Well, cycle day 5 now, and we are swaying for a boy. I was doing research on TTC (trying to conceive) a baby boy, and discovered that there is a whole group of people trying to influence (thus the sway part) the gender of their baby. I never knew this was such a big thing; guess I was out of the loop.
Swaying uses a couple theories to give either the X or the Y sperm an advantage during conception. One theory has to do with the ph balance in both the mother's and father's bodies. Acidic environments favor girls, and alkaline favor boys. There is a whole diet for each of these, and there are other things to do to affect this. One that I'm not sure about is a douche, something I've never done and don't really want to start. This is kinda gross, but if trying for a boy you use a baking soda douche to make an alkaline environment for the Y swimmers, and a lime douche for the X swimmers. I'll drink the lemon water and gelatin, but I think I'm gonna pass on this one, lol
Another theory has to do with potassium. When a woman eats a diet high in potassium it forms chains in her CM (cervical mucus, again, gross and sorry for that!). What it does is sort of builds a track for the Y sperm and helps to guide them along more efficiently and quickly than the X ones. If trying for a girl you avoid eating potassium and focus on calcium instead.
Then there is the whole deal with testosterone. Higher levels of testosterone in both parents favors a boy. For this, my husband is taking ginseng and we are both drinking/eating 3 packets of plain gelatin a day (ewwwwww, but we are doing it anyway).
There is temperature to think of. A warm environment favors girls and a cool one favors boys. Supposedly more boys are conceived in winter time and girls in summer because of this. This also means that hubby dearest can't take hot showers or wear tight underwear if he wants a boy (or any babies at all if he does it to the extreme and kills them all). Supposedly using an ice pack in that area once a day will give the boy swimmers a better chance.
Lastly there is the theory of timing intercourse around ovulation. For a girl it is best to BD (forum terminology for the "baby dance") a day or two before ovulation, and for a boy you want to BD as close as possible to ovulation. The theory here is that boy sperm are faster than the girls, but weaker and don't live as long.
There are tons of different things a person can do to sway. This is what we are doing.
We are doing the boy diet, so we are going for foods rich in potassium that are alkaline and very low to zero calcium and magnesium. So we are eating red meat, potatoes, V8, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, and zucchini (may add more to this in time, but this is what we've got at the moment). We are both drinking around 9-15 glasses of lemon water per day. I thought this didn't make sense given how acidic lemon is, but I guess when it hits your stomach acid it actually turns super alkaline... who knew? I don't mind the lemon water, it is actually kind of refreshing and a nice change from plain water. We are both consuming 3 packets of Knox gelatin per day. This is the really hard part for me. I hate drinking the gelatin. Hot it is thick and nasty, cold it is kinda gritty and thick and a bit chewy. I am experimenting making jigglers using the gelatin and pineapple juice. I think my first batch turned out okay, but not exactly tasty (too much like gummies, but not enough flavor). I may start using kool-aid and stevia for flavoring, and see if I can get that to turn out edible. I would just make jello except aspartame really sways for a girl, and we aren't eating sugar. I don't think I could stand to eat three boxes of jello per day anyway, lol that's a lot of jello!
As far as supplements go, I dropped the calcium I was taking since that sways for a girl. I am taking my prenatal and the fish oil pill (part of the prenatal since I am using the one a day brand with DHA), vitamin E, potassium, and 2000 mg of folic acid. The reason for so much folic acid is because this diet is supposed to be very high in sodium, and sodium blocks some of the folic acid from being absorbed. Not having enough folic acid really ups the chance of miscarriage and birth defects, so it is a no brainer to take the recommended amount for the boy diet. Once I am 12 weeks pregnant, I will wean myself off until I am only taking the folic acid in my prenatals (800mg). I am also drinking 3 cups of green tea per day. My husband is taking his men's multivitamin, vitamin E, folic acid, ginseng, biotin, and fish oil.
This is way out there, but I am also taking robitussin 2-3 times per day. This is TMI, but it thins out the mucus in your body, in your -entire- body. This helps with CM, making it more hospitable for the wimpy Y sperm. I do this from the last day of AF (aunt flo, even though I hate that term) until O (ovulation, obviously not the -other- O). This step seems really weird to me, but I'm doing it anyway.
