[wishfulgal]

So I am the reluctant queen of at-home fertility tricks. I'll try anything. We conceived our son the very first cycle that we used preseed, I took mucinex ,and DH drank tons of water (my OB/GYN recommended that). We've tried all of that and more for the past 8 cycles. Anyway, I always figure it can't hurt to try something once or twice and see if it is the magic bullet. But seriously, I'm out of ideas.

I/We've tried (and lots of these things continue to try):

*OPKs
*charting
*Preseed
*mucinex
*grapefruit juice (for EWCM)
* green tea (for EWCM)
*Soy isoflavones (for 3 cycles)
*L-arginine ( I get great EWCM with this stuff)
*real egg whites
*Instead soft cups ( for about 3 cycles...we've done the after BDing insertion and the DTD into the cup and then inserting)
* Geritol and lemon water
*Having Dh drink a red bull about an hour before BDing ( caffeine is supposed to help speed up the sperm motility...crazy I know...I read about it on another forum).
* DH is on tons of vitamins (some he's been on for about 3 months, others only a month or two so it could take awhile to see any results from this)
* DH is scheduled to have surgery on his varicocele in Sept. and then we will have to wait at least 3 months to see if it improves his sperm count

We've probably tried other things but I can't think of them right now. But the moral of the story is, I'm out of ideas. I feel like we've tried everything. One thing that's kept me going is always trying something new. But we'll be moving on to Cycle #9 in the next few days and I can't even think of anything new to try. Anyone have any ideas? TTC is not for the faint of heart.....

[*Mommy2Remington*]

I hope this doesn't offend you in any way......but honestly-----STOP TRYING SO HARD!!! I know I know...you and every one else HATES when people say that....BUT~~~~ the stress that your body goes through every 16th day into your cycle has a lot to do with not getting pregnant. Also with Hubby and you BDing like clock work has to be stressful for both of you as well.....EVEN THOUGH you both want a baby so bad.

I can't say hubby and I are absolute role models when it comes to this....but let me explain again what happened with us.

The cycle we got pregnant I took Clomid per my doctor to help keep my cycles straight. It was a certain month that hubby and I just "wanted to take a break" cause we were due to go on a cruise the following month. So we talked about the cruise, planned the cruise, prepared for the cruise..yadda yadda-- did NOT think about baby making at ALL!!! I was SOOO comfortable and content with taking a break that month. It was a sort of relief to not have to do a "cycle check" every day or opks and such.
It was last minute, on CD 13 I believe- that my sister called me and said "You need to try this month...I have a feeling its 'the month' for you two"-- I told her we didn't want to try, that we needed a break. But she kept talking and ended up convincing us. We ended up BDing like we normally would when TTC and used instead cups. Before I knew it, AF was late.

I'll say it one more time and I won't say it again--- Trying TOO hard doesn't help either.
So next cycle- put your fertility chart away, your opks away and just mentally count your cycle days...don't check CM or your cervix position. Keep hubby on his vitamins (cause its healthy anyways) but when you "think" its time to ovulate- MAKE LOVE TO YOUR HUBBY!!!!! You're body needs to relax...YOU need to relax and that little eggy will be a relaxed little eggy too!

[wishfulgal]

That doesn't offend me We are planning to "take it easy" for a couple of cycles after DH has surgery (no charting or anything) but we will probably "try" again next cycle b/c it's our last chance before the surgery. I'm trying to wean myself of off hard-core trying....I left my thermometer home the last two months when I was gone on vacation.

The thing is, my cycles are JUST getting back to normal after weaning my son 9 months ago. I think I've O'd on CDs 27, 24,24, 20, 19, 22, 18 and 16, in that order. So I don't really "know" when I'm going to ovulate/did ovulate unless I am charting and doing OPKs. I can't just count the cycles days b/c it has been different almost every since cycle. Then I would have no idea when to expect AF and that honestly stresses me out more than anything. Also, unless I take supplements I can't tell by my CM when I am going to O.... I rarely get EWCM on my own. And I know that having fertile CM can't do anything but help those spermies get up there.

So anyway, I/we WANT to relax, but it is really hard for us. I will say that the opposite is true for me, the only cycle I've ever gotten pregnant both me and DH were super stressed. But, yeah, at this point, we've tried everything.....maybe we should just try to relax. Hopefully my cycles stay normal now b/c that would make it a lot easier to relax and not worry about missing a chance.

[jenisuzy]

I agree that taking a break feels sooooo good !! I hit a breaking point last month after cycle 31 or 32 (ive lost track) was a bust. So this month, I really didnt do anything but note when my CM was nice & it helped we were on vacay so BD is more fun then! I feel so much more at ease. I'm going to attempt to do the same next cycle too but we shall see. I feel like in the past I've tried & tried & tried which makes failure so much worse. Keep faith it will happen !!!!!!!!!!!