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June 16, 2003
I want to write an update but I have to admit that my mind is currently obsessed with TTC--that’s right, I’m in the dreaded 2ww of our first attempt at baby #2.
Officially, this is cycle #1, cd 27, 7 dpo. I’m not sure whether to be hopeful or not. I ovulate regularly but have very short luteal phases—I’ve been charting for 5 months now, and the last four LPs have been 9, 9, 5, and 6 days long. So it decreases the odds each month but it also means my “2ww” is a little shorter. If I make it to 10 dpo I will be pretty sure something is up. Heck, even 7 days makes me wonder. But what’s the earliest I could test? If anyone can answer that, let me know! I think I got a ++ with Aden 11 dpo.
Not only are we TTC, but we are TTC a girl. I love having a son and wouldn’t mind having another one, but I would eventually like to have the experience of parenting a daughter too. For most of my childhood it was just my mom and I, and we are so close that I can’t imagine never having that bond with a daughter of my own. Plus, those little pink summer dresses really do me in! When Derek and I talk about how many children we want to have, he says he would prefer 2 but that we’ll try for a third if we don’t have a daughter yet, because he knows how important it is to me. He draws the line at 3 though! I refuse to make any promises, but he’s probably right--more than 3 would be tough on us financially. So, with those limits in mind, we decided to try to increase our odds of having a daughter now.
I started doing research and read about many different theories and methods and diets. For me, the litmus test was whether each method made sense with what I had already experienced when I got PG with Aden. For now we are using the Shettles method to try for a girl. For those of you not familiar with it, I’ll do my best to summarize it and I’ll be happy to answer more questions on my TTM board. Dr. Landrum Shettles has done research and published a book (“How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby”) based on his observations that the X (girl) sperm are larger, slower but longer-lived than the faster, more fragile Y (boy) sperm. Therefore, by changing the timing (and a few other factors) of intercourse it’s supposed to give an advantage to one gender over the other. BD at or near the time of ovulation and you’re more likely to conceive a boy; BD 2, 3, or 4 days before ovulation and the majority of sperm to survive the wait for the egg will be female, leading to the conception of a girl. It’s an interesting theory, and when I looked back at my chart from the month Aden was conceived…well, let’s just say that it made sense that we had a boy!
So we figured it was worth a try, at least for a few months. We are starting very conservatively with a 4-day cutoff. Unfortunately, BD’ing so far ahead of time decreases the overall chance of conceiving at all, so after 2 months we’ll try a 3-day cutoff, then a 2-day cutoff... Eventually I think I’ll just get impatient and give up the timing altogether! (Possibly sooner rather than later, I’m not really known for my patience!)
Derek is funny, both times that we’ve been TTC he has asked me almost immediately if I thought I was pregnant yet. That is one of the few signs that he is as impatient as I. For Father’s Day I gave him a West Coast Choppers t-shirt and cards from Aden and I, and he said that he was hoping it would say I was pregnant in one of the cards. I would have loved to be able to give him that gift, especially after what he told me in my Mother’s Day Card. But it will be Thursday or Friday before I can test. I am trying to decide if I have any symptoms yet, but all of you know how it is--you spend so much time thinking about them that you can’t decide if anything you come up with is real or imagined! So I will keep any suspicions (or lack thereof) to myself...
A quick Aden update: he loves to tell us thank you after we do anything for him. Give him more food at dinner and you’ll hear “Thanka Mama!” Brush his hair after bath and it’s “Thanka Daddy!” It makes us smile each and every time. He spent Friday night at my mom’s and came home a little tired, but excited about several new toy cars and a Little People parking garage that they found at neighborhood garage sales. We are still working on potty training whenever he shows interest but not pushing it the rest of the time. I don’t view it as all-or-nothing; I try to follow his cues for if he wants to be naked or have a diaper on. Occasionally he’ll ask to use the bathroom if he has a diaper on, and today he even wanted his diaper off so he could poop on the potty! But when he wants to be bare-bottomed he’s much more successful. I think for a little boy who will turn 2 next month, he’s doing great!
Well, I will post on my TTM board whenever I see AF or a ++, so check back! I’ll leave you with a few questions, a la Laura on MT:
How early (in terms of dpo, rather than missed AF) will an hpt be accurate?
Anyone have any experience trying for a specific gender of child, or any thoughts about it in retrospect? Do you think Dr. Shettles is right, or full of baloney?
How many of you had a “feeling” right away that you were PG with one gender or the other, and did it come true?
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