There are a couple other things we are doing as well, but they are way too TMI, so I will just skip them ;)
I have an order of OPKs (ovulation prediction kits) and HPTs (home pregnancy tests) that should come today. OPKs are around $16 for 10 tests in the store, and $12 for 3 HPTs unless you buy from the dollar store (which is ALWAYS out, grrr). I ordered the Wondfo brand from Amazon. They are super cheap but supposed to be comparable to the First Response brand. They don't have a plastic holder on them, they are just the test strip (which is okay with me, as I care how they function, not how they look). I only paid $13 for 40 OPKs and 10 HPTs, woohoo! My plan is to use the OPKs starting tomorrow (CD6) and test twice per day until the LH surge is detected and O has happened. I don't want to start testing too late and miss O, and I am testing twice per day so I don't miss the LH surge (which is very easy to do if you only test once per day). I will have enough tests for two months, but I am hoping it only takes one! (I am already tired of being bloated and tired from the carbs, and we just started the boy diet!).
We are doing really well sticking to the diet and staying positive about the whole process. My husband seems interested and supportive, even if he does grumble a bit about some parts of it. I am feeling good that we are actively doing something about this.
I really want to hurry this up and not take very long to get pregnant (I know I can't control it, I just am hoping to influence it as best I can). The endo has been on my mind a lot. I have had four periods since my surgery in May, and each time I bleed longer and the pain gets worse. It scares me that I can feel myself getting worse. The first time there was no pain, the second time some light cramping, the third time medium cramping, and this last period the cramping was getting quite painful. This last period I also noticed I am getting pain in my left side of my abdomen, right were the endometriosis mass was which caused me so much trouble before. It is worrisome that it seems to be spreading so quickly. I feel quite a bit of anxiety about getting pregnant to stop the endo from getting worse for a while.
My husband expressed to me a few days ago that he doesn't think I should get a hysterectomy when we are done having children. He is scared that I will change. I explained to him that we aren't really going to have a choice. My moods have been so messed up since I started puberty, and they are at extremes during my menses. To control the endo, I will either have to hope my diet is enough to stall it, be on hormones to shut down my ovary (basically forcing me into menopause) or else get a hysterectomy and go into menopause. I kind of see it as all options leading to the same place; early menopause. I am not convinced that the changes with menopause would be so bad. At least my hormones could eventually level out and stop doing this roller coaster up and down every month. He has heard horror stories about how vile and mean women get during menopause, but I pointed out to him that we already go through that every month anyway. He had to agree that I was right, lol
Well, I am off to experiment making jigglers with kool-aid, wish me luck!
Swaying uses a couple theories to give either the X or the Y sperm an advantage during conception. One theory has to do with the ph balance in both the mother's and father's bodies. Acidic environments favor girls, and alkaline favor boys. There is a whole diet for each of these, and there are other things to do to affect this. One that I'm not sure about is a douche, something I've never done and don't really want to start. This is kinda gross, but if trying for a boy you use a baking soda douche to make an alkaline environment for the Y swimmers, and a lime douche for the X swimmers. I'll drink the lemon water and gelatin, but I think I'm gonna pass on this one, lol
Another theory has to do with potassium. When a woman eats a diet high in potassium it forms chains in her CM (cervical mucus, again, gross and sorry for that!). What it does is sort of builds a track for the Y sperm and helps to guide them along more efficiently and quickly than the X ones. If trying for a girl you avoid eating potassium and focus on calcium instead.
Then there is the whole deal with testosterone. Higher levels of testosterone in both parents favors a boy. For this, my husband is taking ginseng and we are both drinking/eating 3 packets of plain gelatin a day (ewwwwww, but we are doing it anyway).
There is temperature to think of. A warm environment favors girls and a cool one favors boys. Supposedly more boys are conceived in winter time and girls in summer because of this. This also means that hubby dearest can't take hot showers or wear tight underwear if he wants a boy (or any babies at all if he does it to the extreme and kills them all). Supposedly using an ice pack in that area once a day will give the boy swimmers a better chance.
Lastly there is the theory of timing intercourse around ovulation. For a girl it is best to BD (forum terminology for the "baby dance") a day or two before ovulation, and for a boy you want to BD as close as possible to ovulation. The theory here is that boy sperm are faster than the girls, but weaker and don't live as long.
There are tons of different things a person can do to sway. This is what we are doing.
