Help--what temperature reading do I use?

Morning!  Question for you guys...I woke up this morning at 3 am as I had to go to the bathroom and I usually take my temp at 6:00 am but I decided to take it anyway at 3am just in case and it was much lower than the last few days, 97.4...so I went back to bed and woke up at 6am and took it at the normal time and it was 98.2??  Which one do I use and is it normal for there to be that much of a difference in 3 hours??

[babyb]

I would use the earlier one. I think I read something about having at least 4 hrs of consecutive sleep prior to taking temp so the second temp is thrown off by you getting up.

[CBark024]

Are you using a vaginal or regular therm to get your reading? You really need to have a vaginal to get accurate results for ov. Also you are suppose to check before you ever get out of bed as this can affect your temp as well. So my advice is to keep a calender daily for a month so you can track your temp and know more of when you are ov. Just be sure to check before you ever get out of bed, keep it right beside the bed to ensure this.

[dainsey]

I am using a digital therm. and I do it every morning (orally)and keep track of it...I usually take it before I even step foot out of bed, but didn't know which one to use this morning :-(

[CBark024]

I would use the earlier one because the later one you had already been up and back to bed.

[hawki]

I would so use the regular one...not the one taken 3 HOURS before you normally do.  I always get up to pee, but then I guess that is consistant with my temps.  You only need three hours of straight sleep to get a good reading, so you did have that even if you got up at 3.  As long as it's at the same time.  Your temp, as you now know, goes up a lot in 1 hour.  THat's why the timing is so important.  Take the later one.  It's by far more accurate.

[dainsey]

Ok, that's what I thought as I just read on fertility forum that if you take your temperature at a different time, each hour can mean up to a .2 difference in temperature which would make sense.
Here's what they said:
Try to take the temperature at as close to the same time each day as possible -- set an alarm if you need to. Staying within a half hour either side of your average time is a good idea because your temp can vary with the time (i.e., if you usually take your temperature at 6 a.m., it is OK to take your BBT between 5:30-6:30, but the closer to 6 the better). The normal variation is by up to .2 degrees per hour -- lower if you take your temperature early, higher if you take it late.