Back again with Blue Sway for baby #2 at 38 years old

I am back again.I had my daughter in December 2019 after a boy sway turned “I really just want a baby” sway :) It took us 7 cycles to conceive naturally at 36 and we were on the brink of fertility treatments. We started TTC baby #2 in November 2020 and haven’t had any luck getting pregnant. Yet. I got Covid in December 2020, fairly mild, like the flu for a week. Not sure if that’s relevant.

Fertility: Being 38, we have started the process with our fertility specialist as we’re now on cycle #6. My numbers do indicated that I’m still fertile, which is a blessing but kinda frustrating too:
AMH: 2.37 ng/mL on CD3
FSH: 5.7 mIU/mL on CD3
Estradiol: 88 pg/mL on CD3 <--- Is this too high?
AFC: 16 (8 on Left Ovary, 8 on Right Ovary) - done on CD3

BMI: 24.5 - I haven’t fluctuated much. I’m almost the exact same weight as I was when I conceived last time. In 2019, I was eating more and doing lots of cardio at the gym; this time I’m not eating as many calories, and my only exercise is just running around after a toddler and daily family walk in our neighborhood with an occasional 20 min Peloton ride.

Diet: For my sway, I have been aiming for high protein and high healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, grassfed butter). I am very intentional with buying organic groceries - organic local produce, pasture raised eggs and chicken, wild caught fish, grass fed organic beef and organic whole milk.
Breakfast: Latte with 6oz organic whole milk + Vital Proteins collagen peptides (15g protein).
Snack: KIND bar with nuts, or a Banana
Lunch: Caprese salad with Prosciutto & Avocado, Brown rice chicken bowl w tomatoes, hummus, tzatziki and avocado, Leftovers, BLT with avocado on wheat, Chikfila or Shake Shack burger if I’m on the run
Snack: Decaf Green tea + Vital proteins collagen peptides (9g protein) or Berry smoothie with Amazing Grass greens powder
Dinner: Wild caught fish w asparagus and roasted baby potatoes, Whole grain pasta w Tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese, Tacos using Corn tortillas, shredded chicken or grassfed beef and cheese and guacamole, Arugula salad as a side to most meals, grassfed burgers with Gluten free buns and avocado, we do eat pizza 1x a week
Snack: Dessert a few times a week, usually a cookie or something sweet.
Other stuff: I do drink organic coconut water and wheatgrass shots during fertile window. Along with organic orange juice. I drink alkaline water too even though I don’t think it does anything, lol. I drink a glass of red wine each day of my period as a "treat". I get get weekly fertility acupuncture treatments, but I do not take any herbs or tinctures.

Meds: Armour Thyroid for hypothyroidism.

Supplements: Multivitamin, Fish Oil, Coq10, NAC + added Vitamin D (my level was 44 in March), B Complex (my level was 603 in March)

DH: takes a Men’s multivitamin, Coq10 and NAC. Has a similar diet to me, except he eats more fast food during the week for lunch. And he skips breakfast. He has a crazy sweet tooth. He has lost about 20 lbs since we were trying in 2019, because he got some fatty liver diagnosis in July 2020 and needed to lose weight. He doesn’t drink alcohol so it was purely diet related. He is scheduled for a semen analysis later this month to complete our fertility diagnostics.

Attempts: The first 4 cycles, I was using the Baby Dust Method and only trying twice: day of Peak OPK and day after. I Have a VERY rapid rise and I really felt like we were missing it so I started doing the day of 1st Positive OPK and Day after. We are now trying O-1, O-2 and O-4, and I’m having DH release on his own on O-6.

Think there's anything here that I'm totally missing and off base? I think my concerns are that I don't feel like I have as much muscle since having my daughter and that my husband has had low testosterone for awhile... his semen analysis in 2019 came back fine, but his T was still low. He's not gonna suddenly become a weight lifter or start drinking protein shakes, so I feel like I'm almost destined to have another girl bc of this.

