Back and hoping for a second successful sway!

[Blckhrt]

Hello! I successfully swayed girl back in 2016 (here was my sway: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum/add-your-girl-sway-/56792-blckhrt-ttc-girl-sway-attempt.html), and am back to hopefully do it all over again for one more girl!

I had a boy in 2015 (not swaying), then my successful sway girl in 2017. In 2020, I had another non-sway baby, which ended up being conceived with a single BD (2 days before O) and yet he was another boy! Now we'd like to complete our family with one more girl. Strangely, I'm MORE nervous this time that my sway won't work! Perhaps because I've now had a "one-attempt + vegetarian diet" boy. (But I was taking prenatal vitamins and eating quite a lot of calories.)

We plan to start dieting (LE vegan) in October 2021 and start TTC in January 2022. I am now 36 and my husband is 44.

So Atomic, here are my questions...

1. I purchased the ebook back in 2016; has anything significant changed since then?

2. Is there anything I did in my 2016 sway that you now advise against? (https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum/add-your-girl-sway-/56792-blckhrt-ttc-girl-sway-attempt.html)

3. I do believe, given my age, my doctor will be willing to prescribe me Clomid. Is that a good addition for me?

To summarize my plan:
- Vegan LE diet for 12+ weeks before TTC (both me and DH)
- One attempt around +OPK
- Semi-FR for DH, unlikely to be daily though
- My prescription medications: synthroid, cytomel, zoloft, wellbutrin, and possibly Clomid
- My supplements: folate, baby aspirin
- DH's supplements: baby aspirin, claritin, OLE or LR?
- No exercise - I simply don't have time!
- Coffee daily and alcohol frequently
- Delaying breakfast when possible

My husband is SET on this being our last child and we're both longing for another girl - he's even willing to spend the money to do IVF with PGD but I'm so fearful it won't work (won't get girl embryos, or they won't take, or I miscarry, etc.) and I don't think I could handle emptying our bank account for that. And given that we were successful last time we swayed, I'm cautiously hopeful we can make it happen again ourselves.

Thank you so much for all you do, Atomic!

[atomic sagebrush]

I honestly don't have the 2016 ebook in front of me to compare right now, so I'll go off your previous sway.

Drop Vitex, saw palmetto, and licorice for DH (licorice got TERRIBLE results for us! and vitex and saw palmetto did not work, and were very disruptive to the menstrual cycles of many people who used them) I would have you skip baby aspirin totally unless you have blood clotting disorders, as it's not worked, has gobs of side effects, and will interact with your medication. All your meds are either neutral or sway pink so that's all good.

Give hubs just OLE this time. No cran, no LR, no baby aspirin. I don't think Claritin helps but it doesn't hurt.

If you can get the Clomid, that's great. Does add a little bit in terms of success rate.

I cannot recommend alcohol for you, I think you need to skip it with your medication.

We have reduced the amount of necessary exercise to 4 days a week if you can fit that in. Exercise is among our best sway tactics, particularly with a vegan diet which tends to be rather carby sometimes.

I would suggest a whole grain only approach, with limited sugar (by which I mean treats and sweets, not things like sugar in yogurt and stuff which is hard to avoid), as vegan diets are very carby. We've had great results with whole grains only and no sugar and it's also better for egg quality. It's also better since you're on Synthroid.

There is no semi-FR. Just have him "do what he does", avoiding long abstains for sperm health, and not worry about it. FR hasn't worked anyway.

Re IVF/PGD - my advice is, if it's ever an option, do look into it. While you're right that there are no guarantees of success, you do have a guarantee of gender. But I completely understand if it's not right for you, it's a grueling ordeal and is very expensive, and many people do end up walking away with nothing to show for it. I just don't want to see anyone discount it out of hand, but so long as you've done your homework already we're all good!

[Blckhrt]

Thank you for the reply!

Baby aspirin: I'll drop it for me, but DH actually takes it for his heart - is it fine for him to continue? (And he takes Claritin for his allergies.)

Alcohol: I actually already drink regularly without issue. I've been on these meds for a pretty long time. Am I fine to continue drinking?

Exercise: That's great to know about the change to 4 days a week. I could probably manage a quick workout 3-4 days a week... but not a full hour. Would a 20-minute HIIT workout be sufficient?

Amended plan:
- Healthy vegan LE diet (high in whole grains, low in sugar) for 12+ weeks before TTC (both me and DH)
- One attempt around +OPK
- My prescription medications: synthroid, cytomel, zoloft, wellbutrin, and possibly Clomid
- My supplements: folate
- DH's supplements: baby aspirin, claritin, OLE
- Exercise: TBD
- Coffee daily and alcohol frequently
- Delaying breakfast when possible

We will continue looking into IVF/PGD. We can't travel for it, so we're limited to locally. But if we wanted to conceive in Jan/Feb, by when would we need to have that process underway?

[atomic sagebrush]

If he takes it for a medical reason that's fine. In that case he needs to avoid both OLE and cranberry as taking them along with aspirin is too many blood thinners all together.

I would just skip the exercise in that case. It needs to be an hour to see the benefits.

If you drink anyway that's your call, it's just that I wouldn't recommend it for a swaying tactic due to the potential interaction. It won't hurt your sway, it's just not something we generally recommend for people due to potential safety risks.

You'd probably need to strike fast with the IVF with that timeline. I wouldn't hesitate if it's something you decide you're interested in.