Every piece of advice for TTC, food, lifestyle, the works

oooh thanks! i guess somewhere near the end of october. Just keeping everything crossed (including legs now DH has done his bit!!) that it all goes ok. I'll look forward to your announcement soon :)

Aw thanks; it always helps when people are encouraging. When's your due date? I shall keep it in my mind and do some long-distance poz visualisation!

Thanks bean - fingers crossed it all works out.
I'm wishing you lots of luck too and sure you'll get there. The power of the mind is amazing and if you've hypno'd your way through it once there's no reason you can't go it again! Good luck hon x

Loving the craziness, Berries - well it did the trick. It is luck - some of it, though in our case it's got a lot to do with age. Mind you our first pg was instant, healthy and we had a pretty quick homebirth (mainly due to positive visualisation there I think - hypnobirthing) when I was 38, so not that bad considering.

Funnily enough I have been a bit like that with DP of late - he wasn't sure about another DC so it's been a slow haul getting him to agree/understand/give up booze etc. Now I feel safe to talk about our second baby.

Still - need to actually beat the TTC battle.

I only had one high this first month on CBFM - and dtd - but had been dtd every other day anyway from about cd4! I think next month I will aim to hit first peak but still dtd every other day iyswim.

Thanks for advice. It's so great that you got there - have a happy pg and birth and toddler years, etc etc

Hi Bean - i totally get what you mean about timed sex. it's rubbish and stressful isn't it. We were doing it every other day from the first high on the CBFM and always did it the first peak. Most months we did it on both peaks but not the month we conceived. Then we had just done it every other day and the first peak. It sounds very unhelpful but i think some of it it just luck - i kind of visualise the sperm and the egg passing like in some random romcom and then try and visualise them getting together. God i sound fucking nuts. What i am trying to say is the month it happened i was very positive. Told myself i'd had enough. Threw out all the tampons to tell myself i wouldn't need them and started telling DH "when we find out i'm pregnant". TBH it was a bit weird when we found out i was.....

Anyway - i'm sounding crazier by the minute so i'll go.....

FidgetPie - sounds like we are in a similar boat, though I was luckier with DS - got him after only a couple of cycles trying (I've had around 18 cycles since AF returned after b-fing; about 12 of them properly TTC). I hope this time round is quicker for you! And I'm an old baggage so probably not uber-fertile these days.

Yes your DH should have showers instead - all the time. Spermies take 90 days to make in his body, so you need a good 90 days of low caffeine, minimal alcohol, no hot bollocks and possibly manvits? Mine is totally off booze and trying acupuncture...

IMHO we don't get enough SWI because of the low/slow wrigglers. I mean, I think the two are linked - greater sex drive = better quality spermies. But there's no science in that is there?!

Holiday sounds good; I'll be waiting until July for a BFP then.

Yes - if only I could relax to order; the amount of times I've been told this.... grrrr.

Anyway - good luck. You got there once, you'll do it again.

Watching this with interest as am trying to conceive #2 - so far this is our 11th cycle so really hoping we got it this month so we don't hit the 1 year mark. We were trying for 18 months for DD. still not entirely sure what the problem was, although DH's swimmers are quite low/slow and we don't do a lot (enough in my view) of SWI - so we tend to just get 1 or 2 times around the time I am ovulating (bean - I know what you mean about timing it quite carefully - I find this quite stressful).

The things we did differently the month DD was conceived: holiday to Egypt, referral to infertility consultant, as a result we weren't as worried that month (but you can't fake this - we tried to 'relax and forget about it' many times, with no success) and I lost a bit of weight / did some more exercise.

DH is avoiding hot baths when I am ovulating (should he avoid them completely?) and we don't drink a lot of alcohol (but he does drink quite a bit of coffee). I might buy some brazil nuts. I'll be keeping an eye out for other things that might boost his swimmers.

Hi again Berries - 6 months is long enough, though now I'm into my second year I would welcome only a 6-month wait... I'm lucky that I had DS almost instantly when I was 37/38 though.

Can you advise me if you think the CBFM 'highs' were a good time for SWI, or did you save yourself for the peaks? My DP isn't a great one for SWI (and has lazy wrigglers) so I need to time it quite carefully. I have just got a CBFM and we SWI'd on the first and only high but have had stage fright on first peak, unfortunately.

Thanks!

HI bean thanks for the congrats. We were TTC 6 months with this one so not long compared to lots of ladies on here but long enough for me to experience the emotional ups and downs of TTC. I don't know if soya makes a difference - i started a thread about it on here after reading something about it online. I do know that the month after we cut it out we conceived (but perhaps it can't be anything to do with soya as it would need more than a month to get out of my system?) I didn't know about dairy being 'bad' for TTC. We eat a lot of cheese and when we cut out soya milk we were having full fat every morning on cereal. It's all a bit contradictory isn't it.

I've also read about manuka honey - had some last month but more because i drink it for colds and i had a bad cold.

As for the amount of shagging... for DS we did it twice in the fertile time and this time we were bonking every other day for 6 months. bloody exhausting but it's been good for the relationship!

moggy - don't worry about venting. You're safe doing that here. Completely understand your situation, it is gutting every months when it doesnt happen and as nice as DHs/DPs can be for some reason it's not the same for them.

Good luck to you all xxx

We aim for organic everything, especially meat. Dairy - in general - not great for TTC. It increase mucus for one. And yes, it's full of hormones.

Having said that I eat too much (mainly dark) chocolate and a sugary diet is a bad idea for TTC as well. You can't win 'em all.

Lots of protein is good though.

Peas? Wow I didn't know that one. I'm off out to buy some Manuka honey.
i read yesterday on the web (who knows if it's true) that we should be drinking Organic Milk because the cows are fed with some sort of artificial hormone and it messes with ours. Can't verify this though, but I'm going to go Organic to see if this makes any difference.

Hello all. I am brand new to this so please bare with me while I get up to speed on the abbreviations etc. Im 28, recently married been ttc for 5 months and was diagnosed with PSO about a year ago. My Dr put me on metformin 9 months ago so my body could get used to it for when we started trying. Had a few 28 day cycles then last month had 30 and this month 35 so really got my hopes up but sure enough along came my period this morning. I hoped I would have no issues due to the metformin but now im starting to feel like this is not going to go my way which cannot be helping. My husband already has a 9 year old and is desperate for us to conceive ourselves but I do feel this hits me harder and he does not understand my longing to be a mother and the pain I am feeling. When I came on this morning I went back to the bedroom in tears and he was lovely. He just held me while I cried. However 30mins later in the car as he got out he tapped my thigh in the car and said cheer up. Feel so miserable and the desire is consuming my life. Im either ov testing, reading stuff like this or taking preg tests. Sorry if I have moaned and you are suffering much worse. I just wanted a bit of support and advice As I feel like i cant get off the starting blocks let alone finish the race. Terrified it will take years to conceive and thats only then the start of it. x

Hey Berries - huge congrats. How long TTC for this one? Do you think soya makes a difference? I've cut down on dairy products but occasionally have a soya decaff...

Ooh ooh I've got a question for all your BFPers/parents...

How many times did you shag during the "fertile window"? Were you twice-a-day-every-day people, or was once enough??

I don't have a success story to share at the moment (ttc no. 1 on cycle 3) but I read on the Conceive Plus website that peas are to be avoided because they act as a mild contraceptive!

I then did a bit of googling and came across a story from one lady who said she used to eat peas more or less every evening with dinner and when she was told to stop eating them conceived 2 cycles later. So peas are off the menu at the moment.

Apparently manuka honey is meant to be good for stimulating blood flow to the right areas but you need to get a high rating (high rating of what, I don't know, but all the jars have numbers on and the higher the number the more expensive it gets...). Ooo - and cinnamon.

hey everyone, TTC is bloody horrible isn't it. I know it should be fun but after the first couple of months it's just not.

I am feeling extremely grateful as i just got my (not very B or F) P so just hoping it goes well from here.

When my last AF arrived we decided to change a few things so here they are, hope it helps:

1. No alcohol for me, limited for DH (to be fair our DS was conceived in an alcoholic haze so not sure about the booze and TTC thing in general but i wanted to feel i was doing what i could.)
2. No smoking for either. gave up in dec.
3. No soya products for either.
4. I took pregnacare conception. DH took Zinc and magnesium.
5. we both ate a couple of brazil nuts whenever we remembered.

I don't know if any of this helped or not but worth sharing with you hopefully.

Have you got a CBFM? I didn't get on with OPKs but found the CBFM very easy to use. It still took a few months after doing it at the 'right' time to fall but i found it useful nonetheless.

I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you get your BFP soon xx

sorry for the typo's trying to cook dinner here and tend to a toddler

This month I was feeling desperate =...I threw everything I could atit!
I was already seeing a homoeopath and traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner (herbs and accupuncture) and charting/temping, and OPQ and prenatal, extra folic acid, extra b6... DH was limiting alcohol and taking a well man supplement.

This month no drinking during AF either (after I read in TCOYF that the body is preparing for the next cycle before the next one starts and my OV day had been day 8 the month prior)
Also I took my DHA supplement every day not 2-3 times a week
Used that pre-seed thing
Cut out sugar and increased good proteins
Cut out caffeine, well had 3/4 decafe and 1/4 regular in my one cup of a morning
Cut back on my work (had a successful flexible working application go through last month)

At time of writing my period is late...I'll have to let you know!

I'm comPletely despondent TTC for second child after first happened stupidly quickly. But then we were über relaxed at my parents and I'm not sure we fully sobered up for those ten days - you know that warm fuzzy tipsyness.

Perhaps I need to take my own advice!