So I've been wondering...what went wrong with my pink sway?

[smbarnett11]

I've been forming this post in my mind for a little bit. We found out we are having DS2 last week. I am actually surprised by how excited I am and the new things that I am looking forward to. However, I am also still hoping for a DD someday and am trying to get some basic ideas in my mind for how my next attempt will look different than this one. I'll give a basic summary of my past sway and then list a few question I have for the future. Any suggestions for what essays to read would also be appreciated!

Me....
-6 weeks on strict LE diet (1500-1600 cals etc)
-No Breakfast (peppermint tea to get me through till 12pm)
-Lost 15lbs (10% body mass) to get to 136 (was 144 when DS1 was conceived)
-Acidophillus & Folic Acid (no other supps)
-No exercise
-RepHresh on CD 10 & 12

DH...
-Is very thin/muscular & continued moderate exercise
-Licorice Root
-FR CD1-11

DTD...
-BD on CD12 (after 11 days of DH doing FR)
-+OPK CD15 (1 day later than expected...hoping for a 2-3 day cut off...so we decided to BD again)
-BD on CD15 & JD & used Zyrtec 8 hrs prior

I think the two main things that swayed blue for me are..

a) even though I lost 15 lbs, I was still not at my lowest adult weight, which would be more like 125. I am 5'3" and so a BMI of 18.5-20 would be 105-115. I've never even been 115. I have too much muscle for figure skating for 15+ years.

b) BDing again on CD15 after DH did FR for 11 days. I think his production had upped from FRing and since he skipped two days he had a huge batch of nice healthy sperm ready for CD15.

Any other ideas on what swayed blue for me?

In the future I think I need to get as close to 115 as I can. I'm thinking of having a goal for being more vegan/vegetarian after this next baby gets to be ~6 months old and trying to hit 135 again sooner. Perhaps this will give my body more time to lower Testosterone. Then when I do the LE I'll try to go from 135 to at least 120. I'm also thinking of trying to do the diet for at least 9 weeks instead of just 6. I also think I'll have DH either do FR again or do a more compressed version and not stop till we get that +OPK!! Any other long term ideas you guys have tried?

Thanks again so much for anything you have to add! I love this site and am so excited to continue my journey here.

[2boys1girl]

I think unfortunately even the best sways yield opposites. Your sway looks great in my opinion! Very very close to mine and I'm having a girl this time. The only difference is we dtd just 1x at positive opk(15 hours after first positive to be exact). DH did FR for 12days leading up to our 1 attempt. Congrats on your baby boy. I have 2 amazing boys and both were products of cutoffs. Good luck!

[Wanting-a-girl]

I think your sway was great...

Swaying is the name it's not a guarantee unfortunately
I'm glad that your very excited about your new ds

[smbarnett11]

I think unfortunately even the best sways yield opposites. Your sway looks great in my opinion! Very very close to mine and I'm having a girl this time. The only difference is we dtd just 1x at positive opk(15 hours after first positive to be exact). DH did FR for 12days leading up to our 1 attempt. Congrats on your baby boy. I have 2 amazing boys and both were products of cutoffs. Good luck!

Yep...opposites do happen . I thought it was a great sway too. Good to know yours was similar and worked . After reading atomic's article about FR vs. abstain I thought DH's 2 day break was probably the biggest factor. No breaks next time! Glad no breaks worked for you!!!

[nuthinbutpink]

I think you did a great job with the attempt. It's just not a guarantee. There's nothing "wrong" with it! That makes it sound like there is fault on your part and you did the best you could. I wish it was a straight line to follow but it's just not. More like a hop, skip and a jump.

[Princess of Pink]

If it were me swaying girl and I had failed a sway before (I have actually 3 times, but swaying boy and not atomic's way) I would be on the diet for at least 3 months. Longer period of no exercise so muscle mass decreases, sups for at least 3 months (maybe look into if there is anything else you could take that sways girl, sorry I don't know what they are?), make sure your diet is not very nutrient dense, minimal meat, etc.. Did you take anything to dry up CM? Maybe add that if you didn't.....possibly get DH to take up running or bike riding (if he doesn't) as those are said to sway girl. I would start drinking large volumes of diet coke and get DH on the energy drinks.

