Any suggestions? (warning: LONG post!)

[ThreeLittleCritters]

So here's what I'm thinking.... I'll do a vegetarian and low everything diet. No eating until noon. I already drink lots of Crystal Light, so that will be easy for me. I'll start the diet on Monday to optimize weight loss but we'll start sups on my next AF (Which is due July 4th). DH will try to avoid red meat, caffeine and salt but otherwise he’s not doing the diet. We'll shoot for a fade in OPK/cut off. I'm not going to stress about timing. All 3 of our boys were conceived on O day, so as long as we avoid that, I'm happy. I'll take vitex, saw palmetto, fiber, folic acid and cranberry (does the cran go along with the low everything or should I cut that out?). I'll take Zyrtec to avoid ewcm. I’ll do rephresh every 3 days. DH has a really sensitive stomach so as long as licorice root doesn't upset his system, he'll take that. DH will abstain for 14 days. DH loves mountain biking so I'm going to try to get him on his bike as much as possible (hoping that will lower sperm count. It also relaxes him so maybe it will also help lower testosterone?). I’m going to do some things with ions but not really sure what. That’s the one area I haven’t looked into yet. I will be doing lots of positive thinking! Some things going against us: we’ll be in the peak of the boy months and it will be a full moon 3 days before I O. I'm really hoping that doing everything else will be enough to overcome the boy months and the moon. There are loads of boys in my family and DH’s family so no matter what we do/don't do we may be wasting our time (haha).

A few questions…. Will DH need to start abstaining in the 6-8 weeks before our attempt? Also, if he abstains from AF-O, can he release more from O-AF or do we need to continue abstaining in case we need to try again the next month? With the diet, would a starchy carb before bedtime be a good idea? I was thinking that it could help lower blood sugar for the night and since I’ll be asleep I won’t be as tempted to cheat. Should I start taking the rephresh every day after my next AF or can that wait until the month of our attempt? I’ll need to experiment with it to make sure that it doesn’t spike my ph, but otherwise I’d rather not use it until September.

One last thing (I’m so sorry! This is the longest post ever!)… we will be at Disney World on our first attempt. Any thoughts as to how this might affect our sway? We will be with our 4 and 2 year olds, so we won’t be doing any crazy rides. I’m a little worried that being outside all day (and the vit D) will sway boy. I also think that I may have a more difficult time sticking to the diet but if I plan ahead and pack diet-friendly foods I should be able to do pretty well. Any other thoughts as to how we can make the trip more girl friendly? How awesome would it be to go to Disney and come home with a princess??? :bigsmile:

Ok. I think that's everything. Any comments/suggestions/questions/tips are greatly appreciated!!!

[zanacal]

Hi

I don't have many answers but wanted to say that what you're planning is very similar to what I have in mind! I get a bit stressed about the right/wrong time of year to concieve but I think by sticking to the low everything diet and doing as much as possible to lower sperm count we're really doing as much as we can. It's more important to me not to have DC4 too long after DS3 because that would be strange having had 3 fairly close together. We could make our attempt in July as I'll have been on the diet 6 weeks by then but I think if I got pregnant straight away with a boy I'll wonder if I should have stuck to the diet longer and lost some more weight so I'm hoping DH will agree that August is best.

Atomic suggests low dosage aspirin rather than cranberry on the low everything diet because it does a similar job without the good nutrients in cranberry.

I don't know about abstaining as we'll be BDing every day (I'd rather abstain but DH says it's not possible lol!). You can try not to have the big O too much leading up to your sway as that may help lower your testosterone.

I love the line about coming back from Disney with a Princess - I hope it's a lucky trip for you!

[swish]

Hi, this looks like a great plan! Vitex may delay your ovulation so you may not end up ovulating in a full moon so I wouldn't worry about that. I don't think dh has to abstain from o to af but I might be wrong! Good luck!

