Naturally Increasing the Odds...

This week I've started on Maca, Royal Jelly (w/ pollen & propolis), Spirulina, and Red Raspberry Leaf tea. I'm still taking my Raw Code food based prenatal vitamins and getting bi-weekly acupuncture treatments.

Since CM is still an issue for me, despite the surgery to open up the scar tissue closing my cervix... I'm thinking of starting some guaifenesin today until ovulation. We are spacing BD out and will begin using PreSeed on CD10 until ovulation is confirmed. We know that daily BD depletes the sperm count, so our goal is to increase the count to a healthy level AND not miss our window of opportunity prior to ovulation. We are taking a BD break on CD8-CD9, CD11 & CD13. So, BD will be CD10 (72 hour break), CD12 (48 hour break), & CD14 (48 hour break). If ovulation hasn't occurred, we will continue with every other day spacing until we are sure I've ovulated. Then DD can go back to his voracious appetite. :-)

This cycle, I purchased the First Response Daily Ovulation kit. This kit tracks your personal LH level so it will detect the surge even if it is lower than established values (common, especially in women like me with PCOS). I'm having ovary discomfort already (started on CD8) so I expect a CD13-14 ovulation.

I'm also considering a mostly plant based diet (lacto-ovo vegetarian), my husband balks at this, so I'm sure we won't be 100% vegetarian around here plus I'm a WAPF follower and truly believe that a healthy diet should contain all whole food groups. I am hoping to replace the majority of our meals each week with meatless, plant based options. I'm thinking quinoa, artichoke, and sun dried tomato alfredo. . . who'd miss the meat in that dish? Tonight, we are having cheese & veggie pizza (homemade) with a giant garden salad and baked apples (it is Lent, so tonight must be meatless). When we do have meat, it will be local & grass fed.

We will still consume lots of eggs (our staple protein) and the best quality dairy we can get. I'm going to try to replace most baked goods/desserts (except maybe one a month) with fruit options... baked apples or pears, berries & cream, fruit parfaits, etc. . .

I feel like breakfast is already a pretty good meal in our house... we have scrambled eggs w/ gluten free oatmeal (or whole grain toast for the non-gf peeps). I limit cereal to once or twice a week with eggs. I'm weaning the children I didn't give birth to off cold cereal and it's a challenge. I think we can amp this up by adding in fruit and/or veggies.

I'm also going to get back into full baking with almond and coconut flours, alternative/low GI sweeteners, and coconut oil.

I have broken my one modern food addiction- coffee shop Snicker Mocha's (can you say sugar overload?). Coffee is the one thing I consume that isn't whole food/nourishing, so this was a big deal for me. I gave up caffeine months ago, but I was still addicted to the sugar.

If nothing else. . . the dietary changes will help keep me busy and give me a sense of empowerment through this time of rest from conventional treatments.