pink sway plan and some confusion

[izzie]

Hi there, I'm glad I came across this forum, after just seeing IG before. Atomic seems like the person to rely on! :superhero: I've been reading quite a lot of the posts and think I'm sorting out some kind of plan. Though I'm a bit confused.

I have two wonderful boys that mean the world to me(2007 and 2010:highfive:), and we just found out that we really want to go for three children, even though it will be quite a lot to do as we have a lot of traveling in our jobs both of us. My husband (DH, is that the word? getting confused about all these shortenings...) just turned 39 and I'm turning 34 in September.

It would have been fantastic to have a girl this time... :cheer:
and get some kind of balance in all the testosterone in the house.
So we'll be swaying for a girl now, starting in July or August.

I have made myself an idea of an LE diet that could be working where I live (northern europe), as the food and stuff that are available here are different from what is mentioned here. I anyways want to get rid of a couple of kilos so I think I can work it out somehow. I did lose weight on a similar kind of diet this winter, but I haven't been able to hold it down, as we've been ill so much this spring, I haven't been able to exercise as I usually do.
But - I think that's a very good thing right now, as my muscles have just fallen apart the last months, good for pink.

I'm a person that builds muscles really easily. And I'm also really over-conpetitive, and also my work is competitive by nature. I have a strong libido, and often have a whole week of EWCM... So having read about testosterone levels - no wonder I have two boys... :bike::boybear2:

Ok - getting to the point.
This is what I'm thinking of doing;
-LE diet
-peppermint tea
-cranberry supplement
-maybe calcium/magnesium supplement too, but I'll be eating some cheese/low-fat dairy in my diet so maybe it'll be too much of it, I don't know.
-folic acid of course
-I'm allergic to lots of things, so I take antihistamines anyway
-LOW stress. Trying to be really round and soft and female and I like it. Have bought lavender all over the house, in the shower and body oil, and it's anyway a really good thing for me to try to be more relaxed. Also bought a fan for the computer (found a cute usb fan ), and a rose quartz bracelet for ions. Am going to be a lot in the nature, by the sea, up in the hills this summer, so the ions will be great.
-I always O around full moon nowadays, so nothing to be done about that (- with my first boy it was O at full moon, and the second boy was O at new moon).
-Have had trouble with high pH and no good smell because of IUD - that I took out yesterday! So I'll be using a cream to lower pH now steadily (something like refresh i guess), it has pH 3.8 the one I'm using.
-The no. 1 thing for us is having a HEALTHY child, so we don't want to take any risks. So there abstinence went away, and we'll do FR instead. My husband was very happy about that.:bighug:
-So I've also read that these things like Aci-Jel etc MAY damage DNA in sperm. So I'll not do ANY kind of douching, it scares me off what I might be doing to those little guys (and girls).
-And we'll do it shallow, just in the opening I guess. At least the first times we try, until I get desperate...

Not being able to do douching makes me feel that my swaying attempt won't be as great as it could be. I feel a little bit sorry for that.
I also feel totally confused about the timing thing.
So Atomic means that timing doesn't sway. But we'll have to find a time to do it anyway, so we should go with the one that seems to be most luck with. I thought about O+12, since I often have so much EWCM in many days before O, maybe it would be better to do it right after the EWCM stopped. (Though - I don't know how the cumus will be with this diet and all, and doing Replens/and similar continually) Or should we try to find the 2-3 days before? I somehow believe that for me, it will be more difficult to find the correct 2-3 days before O that finding some hours after O, since I can physically feel when I O. What do you think? You mentioned somewhere, Atomic, that old wives tales said that an old egg makes for Down syndrome. I guess that's really just old wives tales, but I started to think about - ok the egg starts deteriorating at some point 12-18-24 hours after having been let out. What if it is fertilized after it started deteriorating...??? There should be some kind of knowledge/studies about that with all the IVF going on etc? Have you read anything about it?

