Houston, we have a really big problem

Guess what anti-drug, herbal remedy, tree-hugging hippie is about to eat her words? This one. You know, the one who suddenly got fat.

I've been all up in arms lately about how the job that I've had for almost a year now is pretty darn sedentary, so I had gained a pound or two over the course of the past year. But then the previous two months happened and suddenly I'm up another 6-7 lbs! I've always maintained a really consistent weight and if I've felt myself creep up at all, I just watch extra closely and get some exercise and it stops. But not this time. I'm currently 5 lbs over my highest weight ever.

And what really pisses me off? I eat really g-dang healthy. Like nothing but veggies, fruit and raw nuts during the day and then a sensible, meat-free dinner. Now in what cruel world is a person such as this punished by weight gain and an unsightly bulge whilst trying to seduce her husband each evening?

So when I really sit down and think about the only culprits there could be over the past two months, I have to look to my herbal remedy recipe. I don't know which one could have done it (vitex or soy), but let's just say that I'm angry with them over it.

And that's where I turn to you, dear interwebs. What are your experiences? I can't seem to find anything helpful online (I graduated Google Medical and still can't find anything worthwhile), so I need to hear from you.

Until then, I'll be combating this by signing up for body sculpting classes, walking at lunch, etc, but I could really use some help. My gut, my tight pants, and DH thank you in advance.

xoxo,
MSC

Attacked!

I was attacked last night--by my OV-Watch, that is!

I think one of my sensors on my OV-Watch is drying out already, so last night I let it sit on some water for a few minutes, then I reattached. When I tested it right away, it worked, but then I'd wait an hour or so and test again and it wasn't working.

I did a longer soak and then it would only work when I pressed down on the face. I tightened the band a bit and went to bed.

But then I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to this (or something similar--I stole this from Google Images, but it's probably pretty similar in level of swelling)... If I hadn't just read about this happening in an Amazon.com review, I probably would've freaked out. I could not believe that my hand had swollen so much!

So I took off the watch, shook my hand and massaged it for awhile and then kept waking up to check on it.

If anyone is chart stalking me, pay no attention to this morning's temp. My cats were all over the place, waking me up, I had this random swollen hand, and OH YEAH! I drank an entire bottle of wine last night! LOL! It was a delicious French Cote du Rhone red that I spread out over several hours (like 5) so I didn't get bombed, but I certainly drank the whole thing myself.

Today is my last day of soy, so it turns out that I did 2 days of 80mg and three days of 120. I've decided to take it as a positive that I got all mixed up on my amounts (and I had a few times that I suddenly couldn't remember what cycle day I was on) because it shows that I'm not obsessing.

I'm off to go to a baby shower today. It'll be fine--I'm just crossing my fingers that I know more people than the mom-to-be and DH's ex girlfriend, who I think will be there. This didn't bother me at first, but then DH mentioned a few times that he thought it was weird that I was going to go (the dad to be was one of our groomsmen and I adore this girl, why would I not go?) Then I was standing in the gift wrap aisle, completely overthinking if I should go festive and gender neutral (so I could use the rest of the wrapping paper roll for another shower), traditional boy, or really trendy.

It was at that moment that I realized that I was trying to be Little Miss Perfect because I knew she'd be there. I immediately gave myself a mental bitch-slap and walked up to the counter with the gender neutral paper. Screw it. I'm better than that!

I am, however, wearing my amazing pink Burberry skirt, heels, and accessorizing the gift with gorgeous satin ribbon and a silk flower. Eat that! ;-)

Enrolling in the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good

I feel like this is deja vu (all over again!) Seriously, how is it that I can't keep the simplest of tasks in my tiny little brain?

When I started to take my soy supplement CD5-9, I gave myself a little pep talk that I wouldn't screw it up like I did last time by only going for 4 days instead of 5. I also had decided to up my amount, so I looked at the back of the bottle and read that it was 80mg per pill, so I should take two. I thought to myself that this was odd, I thought I had taken 2 pills last time but I looked at it again and it said 80mg. I looked back in my blog archives and it didn't say.

I even went back and re-Googled and read online about how much people took (usually between 80-200mg) and thought that 2 pills was definitely sufficient.

That is, until this morning when I turned the bottle as I went to put it back on the shelf and saw the front of it said in HUGE EFFING LETTERS,
"40mg." It was then that I realized that when I kept double checking the bottle, I had been reading the back label which said it was 80mg per serving--but 2 pills per serving. FAIL!!