[Mochagirl]

Your attempt sounds good to me and quite similar to what a lot of us are doing. Good luck - I hope you get your princess!

[ThreeLittleCritters]

Hi

I don't have many answers but wanted to say that what you're planning is very similar to what I have in mind! I get a bit stressed about the right/wrong time of year to concieve but I think by sticking to the low everything diet and doing as much as possible to lower sperm count we're really doing as much as we can. It's more important to me not to have DC4 too long after DS3 because that would be strange having had 3 fairly close together. We could make our attempt in July as I'll have been on the diet 6 weeks by then but I think if I got pregnant straight away with a boy I'll wonder if I should have stuck to the diet longer and lost some more weight so I'm hoping DH will agree that August is best.

Atomic suggests low dosage aspirin rather than cranberry on the low everything diet because it does a similar job without the good nutrients in cranberry.

I don't know about abstaining as we'll be BDing every day (I'd rather abstain but DH says it's not possible lol!). You can try not to have the big O too much leading up to your sway as that may help lower your testosterone.

I love the line about coming back from Disney with a Princess - I hope it's a lucky trip for you!

I missed that about the baby asprin. Thank you! I'll cut out the cran and do baby asprin instead. I will definitely avoid the big O. Anything that lowers testosterone is good for me. I do wish that it was a more girl friendly time of year, but like you said, you do what you can. Good luck on your attempt! I hope that we both get some pink very soon! :)

[ThreeLittleCritters]

Hi, this looks like a great plan! Vitex may delay your ovulation so you may not end up ovulating in a full moon so I wouldn't worry about that. I don't think dh has to abstain from o to af but I might be wrong! Good luck!

Thank you, Swish! I know that DH will be soooo annoyed with me if I ask him to abstain from o to af. Our house will not be a happy place! I'm anxious to see what Vitex does to my cycle. Have you taken it? I'm supposed to O 3 days after the full moon so a delay in ovulation would be great!

[ThreeLittleCritters]

Your attempt sounds good to me and quite similar to what a lot of us are doing. Good luck - I hope you get your princess!

Thank you!!! I hope we all get our desired genders soon! :)

[zanacal]

Historically I ovulate on day 14 and always have (at least for as long as I've noticed these things!). This month after Vitex I ovulated on day 19!

[atomic sagebrush]

So here's what I'm thinking.... I'll do a vegetarian and low everything diet. No eating until noon. I already drink lots of Crystal Light, so that will be easy for me. I'll start the diet on Monday to optimize weight loss but we'll start sups on my next AF (Which is due July 4th). DH will try to avoid red meat, caffeine and salt but otherwise he’s not doing the diet. We'll shoot for a fade in OPK/cut off. I'm not going to stress about timing. All 3 of our boys were conceived on O day, so as long as we avoid that, I'm happy. I'll take vitex, saw palmetto, fiber, folic acid and cranberry (does the cran go along with the low everything or should I cut that out?). I'll take Zyrtec to avoid ewcm. I’ll do rephresh every 3 days. DH has a really sensitive stomach so as long as licorice root doesn't upset his system, he'll take that. DH will abstain for 14 days. DH loves mountain biking so I'm going to try to get him on his bike as much as possible (hoping that will lower sperm count. It also relaxes him so maybe it will also help lower testosterone?). I’m going to do some things with ions but not really sure what. That’s the one area I haven’t looked into yet. I will be doing lots of positive thinking! Some things going against us: we’ll be in the peak of the boy months and it will be a full moon 3 days before I O. I'm really hoping that doing everything else will be enough to overcome the boy months and the moon. There are loads of boys in my family and DH’s family so no matter what we do/don't do we may be wasting our time (haha).

