In the strangest of places

That's OK! Yes, it's a Shettles method thing, and it is a specific diet, although I am doing a general one because I can't find my Shettles book, nor can I find specific info online.

Fish is actually OK in the girl-baby diet, or at least certain kinds are. *shrug*

When I was fruitlessly searching for specifics on the web yesterday, I found a couple of studies done on cows and mice... when they were fed a high-calcium, high-magnesium, low-potassium diet (the one I'm vaguely trying to follow) they had 80-90% female babies. Weird, huh?

Honestly we don't care THAT much about the sex of the next baby, we'd much rather have a boy than none at all. It's kindof just for fun. And it's a good way to get myself motivated to be vegetarian again. I've gone through many veg phases in my life. Devout practitioners of my religion are vegetarian, actually, so they don't serve meat at their gatherings or in their facilities. Therefore, when I went to boarding school for high school and college, I ate no meat (at least on campus) and then I worked in an Adventist hospital or two, so the cafeterias were veg too. Yay!

Are you vegetarian for ethical reasons, or for health?

From:

What we learned thru our IUI process is that Y sperm swim faster than X sperm but they die within 24 hours. X sperm are slower but they're hardier (no comment here hahaha!) so they last up to 72 hours. The reason why there is a higher percentage of boys for people who use IUI is that insemination is usually timed so close to ovulation.

What this may have meant for me is that we inseminated a bit early and were "lucky" that we were not too early. We inseminated as soon as our Ovulation Predictor Kit turned positive for ovulation and I think we will do the same again as we would love another girl.

[Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] is a great community and there are a great many knowledgeable women in there about the whole TTC process.

Shhh...we've started the process for ttc too...wouldn't it be awesome to be pregnant together??

From:

umbria.livejournal.com

I was actually thinking about talking to my doctor about IUI. I conceived my first one on the first try but this second one is being stubborn and I am going to be 40 this year. Clock is ticking fast and I am getting a bit worried that it wont happen.
If you don't mind me asking: what do they charge and did your insurance help pay for any of it?

From:

We had/have Kaiser which does pay for it (a higher copay than regular visits but still much cheaper than if we were to pay for it out of pocket).

From:

Wow, that's really cool of Kaiser! Most insurance plans won't touch it.

From:

Yes, the Shettles method of sex selection is based on that theory, although when I research it I find that it is a highly disputed claim. In Shettles, I'm supposed to have sex daily until about 3-4 days BEFORE ovulation, then stop, to try for a girl, but I'm not sure we'll really do that because I'm worried I won't get pregnant at all--so I'm doing the diet, instead. Also I'm not supposed to have any orgasms until the 'danger' of fertilization is over. Boo.

We don't really care that much, but it's fun to imagine having a girl. I think Blue would love to have a brother.

Shhh... YES!!

From:

I don't get it about the orgasms...orgasms create contractions of the uterus but opposite those of labor cx. In fact, I believe that the biological necessity of them is to help draw in the sperm thru the cervix. .... When doing the IUI, we were left alone in the room for at least 15-20 minutes to lie down and rest with a very heavy wink wink about what we were supposed to do (and did! talk about kinky!)

From:

Well, Shettles says (and I'm not saying he's right) that since the male sperm swim faster and an orgasm sucks the fastest sperm in first, an orgasm would favor XY fertilization. Also, he says that an orgasm changes the vaginal ph in a direction that also favors male sperm, which is why it's no orgasms for the whole time period between menstruation and ovulation. :(

That's hilarious about the wink wink nudge nudge IUI.

From:

In fact, thw whole reasons for us to do IUI (http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/iui.html) versus ICI (http://www.docshop.com/education/fertility/treatments/artificial-insemination/procedures/)is to avoid the pesky cervix.

From:

umbria.livejournal.com

Oh wow, we are trying again too. The first one I got prego on the first try, this time I am on my fourth month of trying and actually got very upset when I got my period. :-(
Wish you all the luck.

From:

You too! :-)

From:

taboo-elf.livejournal.com

Why low potassium?

From:

I don't know exactly. When I was researching the sex-selection diets last night, not finding a lot of useful info, I did run across a couple of animal studies that suggested an 80-90% rate of female offspring with a low-potassium, low-sodium, high-calcium, high-magnesium diet, which is the diet I am roughly aiming for. The only reason I saw generally referred to was the manipulation of the ph balance inside the body, acidic for girls and alkaline for boys, but I don't know that they're sure about that.

From:

gen-here.livejournal.com

We "accidentally" followed Shettles timing method with each of our kids. R we tried on the date of ovulation. M was a "there's no way we're gonna get pregnant this cycle even though we wanted to... Geof was SO exhausted the day I ovulated and it had been 3 days before since we last tried... dang it we missed our window!" So, the timing theory - at least as it is explained in TCOYF - worked with us!

I've been going mostly veg recently since I started doing a little more research into what goes into our foods. This whole "sure! Eat a cloned cow!" thing really got me reading and watching stuff on GMO foods in general... and honestly, it scares me. I won't eat non-organic beef anymore and we can't afford to get organic. So... We have frozen chicken breasts in the house yet, and I'm occasionally having .5-1 of those a couple times a week. But once they're gone... no more unless it's organic. I've been doing a lot of brown/white rice and veggies, different beans, and salads. My favorite salad right now is baby spinach, dried cherries, almonds (I'd prefer the natural ones - but all the sources here also process them around wheat... and I can't do that), crumbled goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.

