3.4 The Hunts' "Shettles Success Story"
Description
This article is from the Choosing Your Baby's Sex FAQ, by Roger A. Hunt rah@gvsu.edu with numerous contributions by others.
3.4 The Hunts' "Shettles Success Story"
Why this section? Well, mainly because so many
people on m.k and m.k.p folllowed the progress of our
3rd baby, from my initial questions about Shettles,
through conception and pregnancy, to our baby
Jasper's birth in June 1996 -- that I figured it's
public information now. Besides, I already posted
the relevant details below. And finally, it gives
the FAQ more credibility, I think, when I tell you
that we laid our reputations on the line, so to speak
:-).
So, the Hunt story:
For our first baby we didn't know about Shettles, and
we weren't concerned about whether our baby was a boy
or girl. We also didn't know when my wife ovulated,
and in fact most all our knowledge about conception
centered around outdated ideas about the rhythm
method, along with my wife's "gut feeling" that her
monthly cervical-fluid (or mucus) pattern was related
to overall fertility. We did have one advantage: my
wife has an extraordinarily regular, 30-day monthly
cycle (the kind you can set your clocks by - you
know, "we'd better go home now, sweetie, my period's
gonna start in 17.5 minutes" :-)). She had of course
never charted BBTs (and still hasn't to this day).
Overall, though, baeed mostly on her cycle-
regularity, we knew approximately what time of the
month she was fertile.
In retrospect, timing seems to have been the critical
variable. We had our minds made up that we wanted to
conceive NOW, so during the fertile week we had
intercourse around 9 or 10 times -- at least every
day, and sometimes twice a day. (This sounds like
more fun that it is, believe me :-). We did conceive
that first month of trying, and we undoubtedly hit
the day of ovulation right on the nose.
Also this first time, we happened to use some of the
other "boy" methods in Shettles' book, as we found
out later -- position (rear-entry about 60-70 percent
of the time), penetration (deep), female orgasm
(yes), no hot baths for me, and I was wearing boxers
for part of the time leading up to conception (I have
always switched back & forth between boxers and
briefs, which probably just confuses those poor
sperms hopelessly!) I also drink a lot of coffee,
though usually not after around 2 pm. Result: Our
first baby was a boy.
For our 2nd, we "sort-of" wanted a girl, but we still
didn't know about Shettles. We had become a little
more sophistiacted, and were timing ovulation by the
cervical-fluid method. This baby took 3-4 months to
conceive, primarily because we couldn't seem to hit
close enough to ovulation -- the result of having a
very active (and sleepless) 2.5-year-old :-).
Finally, in hopes of increasing the odds for overall
conception, we again used the "rabbit method" during
the relevant week -- frequent sex starting about a
week before ovulation, through several days
afterward. The other techniques were the same as the
first time, except that I was wearing the boxers
full-time (partly for fertility, partly because it
was July in Virginia :-)). Our 2nd baby was also a
boy.
As for Number 3, our real Shettles success story: We
DID know about Shettles this time, thanks to my
initial queries on m.k and m.k.p, and we wanted to
try for a girl. But, the twist in this story is that
we did it all backwards! Specifically, by the time
we decided to go for it, we were already in mid-
cycle. So, we decided to use September as a
"practice month" (i.e., let's enjoy sex without
contraception for once), and were going to give
Shettles a *serious try in October. (You can tell
where this is going to end up, can't you? :-))
We quit using the condoms on Day 19, which was 2 days
after what we *thought* was ovulation, based on the
fluid quantity and quality. In hindsight, this
timing apparently placed intercourse right on the day
of ovulation or a bit after (we suspect this might be
one of the unusual times when intercourse after
ovulation resulted in conception). We had rear-entry
intercourse, deep penetration, female orgasm, no hot
baths, and boxers. We had sex two days later, but
weren't able to have intercourse again for about a
week after that (Day 28), and figured that Day 20
would bring my wife's period like clockwork as usual.
Oops :-).
As you might guess, our third baby is a boy, too!
(And no, we don't plan to test Shettles again; three
kids is our planned maximum. However, if there are
any accidents, it appears more likely that we will
have a 4th boy, if the pattern is any guide!)
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