A few questions…. Will DH need to start abstaining in the 6-8 weeks before our attempt? Also, if he abstains from AF-O, can he release more from O-AF or do we need to continue abstaining in case we need to try again the next month? With the diet, would a starchy carb before bedtime be a good idea? I was thinking that it could help lower blood sugar for the night and since I’ll be asleep I won’t be as tempted to cheat. Should I start taking the rephresh every day after my next AF or can that wait until the month of our attempt? I’ll need to experiment with it to make sure that it doesn’t spike my ph, but otherwise I’d rather not use it until September.

One last thing (I’m so sorry! This is the longest post ever!)… we will be at Disney World on our first attempt. Any thoughts as to how this might affect our sway? We will be with our 4 and 2 year olds, so we won’t be doing any crazy rides. I’m a little worried that being outside all day (and the vit D) will sway boy. I also think that I may have a more difficult time sticking to the diet but if I plan ahead and pack diet-friendly foods I should be able to do pretty well. Any other thoughts as to how we can make the trip more girl friendly? How awesome would it be to go to Disney and come home with a princess??? :bigsmile:

Ok. I think that's everything. Any comments/suggestions/questions/tips are greatly appreciated!!!

1) I like baby aspirin better than cran because it acidifies without adding the nutrients in the cran. But a lot of people have had success with cran so use your best judgement.

2)DH only needs to abstain AF-O. It ~could~ help lower his T to abstain more in the 6-8 weeks prior and/or from O-AF but one of my main rules of swaying is, "If Daddy ain't happy, nobody's happy".

3)You can eat a carb before bed if you like for that very reason. Your blood sugar will drop during the night and it may help you go to sleep if you're not starvated.

4)Mountain biking is a great idea. As much as he is willing!!

5)Just use RepHresh once every three days in the month you're going to attempt only, and then either the day before or morning of your attempt.

6)Disney World could help you sway pink by relaxing you and breaking up your day-to-day schedule. BUT if you are very goal oriented and get focused on meeting goals and following a tightly scheduled itinerary, that can backfire. Just take it easy and try to live in the moment, don't worry if you don't make it to every ride and so on. BTW the food at Disneyland was pretty gross so you might find it easier than you think to follow the diet!

[Mochagirl]

Atomic - I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a quick question about Rephresh I just thought of and I'm hoping you might have a better chance of seeing this if I post it here:

I am on CD9, hoping to O on CD12. I used Rephresh for the first time yesterday (and DH and I dtd as well). We're doing frequent BD so we will be dtd every day from now until O. When should I use Rephresh again? If I wait 3 days, it will bring me to CD11. If I use it then to I have to reapply it on CD12 if that ends up being O-day, or do I just continue with every 3 days until I know O has happened? I should stop using it once I know O has happened, right? Does that even make sense?:worry:

[zanacal]

Atomic - I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a quick question about Rephresh I just thought of and I'm hoping you might have a better chance of seeing this if I post it here:

I am on CD9, hoping to O on CD12. I used Rephresh for the first time yesterday (and DH and I dtd as well). We're doing frequent BD so we will be dtd every day from now until O. When should I use Rephresh again? If I wait 3 days, it will bring me to CD11. If I use it then to I have to reapply it on CD12 if that ends up being O-day, or do I just continue with every 3 days until I know O has happened? I should stop using it once I know O has happened, right? Does that even make sense?:worry:

I've been wondering about this too. I understand about using it every 3 days and then the morning of/the day before your attempt if you're only making one attempt but we're both BDing frequently and I don't imagine we should use it every single day for that many days in a row - at least I don't think so! I was thinking if we use it every 3 days then there'll be some days where it's quite 'claggy' in there and others where it's beginning to wear off and it's not so sticky, that is if we use a whole tube every 3 days which personally I think is the easiest and least stressful. I know Atomic doesn't recommend using anything after BDing but I was wondering about adding a tiny top up afterwards given that we're having several attempts so the sperm count up there may be slightly higher than with one attempt and that on some days it will be 3 days since we last used Rephresh - the alternative is to jump and dump but I may feel more comfortable knowing that I'm also lowering pH.

I think that's probably lots more questions and no answers!

