:welcome:[B]Introduction[/B]
I have never been much of a blogger because it always felt like sharing my diary (the one that used to have a lock and key and was hidden beneath my bed) with the whole world. Gender dreaming and swaying are, of course, personal topics, but sharing my experiences of them seems natural as opposed to an invasion of privacy. My hope is that others will be able to learn from my successes as well as mistakes. Similarly, more experienced swayers may catch my pre-planned mistakes before I make them. So, here we go!

:happycouple:[B]Relevant Details about My Hubby and Me[/B]
I should first mention why we want to sway as well as a couple of details about my hubby and me that will impact our sway. Hubby has two beautiful sons from a previous relationship, so having a girl would truly complete our family. As much as I laughed out loud when reading the phrase "Duggaring it Out," I would like to keep the family small for various reasons; however, I know myself well and I will try for who knows how long until we get that daughter, so if I can tilt the odds in anyway, I am all for it.

As far as relevant health details, we are both 35+ so that in and of itself already indicates possible problems with infertility, so we do not want to over do it. Second, I have hypothyroid disease and, third, naturally low blood sugar. Fourth, hubby is a smoker. All of these situations will impact what I choose to include or not include in my sway as well as a few modifications along the way.

:whip:[B]Diet: Low Everything[/B]

The Low Everything Diet was one of the first things I read about upon finding my way to the Gender Dreaming website. Not only did it have scientific backing in evolutionary theory, but it also made intuitive sense to me. So, this will be the most important part of my sway. I will have to shoot for 1500 calories a day because of my hypothyroid disease, which includes a ridiculously low metabolism and difficulty losing weight. As far as my naturally low blood sugar, I will eat breakfast and carefully choose my refined carbs. Other than those two modifications, I think I will be able to stick to a vegetarian, low everything diet! I may try to skip breakfast from ovulation to the two week wait, but will cross that bridge when I get there. I will take Folic Acid/Pre-Natal vitamins.

When to start: Early January! (Increasing sticking to the diet by waiting to start until after the holidays.)

:cheer:[B]Exercise[/B]
Because I have plenty of weight to lose and have not been active in far too long, I will be going with the 6 days of intense cardio for 60 minutes. I plan to jog with my dog, which because of my weight will still be a good workout for me. I will also do dance aerobics inside as a back up because we live in Florida and will have hot days where 60 minutes of outdoor cardio would be unsafe.

When to start: Will start increasing dog walks to dog jogs in order to be jogging reliably by early January diet and exercise kick-off!

:ttcgirl:[B]Hormones[/B]
I am definitely going to be focusing on reducing my testosterone levels through natural methods such as reducing my stress and taking supplements such as peppermint tea, saw palmetto and possibly vitex. Hubby will will get a *brief* reprieve from my nagging about him quitting smoking. This will be good for reducing my stress around this issue and will take the lowered testosterone since he won't quit until he is ready anyways. Of course if he is ready to quit, by all means I will support him in that!

:bluesperm:[B]Hubby's Sperm[/B]
We are not going to mess with hubby's sperm too much because he is significantly over 35 and most likely has a lower sperm count to begin with. The only thing we are doing in this regard is frequent release. He will definitely not be abstaining due to the connection of abstaining to bad sperm quality and birth defects in men over 35.

:pinksperm:[B]Timing[/B]
This is another one that I don't think we will mess with too much. Maybe once I am more familiar with when I ovulate I will feel like we can get fancy with timing. For now, I will just refrain from having my own orgasms! (hmm frequent release for hubby and no worrying about my orgasms - someone is really making out on this sway! lol)

:oops:[B]Things in You Know Where[/B]
Acijel or RepHresh and Sylk all sound like good lubes to try out. If my ph warrants it, I will incorporate douching and lime tampons into this sway.

:babygirl:[B]Other Aspects[/B]
Taking an antihistamine sounds like a good idea and something easy to incorporate. We're going to try to conceive in April and May, but will continue after these months if we have not become pregnant. (April is the earliest we should start due to waiting for proper benefits from my new work position to kick in.)

:princess:[B]Conclusion[/B]
Well there you have it, my tentative pre-pre planned pink sway. I am shooting for things that can easily be dropped if we have trouble conceiving. Comments are welcome and please let me know if I have misunderstood any concepts.