But that's just what I would do!

[atomic sagebrush]

1)bad luck.
2) bad luck.
3) bad luck.

Seriously, you can rip yourself apart analyzing a failed sway and the fact is, sometimes they just don't work out. Nothing that you did or didn't do, it's just that Mother Nature/God wants both boys and girls to be born and so she's/He's built in a failsafe aka luck, into the equation so swaying can never be 100%. Some people are going to get opposites no matter what.

I think that given your history of being very athletic, you may just have been a bit more "set" for a boy to begin with. YOU CAN STILL GET A GIRL. My point is, if you went from being 75% likely to have a boy, to 53% likely to have a boy, you had a great sway and then the cards just didn't fall your way. May be that like me, you need to go thru the weight gain of pregnancy, then losing weight again a second time, before that muscle mass really goes. (With DS 4, even tho I lost 30 lbs, I was still very muscle-y. With DD, I was a similar weight to when I conceived DS 4 but had a lot less muscle mass.)

One thing that I would change is the acidophilus. Someone compiled some stats and the probiotics really did not stack up too well and I think everyone should prob. drop them.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yep...opposites do happen . I thought it was a great sway too. Good to know yours was similar and worked . After reading atomic's article about FR vs. abstain I thought DH's 2 day break was probably the biggest factor. No breaks next time! Glad no breaks worked for you!!!

I really, really do not think frequency sways very much at all. I seriously doubt it EVER comes down to frequency.

[smbarnett11]

1)bad luck.
2) bad luck.
3) bad luck.

Seriously, you can rip yourself apart analyzing a failed sway and the fact is, sometimes they just don't work out. Nothing that you did or didn't do, it's just that Mother Nature/God wants both boys and girls to be born and so she's/He's built in a failsafe aka luck, into the equation so swaying can never be 100%. Some people are going to get opposites no matter what.

I think that given your history of being very athletic, you may just have been a bit more "set" for a boy to begin with. YOU CAN STILL GET A GIRL. My point is, if you went from being 75% likely to have a boy, to 53% likely to have a boy, you had a great sway and then the cards just didn't fall your way. May be that like me, you need to go thru the weight gain of pregnancy, then losing weight again a second time, before that muscle mass really goes. (With DS 4, even tho I lost 30 lbs, I was still very muscle-y. With DD, I was a similar weight to when I conceived DS 4 but had a lot less muscle mass.)

One thing that I would change is the acidophilus. Someone compiled some stats and the probiotics really did not stack up too well and I think everyone should prob. drop them.

Thanks for this! I think you are right that having a lot of muscle was the biggest factor on my side (and my side probably being the most important in whole scheme of things). Even when I don't work out for 3-6 months I can still leg press over 400lbs. The leg muscle just NEVER goes away!! That being said, I did notice a slight decrease after 6 weeks on the diet. So maybe it is just that I need to go through this whole pregnancy and then lose the weight again and hopefully more muscle goes along with it this time. Any insights on how to get rid of the muscle? Is there anything more to it than simply not exercising and not eating a lot of meat at the same time?

As a side note, all four of my friends who are pregnant right now all got girls and none of them are significant muscle mass. I do have one friend who is really into lifting that also has two girls but she is stick thin aside from her muscles.

Thanks for the note about probiotics too. I didn't know that. I guess I'll drop them next time.

[Hobbermittens]

I have never swayed girl, but I have two daughters, and I swayed boy for my son who is 4 months old. I am sure Atomic is right, and it is a matter of luck, as your sway seems great! The only thing I can say is that my DH releases daily on his own, and has for as long as I have known him. The only times he hasn't is when we were TTC. (well, I caught him once, but we didn't get pregnant that month!). Both my DDs were "oops" babies, so I am sure they were conceived after many many days of releasing in a row, where as my two DSs were conceived without my DH releasing. So in my mind, I think that may have something to do with it. Good luck next time around!