I'd be really happy to get some thoughts on my plan and some kind of advice on the timing.
Thank you!!

[izzie]

...and I also wonder what to do with the peppermint tea after O...it was both dangerous to quit, and to continue??? What to do? (Is it ok for DH to drink peppermint tea?)

[myGirl]

Welcome! It looks like you have a good start! I'm sure the experts here will be along shortly, but I will give you my 2 cents.

You should consider taking baby aspirin a few times a week instead of the cranberry. The cranberry has a lot of nutrients and vitamins that could undermine your LE diet. The baby aspirin will do the same job of making you more acidic. Also, studies have shown that women who conceived boys took MORE calcium/magnesium than girl moms did; Atomic has a 3 part essay about it called "the Calcium Conundrum." We have been having a lot of success without the cal/mag.

Using Rephresh is perfect, you don't need to douche or use any other jellies.

Don't worry about the moon, it will only add stress.

Lastly, timing has been shown to not sway at all and it is very difficult to get PG using O+12. The best advice it to have your partner frequent release for 7-10 days, then BD the day you get your +OPK. If you want the strictest sway possible, just do it that one time; if you want better odds of getting PG, have 2 or more attempts.

Best of luck to you! You will love it here, everyone is very friendly and supportive.

eta: I'm not sure about the pep tea, I'm sure Atomic will let you know!

[myGirl]

Here is the link to Atomic's Calcium essay. I was going to use the cal/mag in my sway but I changed my mind after reading it.

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-girl-best-practices/609-calcium-conundrum-controversial.html

[izzie]

Great info, thanks! So right out of the window with the cal/mag supplement for me. I even live in Scandinavia where there's dairy everywhere. Maybe I should even slow down on the amount of milk in my coffee, and the yoghurt too... Puh, this diet isn't easy. I feel I can't be doing the diet for really long, it's so hard to find food that fit in it, I'm going to be eating quite little and I don't have that much that it's possible to lose.

What does +OPK mean?

I thought of doing FR with condoms or other places(...sorry...) for 7-10 days, so that it's nothing there waiting, and then do it once, shallow. I'd rather be trying for a couple of months than rushing it, since this will be our last baby.
So you think it's better to do this +OPK day(whatever it means...maybe the day the o-test says yes??) rather than just after O? I think it looks like it quite a lot of success with people doing O+12, though I guess it's no point in waiting too long, if it's just around O maybe it does the same trick, it takes 4 hours to capacitate(???) anyway, have I understood right?
What worries me with doing it a couple of days before O, is that I have a tendency of a lot of EWCM, and if the sperm just goes into that and waits there it might be swaying blue...??? Wasn't the Shettles theory disapproven as to actually sway blue?

:think:

[myGirl]

Sorry, +OPK means positive Ovulation test.

I don't mean to dissuade you from trying O+12, it is a good girl-sway technique, it is just very hard to do and lowers your chance of conceiving. However, if you have time on your side you may want to try it.

Timing has been shown not to sway, but I see what you mean about the EWCM. The LE diet will help dry up your CM as will antihistimines such as Zyrtec.

[izzie]

ok, so the aspirin is not possible to get hold of where I live. i see that it's made of acetylsalicylic acid, and the painkiller substitutes in my country isn't based on acids, but on ibuprofen or paracetamol, so I guess it won't be the same. Though came across a study that said that the painkillers - aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen - are shown to lower testosterone, and therefore is not advised to men because of sperm quality, and for women that it can damage the reproduction system of boy babies in pregnancy. So maybe they all have some effect in lowering testosterone.

i found vitex, so i'll at least be able to do that. So if I do vitex through July, and all the way until O around 14th of August, that'll be 5-6 weeks of it, then it'll be ok to cut it off directly at O? Or should I stop at the beginning of August maybe, at AF of the new cycle?

i'll be taking zyrtec, but for how long? Is just AF-O enough?

