mid-cycle spotting

Well, here I am at day 14 in this cycle--exactly "midway," according to convention--and yesterday, I had major spotting. Fertile-ish fluid (not quite egg whites, but close), spotted pinkish-red. Just yesterday. A tiny bit the day before but yesterday, there was quite a bit, several times. Similar to my pre-period spotting in the past--which I haven't had in a while.
ANyway, now today, I'm having some definite egg-white-type fluid, no blood, and feeling a little crampy on my left side. I looked up "mid-cycle spotting." Here ya go:
"If you have spotting that occurs around the time of ovulation (ten to fourteen days after the start of your last period), it is likely due to the increased estrogen in your system at this time."
Along with it was this info.: "Mittelschmerz is German for "middle pain," and it is a word that describes the mid-cycle pain that can accompany ovulation. You will experience mittelschmerz on one side of your lower abdomen around the time of ovulation, from 10-14 days after the first day of your last period. If you experience mittelschmerz around the same time as spotting, you are almost certainly ovulating."
Here was another, which for purposes of TRYING to get pregnant, is heartening:
"Spotting that occurs in the middle of your cycle or spotting that occurs some ten to fourteen days prior to the start of the next cycle is normal too. This spotting may occur during ovulation. Seeing a spot of blood during ovulation is considered an excellent fertility sign. It is thought that mid-cycle spotting occurs for one of two reasons. First reason is possibly that when the egg bursts through the follicle, a little bleeding may occur. This blood will then make its way out and show up as “spotting”. Or, during ovulation, the level of estrogens rise, and this sometimes prompts the uterus to shed a bit of lining, which shows up in the form of “spotting.”"
Either way, it's good news!
Meaning....??
I may have been VERY fertile yesterday...and we "did it" yesterday so if the blood was a result of the egg bursting through, there was sperm there to say "Hi! How ya doin'?" pretty soon thereafter.
So it's possible that I already ovulated, without warning.
The bad news is that I was counting on this cycle being of MY normal length (40 days, give or take), and assumed I wouldn't be fertile until April. So, today being the 29th means if we got pregnant within the next few days, we'd be due end of December. YIKES! I will say that any time AFTER Christmas is fine with me, actually. A New Year's Day birthday party wouldn't be the end of the world. It'd be kinda neat to ring in the new year with a new baby!!
So...we "did it" last night and will probably "do it" again tonight--assuming the fertile fluid continues. If it keeps on, we'll revert to the every-other-day method to save sperm. Romantic, huh?
Based on my research, the mid-cycle spotting IS usually a strong sign of being fertile so even though it snuck up on me (there's the three levels of fertile fluid and for the past few days, I barely got to level two, not level 3 where I'm REALLY fertile), it might've been all we needed.
Now to find that thermometer...