[atomic sagebrush]

Atomic - I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a quick question about Rephresh I just thought of and I'm hoping you might have a better chance of seeing this if I post it here:

I am on CD9, hoping to O on CD12. I used Rephresh for the first time yesterday (and DH and I dtd as well). We're doing frequent BD so we will be dtd every day from now until O. When should I use Rephresh again? If I wait 3 days, it will bring me to CD11. If I use it then to I have to reapply it on CD12 if that ends up being O-day, or do I just continue with every 3 days until I know O has happened? I should stop using it once I know O has happened, right? Does that even make sense?:worry:

No it makes perfect sense.

Actually I would say that applying RepHresh on CD 11 for ovulation on CD 12 would be perfect. You don't need to use it after ovulation and the reason for that is because the sperm are pretty much gone at that point, they're on the way to the egg. You might think, well, why not but every time you insert something into your vjj you run the risk of introducing foreign organisms in there that could cause an infection that could harm a pregnancy.

Now the question is, what if I don't O on CD 12. In that case, since you're doing frequent BD I assume you would have another attempt. I think that if you don't O on CD 12, switch to using 1/4 an applicator a day until you do O, as far from when you're going to DTD as is possible.

[atomic sagebrush]

I've been wondering about this too. I understand about using it every 3 days and then the morning of/the day before your attempt if you're only making one attempt but we're both BDing frequently and I don't imagine we should use it every single day for that many days in a row - at least I don't think so! I was thinking if we use it every 3 days then there'll be some days where it's quite 'claggy' in there and others where it's beginning to wear off and it's not so sticky, that is if we use a whole tube every 3 days which personally I think is the easiest and least stressful. I know Atomic doesn't recommend using anything after BDing but I was wondering about adding a tiny top up afterwards given that we're having several attempts so the sperm count up there may be slightly higher than with one attempt and that on some days it will be 3 days since we last used Rephresh - the alternative is to jump and dump but I may feel more comfortable knowing that I'm also lowering pH.

I think that's probably lots more questions and no answers!

No, do not use it every day even if you're BD frequently. You're right, you prob. will not want to wait the full 3 days as you are nearer to O. If you're due to O at any time and it's been like 2 1/2 days since you used it, by all means you can bump it up and do an earlier dosage.

I still don't think anyone needs to top it off AFTER an attempt, particularly if you are going to J and D or use antihistamines. I would much rather see you use it the morning of or night before an attempt and then just leave it afterwards, esp. since your husband's sperm count will already be reduced by the frequent BD.

I understand what you're saying, that you think the sperm numbers might be higher because of frequent BD, but please understand that just by virtue of doing RepHresh every 3 days and BD every day, you're starting off with much less sperm to begin with. I just think that you are lowering your odds of pg too far by using jellies after the fact.

[zanacal]

Thank you again :D

[ThreeLittleCritters]

1) I like baby aspirin better than cran because it acidifies without adding the nutrients in the cran. But a lot of people have had success with cran so use your best judgement.

2)DH only needs to abstain AF-O. It ~could~ help lower his T to abstain more in the 6-8 weeks prior and/or from O-AF but one of my main rules of swaying is, "If Daddy ain't happy, nobody's happy".

3)You can eat a carb before bed if you like for that very reason. Your blood sugar will drop during the night and it may help you go to sleep if you're not starvated.

4)Mountain biking is a great idea. As much as he is willing!!

5)Just use RepHresh once every three days in the month you're going to attempt only, and then either the day before or morning of your attempt.

6)Disney World could help you sway pink by relaxing you and breaking up your day-to-day schedule. BUT if you are very goal oriented and get focused on meeting goals and following a tightly scheduled itinerary, that can backfire. Just take it easy and try to live in the moment, don't worry if you don't make it to every ride and so on. BTW the food at Disneyland was pretty gross so you might find it easier than you think to follow the diet!


Thanks Atomic! You're awesome. :)