Secret Swaying!

[RedQueen]

Hello all,

Soon we'll be ttc #2. We have a beautiful, funny and intelligent son who is our world and would dearly love another boy at some point, but we also see ourselves with a daughter. I have a genetic condition that means I'm likely to have early menopause which means that, as I'm in my thirties already, means we can't be sure of having time to have 3 children. Therefore, we'd like to try for a girl this time in case we only have 2 children in total.

I know that diet is the biggest factor in swaying. In all honesty, I'm going to struggle. I'm crap at diets anyway, especially in the run up to Christmas, plus I'm breastfeeding still, and to be honest I'd rather have a boy than starve myself. I love my food!

So what I'm thinking is...

Peppermint tea for breakfast. I drink this quite a lot anyway.

Porridge for lunch (low GI) and water to drink.

Normal meal with family in the evenings.

Folic acid 1200mg, cranberry (only 1 tablet which is apparently equivalent to 5000mg) and am I right in thinking not in the 2ww? Vitamin b6 because I have a short lp and took this last time ttc and it lengthened my lp to 12 days.

I've stopped the multivitamins now my boy is over 12 months. I took multivitamins and extra vit c and zinc last time (as surrounded by people struggling ttc so I got paranoid about fertility) but not doing that this time.

DH wants a girl, but he doesn't want to worry about swaying. Therefore I'm not going to persuade him to change diet or have hot baths or anything. I'm kind of taking the secret approach! Noone knows which takes the pressure off whether it works or not as well.

What else can I do? I've read the abbreviation j&D, what's this? It might be tricky to lime douche in secret but is that likely to have a big impact? Before or after dtd? Dtd just once as close to ov as possible?

Exercise is an issue as I broke my leg a couple of months ago and am still on a long, slow rehab programme.

Many thanks for any tips, it's overwhelming but looking forward to reading more.

RQ.

[atomic sagebrush]

No pep tea when breastfeeding.

Porridge may sway blue and should be avoided.

No cranberry when breastfeeding.

I personally think b6 is a strong blue swayer, how short is your LP?

The most important thing is to stick with one attempt. My concern with the douche is that it really cuts odds of conception and may lower your odds of conceiving with one attempt. Do not try to time your attempt close to ovulation, just aim for hte day before you expect to O or at pos OPK.

If you MUST douche, I'd use a storebought vinegar and water douche 4-6 hours before DTD. NOthing after. I don't think douching does a whole lot and I wouldn't bother with it, but your call to make.

J and D is jump and dump

[RedQueen]

Never douched before so happy not to! Why no Peppermint tea or cranberry when bf?

I have no idea when I'll ovulate until after it's happened because I've only had one teeny period since birth, and am feeding several times a day still so cycles are all over the place - I'm temping and also get strong ov signs so am confident I'd notice when it happened but not necessarily before!

My lp was 9 days previously when cycles were regular, b6 taken for 2 cycles lengthened it to 11-12 days. Does b6 just sway blue because it's added vitamins, or is there something specific about b6?

Why does Porridge sway blue? Totally got that round my neck, I thought low GI foods were a winner!

[atomic sagebrush]

Pep tea and cranberry are not safe, small amounts come thorugh your milk and in the amounts needed to sway, could potentially be harmful to your baby.

We don't know why B6 sways, specifically. I think it is something unique to the B6 itself (and probably why it can help lengthen an LP as well). Prob affects hormones in a blue-friendly way. It has been so overwhelmingly a blue swayer for us, I can't even wrap my brain around anyone continuing to recommend it, I know at least one other sway site had dropped it prior to us doing the same thing because htey also thought it was contributing to opposites.

Porrige has chemicals in it that are good at raising testosterone and may sway blue. IT's also a high fiber grain with a good level of protein which makes your blood sugar stay up for longer after eating.

[RedQueen]

B6 promotes the production of progesterone, which is why it lengthens the luteal phase (basically it continues the job of the corpus luteum) but I haven't researched progesterone / blue sway much yet :-)

It's looking like I'm destined to have a clutch of boys!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, I know, I was trying to keep it simple. :)

The old school swayers claimed that progesterone swayed pink based on the theories of William James, but when I did my research I found that there was no real data supporting that claim, and that in reality what was probably happening is that when levels of ALL sex hormones go down (progesterone, estrogen, testosterone - which are all made from the same raw materials) this sways pink. But it's possible to BOTH A) have a situation where a woman makes too much estrogen and especially testosterone, and yet not enough progesterone to have a good LP and she may even have trouble conceiving because of this (PCOS or PCO tendencies) and these women are more likely to have boys or B) that you can decline ALL hormone levels too far and end up super low in E, T, and P and end up stopping ovulation all together (hypothalamic amenorrhea) and while women in this boat may be more "set" for pink, the issue is that they may actually need to improve their overall health and fertility just in order to get pregnant at all. Additionally, even if James is right and higher prog levels do sway pink in and of themselves, that DOES NOT mean that in order to sway pink, we should take everyhting that has ever been said to raise progesterone, because 99.99% of the time, the things that raise progesterone also raise T and E and may end up making you more blue friendly anyway.

Nutshell version - the progesterone and swaying stuff is pretty freaking complicated and please don't take the claims of the "other sites" at face value because they're operating under the assumptions of a shoddy theory and then taking it to places that don't add up anyway.

I have seen so many B6 opposites - I put very little stock into observations vs. studies but some things are so overwhelmingly one direction that I can't ignore them and I advise against B6 for pink swayers.

Anyone who really has a critical LP issue and wants a girl - get thee to your doctor because Clomid is the Gold Standard for fixing short LP and plus it also sways pink.

[RedQueen]

Brilliant info, thank you so much :-)

I've stopped the b6 (only took it for a couple of days...) and will wait and see re lp length because I haven't got regular cycles back since ds anyway.

No porridge, no cranberry, no peppermint tea, no vits, no b6, 1200 mg Folic acid, one bd at positive opk...not a strong sway I know but we'll give it a go.

[Dana-Alicia]

Maybe you can implement the exercise? I love my food too, but would def give the exercise a go! 60+ mins 6 days a week for about 3 months, that could really up your chances!

[RedQueen]

Sadly not, I'm really recovering from a fracture and am still meant to be partial weight bearing in a removable cast for a while longer. Everything is conspiring against me!

[atomic sagebrush]

It's not a dealbreaker, I didn't exercise and still got a DD! :)

[maidentomother]

Could you swim? I did that when I was injured and couldn't walk or run.

I'd really look into the PCOS version of the LE and maybe just try? Like start off, try to do the diet properly every 3rd day. So 5 days a week you can eat as you like, but 2 days a week you do it strictly. Then if you feel up to it, start dieting every other day. Do that until you can diet 5 days a week. Then aim for all the time. Take as long as you need at each stage. Whenever you're struggling on a diet day, think about whether you'd rather diet for a few months and have a daughter or eat what you like but only have boys? You may find yourself more motivated than you realize.

Another way to ease into the diet is to say ok, no snacking, and 3 meals a day but delay brekkie as long as you can. Start off with having one meal be LE friendly, and try to eat less at your other 2 meals but otherwise eat how you like. When you can, start eating 2 LE meals a day. If you ever make it all the way, great. If not, you're still eating in a much more pink friendly way then before.

You don't have to be perfect, just better or rather different. I do think diet, exercise, and clomid are the strongest sway factors, especially diet, so any change will sway. Swaying 30% is still a sway, you might not even need 100% anyway!

As for the rest, atomic already said it all. :)