Now just to get G to buy into what I'm telling him about GMO foods and stop eating it and feeding it to our kids...

From:

Interesting! I wish I had the luxury of using Shettles timing. I'm afraid to stop 3-4 days before ovulation because my chances of getting pregnant on any given cycle are slim due to my age, and I don't want to delay much longer! So I'm doing this diet and a couple other Shettles things instead. I'll probably say No on the day the ovulation predictor kit waves the flag at me, but that's only a 1-2 day lag.

Good for you on the organic front! I totally believe in what you are doing. I kindof wish I was a little bit less relaxed... With some changes, like with natural cleaning products, I'm totally on board, but it's hard for me to get worked up enough about something to actually change my life totally. I move towards the "right" ways by degrees but rarely make sudden wholesale changes. But seriously, you're right. Eating animals is actually pretty nasty in general, when you get right down to it, but what's going into non-organic meats these days is downright frightening. Absolutely.

One of my staples on this new diet is a spinach salad very similar to the one you describe! I have to use cranberries instead of cherries, though--the fruits are very restricted on this diet, unfortunately. I'll only be on the diet a maximum of 3 months without taking a break though.

Hope you get G on board soon! It seems like what we feed our kids is even more crucial than what we're feeding our already-developed selves. Blue still eats very little meat.

:-)

From:

ninjalie.livejournal.com

Oooh YAY I'm soooo happy, we can be vegetarian buddies while I'm there and maybe I can share some of my recipes and exchange ideas. I'm so excited to see you!

From:

Yay, me too!

From:

Have you read The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine? Fascinating stuff if you don't mind facing the idea that you're determined (okay okay, tremendously influenced) by your hormones throughout your life. Anyway, here's a quote:

The muscular contractions and uterine suction associated with women's orgasm have long been known to pull the sperm through the cervical mucus barrier. ... This means that the female orgasm can function to pull sperm closer to the egg. Scientists have discovered that when a woman climaxes any time between one minute before and forty-five minutes after her lover ejaculates, she retains significantly more sperm than if she does not have an orgasm.

Enjoy!

From:

Ha ha, THANKS. Yes, the Shettles method dictates that the woman (yes, that's me over here) cannot have any orgasms during the entire period between the last day of menstruation and 3-4 days after ovulation. Joy. We're doing that part too, or at least we're trying. What's funny about my 40-year-old body as opposed to my 20-year-old body is that NOT having an orgasm is now a lot harder than having one! LOL.

I should add that there are two reasons for Shettles' recommendation. The first is the one you mentioned, and the second is the change in vaginal ph with orgasm, which he believes favors male sperm. Hence the 2-3 week moratorium, rather than just a 45-minute wait.

From:

Well, I'm all in favor of girls... my adoration of Blue not withstanding. Still Shettles does sound like a right PITA.

From:

You've got that right!

From:

Also, have you read The Female Brain? This quote is really incidental to it... as the real point of the section is about how women have orgasms with those males that her brain has deemed most likely to make good babies.

From:

No, I haven't, but I'll put it on my list! My long, looooooong list. How old was Alexandra when you started having time to read again, assuming you have any time to read now?

From:

Well, in my estimation I still barely read at all, but some time in her first year or so I realized that if I didn't read at least a little each day, I was really not content. I don't watch tv or have many other leisure activities, though I do read blogs when I'm procrastinating. Anyway, I work very late, but when I'm finally done, I get to sit down, have a beer, and read for a bit. I still yearn yearn yearn for more reading time, and have to fight being jealous of Alexandra's freedom to dive into books.

The director at Alexandra's school was very impressed with the Female Brain, gave it to all her employees, and urged me to read it. It's very enlightening, even for someone like myself who was already fairly able to detect the ways in which men and women are in thrall to their deep down biological necessities. I didn't realize they were able to measure and detect so many different hormones and so many different brain states.

I was also interested to learn, and thought of you, that men's brains do undergo physical and hormonal changes upon the birth of children, presumably due to proximity to the pheromones of the mother, who is completely awash in the hormonal soup. It often seems to me that it is Pete who is cranky during my PMS times. While it's tricky to get outside of oneself to be objective in this... of course... this line of thought would support that possibility. And would explain Evan's wildness after Blue's birth.

Anyway, it's fascinating reading, even if it did leave me, as an early perimenopausal woman rather depressed about what biology has in store for my brain chemistry.

Loveyou!
Hall

From:

Oh wait--the crucial piece of info missing from my response is that supposedly male sperm swim faster (see janisfan's comment above) so the orgasmic sucking-up of sperm takes the male swimmers, who are already at the fore, closer to the egg, thereby increasing one's chances of an XY fertilization.

This is actually something my high school biology teacher told us in class. Then he drummed his fingers on the table, gave a sly grin, and intoned, "You'll notice I have THREE BOYS."

From:

Yes, BUT, if you already have one thing (age) going "against" you (and IMO since you just had a baby a little over 2 years ago you probably don't have much to worry over) limiting the numbers of sperm seems counterintuitive.

From:

tellinellen.livejournal.com

ooh this is very exciting!

i loved being vegetarian and even vegan but then pregnancy turned me into a total carnivore, it was insane.

our timing for banjo put our odds at having a girl! michael had a mysterious rash on my ovulation day so i was afraid to have sex with him... but it was just an allergy to cashews - not contagious at all :)

From: