Hoping for a girl after two boys

Hello, I am hoping for a girl after two boys. I really would like to have a baby next May or June for work/time off purposes. I am going to be using clomid that I still have from when we conceived our last son. I took 100mg days 6-10 when we conceived him. I was also taking a prenatal, using preseed, black cohosh days 1-10, fish oil, evening primrose oil, weekly acupuncture, red raspberry leaf capsules, maca, and drinking POM juice daily until O. I tracked O with OPKs and we dtd very often.

This time I would really really love a little girl. DH is initiating the TTC this time so I feel like he’d be more on board with doing supplements or anything on his end to help. He currently smokes tobacco/marijuana cigarettes once/twice per day, drinks a few beers 2-3 times a week, coffee daily, runs several miles 2-3 times a week, and eats a lot of meat and cheese. He wears briefs only. (I don’t know how much of this is important but I want to make sure I’m giving you all a good picture of our boy/girl friendliness)

I drink wine about twice a week, smoke marijuana about once a week, moderately active, daily morning black tea but not coffee, I don’t eat meat more than once/twice a week, I eat a lot of salad, I don’t eat that much fruit but I do eat a lot of vegetables, rice, and pasta. I also love Oreos and milk.

Right now I’m not taking anything at all. I’m still nursing our son about 4/5 times during the day and on demand at night. I don’t have regular cycles right now.


What should we do to sway pink? Which days should I take the clomid? Thank you all!

Hi and welcome!

I just want to clarify for any blue swayers reading this that I do not and never will recommend black cohosh. Stay far away from that stuff. I also don't recommend maca or red rasp. leaf in capsule form, and we once recommended evening primrose but dropped it due to side effects and because it seemed to be making opposites. Just wanted to clarify that so no one read this post and decided to take the same supplements.

May I ask why you took Clomid CD 6-10? That's fairly unusual and I wonder if by taking it later it might have mitigated some of the pink sway effects. I'd have you start it CD 3 and go thru CD 7 instead. That way your estrogen won't have a chance to rise early in the cycle. I also suspect that the black cohosh undermined the pink sway effects of the Clomid (it's known to minimize side effects of Clomid, but it's probably some of the side effects that sway pink) so please do not do the black cohosh again.

Was there a reason why you were given 100 mg Clomid?

I would drop acupuncture and POM juice for a pink sway.

Smoking both regular and "special" tobacco seems to sway pink. While obviously not great for health since he does that anyway I'd have him continue (or even increase if that's something you're both ok with.) Supplements for men have not worked well at all (and stay far away from the licorice root, it's gotten dreadful results) but if he wanted to add in olive leaf extract 500-1000 mg daily started right away and continued till BFP, at which point he should gradually wean off by spacing doses further and further out till down to one per week, then he can drop them. I would also give him soy milk 12-48 oz (more is better, but if he'll only drink 1 glass a day, still good) and if he's willing to go vegetarian, even vegan, that's great. If not, having him cut down on red meat or all meat may help some. Also, jogging and riding a bike for hubby have been shown in studies to sway pink.

I would have you switch from tea to coffee (coffee itself has seemed to sway pink for us). Breastfeeding likely will also help your pink sway. Drinking alcohol for both of you has seemed to sway pink. 1 serving of alcohol a day is safe with nursing as well and let me know if you want the science underlying this.

The things that have worked best for us are LE Diet 12 weeks or more plus fiber, coffee, alcohol, giving up prenatals/probiotics/highly fortified foods, cardio exercise 60 minutes a day 4-7 days a week, one attempt in the fertile window (most of us do that at positive OPK becaue it's an easy time to conceive with one attempt and timing does not sway anyway), and Clomid or Femara if you can get them, which you can, yay!

I already listed the stuff that works for hubby above.

I know this is confusing at first so please just ask, ask, ask any questions,t hat's what I'm here for.

Hi thank you so much for responding so thoroughly. I really appreciate it! So no black cohosh, no maca, no red raspberry, no acupuncture, and no evening primrose. Got it! That makes it easier for sure.

