State of the Union II

State of the Union  - November 2011 edition.

Here is a review of the things we are/arn't doing for fertility.  I first did this in Feb 2011, let's see how much it has changed...wow, it has changed a TON.  I have practically given up all my tomfoolery.  We've moved into 'hoping things just work out' while waiting for IUI #2.  I guess it has been that I was so so so careful for so many months, and either way it is dissapointment, so I've moved to just rolling with it.

 

Details if you are interested:

• Plenty of sleep every night.  I rarely wake up still tired.  [Still on - well, November is hard with Nanowrimo, but in general, yes]
• Trying to get daily exercise. (Sit on the spin bike while I watch American Idol, it is true) [Nope - have been totally flaking on exercise lately]
• pH diet (sort of) - my pH does seem to be moving!  All those dandelion greens/kale/mineral water was worth it after all! [Stopped.  I am now into "Nourishing Traditions" type of eating.]
• Acupuncture once a week with Dr. T [Stopped.  Did not work.]
• Chinese herbs twice a day [Stopped.  Made things worse.]
• Fish Oil pills usually daily (incl. Cod Liver Oil since we're in Vitamin D winter for a while still)  [Sometimes]
• Preggo vit... about 4/7 days a week (I keep them at work to have after lunch - I cannot have a vitamin in the morning, I will literally throw up.  My Dad is like this too.) [Stopped.  Dr Nora doesn't like multi-vits, and I haven't really gotten around to buying more...]
• Read IF blogs like it's going out of style (love them/you all! my fav. hobby!) [Still keeping up, but I'm not as obsessed as I was]
• Pineapple core at ~7DPO [Stopped.  This didn't work.] 
• Oysters several days leading up to ovulation, to ensure DH's man juice is up to snuff (um, and it is yummmmmy) [Not really anymore... should get back to eating mroe oysters, they are yummy and full of zinc]
• Track all fertility signs on a new improved fancy excel spreadsheet - CM, cervical position/feeling, BBT, etc.  [Stopped.  Too much work, no one to care now anyway, since I don't go to acupuncture anymore.] 
• Use those lovely (cheap) tests strips to check when LH surge is - I now have tons of them, I love testing things, don't know why I wasn't doing this before - oh, right, because if you buy them at the drugstore they are hella expensive... [Stopped.  Although I often think of buying more...]
• Test the pH of my fertile CM - it still fails to make the grade (but I have high hopes for next months) [Stopped.  No longer care.]
• Cut way down on decaf coffee/decaf black tea  [Stopped.  During Nov I am drinking decaf coffee with goat milk almost every day] 
• Limiting wheat - not necessarily all gluten, just wheat for now [Stopped.  Now I am grinding my own flour and soaking it overnight to help with enzymes]
• Cutting down on my dear goat milk (cow milk is OUT - I can't tolerate it) [Stopped.  Love goat milk.  Ramping up.]
• Check out my tongue to see pinkness instead of redness [I still do this.  After IUI #1 it was crazy and cracked, but it is mostly healed from that.  Now I am more concered with cracking than colour, come to think of it.]
• Use lots preseed during BD to help with pH [Stopped.  Only use occasionally now.]
• Keep my knees up in the air for like 1.5hrs when we BD after LH surge [Ok, yes, for the most likely time during a cycle]
• Still take really hot showers, and haven't as yet taken pre/post shower temp to see if my temp goes up too much.  [Now that it is cold out, I'm back to these scorching showers, and I love them.]
• Have been transferred to a new RE, hopefully will have an appt set up soon [Still witth that RE]
• DH is seeing a specialist just in case, had another sample taken [DH has had surgery, numbers improved, and plateau'd]
• Taking daily herbal tinctures for adrenal support, follicular/luteal phase support.
• Daily chormium, vitamin C with bioflavinoids, vitamin B complex
• DH takes daily vitamin C with bioflavinoids, vitamin B complex, zinc, copper, selenium

Things I/we don't do:

• Rush.  If you recall, I gave it up.  [I still do try this, but lately haven't been as good as I would like.] 
• No caffeine for me - not even chocolate (or maybe just a tiny bit once in a while) [Still on.]
• Barely any booze - maybe one glass of wine per week, if that.  Alcohol does seem to affect me negatively (I notice I'm more cotton-headed the next day), so this is potentially a very good thing to give it up for a while.  Likely I will imbibe while on vacation.  [LOL.  I have alcohol once in a while still.] 
• DH no longer rides a bike - just in case.  This is too bad, since we have a spin bike in the basement, really only I can use it right now. [Still on]
• No high fru.ctose corn syrup (or "corn sugar" as it will be rebranded soon) [Still on]
• No aspartame (DH sorely misses his C.oke 0! As do I on occasion.  Um.. and it made my vision blurry sometimes.  Probably not good - my vision is already incredibly terrible.)   [Still on]
• No snuggling with DH in the morning until after BBT - sucks, right? [I don't BBT anymore, so this is stopped.]
• No baths.  I haven't had a bath since before we were married.  Too bad, I love a good bath.  Even though we are going to Taiwan where there are like 149 different hot springs, I doubt I will go in.  Worried about heating up my lady bits too much.  BUMMER.  [I had one or two baths since...not too hot though.  Stopped.

It is CD18, so I have a few more days of sanity left.  Then here's to hoping, but not expecting to be expecting....