We are doing the boy diet, so we are going for foods rich in potassium that are alkaline and very low to zero calcium and magnesium. So we are eating red meat, potatoes, V8, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, and zucchini (may add more to this in time, but this is what we've got at the moment). We are both drinking around 9-15 glasses of lemon water per day. I thought this didn't make sense given how acidic lemon is, but I guess when it hits your stomach acid it actually turns super alkaline... who knew? I don't mind the lemon water, it is actually kind of refreshing and a nice change from plain water. We are both consuming 3 packets of Knox gelatin per day. This is the really hard part for me. I hate drinking the gelatin. Hot it is thick and nasty, cold it is kinda gritty and thick and a bit chewy. I am experimenting making jigglers using the gelatin and pineapple juice. I think my first batch turned out okay, but not exactly tasty (too much like gummies, but not enough flavor). I may start using kool-aid and stevia for flavoring, and see if I can get that to turn out edible. I would just make jello except aspartame really sways for a girl, and we aren't eating sugar. I don't think I could stand to eat three boxes of jello per day anyway, lol that's a lot of jello!
As far as supplements go, I dropped the calcium I was taking since that sways for a girl. I am taking my prenatal and the fish oil pill (part of the prenatal since I am using the one a day brand with DHA), vitamin E, potassium, and 2000 mg of folic acid. The reason for so much folic acid is because this diet is supposed to be very high in sodium, and sodium blocks some of the folic acid from being absorbed. Not having enough folic acid really ups the chance of miscarriage and birth defects, so it is a no brainer to take the recommended amount for the boy diet. Once I am 12 weeks pregnant, I will wean myself off until I am only taking the folic acid in my prenatals (800mg). I am also drinking 3 cups of green tea per day. My husband is taking his men's multivitamin, vitamin E, folic acid, ginseng, biotin, and fish oil.
This is way out there, but I am also taking robitussin 2-3 times per day. This is TMI, but it thins out the mucus in your body, in your -entire- body. This helps with CM, making it more hospitable for the wimpy Y sperm. I do this from the last day of AF (aunt flo, even though I hate that term) until O (ovulation, obviously not the -other- O). This step seems really weird to me, but I'm doing it anyway.
There are a couple other things we are doing as well, but they are way too TMI, so I will just skip them ;)
I have an order of OPKs (ovulation prediction kits) and HPTs (home pregnancy tests) that should come today. OPKs are around $16 for 10 tests in the store, and $12 for 3 HPTs unless you buy from the dollar store (which is ALWAYS out, grrr). I ordered the Wondfo brand from Amazon. They are super cheap but supposed to be comparable to the First Response brand. They don't have a plastic holder on them, they are just the test strip (which is okay with me, as I care how they function, not how they look). I only paid $13 for 40 OPKs and 10 HPTs, woohoo! My plan is to use the OPKs starting tomorrow (CD6) and test twice per day until the LH surge is detected and O has happened. I don't want to start testing too late and miss O, and I am testing twice per day so I don't miss the LH surge (which is very easy to do if you only test once per day). I will have enough tests for two months, but I am hoping it only takes one! (I am already tired of being bloated and tired from the carbs, and we just started the boy diet!).
We are doing really well sticking to the diet and staying positive about the whole process. My husband seems interested and supportive, even if he does grumble a bit about some parts of it. I am feeling good that we are actively doing something about this.
I really want to hurry this up and not take very long to get pregnant (I know I can't control it, I just am hoping to influence it as best I can). The endo has been on my mind a lot. I have had four periods since my surgery in May, and each time I bleed longer and the pain gets worse. It scares me that I can feel myself getting worse. The first time there was no pain, the second time some light cramping, the third time medium cramping, and this last period the cramping was getting quite painful. This last period I also noticed I am getting pain in my left side of my abdomen, right were the endometriosis mass was which caused me so much trouble before. It is worrisome that it seems to be spreading so quickly. I feel quite a bit of anxiety about getting pregnant to stop the endo from getting worse for a while.
My husband expressed to me a few days ago that he doesn't think I should get a hysterectomy when we are done having children. He is scared that I will change. I explained to him that we aren't really going to have a choice. My moods have been so messed up since I started puberty, and they are at extremes during my menses. To control the endo, I will either have to hope my diet is enough to stall it, be on hormones to shut down my ovary (basically forcing me into menopause) or else get a hysterectomy and go into menopause. I kind of see it as all options leading to the same place; early menopause. I am not convinced that the changes with menopause would be so bad. At least my hormones could eventually level out and stop doing this roller coaster up and down every month. He has heard horror stories about how vile and mean women get during menopause, but I pointed out to him that we already go through that every month anyway. He had to agree that I was right, lol
Well, I am off to experiment making jigglers with kool-aid, wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment