Oh my! AF returns after over 2 and a half years - starting my girl sway planning...

[suregena]

I want to plan it so it's not stressful. I don't want to get TOO crazy because I'm naturally a stress head and getting over-obsessed about the fine details about something that is more out of interest would be pointless; I'm happy whether or not it's a girl, but if it's a girl, great! If not, great!

But I do want to give it a good try.

Anyone want to give me any tips for my plan? I don't have one as yet but I'm working on it starting now as I need to sort of get pregnant before February for a variety of reasons, travel related (need to fly home to the US for Christmas in 2012... I live in the UK but am from the US so it's a long haul flight and I need to be able to fly, i.e. not past 36 weeks pregnant and not with an under 6 week old baby, yikes. Time pressure. Sort of...)

*Both my husband and I have been vegetarian for YEARS... so that's a bonus.

*Our diet tends to probably be fat-heavy, though we're both thin/average weight... but whole milk, lots of cheese, TONS of beans, lentils, vegetables, etcetera... so at least on my end, I'd have to really alter that...

*I'm still breastfeeding my 20 month old son, so have no idea which supplements would be safe for me+him... vitex? I'm conflicted.

*I love at least one coffee a day... in the morning, so badly needed. I drink much more normally but I could go down to 1 in the morning - would that be bad?

*I'm really undecided about frequent BDing/release or abstaining... and whether to do a cut off or not. SO conflicted. I just don't know which way to go with that...

*Would my husband benefit most, if he does anything, by taking licorice root? If he only could do one thing--what's the most ideal thing to do in terms of supplement or food? I reckon supplement would be more beneficial. Obviously we're thinking of a hot-as-he-can-stand it bath dunk before BDing!

*I'm thinking of doing a lime douche and obviously frequent PH testing... pros/cons?

*The diet... I don't know, I'll have to come up with a plan and stick to it because it will probably just be me on it and it has to remain cost effective but simple. I hear rice is good. What about spices? i.e. garam masala, basil, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and so on? If I could only have one cheese, which would be the ideal cheese?

Sorry there's a lot... I've been looking into this for nearly a year now and I'm still not sure where to start. I was waiting for my period to finally return, and it has... so... oh my! Time to start planning...

For the record, before I conceived my son, I would get pregnant first month trying but lost two pregnancies before him. I have had comments at least a few times from ultrasounds about features on my ovaries as being possibly polycystic but I have no symptoms of this, so it was merely an observation. I DO believe I probably have higher testosterone than normal. This is something I'd like to lessen/decrease, ideally... I think it'd help. I have very MILD symptoms of higher testosterone... i.e. hairy but in not too noticeable of ways (side of face, under belly button, toes, etcetera.)

Oh my goodness, sorry for rambling...

[wilma_five]

Good luck to you!!

[rainbowflower]

welcome! there's a few of us on here who are swaying pink and in the UK

frequent release + abstaining both lower sperm count, that's all
frequent release - probably more releases inside so can up chance of pregnancy (although releases can be discarded instead) but it can be hard to keep going, it can raise the pH in there more by repeatedly upping it
abstaining - seems to have more XX swimmers, but in couples over 35 it can raise some birth defects, and some men struggle not to release for a length of time

cut off - again, some believe strongly and it's a traditional aspect of a sway, but it can also reduce chances of getting pregnant and a fair number of studies contradict it or find no link

pH - an alternative to douching is to use a gel like RepHresh - this keeps pH steady at 4.5, so good if you are frequent releasing as it will lower the pH after each BD and perhaps it's less stressful too as you don't need to keep checking pH


cheese - any low sodium cheese. Personally I like philidelphia light, or babybel light... but mozzarella is a good one too or most cheeses with holes in seem to be lower sodium.

spices - I think most are OK in small amounts, but avoid parsley and garlic

vitex - I'm a BFer too (my DS is 9.5 months old now), and I'm taking vitex as I have a luteal phase defect. I'm taking 800mg last thing at night after his bedtime feed... I then don't feed him again until morning so think that's enough time for it to get out of my system, but even if he was to feed straight after I'd taken it I'm not too worried by the risks as I think it's safe.


HTH?

[suregena]

HTH - does that mean "hope that helps"? I totally guessed that one! Ha!

That does help quite a bit, actually. I never even thought light cream cheese might be an option...

Hmm, maybe I will abstain then. I'm 25 (26 in November) and my husband is 36 (37 next year.) He already wears tight pants so maybe that will go in our favor, also. Any truth to that tight pants/underwear thing?

Also... what is considered "low sodium"... what numbers should I try to keep it under?

Think it's worth a try to go ahead and start taking vitex now? I've now only had one period since my cycle has returned... my mom started taking it for her menopause and bought an extra one she said she'd give to me. It's in liquid form. She's visiting me here in the UK for a few weeks so I could ask her to bring it...

Hmm... where can I get RepHresh? Think it's a better, more consistant option instead of lime douches?

So many things to consider! Oh my! This is sort of fun/exciting.

[rainbowflower]

sorry, yes it means "hope that helps"

there is apparently a little truth to the tight pants thing, but it only reduces the count by a fraction! still, maybe every little helps. I don't think my DH is prepared to do that, though! lol

low sodium is 0.6-1g per day (600-1000mg) in total

you can get RepHresh from Amazon or Boots, but Amazon is cheaper. I picked up my vitex from holland & barratt. I should have said that vitex is taken AF-O.

I agree, I find it fascinating and fun lol

[suregena]

My husband wears the skinny/slim fit stuff, so nothing needed to change there. Though I did joke with him that I would buy him some underwear that is a size smaller - he just looked at me funny. He wears briefs so think that with his tight pants are probably just fine.

Ah, Amazon - my friend! I think I'll do that instead (was reading the thread on it just before I responded here again - think I rather like the sound of it far more than douching...)

Wow... 0.6-1g per day! That's a challenge! Since you are in the UK, any food brand tips you can point my way will help me and keep my brain from exploding!

You're TTC (from your signature) around the time we are thinking. Woohoo! I figure I need to have a couple periods first before I jump into this. I'll be starting the diet the end of October (after my mom leaves... can't go restricting myself while she's here... I would probably be miserable.)

My son is 2 in January. I would have started this sooner but I was waiting for my period to return naturally without weaning him.


So now I'm thinking diet (what I eat on the diet, I have no idea yet...) + cut off before ovulation + abstainance + RepHresh + watching my pH levels.

Hmmm... think that's good enough? We're both vegetarian, anyway, so I think that should work in our favor maybe in general as my mom (I was her only girl) eats meat and his mum is a meat eater (typical British diet, more or less) - my mom had 3 boys and my husband's mum had 3 boys.

My mom conceived me when she was losing weight on a Slim Fast diet. Haha! :P

I only found this out when I specifically asked her what she ate before she got pregnant with me, compared to my brothers... for curiosity-sake.

[zanacal]

I found www.chemistdirect.co.uk cheapest for Rephresh and I got Lamberts Vitex from www.expresschemist.co.uk.

Have you seen the TTC Pink Food Thread? A few of us who have/are contributing to that are from the UK so there should be some familiar stuff there.

GL!

[suregena]

Oh yes! I went and searched for it and read it last night--nice that so many UK people are writing in there... gave me a fewish ideas!
I'm glad I can at least use extra light philadelphia... that's handy to know.

[rainbowflower]

there's a UK products thread too with lots of good food suggestions in there

I think we'll be bringing TTC forwards now (maybe next cycle) because I'm losing too much weight on this diet. We'll be doing the diet (plus chocolate + cake to slow the weight loss), compressed frequent release, BD through O, RepHresh. With RepHresh you don't need to watch your pH levels because that does it for you.

[zanacal]

I had a Dairylea slice in my sandwich every lunch time - quite fancy one now actually!

rainbow - so exciting that you're attempting soon!