Hello! Need advice please :)

[dreamofdaughter]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this site. I would like to try for a pink bundle after a boy (who is the light of my life). I see my diet was very boy-friendly before...lots of bananas, potatoes, red meat, cereal. I didn't dtd near Ov so I am not really convinced timing has much influence.

So far I have cut out cereal, I don't eat until 10 or 11 am (usually 11 am), no red meat, I am slowly weaning off caffeine, down to half cup a day. I didn't eat a lot of salt before but now I am severely restricting it. I haven't managed to add the hour of exercise in per day but I am hoping to start running everyday when next month. I don't plan on trying until April.

I don't know my pH yet. I tried to check it but it didn't register on the test strips. My husband is on board - he is cutting out coffee. I don't know if he will give up red meat except maybe the month we try. And he will take the supplements if I ask.

What do the woman who can't consume dairy do to get a girl? I have a severe casein allergy and can't touch milk or yogurt etc. I don't know if I should even attempt for a girl if diet is such a huge factor...what do you think? Will the calcium supplements be enough? I drink mostly almond milk and eat kale to get calcium.

[MiaMelb]

Hi and welcome,

Sounds like you've already made some good changes, dropping the red meat, cereal etc.

You will find that since we've tracked our results over time and have many women who have been around swaying for years that we've learnt a lot and moved on from some of the old school sway tactics.

The ones you mentioned that come to mind are the salt, we've given up on the idea that it sways, no need to limit it just have it as normal to season.
Caffeine, we've actually found coffee a very good sway tactic for pink. Myself as a blue swayer am actually in the process of giving it up because it's got such good results for pink.
Most women here don't test pH anymore, we haven't found it to be very helpful for swaying and the acid/alkaline diet is not really followed here either.
Almond milk should be good for a pink sway too. Blue swayers are discouraged from drinking milk replacers such as this after we've seem lots of blue swayers drinking almond milk actually have girls.
Finally think pink swayers are generally taking very few supps these days, sure they'll confirm shortly, think it's just folic/folate and fiber from memory.

GL

[atomic sagebrush]

timing doesn't work, science has proved 50-50 boys and girls conceived every day of the cycle.

You do not need to give up caffeine. In fact, coffee has been an outstanding pink sway tactic for us.

pH is another largely debunked tactic. We had so many testing opposites (people whose pH was different than the gender of the baby they conceived) that it has become impossible for me to believe in that any more. I personally got a boy with "girl" pH and didn't even bother testing when I got my girl.

Don't worry about the dairy. The idea that dairy sways pink is biologically impossible (75% of all people worldwide can't drink milk and many cultures have no dairy foods in their cuisine at all, yet the gender ratio is 50-50 wherever we go) I got 4 boys drinking/eating tons of dairy foods and gave them up to get my girl. If you MUST do the calcium (and again, I got boys doing this and gave it up to get my girl) do JUST calcium supps, no dairy, no vitamin D with them - even if you have to just use Tums.

Almond milk has swayed pink for us!! We used to use it for blue sways but we saw so many girl opposites conceived to the blue swayers who were drinking the most almond milk that we no longer use it at all for blue sways. keep drinking that almond milk!

Kale is fine and is in fact a free and unlimited food on LE Diet, have as much as you want, don't even need to count totals.

[atomic sagebrush]

fiber and folic acid or folate is what most pink swayers are doing.

We have found the supplements do not work and have caused tons of side effects for people. We've moved away from them and our results have only gone up!

[dreamofdaughter]

Thanks for the help! I will give up the supplements then. I didn't know about fiber but doesn't that conflict with no whole wheat and more white rice/pasta? Because white rice and pasta are not high fiber foods. I take folic acid but I will double my dose to 800mcg.

So, I assume most pink swayers mostly just do an LE diet to conceive a girl? And a lot of cardio. I worry a bit about losing too much weight as I am quite thin already. The first month I think I went too hard on the diet and lost too much too fast and I don't think I ovulated because my period was extremely heavy and I read that can be the result of no ovulation (no corpus luteum producing progesterone to tell estrogen to ease up or something like that???). Anyway, the next month I ate more calories (still skipped breakfast though) and my cycle was normal flow. But now I have put that weight back on so maybe I should still try to lose a couple of pounds? I am 5'3 and about 110 lbs.

