Trying Again...

Time to get back on the saddle.

I took an ovulation test this morning and it was positive.

Unfortunately, I'm not so positive, about a few things:

a) I'm still a little scared to get pregnant, because I still don't have health insurance. But I'm working on it. I'm at a temp job and am hopeful that they will bring me on as a permanent employee.

b) Even though the test strip says I'm ovulating, I don't know if there are any viable eggs ready for the sperm right now. For some weird reason, I had miettelshmerz (I know I must have spelled that wrong) DURING my period (which was very heavy), about 2 weeks ago. And the pain was pretty strong, so I'm guessing I released some pretty good eggs... only it was way too early. I think this must be a symptom of still getting over a miscarriage. My body is still out of whack. I haven't experienced any ovulation pain (like I did with the cycle before I got pregnant) so I am guessing that my system may still be a little "off" and it might be several months before things are back to normal. I'm not sure what it is that causes the ovulation test strips to darken, but... the cynical side of me says this could be a false alarm.

c) The quality of my eggs may not be as great as they could be. I've probably been drinking a little too much caffeine this month (just decaf mochas at work, and a coke here and there...but still...). And I'm not taking my visalus vitamins as regularly as I should be. I have been pretty decent about taking coenzyme q10, vitamin d and pycnogenol. But the problem is, the vi-paks don't fit into my pill minder, and then I forget to take them - or I can't take the day paks because I forgot to grab them, rushing out the house in the morning, on my way to work. I'd say I've been taking the Visalus about 70% of the times when i should (the ones I tend to forget are the night packs). But, hopefully, I would think the amount of Visalus pills and shakes I have taken consumed over the last 6 month has helped to improve my overall health and egg quality.

As for the hubby... I think even he was getting a little forgetful about taking his vitamins in the last month. He's usually pretty good about the Visalus, because it's easy and the box is right in his bathroom, and he's a man of method. My hubby is the most methodical dude ever. But if I don't fill up his "pill minder" in the bathroom with the vitamin D and CoEnzyme Q10, he just won't take it. I'm not going to complain about this much because I am just so grateful that he's willing to take them at ALL!!!

So, regardless of whether I'm ovulating or not, we had some really great sex this morning. TWICE. And it's been over a week, so my DH had a good amount of sperm built up. I was really happily surprised to see he was willing to go a second time. I thought he was joking when he suggested it, but nope! I was seriously impressed!

I had decided to take the day off because I was planning to go to an animal rights protest (my first day I've ever requested off work). My boss was really cool with it. But I decided not to go because I couldn't get anyone else on board and it would be a 4 hour drive. I decided to take the day off anyway since I was seriously sleep deprived and had a ton of housecleaning, but then I got caught up on my laptop and haven't gotten out of bed, and it's already 5:30 pm (I woke up at 12:30 pm!). I'd normally be irritated with myself, but I look at it overall like a good thing.

I remember that when I did get pregnant in January, I stayed in bed for a LONG time, just resting and letting the sperm do their thing. I went and bought more Astroglide Natural yesterday, and when I was applying it with my fingers, I could tell my cervix was definitely in the "open" position... it's just a question of, is there a viable egg up there to fertilize? I guess I'll find out. I didn't even use the type of astroglide with Pre-seed in it, because a) I was too tired to hunt down an applicator tube or instead cup and insert it, and b) it seemed like I had a decent amount of lubrication without it. Usually that's NOT the case... especially if we are in the doggie position. But I didn't need any extra this morning. And I also had an orgasm, so things were pretty wet down there.

Again... I am not really expecting to get pregnant this cycle, because I just haven't been doing all the things I was doing the first time I got pregnant. I'm not excercising, not avoiding caffeine entirely (I'd say I consume about 300-500 mg per week), not taking Fertil Plus regularly (I've taken about 5 pills total in this last month) - and I figure I probably will need that stuff in order to get pregnant again.

But it can't hurt to try, right?

The thing that makes me want to go for it now, is... I'm embarrassed to admit this, knowing how stupid it will sound.... but if I got pregnant in this cycle, then my baby would be born in the Year of the Dragon. Which just sounds SO much cooler than the Year Of The Snake, which is the next cycle. I know, pretty silly, right? But I can't help it. My good friend, whom I'll call Jessie, brought it up when I told her I was pregnant. She said, "Oh, the baby will be born in the year of the dragon!" and it sounded so cool... and I was really psyched about it. It doesn't help that I gotta keep seeing pictures of Zena and her damn Dragon Baby all over Facebook!

To console myself, I looked up celebrities born in the Year of the Snake, and the people seem exceptionally beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FejIm4y7DAE. So there! Take that, Zena and your little Dragon baby (you watch now that I've said that, she's gonna have a THIRD baby in the year of the snake).

I'll be happy with any baby, born in any year. Dragon, snake, or whatever comes after it.

That is all for now.

Is it just me or is everybody else pregnant right now?

I just saw a headline on AOL, that Megan Fox is pregnant.  And when I clicked on the article, all these other links about pregnant celebrities popped up under the article.

I'm wondering if this is a normal thing that happens when you've had a miscarriage. It suddenly seems like EVERYONE ELSE is having a normal, healthy pregnancy! As if I don't have enough real life friends with babies, whose pictures I see daily on Facebook. Oh and I forgot to mention, all the baby photos that are being posted on our online "employee social network" at work. There are only about 100 employees at work, but it seems like a good 10 percent of them have newborns!

