A few questions...

[jennaesue]

I am just starting to consider my options for swaying for a girl, and I'd appreciate some help.

I am currently bfing my 10 month old, and I haven't gotten my cycles back. I would like to cut down on his feedings so I can start my periods again so I get my cycles back on track. Ideally, I'd like to do child-led weaning, but if I can't get my cycles back just by cutting down, I'll probably wean him after he turns 1. So here are my questions:

1) can I take any supplements while bfing? And how far in advance should I take them? I will most likely not start ttc until at least January.

2) is there any benefit to starting the diet early? Or at least some aspects of it, like cutting down on sodium and losing weight?

3) I am on the mini-pill. Should I stop taking that at some point to see what my cycles are like without that interference?

4) is there anything else I can do to encourage my body to ovulate?

5) are there any other factors of swaying that can start this far ahead of my attempt?

Thanks!

[rainbowflower]

your DS must be about the same age as mine! (mine is 9.5 months) I'm still BF too, but got my cycles back a few months ago once we started giving him more solids.

1- I'm taking vit B6 (50mg) and vitex (800mg after the last feed of the day) to balance my hormones to regulate my cycles. Also taking folic acid (800mcg, a small amount of vit D and 800mg calcium - the calcium, vitD, and half of the folic acid are in the same tablet).

2- if you have weight to lose it's probably helpful to start early. How long were you thinking of doing the diet for before TTC? is January your TTC date or is it your sway start date to TTC in a couple of months from then? The diet should be 6+weeks before TTC

3- yes, I would. Perhaps it's the minipill keeping your AFs away?

4- extending the time between feeds (especially overnight) and the amount of time the baby is on the breast can bring your cycles back sooner because this means you'll have less prolactin in your body, and the vit B6 and vitex can help as well. I'm also drinking RLT and peppermint tea as those are also hormone-balancing

5- you could start charting once your cycles are back so you know what day you usually OV on, no harm in starting the ion thing early too?

[Zivic-Bubac]

Although Rainbow has already answered your questions, I thought this might help too http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-breastfeeding

[jennaesue]

Thanks! I was wondering if there was already information about swaying while breastfeeding, but I didn't see it anywhere.

Rainbowflower - I am not entirely sure when I'm going to start ttc. It all depends on when I start ovulating. January is a reasonable goal, I think, but it's not set in stone. But then again, I don't know if I want to be on a crazy diet over Christmas. Maybe I should start in January and then ttc 6 weeks after that? Hmm. And I'm not sure how much of the diet I'm going to do - probably I'll just try to lose some weight and cut back on the big no-nos. I really don't have weight to lose - I lose it like crazy when I'm bfing, but I'd like to lose some extra to help with the sway. If I can't keep bfing while ttcing, I will. How long are you planning on bfing your little one? I'm glad to hear I can start taking some supplements. I'll get on that soon!

Thanks so much for your help!

[rainbowflower]

weight loss is my problem too, I only had 10lbs to lose before becoming underweight when I started the diet 4 weeks ago. My weight was very stable before, and I've already lost 7lbs partly because he's had a tummy bug and has been off his solids so I've been doing far more BF than before at least I haven't noticed any drop in my milk supply

I'm not planning on stopping BF. Once he turns one I'd like to go down to just morning and night (so that would be dropping 1 feed), and I'd like to continue during the next pregnancy too if I can!

[atomic sagebrush]

Most of this info is in the link that Zana posted but jsut a couple thoughts I had:

1)Vitex, B6 are believed safe while bfing and will help restore/normalize cycles. Be sure to read the following threads to get the full story: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...g-cream-HOW-TO and http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...periences-here

Also, just giving up nighttime feedings can restore your O very quickly.

2)There is some advantage to going vegetarian in advance of going on one of the full diets. It will help shrink your muscle mass and lower testosterone, and you don't have to deprive yourself or anything. Just eat however much you like, focusing on plant-based foods instead of meats and eggs.

Honestly, I'm not even sure low-sodium sways much if at all and it's super hard to stick to. No need to start that in advance.

Losing weight - it all depends on how much you can spare. We've been finding that for people who only have less than 10 lbs to spare, if they begin to lose too far in advance, they run out of weight almost immediately and it makes their ovulation spotty. Which is how it sways, by reducing overall fertility, but if you're already BFing, your ovulation will already be spotty to begin with and too much weight loss might make it very hard to get pg.

3)The first couple cycles off BC pills sway pink, so I would not go off the pills until right before your attempt so you can have that working for you.

4)Stop night feedings, get 8-10 hours of sleep (warning, while this does help restore ovulation, it also may help raise testosterone and estrogen, inadvertently swaying blue, so you might not want to do this.)and sleep in a darkened room for most of the month except when you're hoping to ovulate. For more thorough explanation of the light/dark patterns and their effect on fertility read this: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...21-Lunaception

5)The thing to always remember while swaying pink is that you want your fertiltiy to be reduced but still able to conceive, so it may be wisest to do nothing to restore ovulation (other than vitex which is believed to sway pink AND restore O while BF) and just wait for your body to get with the program over the course of time. You WILL ovulate at some point and by resisting the urge to jumpstart the process, you may have some time in which your fertility is operating at a suppressed level and you'll just naturally be more girl-friendly during that period.

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh and one more thing to consider re: when you TTC is that there is a peak of girl conceptions in Mar-May anyway. So if you time it right, you could potentially have that working for you as well.

Here is the essay about that. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ns-and-swaying

[jennaesue]

Thanks, Atomic!

I was a vegetarian for 14 years (actually I was vegetarian when I conceived my first two boys), so it shouldn't be hard for me to go back to eating less meat (although I doubt I'll cut it out completely).

As far as weight goes, I really am not sure how many pounds I can safely lose. I haven't been weighed since DS3 was born 10 months ago! Guess I better figure that out. :/ I feel like I could lose some - I still have a bit of belly fat leftover from pregnancy, but other than that I feel thinner than I have been for a long time. But I see what you mean - I don't want to keep myself from ovulating by losing too much weight.

Here's my *very* rough plan so far:

*I started taking Vitex (400 mg, one at morning and one at night) and I will add Calcium & Magnesium (I still have to buy this one, so not sure what dosage yet - prob. 1200 cal and 200 mag?). Oh, and folic acid.
*I stopped cereal cold turkey (I have been a big cereal eater for years - like two bowls a day since always) I am hoping that deleting that from my diet completely might help
*I'm increasing milk & yogurt, and aspartame products (I rarely eat artificial sweeteners, so that might make a difference also)
*I'll work on losing a little weight, but won't go crazy
*I'll work on night-weaning the baby
*once my cycles return, I'll chart and try to pinpoint O
*I'll stop the bcp one or two months before attempt
*I thinking I'll try the spermacide thing (probably VCF foam) for 7 days before attempt, and then dtd twice (once with spermacide, once without) for attempt (not sure about timing yet - whether I'll try to do a cut-off or not)
*depending on ph, I may add in a douche or rpHresh (my ph naturally seems to be 4-5, so I'm not sure if I'll need to do either)
*attempt will be missionary, shallow penetration, no big O, jump & dump

What do you think? Sound like this has any chance of success?

[atomic sagebrush]

Have you read this?? (there are three in the series, you'll prob. want to read all three) http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...-CONTROVERSIAL
and also
http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...rm-and-Y-sperm

If after reading those you're still sold on cal/mag, that's fine and I think 1200/200 is just perfect. Personally, I think it's better to get cal via supps rather than increasing dairy though because when you increase dairy, you also increase protein, sodium, potassium, and a host of other nutrients that may sway blue. Not to mention calories. I think it's best to stick to 1500-1800 calories a day, 40-50 g protein, and 20-30% fat and these things sway a lot harder than calcium does. For the reasons mentioned in the essays, I just can't believe that calcium/sodium ions attracting sperm of a particular gender, is making the difference between boys and girls being conceived.

if your pH is that low at ovulation, you don't need to douche for sure, though you still might want to use the RepHresh to lower the pH of the semen. That is entirely up to you though.

With jump and dump, repHresh, and shallow penetration, spermicide may be overkill. It's up to you though and depends upon how big a hurry you're in to conceive. Another option may be to just use the spermicide for 7 days before attempt and then leave it at that.

about giving up cereal - I used to eat a gargantu-bowl every day with DS 1-3.

I think that's a great sway!!

[jennaesue]

Okay, I will read those threads and re-visit the whole dairy issue. I am not 100% on my timeline here, so I have plenty of time to make these decisions (as much as I want to be preggers RIGHT NOW) oh well. I forgot to mention we'll probably be doing frequent release, and I'm going to try out the whole negative ion thing (with a bracelet and a rock salt lamp, probably) I'm not sure I'm sold on that idea, but I figure it shouldn't do any harm!