Are you using the Babydust recommendations with the OPK? They are completely wrong and you likely missed ovulation every time. What they call "peak OPK" is often too late to catch the egg, meaning an attempt the next day after that will be WAY too late.

You need to start having your attempts based on the FIRST POSITIVE OPK, and NOT what Babydust calls "peak". No one else in all of natural family planning, uses the definition of "peak" that Babydust uses (though sadly it's been adopted by many of the apps, very very unfortunately). What other people including all natural family planning experts myself included have long called peak OPK is simply the time following the first positive.

There are two periods in the fertile window, high (which is the lead in to the fertile microwindow when you're at your most fertile) and peak. Peak is the 2-3 days following the FIRST POSITIVE OPK and is not in any way what Babydust defines that as (which is darkest). It is not at all uncommon to not get your darkest OPK till after ovulation. All the darkness of OPK registers is simply the hormone in your urine and not what your egg is doing.

So the first thing you need to do is stop using the Babydust guidelines as to when to have attempt. It looks like you have already made that change, though I want to be sure your husband is "cleaning the pipes" every 2-4 days all the time.

I would recommend sex O-2, O-1, and O Day. Is the attempt O-4 and release O-6 making it harder for your husband to have the attempts in the fertile window?

Why do you find your numbers kinda frustrating?? That's all good. Your estradiol is barely beyond normal and is likely a one-off anyway.

Is your cycle staying regular? The B Vitamins can often make your cycle get very weird so I want to be sure that's not happening.

What multivitamins are you taking, and how much fish oil?

I totally and completely 100% agree about BDM timing. It was clear when I was tracking ovulation, even before we started trying, that if I waited until 24 and 48 hours after "Peak" (darkest OPK), we would miss ovulation. I get my darkest OPK usually the evening of CD10 and we were BD on morning of CD11 and CD12. Way too late.

H has been fine with our 3 attempts schedule: 0-4, 0-2, 0-1. I think "every other day" with O-6 (release), O-4 and O-2 has been fine bc he gets a break in between. Do you think every other day is a bad idea? I'll ask him to release every 2-4 days.

My numbers are fine. I think I'm just overthinking the Estradiol number. In 2019, my Estradiol was 80 on CD4 so I'm scared it's NOT just a one off.

My cycle has been very regular since I stopped nursing in August. Still ovulating on the early side, CD11-12.

Multivitamins are Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal Capsules. 1200mg Concentrated Omega Three Fish Oil.

When did your period come in relation to that?

As long as you can manage to for SURE be in with the O-2, O-1, O Day attempts it's ok. I don't want you on JUST every other day as that can end up being only one attempt, and I don't want you doing daily attempts starting too soon, but O-2, O-1, and O Day is great for blue.

A two-off then. Something that happened 2 years ago and then happened again is not a big trend whatsoever, and again, it's just barely beyond the realm of normal. Since you seem to ovulate a bit on the sooner rather than later side, it is absolutely to be expected you might have slightly higher estrogen earlier than what is the "norm" (IF indeed your estradiol is always coming in that pattern, which we can't know.) Please don't worry about this, it's not an issue whatsoever.

Let's take that every other day instead. That is a VERY high dose and too much fish oil can actually cause issue in getting pregnant by thinning out your blood too much. It can also lower cholesterol, which seems like it should be good, but your sex hormones are made from cholesterol and you don't want either you or your husband's cholesterol to be low.

My cycles are 26 days. So I usually ovulate CD11-12 and period comes on CD27, so a 14-15 day luteal phase.

I'll try O-2, O-1 and O day and switch to every other day w fish oil.

Thanks again and Happy Mother's Day!!!

Great! Be sure to err on the side of assuming 14 day LP. 15 day LP is fairly unusual so in those months it's likely you O a little later than you thought and should possibly have attempt on what you expect to be O+1 to be certain you're covered.