Whatever. I've been taking 80mg. It won't kill me. At least I wasn't OD'ing on the stuff, right? I took an extra one this morning and I'll take one tomorrow for 2 days of a 120mg serving.

Seriously, though. Why do I fail at this?

As a side note, I do have to report that as soon as my period stopped and I started the soy, I've been getting tons of watery CM. I know you don't really want to know this but I think now it's confirmed that if I don't write it down, I WILL GET IT WRONG NEXT TIME! WTF?

xoxo,
MSC

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Well, while I was surfing the crimson wave, I subconsciously decided to take a mini vaycay from blogging, as I see that I haven't posted in a handful of days. It's so unusual for me to not report in my every single emotion and feeling.

But enough about me. Let's talk about you. Are you okay? Did you miss me terribly? Shit, there I go again with the talking about me again. *le sigh* What can ya do?

Well, I guess that only leaves me with talking about myself again. It's CD5 and I'm doing the soy isoflavones (I did 1 pill daily last time with no side effects or issues, so I'm bumping it up to 2 this cycle) for CD5-9 again and taking vitex daily. My most recent concern is how short my periods are (about 3 days long, 2 light, 1 medium, and then scant spotting yesterday), but I'm not letting it bother me. I'm also using the OV-Watch and I really should go get back into the tea thing.

So my wish for this cycle is just to ovulate earlier than CD60. I'm not feeling stressed at all and I definitely feel a ton of pressure lifted that I had last cycle. In fact, I think I'd be really happy with a 2010 baby, so this whole "last cycle to have a 2009 baby" thing isn't affecting me at all.

I'm just so grateful to know that I'm not broken... I *can* ovulate and one day this will work out. That's good enough for me!

My watchful pot

So Sunday was the last day that I took soy isoflavones--stupidly thinking that I had read that you take it for 4 days, but when I was just rereading some articles, it said 5. Oh well. What can you do? Who knows if it can even help me out this late in my cycle, anyway?

So since I stopped taking the soy, I've noticed an increased amount of CM, now bordering back and forth between creamy and wet. I've been teetering between the two but the volume is WAY up. Let's hope that means there could be an O in sight.

I've also been continually feeling twingles on my righthand side near where I can only assume that my ovary resides, although I cannot confirm this detail. I've been feeling these pangs off and on throughout my cycle, usually right around when I have an increase in CM. So god only knows what's going on.

I had a big temp jump this morning, but I think it's due to the following items:
Ah) Drinking 3 glasses of wine last night
Bah) Falling asleep on the couch and not waking up to move upstairs to bed until 3:15 a.m... when I wake to temp at 6:00 on the nose. BOOOO!
Cah) Waking up a few times, but only long enough to glance at the clock and pass out again.

At any rate, we'll see what my temp decides to do tomorrow. Our timing wouldn't be ideal, but I'd take it! It would be just in time--today is the very last day that my entire fertility friend chart will fit on my computer screen--I'd like some CH's to appear! LOL

Stay tuned, kiddies!

Natural Fertility Cocktail, Attempt #1

I know a lot of girls like to compare notes on vitamin brands, supplements, etc so today I thought I'd share with you what I've come up with as a result of my recent research into herbal remedies for anovulation.

First and foremost, I share with you that my vitamin of choice has been the Target brand pretnatal. I've heard a lot about people feeling sick from their prenatals, but I've been on this one for a year now (RE suggested that I start taking them back then just in the event we'd decide to TTC) and I haven't had any issues. They're pretty big pills, which I don't love. Also, I think they smell sorta funny. Someone on the Getting Pregnant message board suggested that I try the Trader Joe's prenatal vitamins and since I'm almost out I think I might switch it up.

I also mentioned that I started taking vitex (chasteberry) last week. I purchased the Solar Ray brand, but my local health food store also carried Nature's Way and one other fertility-boosting blend. I wanted to buy Nature's Way brand (but they were all out) because it seems that their labeling system was more clear and I didn't want to get the blend just yet. So I settled for Solar Ray and I'm taking 1 a day (although the bottle says you can take more) but from what I've read online people don't take huge doses of it.

