What Sway Factors Were You (Unknowingly) Doing When You Conceived Your Boys?

I was totally on the boy diet with all 3 of my boys! Had no idea. So the diet will be the single most important thing for me.

Oh yeah tons of salt. I didn't usually add it, but now that I'm cutting down salt I notice how salty everything tasted then!!! All our breads and pastas have tons of sodium. I was so used to all that salt. Oh and I love spices! Lots of turmeric, garlic, onions, and hot sauce. Love mexican food too. Made it at home but used lots of spices and jalapenos. I miss spicy foods ;(

Here is a link to a great thread where people talked about what they did to get their boys - it's in the TTC blue section but it is def. worth a read when swaying pink so you can see what not to do!!http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...e-got-our-boys!

DS 1 - I worked at a fast food restaurant and had roast beef sandwiches and fries and pop almost every day and they also sold chocolate chip cookies which I ate with great frequency! I drank the least amount of milk with him but I had a lot of milkshakes and cheese sauce and yogurts, and also milk tea every morning for breakfast. Was not taking prenatal or any vitamins. DH and I had not been going out for very long so we were both kind of "pent up" so maybe a lot of EWCM and high sperm count. Yet we only DTD twice (we were trying to be good LOL). I"m almost certain it was the second time, I thought it was safe to DTD without protection. It was only like two days after AF, so I think I ovulated early that month and it may have been a long cutoff. I lay still for some time after we DTD but I did not O, then did a J&D.

Doing moderate exercise and getting LOTS of sunshine because I didn't have a car, and had walked everywhere all winter long, which I think made a huge difference because he was conceived in March, which is supposed to be a "girl month" but I was getting so much sunshine I think that it counteracted that. I was actively gaining weight because DH and I were going out to dinner a lot.

DS 2 - Of any of my boys, I think he is the one that really "should have" been a girl. We were really poor then, so I was eating/drinking TONS of dairy and simple carbs and not much protein, but no vitamins. Drinking coffee off and on, I remember it was very expensive because of some weird coffee famine that was going on and sometimes I couldn't afford it. I had recently lost some weight, but at that point I had been maintaining at my weight for a couple months and doing moderate exercise regularly with weights. He was conceived in October which is supposed to be a "boy" month. This was also a cutoff or a very early ovulation, because my husband changed his mind about TTC and I really had no hope of getting pregnant that month. Cannot remember about position or female O but I think I J&D because I usually did.

***Between DS 2 and 3, there was a 13 year age gap during which I got into REALLY good shape and became highly muscular.***

DS 3 - This was a classic boy sway only with tons of calcium. I ate high protein, high salt, lots of fruits and vegetables, tomatoes and potatoes all the time, tons of calories, nuts/avocado/cheese/dark chocolate every day, and I drank a lot of green and black tea and V-8 juice. Every night I would have a bedtime snack of either yogurt and blueberries or else whole grain cereal with a little bit of milk and blueberries. I was lactose intolerant at this point so I didn't drink a lot of milk, but I did eat 4 oz. of cheese along with my V-8 juice most days because it was an easy thing for me to eat at work and cheese and yogurt do not affect my stomach. I was also taking Tums pretty much every day because of heartburn and also taking prenatal vitamins with calcium and drinking calcium enriched OJ every day.

The reason why I could eat so much food is because I had a very difficult job at a dog kennel where I worked outside for 4-5 hours a day and got plenty of sunshine. It was very physical and I had to eat very regularly to get through the day. So I was doing pretty intense physical exercise but the sheer amount of calories I was eating kept me from losing weight. It was also a high stress job where I was always taking on and succeding at challenges. I was also taking fencing classes so getting a lot of competition in and I was extremely...interested in BD probably more than I had ever been before or since.

We BD frequently with female O but then the weekend I ovulated (I was much more knowledgeable by this point so I am 100% sure I did not ovulate early) my husband wasn't even at home, he had to go somewhere that weekend. Prob. a 2 day cutoff (which was the only swaying I knew about at that point). The BD that I believe got me pregnant, I Oed and laid there afterwards, but there were others where I Oed and J&D.

It took us 2 months to get pregnant and I gained 3 lbs between the first month and the second.

DS 4 - Failed pink sway baby. I had just lost a ton of weight while breastfeeding and was not ovulating (was taking vitex and 100 mg B6 to try and rectify this). I took a month off to try and regain a few pounds so I could relose them again as part of my pink sway and so I wasn't being very strict with my diet that month, but I was still doing pretty well and not eating much protein. I did have breakfast a few times and ate more salt.

The day that I must have ovulated, I went to my nephew's birthday party and had a large amount of vegetarian pizza and pop and birthday cake, and then the next day was my son's birthday and I ate deli meat and more cake and pop (none of which I had been eating before.) I gained 3 lbs that month (3 pounds seems to be my magic number), and interestingly, even when I had been at my thinnest, I still had a LOT of muscle mass left over from when I was in very good shape, even though I was not exercising at all.

I was taking megadoses of calcium, magnesium, Vit. D, and B6 plus a prenatal and LOT of folic acid because my DS 3 has spina bifida so I needed to prevent that from happening again.

Unfortunately for my sway, I managed to pop out two eggs before I even had AF and managed to get pg with both of them, but I lost one (which I believe was also a boy because it was a placenta previa which are more likely to be male). Since I thought I was safe because I hadn't had AF (everything I read made it sound like getting pg without having AF when breastfeeding is extremely rare), when we BD I wasn't using protection and I didn't do anything like antihistamine or jump and dump. I am fairly sure that the time I conceived, I laid there afterwards and went to sleep. We were BD quite a bit because we were trying to get pregnant, but I was secretly trying to avoid when I thought I might be fertile, so it was kind of patchy, like three times in a row and then nothing for 5 days (prob. perfect for boy LOL).

My husband wouldn't do anything to sway so I basically relied on diet. I wouldn't change anything now but I do wonder what would have happened if I even would just have taken an antihistamine...I didn't notice copious amounts of EWCM so I don't know if I would have timed it right.

I was also totally obsessed with swaying, getting into arguments pretty much every day on IG, and also someone stole my son's tires and we knew who it was, so I drove around trying to follow them twice and then they came to my house and confronted me, so not exactly the calmest month ever for testosterone.

This conception was in March again and pretty much all the girls in my Due Date group were having girls. I REALLY think that the Vit. D I was taking made a huge difference there...that makes three out of 4 times I was either getting tons of sun or else taking Vit D. Food for thought.

TTC NOW - I'm probably not going to TTC again but I did want to share one more observation. I gained 70 lbs with DS 4 and then I lost it all again and THIS time I have found that I did lose muscle mass, quite a lot of it really. So if you've recently had a baby and are back at your normal weight, take care that you haven't lost a lot of muscle even if you're just at your regular weight.