I am very happy for Drew Barrymore - though I'm also pretty envious. We would have been pregnant at the same time, if I was able to stay pregnant. But I guess it just wasn't meant to be. It's ok though - I'm planning to try again! And I can't wait to see pics of Drew Barrymore and her baby, because I know she's going to make a fantastic mother!

Can CoEnzyme Q10 help you get pregnant?

Found an interesting article on CoEnzyme Q10, and how it can help some women get pregnant.

The part of the article most worth noting:

"Half the mice in the experiment got a placebo, while half got coenzyme Q10; the animals that got the vitamin produced more egg follicles, and more and healthier eggs."

On the downside, the mice were treated with the supplement for the equivalent of a decade in human years.

Still, you never know...

http://www.conceiveonline.com/articles/could-coenzyme-q10-help-you-get-pregnant

CoEnzyme Q10 and Fertility

I've been reading a lot about fertility and the positive effects of taking CoEnzyme Q10, prior to getting pregnant. Pretty amazing stuff!!!

Not only does it help a man produce "better" sperm, but it also seems to improve egg quality in women, and helps them develop more follicles.

Here is an article I found... I'm copying and pasting it here, but you can find the original on THIS PAGE.

Coenzyme Q10: Fertility Energy for Older Eggs and Sperm

by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Dec. 28, 2009

For years, doctors have been proscribing Co-enzyme Q10, a supplement that helps to better produce energy in the mitochondria of cells, to patients with congestive heart failure and diabetes, and athletes have been taking it to improve their performance. Ninety-five percent of the body’s energy is generated with Co-enzyme Q10, and therefore, the organs with the highest energy requirements like the heart and the liver have the highest concentrations. Now some fertility doctors believe that the supplement may also improve female and male fertility.

Dr. Yaakov Bentov, an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto's Center for Advanced Reproductive Technology, says that as a woman ages, her eggs become less efficient during fertilization because the chromosomes don’t replicate as well. “The egg needs to complete a demanding process and often when a women reaches her late 30s and early 40s, there is not enough energy in the cells,” he says.

In a 2009 study published in The Journal of Fertility and Sterility, Bentov and his colleagues found that taking up to 600 milligrams a day of Co-enzyme Q10 -- which can be purchased at any drug store -- actually helped to improve egg quality in older women and improved fertilization rates.

“It may improve the quality of eggs by correcting their energy which improves the division of chromosome during fertilization,” Bentov claims.

Studies have also found that Co-enzyme Q10 may also improve male infertility. A July 2009 study in The Journal of Urology looked at 212 infertile men who took the 300 mg of the supplement for 30 weeks, and found that it improved both sperm density and motility.

You may want to ask your doctor what she thinks about this supplement.

Read more about "rejuvenating" aging eggs in Fertility Authority's Aging Eggs: Exciting Research Is on the Horizon article

Here is the other article I read:

http://www.conceiveonline.com/articles/could-coenzyme-q10-help-you-get-pregnant

Loved this part:  "Half the mice in the experiment got a placebo, while half got coenzyme Q10; the animals that got the vitamin produced more egg follicles, and more and healthier eggs."

I should probably mention that the mice were treated with the supplement for the equivalent of a decade in human years.  Still, you never know...

Whatever the case, I plan to be taking CoQ10 regularly for the next year!

EB

UPDATE 10/11/14:  I just wanted to make a comment that although I have "sort of" taken a break from TTC, I have been taking this Coenzyme Q10 (300-400 mg/day)  for the last few months (I started, then stopped for about a year) to improve the quality of my eggs, so that if and when I am ready to TTC again, I will be in better shape. If I "actively" try to conceive I will increase the Coenzyme Q10 to 600mg/day.

I've also been taking this brand of  Astragalus (6 pills a day), which is known in Chinese medicine to reverse the effects of aging. And I have definitely noticed a difference. I am producing a lot more cervical mucus (to the point where sometimes it feels like I peed in my pants), my skin texture is a lot clearer, I am looking younger, and I can feel when I am ovulating (I get pangs in my ovaries, which had stopped for a while since for the last year I've taken a serious break from TTC).

I have also been using a PEMF Machine, which is shown to help improve the energy production from your mitochondria, which can improve the quality of your eggs. You can read more about that by clicking HERE. Since I've been doing these three things I've noticed an improvement in my menstrual cycle. It's longer and my blood looks better (more of the bright red kind).



Another thing I noticed is, my hair gets oily a lot faster. I used to be able to go a whole week without washing it, and now that I have added these 2 supplements, my hair actually starts to smell after 2 days! I wouldn't necessarily say this is a great side effect, but it makes me feel good because oily hair is something I experienced when taking DHEA, which is known to produce better quality eggs. If my body is going back to doing things it used to do when it was younger... I'm all for it. I used to have really oily hair in my 20's... couldn't go more than 2 days without washing it.

I did a little more research on Coenzyme Q10 and fertility, and discovered this discussion online.. it seems that there are a good amount of women out there, who feel that it helped them:

These are the brands I've been taking:
Coenzyme Q10
Astragalus

Have a great day!

EB