Lastly, is the Spring Valley soy isoflavones from Wal-Mart. I saw there were recommended very highly on soulcysters.net and other fertility message boards, so I decided to give it a try. As I mentioned before, you're supposed to take them for 4 days early in your cycle to induce ovulation, but I also read about people taking them later in their cycle and having the same results, so I just went for it... because at CD 50+, WTF? Who cares? How much worse can it get? ;-) So I'm on day 4 and wondering if it'll work. I'll be really pumped if it does.

Anyway, I take 80mg of these which is two pills--one in the a.m. and one at night. I've read that if the 80mg doesn't work for you, that you can bump it up to 3/day, but I'm willing to give 2 a shot.

So that's my first attempt at a fertility boosting vitamin cocktail.

My science experiment

So I'm well into CD50+ territory, so at this point I think I'm willing to try just about any witch's brew concoction to either ovulate or start my period. Seriously, if you told me right now that a beet juice enema would bring on AF, I would be shoving beety brine up my starfish faster than you can say "TMI!"

But here's something you might've noticed about me, but since I'm all about pointing out and dramatizing the obvious, I'm going to point it out right here:
I'm a 2001 graduate of Google Medical and love the ability to find anything and everything on the interwebs. It's outstanding. So I've been reading about anovulatory cycles, estrogen levels, herbal and natural treatments, etc. I started taking Vitex (does anyone else think it's funny that it's name is actually chaste berry?) earlier this week, but then did some research about giving the old ovaries a little one-two punch with 4 days of soy isoflavones. I guess if you're taking both for the long term health benefits, they kinda cancel each other out, but if you just do the 4 days of soy, it still has that clomid-like effect.

And, as a big old FYI, I'm looking into a local natural health center who is hosting a seminar on Monday on female issues. It's kinda random that the seminar is on Monday and I just found the place today... Let's hope I don't end up wandering into some alternate universe...

Viva la Vitex!

I picked up a bottle of Vitex at my local health food market yesterday and I took my first pill last night. I couldn't find any information online that says you should start it on CD1 or if you can start at anytime, but I figure that my cycle is already on the fritz--Seriously, my chart has officially gone insane! It now resembles a freaking heart monitor! WTF?

So Vitex it is! I've also been reading about soy isoflavones, which apparently acts like clomid and is a natural way to stimulate ovulation. You're supposed to take 50-100 mg a day for 4 days at the beginning of your cycle (CD3-7 and CD5-9 were two suggestions that I saw).

Supposedly it suppresses estrogen, which stimulates the brain to produce more FSH. When your ovaries start to produce follicles and they grow, estrogen production will pick up again. Soy Isoflavones work in much the same way as Clomid but it's a more natural approach. Apparently it doesn't work for everyone (neither does Clomid), but with thin, anovulatory women with elevated estrogen (aka me!) there's a pretty decent success rate. I guess you can buy it at lots of drugstores and even Wal-Mart, so it looks like I'll be spending a little more time in the vitamin aisle.

Also, while I'm on the topic of homeopathy, I thought I'd save this list of estrogen producing foods. I have to say that as a healthy eater, I'm really upset to see a lot of these foods on the list. I'll have to do some digging to see to what extent each of these effects your estrogen (and plant estrogen is different than animal estrogen, so it's effect isn't as great), but seriously? Chick peas, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, garlic, EVOO, and peppers have a huge presence in my diet!

Foods Containing Natural Estrogens
Alfalfa
Animal flesh - I include this for your information, as I've already cut this out of my diet due to the hormones in it.
Apples
Carrots
Cherries
Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) -WHAT? I can't imagine cutting hummus out of my life!
Cucumbers
Dairy Foods
Dates
Eggs
Eggplant
Flaxseeds
Garlic
Oats
Olive oil
Olives
Papaya
Parsley
Peas
Peppers
Plums
Pomegranates
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Red beans
Rice (relatively high)
Sesame seeds
Soybean sprouts
Soybeans
Split peas
Sunflower seeds
Tomatoes
Wheat
Yams


Estrogen Inhibiting Foods
If you are suffering from ovarian cysts and other situations that estrogen might exacerbate, the following estrogen inhibiting foods might be of interest to you. I've been shoveling in the Broccoli because I knew that it was good for high estrogen, but it's good to know there are more types on the list.

Berries
Broccoli
Buckwheat
Cabbage
Citrus
Corn
Figs
Fruits (except apples, cherries, dates, pomegranates)
Grapes
Green beans
Melons
Millet
Onions
Pears
Pineapples
Squashes
White rice