Back At It

The last time I started this blog, I quickly found out that I was pregnant. I figured we'd test the waters and see if the same holds true this time around. After nursing my twins almost non stop for 16 months, they miraculously slept through the night without nursing. About 3 weeks later, my old friend AF finally paid a visit. Because it took us so long to conceive last time, Cork and I decided we were not going to waste any cycles this time around. We started trying immediately. It didn't matter though because my hormones were crazy and my body was broken.

My first cycle was 46 days. I didn't ovulate until CD 40 and had a LP of 6 days. Six freakin' days...which tells me that I either 1) didn't O and just had a slight hormonal shift to bring on my period or 2) my egg was all dried up and shriveled by the time it was released and my corpus luteum had no idea what it was supposed to do.

I had done a ton of research the first time around and decided that before going to the acupuncturist or RE, we were going to try a few home remedies first. At the beginning of the year, I started:
1) drinking 1/2 a lemon juiced into hot water
2) drinking 1 cup of peppermint tea
3) switched from prenatal to Geritol vitamins
4) started taking royal jelly
5) started taking Trader Joe's brand Very Green
This was added to the folic acid, calcium, grape seed extract and fish oil that I already took.

My second cycle was 32 days, with ovulation on cd 24 and an 8 day LP. Not bad considering my history. For that cycle, I had also added in soy isoflavones and vitex. The SI is used by many people in place of clomid to force early ovulation. The Vitex is used to regulate hormones. Obviously one or both of those worked for me considering the lengthening of my LP and the shortening of my cycle. I was extremely sick at the beginning of this cycle and I'm not sure how much of the soy my body absorbed. I had started it on CD3 and instead of doing it CD 3-7, I continued it until CD9 and ramped up the dosage. I took 100 mg the first few days and then 200 mg the last 2.

I am currently on my third cycle. I ovulated on CD 22 and so far I'm 6 days into my LP. My graph is looking awesome, almost identical to my pregnancy graph from last time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm way too familiar with how deceiving a chart can be. I'm hoping to see a nice implantation dip and then a triphasic chart. I have continued my vitex, and took 200 mg of soy isoflavones on CD5-9. I'm trying to get good quality eggs, not more of them. I don't think we need a second set of twins. One more baby would round out our family well.

Right now, I'm just happy if I can get myself to O earlier in my cycle and lengthen my LP. Pregnancy would just be an added bonus. I haven't experienced the huge letdown each cycle like I used to. I know what my bodies issues are and am happy if I can just fix those a little bit. To me, knowledge is power and I believe that I have the knowledge this time around to at least give us a chance to get pregnant.