The Baby Psychic says we're going to have a boy...

[love_story]

After hearing about Cheri22, the baby psychic, on one of the many TTC forums I lurk in, I checked out her site and decided to purchase a reading. :P Her prices are so reasonable, after all -- less than $10 for her basic reading, and from what I've read from other forum posters her predictions tend to be very accurate

Comments

[sandokai]

I think I'm on that forum too... was someone being very sad about their reading last week?

Also, yay for camping!

[love_story]

Hm.. I can't remember if it was last week or not, but I do remember some people being very excited abou theirs and others being a little disappointed (though nearly all of them reported the amazing accuracy of their prediction...) I like the NW Cryobank board, and the BabyCenter Midwest Bank board... I think Shasta and I will be going with Midwest as they're the least expensive option we could find and yet all their customers appear very very happy with the quality of their... erm... product. :P By going with a less expensive option we can afford to try more vials per cycle which *hopefully* will increase our chances of success on each try... Will probably blog extensively about this later. *grins*

Usually camping is so much fun! We're definitely going to have to go again before the summer's over...

[sandokai]

We're going one more month with PRS ($500/vial) then switching to Northwest ($250/vial). I like PRS's identity release policy a lot, but I don't know if I think it's worth paying twice the price. I also think the more expensive places have better selection and you can stick with one donor for a longer length of time. Northwest sounds like they're always selling out of all sorts of donors since people will buy 5 or 8 vials at a time. But maybe we'll just do that....could always have some to try for a future sibling!

My most favorite places is SBofCalifornia because of their wonderful free long forms and because the Berkeley guys are hilarious, but they mostly sell for IUI's and we're not interested in doing IUI's right now.

How many are you thinking of buying? We're doing 2 per month but if we switch to Northwest I wonder if 3 might be a good idea...

Is Midwest really cheaper than Northwest? I don't want to deal with more doctors forms since I'm already registered at several places....

[love_story]

NW was my top choice until I found the Midwest Babycenter forum and started reading the feedback from real users -- evidently Midwest "stuff" has an extremely good motility rate, and the entire bank is run by one woman (Joanne) who is incredibly helpful. I requested a few donor profiles and she emailed them immediately -- she also does photo-matching herself live over the phone, and is willing to give out as many possible details regarding the donor's appearance, and his past fertility rates, even whether he has proven successful in at-home AI's vs. dr. assisted ones. She even gives lookalike celebrity references so she can give you the best idea possible of what a particular donor looks like

[eternitat]

I have heard this regarding gender selection. You may be able to adapt it given the donor material:

http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/how-to-conceive-a-girl.html

http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/how-to-conceive-a-boy.html

[love_story]

*nodnod* I've seen these before! There are even special baby-gender diets you can try, to help increase your chances of attracting a certain polarity of sperm. Shasta is really, really hoping for a girl, so I plan on implementing the diet in the last few months before our first TTC cycle in the hopes that it might work. :P Unfortunately a lot of the stuff about the Shettles method is really tricky when using frozen sperm because frozen sperm has such a short lifespan -- only 12 hours or so -- and it's tricky enough even just making sure it's in the right place at the right time, much less making sure it's in there early enough that more of the Y sperm die off than the X. *sigh* So I may just try to eat-for-a-girl, and then trust that the universe will give us the child that's meant for us, regardless of gender. :)

[sandokai]

My guess is timing makes a much bigger difference on gender than diet does.

I think the reason so many people going this route have boy babies is that they tend to do it 12 and 24 hours past the OPK, which I think is probably late unless you're doing OPK tests every couple of hours.

This is just my personal theory though.

[love_story]

There are a couple different philosophies regarding gender selection. The Shettles method (girl sperm are slower/live longer) is the most commonly known one, but there's also the polarity philosophy (best explained at boygirldiet.com

[charmingdetails]

Interesting stuff! I think your chances of having a boy actually are high according to the Shettles method, since you'll be timing the insemination so closely to your ovulation. (Just google the Shettles method if you're not familiar, it's too lengthy to go into here.)

And let me say, boys are FANTASTIC. They are so sweet and they love their moms. :D

[love_story]

I would absolutely adore a child of either gender, of course -- when I worked at the preschool I definitely have to say I had way more fun with the little boys than the little girls. But since Shasta is really hoping for a girl, I don't mind doing what I can to try and swing our chances that way if possible. :P I plan on implementing a diet (low in sodium/potassium, high in calcium/magnesium) for a few months before our first TTC cycle in the hopes that it might help encourage girl-sperm -- but because the life of the frozen stuff is so much shorter and the timing is so tricky, we can't really apply the Shettles method without greatly decreasing our chances of getting pregnant at all. So I figure I'll do what I can, and trust that the universe is going to give us the child that's meant for us!

I still say Shasta would have SUPERSUPERFUN with a little boy. :P

[sandokai]

Oh and my personal version of Shettles last month was to do it 3 and 24 hours after the OPK instead of the 12 and 24 that everyone else does. This time I might try 3 and 15 but that will require waking up at 4AM....(sigh)

Okay, I'll stop posting. It's just that I obsess about this stuff.

[love_story]

*grins* I obsess about it too and we haven't even started trying yet, so no worries!! ♥