zanacal's girl sway - It's a girl!!!

[zanacal]

***Update*** We had a gender scan today at 16 weeks and it's a girl! We are so, so grateful and can't quite believe our luck (though DH's amazing w*&^ing abilities have a lot to do with it I'm sure!!). Thank you to the members of this site for such wonderful support and to Atomic for the incredible research she's done for us all. Woo hoo!!!!

Here's my sway - I'm using lindi's format (see thread below) because it better fits what I did. It's rather long (and probably quite boring ) but I wanted to get it down before I forget it all!

First off, I'm so happy I found this site because you've all been so lovely and supportive Atomic's research has been so helpful - her detailed responses to my thousands of questions even more so! Thanks everyone

USERNAME: Zanacal
AGE: 33
DH'S AGE: 37
CHILDREN: 3 Boys - 6, 4 and almost 2
NO. MONTHS TTC: 1

DIET:
Low Everything diet for 15 weeks until BFP. I lost 42lb – 22% of my body weight. This was my lowest conception weight and possibly my lowest adult body weight. I am in the healthy weight range for my height (I was overweight before).

I was vegetarian and I ate very little food with any nutritional value. I ate no breakfast and around 1200 calories/30g protein/max 1000mg sodium each day. I drank lots of diet coke/Pepsi and chewed sugar free gum. I drank a couple of cups of coffee (either with skimmed milk or no milk and sweetener) twice a day and the occasional tea.

DH was not on a diet and he put on weight in the months leading up to our attempt. He drank his usual 4-5 cups of coffee each day at work and the occasional tea/green tea/coffee at home. In the month of our attempt he gave up his beloved orange juice and started drinking regular coke.

EXERCISE:
Couch potato!

POTIONS & PILLS:
Saw Palmetto -10 weeks prior to our attempt.

Vitex – AF-O for 2 cycles, then 6 weeks without a break prior to our attempt.

Low Dosage Aspirin – 3 times a week including the night before our attempt and every day in the 2ww.

Folic Acid – 800mcg

Antihistimines – Zirtek for 4 days starting on cd9 (when I usually get a burst of EWCM), up to and including the day of O. I also took Night Aid (Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride) the night before our attempt.

POTIONS & PILLS FOR YOUR MAN:
DH started off taking low dosage aspirin in the same dosage as me at the beginning of the month of our attempt. Once I'd tested his pH (see below!) he stepped this up to every day while we waited for his Cranberry pills to be delivered. He only managed 2 days on the Cranberry (20,000mg fresh fruit equivalent) before I ovulated. The night before our attempt he had 40,000mg fresh fruit equivalent.

I wasn't sure about giving him licorice root given our plans for frequent release but when I asked him on around cd10 whether he was struggling now and he said no I decided it couldn't hurt to start now! I ovulated early so he only took one pill on cd10 and 2 pills the night before our attempt – probably too late to help!

TIMING:
DH was a frequent releaser when we conceived our boys so we stepped it up a gear. He released twice a day from around cd3 until cd11 (the night before our attempt). There were a couple of days where he only managed once. He took his role very seriously and often let me go to bed (or get up!) early and dealt with it himself! We did sometimes DTD but used a condom, so our attempt was the one time we DTD 'for real'.

I got a +OPK very early, on cd11. DH released at around 11pm that night and our attempt was at around 6am the following morning (his 3rd release in 24 hours). I had a -OPK at 1pm the following day and again the following evening so I must have ovulated some time during the night on cd11 or early on cd12. We likely BD'd right as I was ovulating!

DTD in the morning worked well for us because I was able to use the Aci-jel and take my antihistimine the night before and I went to bed feeling quite chilled out. DH didn't need to take a hot bath in the morning because DH is always warm after a night's sleep and we were very relaxed because we're lucky that our boys aren't early risers and we knew we wouldn't be disturbed!

We DTD in our usual lazy position (me on my back with my leg cocked over DH, him on his side - don't know if that makes sense!). He didn't release shallow. I didn't have the big O (and I limited them in the weeks leading up to our attempt, though there were certainly some!).

THINGS IN YOUR VG:
I used a combination of Rephresh and Aci-jel. Full applicator of Rephresh on cd7 and cd10 (last dose 48 hrs prior to our attempt). Finger tip full of Aci-jel on cd6 and cd9 (I was trying to alternate it with the Rephresh) and ¼ applicator full when I went to bed the night before our attempt (so around 7 hours beforehand).

I didn't use anything after our attempt but I did a Jump and Dump (got up straight away and did a wee and wiped myself up).

Did you track your pH, if so, what was it before the attempt(s):
I only used pH strips and they always seemed to be the same green colour which I read to be around a 5. I found that when I was using the combination of Rephresh and Aci-jel the strip was sometimes orange which was encouraging – but I didn't test often as I was trying not get obsessive and raise my testosterone! I didn't test right before or after our attempt but later in the day I got my usual green (5) colour.

I hadn't planned to test DH's pH so was rather shocked to find out a couple of weeks before our attempt that it was around a 10! I just did what we could (aspirin/cranberry/coke/no O.J.) and tried not to think about it! It's one of the reasons I did a JAD too.

Anything else?
I was flabbergasted to get a BFP in our first month ttc with everything else we had going on. I'm convinced that timing (cut-offs/O+12) don't matter if you're swaying in lots of other ways so the timing of our attempt was planned for getting me pregnant and not for swaying girl!

I think we had everything covered in terms of lowering our sperm count (frequent release/one attempt/Rephresh and Aci-jel/Antihistimines/JAD), altering my hormones (I always used to ovulate predictably on cd14 and it varied in the months leading up to our attempt which I take to be a good thing) and giving my body the message that resources were limited.

Reading this back, I come across as very uptight and detail oriented! However, the fact that I decided to concentrate on losing weight worked out well because it meant that it was 4 months between me getting my Mirena IUD removed ready to ttc and actual trying. During that time I got to know my plans fairly well (even though they often changed) and besides a bit of a panic a few weeks beforehand (which was coupled with evil PMT - I blame the hormones!) I was pretty chilled out. I marked up my diary once I knew when cd1 was and I just ticked things off as I took them/applied them. DH did the worrying about the frequent release for me so I didn't track that. I used digital OPKs so I didn't have to spend hours trying to decipher them and I only tested once a day.

I'm very aware that swaying is a way of increasing your chances of your dream gender and not a sure fire way of getting him or her. With that in mind, I'm sure our sway has worked in that we have a chance of a girl, whereas I don't feel we had a hope in hell with our previous pregnancies! I going with the thought that I'm likely pregnant with our 4th boy and that a girl would be an amazing surprise. I'm ok with that because I know we did what we could based on the best information around at the time.

[Yuzu]

Of course, a healthy baby is the most important thing, but I really hope you get your DD!

[maybeoneday]

That is the sway dreams are made of........ I have everything crossed for you for a pink one. You certainly deserve it! x

[swish]

You certainly did everything you could, z, this is an amazing sway!!!!, x

[tweedledeedum]

Wow - that sounds like a great sway! Fingers crossed for your first DD!

[DoulaMama]

Incredible sway After all your hard work, I truly hope you get your sweet pink bundle xoxo Are going team green with me, or are you going to take a peak????

[ladybug]

You did an awesome sway!!!! I really hope you get the precious little girl you dream of

[happyheart]

Congratulations again to you!!! I think you had an AMAZING sway!!!! I am so very happy for you!!! FX for a healthy baby girl!!!

[dannikins]

great sway! FX for your little pink bundle...

[lobella2]

Wow! Looks like a great sway.