We tried for a year and had one blighted ovum miscarriage so that is why I had clomid. I got the prescription right on day 6 of my cycle due to just when my appointment was scheduled and when my cycle started so instead of waiting one more month to take days 5-9 I just took it days 6-10. I’m looking forward to taking it again because it seemed to be just the thing that we needed. I will try days 3-7 instead.

I will be starting the LE diet today. I read a lot about that this weekend on your site. I will switch to coffee too.

I’ve been reading about cinnamon, rephresh and ph, lavender lotion, rose quartz jewelry, and preseed? Thoughts on those?

We kind of have a two month ideal window of conception that I’d like to shoot for, especially since I only have enough clomid on hand for one more cycle. We’ll be trying in August and September. If it doesn’t happen we’ll have to postpone a few more months for work and moving reasons.

I was doing acupuncture specifically to try to conceive before, I don’t regularly get it done. I was drinking the POM juice because I had read it helps lining be thicker for implantation and that clomid can thin the lining. I want to make sure conception can happen!

I will have both of us do alcohol, and he will smoke more. I’ll also see if he’ll drink soy milk. He already runs so that’s good. I’ll see if he’ll cut down red meat too.

Oh sure that makes sense!! It's nice that we have something so easy we can change (taking the Clomid on different days) that may help! My inclination is for you to take 50 mg unless they had some specific reason why they started you off on 100???

Cinnamon is only for people who have 30-50 lbs to spare or severe PCOS. If you're not in that group don't have it in anything more than normal dietary amounts.

RepHresh hasn't worked for us at all (same number of people getting girls with and without it). It also really cuts odds of conception (which is undesirable on Clomid). It is highly unlikely that pH sways anyway and I have a full explanation as to why here: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...ph-pickle.html It's fine if you would like to start off using it for one month only on the Clomid, but drop it before dropping the stuff that actually works!

Preseed would sway blue and unless you need a lube (in which case you should use the barest minimum amount for comfy intercourse) you should skip it.

lavender lotion and rose quartz don't actually do anything but if you'd like they don't harm anything either

The human body knows how to grow lining and implant babies without any extra stuff. So I would leave that out and see how it goes. The odds are very good that you don't need them to conceive. Clomid takes several months to thin out the lining (and the POM juice is honestly little more than a placebo with lining anyway)

Let me know how else I can help!

Hey thank you so much! I’m happy to give it a shot and the less I have to do honestly the better so I will just stick to the clomid on earlier days, the diet, and adding some exercise. I really appreciate the link to that ph essay, those are so fascinating and informative.

I don’t know why I was given 100 and not 50. I honestly didn’t know much about it until I was given it. I like the idea of taking half the dose just to have enough for both months we’re trying, but I also feel like since 100 worked last time on the first try I don’t want to not use enough?

Is there a risk in 100 aside from usual side effects that I’m unaware of?

It is highly, highly unusual for doctors to start people off on 100 mg Clomid (after a blighted ovum!?! when you were ovulating on your own?? I'm stunned by this!) I actually think it was pretty lucky you did take it later because the biggest risk is that you could have ended up having higher order multiples that way - think triplets, quadruplets, or even more! Starting it late like you did means that was less likely to happen since the follicles were already in development, less risk of developing too many eggs that way.

There's also a higher risk of cysts on the ovaries and the other side effects too.

Since we are taking this without the guidance of a doc I would strongly urge you to take 50. Not only will we have two months in that case but you will be way less likely to have multiples.

With just 2 months of Clomid under our belts I would absolutely skip RepHresh.

After thinking it over I think I'd suggest doing the compromise version of one attempt to protect against delayed ovulation. Sometimes ovulation can be tricky on Clomid. So I would have you aim at having one attempt at your first positive opk (start doing OPK 4 days after your last dose of Clomid, as you won't ovulate any sooner than that anyway, and Clomid can cause false positive OPK for 3 days after stopping it).

