Getting Back to Good

I still contend that it takes the precision of a rocket scientist to get pregnant (unless, of course, you are a teenager and scared to death of having a baby). Despite the work involved (temping, charting,OPKs, fertility monitoring, and let's be honest, doing the deed as a command performance) I kind of missed it.

The last time I new everything anyone would ever want to know about their own cycle was March-the month I got pregnant. After the miscarriage and my doctor's edict "do not get pregnant", I found it liberating not to set my alarm to 5:30am seven days a week to temp, not to pee on a stick 20 mornings a month, and not to date rape my husband after an uneventful and not particularly romantic dinner.

But now that it has been 5 months, I kind of miss it. I want to know if all my efforts have paid off. And let's call a spade a spade, I didn't take my fertility efforts in moderation. To recap I am seeing a reflexologist about 2x a month (though we will up once I can start TTC again), I am taking B-6 vitamins in an effort to lengthen my luteal phase, I started Atkins to help regulate hormones and hopefully help my long cycle, I started exercising 5 times a week without fail, I lost a bunch of weight and I had the mutant fibroid extricated from my body. Now, with the exception of fibroid, these other efforts have been consistent for 4 months and no longer a shock to my system.

I am seriously looking forward to setting the alarm early for my temp (though I got a 20 minute grace period from my DH, he agreed to never set his alarm before 5:50am), using my overpriced but well-worth it monitor, tracking my luteal phase, and of course inviting daydreams of my BFP back into my every day life.

I guess you don't appreciate what you have till it's gone.

Putting my Best Foot Forward

I had my weekly Reflexology appointment tonight and I asked my reflexologist why she thought reflexology helped fertility. She attributed it to a couple of reasons.

1) overall stress relief
2) when you stress about something (getting pregnant) your body, unbeknownst to you, stores tension in those areas (you can actually feel this as she works your feet, it feels tender in areas you are holding tension)
3) it brings balance to organs and systems (endocrine system), so reflexology helps balance your hormones.

I have to say it has definitely worked for me. She also has mentioned that reflexology couple with acupuncture can be very effective. I feel like I am not ready for that additional step. It isn't so much the needles of acupuncture, as the time commitment. It is hard to bust out of work at 5 on the dot, commute home and then walk over to the reflexologist every week.

Sometimes when it seems a bit too hokey, I think about that fact that people have been doing these practices for a thousand years and it has sustained itself. Have you had success with getting pregnant by using alternative medicine?