I am wondering how do women know from the U/S that they ovulated on a particular day? So, for example, when I thought I was 9 weeks pregnant with my son, the tech said I was 9weeks 2 days. So does that mean I ovulated on day 12? And how do you figure out your LP length? So I have a 28 day cycle and I normally get a surge (using the LH strips, my line is darker than the control) around day 10. Is that bad for conceiving a girl? I am not sure what to do in terms of timing our one attempt.

[atomic sagebrush]

We started off worrying about whole grain stuff but over time it has not seemed to matter and may even possibly be a better thing for some swayers than white.

Fiber has nothing to do with "whole grain" anything anyway. The reason we worried about whole grain was because it had more nutrients, not because it has fiber. But it hasn't seemed to matter much if at all anyway.

You can't tell if you ovulated on the basis of having a heavy period. Lots of other explanations all of which are more likely.
WEre you taking any supplements like cranberry or baby aspirin? Those can make heavy periods.

You are already in the "hold steady on weight" BMI category. No more weight loss.

It depends on when you have the ultrasound. if you have it right around ovulation you can tell based on that. Later ultrasounds are less reliable but during the first tri, the tech uses the size/development level of the baby to know how far along you are - babies tend to follow a pretty specific developmental timeline with little variation from that early on. But even then they are not 100% accurate. So you might have ovulated CD 12 that month (totally normal) and that would also mesh with when you ahve been getting your positive OPK - surge on CD 10 would often end up being O on CD 12, although you can't reliably use past cycles to tell you what future cycles would be. No, it is not bad for conceiving a girl. It's completely normal. 28 day cycles are usually O on CD 14, though. So if you're getting AF on CD 28 then the odds are good that you're actually Oing more like CD 14. LP are much less variable than FP.

To have one attempt I generally have people DTD at first positive OPK. So I'd probably try that at first. I hesitate for you to have attempt like on cD 13 because if you do O CD 12, you'd miss it.

[atomic sagebrush]

We started off worrying about whole grain stuff but over time it has not seemed to matter and may even possibly be a better thing for some swayers than white.

Fiber has nothing to do with "whole grain" anything anyway. The reason we worried about whole grain was because it had more nutrients, not because it has fiber. But it hasn't seemed to matter much if at all anyway.

You can't tell if you ovulated on the basis of having a heavy period. Lots of other explanations all of which are more likely.
WEre you taking any supplements like cranberry or baby aspirin? Those can make heavy periods.

You are already in the "hold steady on weight" BMI category. No more weight loss.

It depends on when you have the ultrasound. if you have it right around ovulation you can tell based on that. Later ultrasounds are less reliable but during the first tri, the tech uses the size/development level of the baby to know how far along you are - babies tend to follow a pretty specific developmental timeline with little variation from that early on. But even then they are not 100% accurate. So you might have ovulated CD 12 that month (totally normal) and that would also mesh with when you ahve been getting your positive OPK - surge on CD 10 would often end up being O on CD 12, although you can't reliably use past cycles to tell you what future cycles would be. No, it is not bad for conceiving a girl. It's completely normal. 28 day cycles are usually O on CD 14, though. So if you're getting AF on CD 28 then the odds are good that you're actually Oing more like CD 14. LP are much less variable than FP.

To have one attempt I generally have people DTD at first positive OPK. So I'd probably try that at first. I hesitate for you to have attempt like on cD 13 because if you do O CD 12, you'd miss it.

[dreamofdaughter]

Thanks so much, atomic! I appreciate your detailed reply. I was on cranberry supplements and was drinking cranberry juice when I had the heavy period. I stopped them and now just drink the cranberry juice maybe once or twice a day.

I am pretty sure my ovulation is still around the same time give or take a day. The reason being I dtd with my son on cd 11 and conceived that month, first try (age 38).