For lowering ph from the inside of my body, I'm not sure what to do then. The weight loss through the LE diet will do some. CL and similar are not to be found here, as aspartame is seen as very unhealthy. I do see the point that cranberry is loaded with antioxidants and vitamins. So it looks as if probiotics and acidophilus are the last things on the list. I'll be getting that through some probiotic yoghurts, but since I was supposed to not get too much of calcium/yoghurt then I can't indulge...then maybe a supplement of probiotics...? Would that help?

[atomic sagebrush]

1)I wouldn't worry about not douching, none of us are douching on here. Several of us did not do the low pH jellies and got girls anyway (like me!)

2)I think that since timing doesn't sway, it's best to have intercourse on the day that will best help you get pregant. That is the day of the positive OPK (one day before ovulation.) Unfortunately, you can't go off of EWCM at all to help you figure out when to have intercourse. There seems to be no pattern to it, it's different for everyone. Some people are getting EWCM after ovulation, some are getting it before, some are getting none and conceiving boys and some are getting a lot and conceiving girls. Also, you can't use your previous EWCM to predict your future patterns. Every month is different. I got a boy with no CM and then when I got my girl, I had some CM both before and after ovulation. If I had waited until my CM went away to have intercourse, I never would have gotten her because my egg was dead by then.

3)I think that O+12 is a complete waste of time. It's very difficult and maybbe impossible to get pregnant from intercourse 12 hours after ovulation. Most of the people who think they did a successful O+12 either miscalculated their ovulation, released two eggs and then hit only the second, or got pregnant from sperm that had survived from earlier rounds of BD.

Many eggs are already dead 12 hours after ovulation, meaning they have begun to deteriorate before. I don't know what happens if a deteriorating egg is fertilized, but it does not seem like it could be good. Women lose babies in early pregnancy all the time, and there are many disorders that we do not know the cause of. It is not unreasonable to consider that a deteriorating egg could be causing some of these things.

I personally believe that InGender has many more miscarriages than we have and also it takes their swayers much longer to get pregnant and I believe the cause is largely O+12 and abstain.

4)There are a couple studies that seem to show that eggs fertilized outside the "fertile window" do cause more birth defects, but they are older studies and are more about women using rhythm methods of birth control. IVF doctors just do what works - they use fresh sperm and fresh eggs no longer than 4-6 hours old. Since they are happy with their results, they don't bother to spend a lot of time or resources investigating things that would probably yield worse results. Plus, it's unethical to create human embryos just for purposes of curiosity, and people doing IVF demand the best protocol and don't WANT to use embryos that are conceived with old eggs. Doctors can't just brew up eggs and sperm 12-18-24 hours after ovulation just to see what happens, if that makes any sense. So there really isn't any research on that issue specifically.

[atomic sagebrush]

...and I also wonder what to do with the peppermint tea after O...it was both dangerous to quit, and to continue??? What to do? (Is it ok for DH to drink peppermint tea?)

Quit peppermint tea at ovulation.

DH can drink peppermint tea also - some people believe it's better for DH to take licorice root instead.

[izzie]

Wow. I'm just amazed on how you guys are so clever and nice and help out. A big big THANK YOU from me.
I'll be doing this +OPK then. Ah, what a relief, it's so much simpler! Lost some testosterone already there I think.

Did read now that salicylic acid in creams etc have the same effect in going into the blood as aspirin...haha, maybe I'll be using an acne face cleanser... ;)

[izzie]

Hi again- i actually did get hold of aspirin, but it's not as low dose as baby aspirin. It's 150 mg of acetylsalicylic acid. So what do you think I should do. I don't like putting chemicals into my body so I don't want to do too much. Maybe this 150 mg once a week? It's about 6 weeks to I'll TTC. Or should I do twice a week? Though that scares me a bit, I feel it'll be too much.

And how do you think I should stop it then - at O, or continue with one or two during the 2WW...?