Summary of this Cycle... What was done...

Well, CD 1 started on 7 Aug 12, Tuesday late afternoon, dashing hopes for last cycle.

For this cycle, what we did different or what we added on to what was done previously

- Drinking of the Ba Zhen Soup （八珍汤） on 11 Aug 12 and 18 Aug 12

- Drinking of the 益母草on 21 Aug 12 and planning to drink again on 23 Aug 12 when Ovulation was observed on 23 Aug 12 itself.

- Went for accupuncture on 11 Aug 12 and 18 Aug 12

- Took TCM from 11 Aug 12 onwards till Ovulation Day

- Monitored on the Clearblue Fertility Monitor (prompted for test sticks from CD 10 till CD 18)

- Monitored daily on the normal OPKs from CD 12 onwards (standard twice daily and upping to 4 times after sighting the watery CM)

- Drinking the chia seed concoction (basically it is white and black chia seeds added to water) daily

- Drinking anti -oxidant tea during working days

- Took cereals and orange juice sporadically from 21 Aug 12

- Took lots of eggs in meals, e.g fried egg for dinner if your Daddy cooks, added boiled eggs to the 2nd round of Ba Zhen Soup （八珍汤）and diligently finishing the egg as it was noted online that consuming egg white will help in the maturing of the follicle

- Taking Nature's Wonders Baked USA Walnuts from 27 Aug 12 to help with the implantation (Online information was saying that Brazilian Nuts will help but am unable to find them in the supermarkets)

- Taking the Ginseng Chicken Soup on 26 Aug 12 (pre -packed ingredients/ herbs bought from Hock Hua) and instead of adding normal white chicken, we added half a black chicken instead as the latter has higher nutritional value and the costs work out to be the same as the normal white chickens (The pre -packed ingredients call for 1.5litres of water with 300grams of meat. If we were to add the chicken tight weighing around 300grams to the soup, it will costs around $3 whereas if the black chicken which costs $5+ were spread into 2 portions, one portion for this week's soup and another portion for next week's soup, the average cost is only $2.50+)

- We have the 田七汤and the 人参炖鸡汤pre -packed ingredients at home but read online that the former is not suitable for pregnancy woman. Hence, I am skipping that soup for now.

- Using pre-seed

What makes me proud of this cycle a.k.a the improvements that I see for this cycle:

- Last cycle I ovulated at CD 25 which the gynae commented that the quality of the egg may not be that good as it took too long for it to get released. This time round, I was actually aiming for Ovulation to occur within CD 20 BUT I ovulated on CD 16, i.e 22 Aug 12 which is very near to normalcy! =)
[For those with normal 28 days cycle and assuming a standard Luteal Phase of 14 days, the ovulation will be on CD 14. Hence, for my ovulation on CD 16, it is very near to that of a normal cycle!]
- So, the mood was really heightened as if the cycle manages to get shortened, it would mean that I will have my chances upped! Now, I will get the same number of chances as per others who have their cycle regularly! =)
- Another thing that I am so hyper over is that with the ovulation on CD 16, I am hoping and praying that the quality of the egg will be good enough for fertilization. =)

The odds:

 - For this cycle, we had managed to BD only on 2 days, once on CD 16 itself and another on CD 19. Not sure if this will reduce our chance
- Also, it was noted from online readings that the troops will undergo a process called sperm capacitation and it takes around half hour for the fastest to do so. What this translates into is that if the troops had not undergone that transformation and the ovulation had already occurred, they would not be able to fertilize the egg. Hence, time must be given for them to undergo this process. Only plus point is that the troops will undergo this process at different rates, so some will go through it faster while others at a later time. So this will allow different set of troops to fertilize the waiting egg
- The other thing that I am unable to measure would be the uterine lining. According to different gynaes, a thickness of 7mm is preferred for the fertilized egg to implant (着床). This cannot be told of by the OPKs or any other tools except only if one were to visit the gynae for a ultrasound scanning.
- I have read online that chasteberry (Vitex; 蔓荆子) will help with the lining but was not in time to get it. Hence, if things were to fail again this cycle (touch wood, touch wood), I will try to get the chasteberry to complete or complement the rest of what I was doing.

The news:

Based on my luteal phase of 16 days (have checked through my old records, the luteal phase is 16 days add on to the day after I last tested positive on the OPK, so this time round, the positive came around on 22 Aug 12 and then on 23 Aug 12, it was back to negative, so 23 Aug 12 shall be the 1st day to start the count from. As the ovulation kit that was used for this cycle was different from the previous cycle, I am not sure if the level of sensitivity differs too, i.e the previous batch could have been more sensitive such that I would still test positive on 23 Aug 12 but not on this new batch. Oh well, there is no way of verifying, so I will accept 23 Aug 12 as my 1dpo).

Based on the count, if we were to get lucky and succeed for this round, we will know of the results by 8 Sep 12. If we did not succeed, 8 Sep 12 will be the day that the much dreaded flow will begin and we will have to re -start our To Do list again and renew our hope that this cycle will be the different one resulting in a pregnancy.

We Love You, Our Dear Baby. When will you let us have you such that we can hold a kicking and happy you in our arms a good 9 months later?