me the grace I need to recognize those thoughts as progesterone-deprived.  I'm not always so lucky.  Ask my husband.

Secondly, my feelings about NFP have run the gamut from excitement to gratitude to frustration to resentment to resignation to all of the above at the same time.  How I feel about it today isn't how I felt about it a year ago and might not be how I feel about it in a few months.

In the beginning, the Creighton model of NFP (sympto-thermal doesn't work for an insomniac like me!) was something that I couldn't praise highly enough.  Using it allowed me to lengthen my 17 day cycles and shorten my 12 day period to within more normal limits.  And it gave us this:

 And this 19 months later:

After that, my relationship with NFP gets a little rockier.  I've typed out several explanations this week, but since I don't think the line "NFP- It's better than contraception and immoral fertility treatments but not as good as God" will ever sell anyone on using NFP, I think I'll just refer you over to two other bloggers who have done a much better job that I could ever dream of doing.

Mandi of A Blog About Miscarriage wrote about how NFP is good and useful in some circumstances, but will never be easy for everyone because it has no place in the perfect world God created.  Go read it. It's good.

Christine of Domestic Vocation wrote this post that explains so exactly my daily struggle.  Trade out "tubal ligation" for "avoided pregnancy for 18 months due to family emergency and the fact that two rounds of post-partum depression is no joke (even though I joke about it because humor is my defense mechanism of choice) and was taking a toll on our marriage" and it's my story.

As for the future, I don't know how I'll feel about NFP.  Right now (dependent upon some test results in the next few months) we're staring down a potential choice of remaining open to life and facing what would be high chances of additional miscarriages or living like Bert and Ernie for the next 2-11 years.  Which, come to think of it, we already do.  I'm an insomniac that gets lonely during the night and Jon gets annoyed when I wake him up with silly questions. Like this:

Anyway.  It looks like I've gotten a bit off track.  NFP.  It's a great tool to help you concieve (or not) if the whatever happens, happens method isn't working (or is working too well!).  Go read the other articles.

Come back tomorrow for Answer Me This and maybe a bonus story about what happens when I overdose on progesterone that was requested by a reader.