Then after that first attempt at positive OPK, have unprotected sex every 72 hours afterwards till you are 100% sure you have ovulated, even if it means going all the way through till BFP or your period comes. That way, if you get a false positive OPK and have attempt too soon, you will still be covered in case you ovulate a few days or even a week or two later. if at all possible, we DO NOT WANT you to have one attempt and then nothing the rest of the month given your limited window with the Clomid.

Ok cool thank you, yeah I did actually end up with a cyst that we only knew about from an ultrasound at 5 weeks. Let’s try 50mg then, it would be nice to have enough for both months. I really hope this works!

FX and TX too! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Thank you! We were going to start trying when my cycle starts this month, but we ended up having an accidental try this week. I was on day 40+ of my cycle and hadn’t ovulated so I figured it was an anovulatory cycle. We went camping and had bd time, I treated a yeast infection, and then suddenly I ovulated out of nowhere at almost cd 50 😑 so now I’m in the TWW. I sure hope timing doesn’t sway. We bd 4 days before ovulation and the day of ovulation. I didn’t have fertile cm, or if I did it was disguised by the Monistat treatment, because at the time of the bd before O I was at the tail end of a Monistat 7 day treatment. I used a heat pack during this time a lot because I was having stomach trouble and cramping and didn’t realize it was ovulation. I’m nervous the heat pack could have killed sperm waiting inside me. After the BD on the day of O I did go pee immediately and felt just really dry like another yeast infection may happen 🙁 I am still nursing my 1 year old.

I hadn’t used the clomid yet. I did drink crystal light, one alcoholic drink a day, and one cup of coffee each day since we last spoke. I’ve been so so on the diet. I certainly ate more meat during our camping trip. However I stopped eating salads all month and tried to eat less meat, cheese, and healthy food in general. I don’t track my weight and I didn’t end up doing exercise other than hikes occasionally. My husband smoked tobacco (he cut out the marijuana) daily and drank alcohol several nights each week during this time as well. He kept up running about 3 times a week, but he didn’t do any weight lifting.

Overall, I feel so/so about this. My random ovulation was only caught after the fact because I’ve been practicing temping. I wish I didn’t have the two “attempts” during my fertile week.

Do you think long cycles sway? Do you think if we conceive from this fluke that the girl sway has a chance? Any other thoughts about the two attempts and if that would destine us for boy #3?

Anovulatory cycles are somewhat rare. Most of the time when people have what they think are anov cycles they do or will ovulate, just later than normal. So you have to always operate under the assumption that ovulation can take place. I doubt your odds are sky high but it's possible to have conceived.

The 4 days before O was too soon to count, so you were in with just the one attempt. That is NOT two attempts.

Yes, you absolutely still have a shot at pink if you conceive.

Ok awesome! We’ll see, I’m the worst at being patient during the TWW 😂 I forgot how hard it is to think about anything else!

So my AF came, my luteal phase lasted only 3 days. I started the 50mg of clomid on day 2 and I’ll go through day 6. I’m really hoping that this cycle will be better now that I’m using the clomid again. How much does multiple BDs sway? I’m curious if we could just do it everyday during the fertile period?

How sure are you about when you ovulated?? The long cycle coupled with short LP makes me wonder if you might have ovulated sooner and had a more normal LP. This happens quite often.

Please do not do it every day during the fertile period. Not only for the sake of the sway, but because it's really not that good a way to conceive. What happens the majority of the time is that people start the daily sex too soon, and by the time the egg shows up the sperm numbers are so depressed by frequent release that there are not enough sperm to fertilize the egg. Having daily sex is one of the pitfalls that actually prevent conception.

What I would have you do instead is have sex every 4 days in the "72 hour pattern"- not that set amount of hours per se but that is how you're meant to count the days, so you end up with an attempt on O-3 and then O Day (or O-4 and O-1, or O-5 and O-2, however it works out) We have good results with this method for pink. Then, if you want absolute best chance of conception but likely a lower chance of pink, you can add in one additional attempt at the first positive OPK while continuing with the e4d method. Be SURE you start e4d right after your cycle ends and carry on even after you think ovulation has occurred. do NOT just have e4d in the "fertile window" because people often miscaluclate the fertile window.