Another BFN for Dramabird. Help for cycle 4??
Third cycle, third BFN ... on to cycle 4. :( Below is what my first three months have been (including what has been dropped/changed along the way). What do I change for cycle 4 in the hopes of actually getting pg? Forgive the length (I've condensed where possible) -- I'm feeling pretty sad and could sure use the help. Thank you.
Diet:
Switched to 90-95 percent vegetarian diet in late September 2011. Started LE diet (100 percent vegetarian) on Dec. 30. Not eating breakfast, not snacking; eating only two meals a day. I wasn't losing any weight in the 1500-1800 range; finally found the pounds coming off if I stuck to 1100-1250 a day. I started the diet at 107 lbs.
(Cycle 1) Weighed 101 lbs. at ovulation.
(Cycle 2) Weighed 97 lbs. at ovulation.
(Cycle 3) Weighed 96-ish lbs. at ovulation.
For the first two and a half months, I food journaled to ensure I was staying below levels. I just got too burned out and discouraged with that, though, so I quit writing things down. So I don't know what my daily calories are (but my weight is staying from high 95 to low 97, depending on the day, so the cals can't be too bad). I'm sure I'm below 40g of protein every day and below 60g of fat almost every day (unless I'm at a restaurant, where things can be deceptively high fat) ... I'm trying to generally stick with low sodium, but I'm sure I'm going over 1,000mg sometimes (esp. on those aforementioned restaurant days).
I am still fully vegetarian (well, I had three or four bites of bacon at a buffet last weekend because there was almost nothing vegetarian but that's been my only "slip" in four months).
I still eat no breakfast.
I still eat only twice a day.
Drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke and Crystal Light. I've added the occasional diet root beer and caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper for variety.
My meals continue to often be comprised of a lot of veggies (green beans, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, zucchini, raw mushrooms with scant ranch dip, sweet potatoes ... I've also added in some asparagus on occasion, which I hope is okay because I really like it), some fruit (apples w/o skin, pears w/o skin, applesauce, occasionally a banana) and treats (Skittles, ice cream cones, cookies). On the days I do have entrees, they're along the lines of corn tortillas with hummus and lettuce or matzo pizza or rice/veggie stir-fries or pasta with veggies.
I have been on the LE diet 123 days -- I feel like doing hash-marks on a concrete wall like a prisoner marking out her sentence. ;)
Exercise:
None
Supps for me:
Vitex twice a day AF-O
Saw Palmetto twice a day AF-O
Baby aspirin 5x week
Fiber capsules
Acidophilus
Folic acid
Chitosan before some meals
(Cycle 1) No Zyrtec or Benadryl
(Cycle 2) Zyrtec and Benadryl once daily through O. I still had a bit of EWCM most days leading up to O.
(Cycle 3) Only Zyrtec, no Benadryl -- very scant EWCM this cycle.
No magnesium supps, no calcium supps. Low nutrients across the board.
Supps for DH:
Baby aspirin
Licorice root (450 mg. three times a day); even with LR, he was able to release 6 times during a 22-hour time span on cycle 2 and to release 24 times in 12 days on cycle 3, so he's evidently rich with testosterone!!
Timing/Frequency
(Cycle 1) Single attempt with 10-day abstain. We DTD one time (missionary, no O for me) upon the first peak symbol on my Clearblue Easy fertility monitor. J&D about 60 seconds after completion.
(Cycle 2) Four attempts with 10-day abstain + compressed FR. Within my fertile window, we DTD four times and he released and dumped twice (no o for me during any DTD). No J&D for any.
(Cycle 3) Four attempts with FR. For 10 days, DH did FR twice a day. Starting on CD10, his evening releases were inside me. We DTD in the p.m. on CD10, p.m. on CD11, p.m. on CD12 and a.m. on CD13. I O'd on CD13, so we got four attempts in during the window. No big o for me on any; the first two attempts were doggy-style (I didn't know ovulation would come so soon, oops), the latter two were missionary.
Douche
(Cycle 1) I used RepHresh 36 hours prior to attempt.
(Cycle 2) I used RepHresh about 48 hours prior to first two attempts. I used RepHresh again the evening after the second attempt, so about 12 and 18 hours prior to second two attempts.
(Cycle 3) I used RepHresh only once this cycle, a few hours after our first attempt. So it was nearly a full day before attempt 2, two days before attempt 3 and two and a half days before attempt 4.
Sylk for DTD.
Sperm-lowering
DH is wearing tighty-whiteys every day except for the week following O.
Faith
I'm still praying and praising. This is a challenging time, though, no lie.
What's next???
What do we change now? Since I only used RepHresh just the one time and had four attempts, it's hard to think it squashed all the relevant sperm, as it were. So I don't know if getting rid of it will be helpful.
I'm planning on having DH's FR be less strenuous -- maybe start on CD4 instead of CD1 and average three releases every 48 hours instead of four ... so a 25 percent reduction. And then we'd resume DTD on CD10, as we did this cycle. I thought also maybe I'd reduce DH's tighty-whitey wearing to just AF-O? (He always prefers his boxers, anyway, and this would give his "boys" a rest for half the month.)
What about Sylk? We are using it each time. Should that be the biggest thing to go this cycle? I don't really love it for DTD anyway (it's not nearly as good as the regular lube we use just for fun times -- Wet Platinum, big thumbs up -- and we didn't use any lube at all to get pg with our two children).
At what point do I start eyeballing Vitex as a possible culprit? I got pg with both my sons the second month and I'm now heading into my fourth month this time. So there's no doubt that fertility suppression is at work. I'm a-gettin' tired of the diet, though, I tell you. But I don't want the diet to be the thing I drop.
Help?? Thank you.