This month:

day 10, first surge at 7pm (mind you I was only testing every 24 hrs so I don't know if it might have been positive earlier)
day 11, felt a twinge on my left side at around 11am, Ovulation maybe??
day 11, still showing OPK+ at 6pm
day 12, I *think* OPK still looks positive! Is this a concern? Shouldn't it have dropped by now? My CM is definitely creamy and not as abundant

I am concerned because I read that ovulation earlier than day 12 is not considered good. Anything I can do to delay Ov? If I ovulate on day 11, that means my LP is 16-17 days because my cycle starts day 28 (last month was day 27 though). I am curious to see when my MC starts this month given OPK+ was day 10.

I am also worried a bit that the high carb is making me a little polycystic because I keep getting twinges on both sides early on in my cycle and this hasn't happened before. I used to periodically get cysts on my ovaries but I am not overweight, I don't have irregular cycles and I have had my testosterone levels checked before, they were normal. I definitely lost stomach fat the first month when I dropped calories - I have put some of that fat back on since I stopped, essentially, starving myself. Is it possible to be slightly PC but not have any symptoms other than the lower abdomen twinges?

I plan on getting blood work done next cycle with a ND. I don't dare go to a regular MD because I am afraid they will shame me for being over 40 and TTC.

[dreamofdaughter]

Thanks for the detailed reply, atomic!

I am reposting this as I don't know what happened to my reply...sorry if you end up seeing something similar twice as I don't have the exact post that I submitted so I am kind of going by memory.

I *was* taking cranberry supplements and drinking cranberry juice the month I had my heavy period so that does make sense. I have stopped the supplements and just drink the juice, maybe 5 cups a week. Also, that month I was drinking A LOT of peppermint tea. Would that have affected anything in terms of shortening my LP? My MC started at 26 days that month instead of my normal 28.

Last month was more normal re: flow and it started at 27 days so I am hoping I am moving back to a normal cycle. I do feel the sudden shock to my body messed with my cycle.

I do think that my Ov has been fairly consistent over the years give or take a day or two. One pregnancy (that I lost) I conceived by DTD on day 11 (after getting a positive OPK) and I conceived that month which was my first try. Then with my son, I DTD on day 9 and thought I was safe but he surprised me and I highly doubt the sperm could have survived to day 14? That seems unlikely given I was 38 at the time (though DH is several years younger than me).

I do wonder if a positive OPK on day 10 is bad for conception, in general, not just for a girl. Because I read that ovulating before day 12 isn't good as the egg isn't mature enough. Is there anyway I can delay my Ov?

This month:
- day 10, 7pm, first OPK+ (but I was only checking ever 24 hrs so maybe it would have been + earlier?)
- day 11, 6 pm, OPK+
- day 11, 11 am, felt a slight twinge in my left side that I assumed was Ov pain??
- day 12, 9 am, OPK still positive! But, my CM had definitely shifted to less abundant and more tacky though it was still somewhat clear, not yet gone creamy.
- day 12, 4 pm, OPK lines look about the same colour

Is OPK supposed to stay positive for so long? Next month I will use digital tests to be sure. I was using the one that have two lines to compare.

Also, is it possible to have PCOS but not show symptoms other than cysts? Because this month, I felt like I had a couple twinges on both sides of my lower abdomen from end of AF to Ov. I am not overweight, I don't have excessive facial hair, I have very regular periods but I have, historically, had cysts on my ovaries periodically. I do intend to see a ND to get bloodwork done next cycle to see what is going on. I would see my MD but I think he will frown on me trying to conceive because I am over 40 and I do think negativity impacts getting pregnant a lot.

[dreamofdaughter]

One other question, we are planning a trip to Mexico before we TTC. I just read Vit d sways boy...ugh...is there a way to get rid of the Vit D I absorb on holiday? I know it is stored in fat so if I exercise a lot after we get back, would this help? I feel frustrated because I do not want to TTC next month (just missed this month) as it will mean I am 9 weeks pregnant (if successful) when we fly which I feel is risky for a m/c. Any thoughts appreciated!