Weekly Randoms w/o 3.8

keikilove

anniemarie887

anybody watch the harry/meghan/oprah interview? 

chgilmore

@anniemarie887 YES and I recorded the morning extras on hulu this morning so I can watch it later but WOW

anniemarie887

@chgilmore big wow. so many thoughts. i didn't catch the morning extra live, but i think i caught the gist on what was posted on twitter. the conversations around race and mental health were really tough to listen to, i can't imagine living through it. 

chgilmore

@anniemarie887 definitely ditto, and also how could they not have learned after Sarah Ferguson and Diana?
(I go a little more detailed on the special in the GTKY thread since that's the topic this week!)

acleverusername

A bumblebee got trapped in our house over the weekend and I'm really oddly sad about the fact that she's going to die (she's got herself wedged in the skylight over the stairwell which is impossible to access.)

chgilmore

@acleverusername I'm sorry bumbles are sweet creatures

acleverusername

This weekend I was doing some reading about the process of fertilization and I learned some interesting facts I wanted to share here. First, the whole “it only takes one” is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, only one sperm can/will penetrate far enough into the egg’s 2 outer layers (specifically zona pellucida) in order to start the cell division. HOWEVER, it takes multiple sperm releasing an enzyme to break down the outer-most layer of the egg (the corona radiata). So there’s a bunch of sperm all acting together so that one of them get through. 

Also, this passage that describes how sperm behaves once inside the vagina is freaking hilarious! In an eye-roll kind of way. 

Sperm are like bumper cars, the direction of their movement is relatively random.  Spermatozoa are deposited in the vagina against the cervix.  As many as 25% of the sperm are killed by the acidic environment of the vagina.  Cervical mucus, produced under the influence of rising estrogens late in the follicular phase, tends to line the spermatozoa in the correct orientation to pass through the cervix and enter the uterus.  However, unhealthy or defective sperm are eliminated as they cannot pass through the cervical mucus.  Many sperm are lost or misdirected in the uterus.  As sperm are foreign cells, many are killed by the female's white blood cells.  Some sperm will not find an entrance to a fallopian tube.  Approximately 50% of the sperm that enter the fallopian tubes will enter the tube which contains no oocyte.  Finally, a small number of sperm, possibly 50, come in contact with the cumulus oophorus that surrounds the oocyte.  Enzymes (hyaluronidases) released by the acrosomal cap of the sperm are used to digest intercellular connections between the granulosa cells of the cumulus oophorus.  From among the very, very few sperm which might arrive at the zona pellucida, one will successfully be transported through the zona by the sperm "docking and transport proteins" contained within the zona.

inthewoods23

@acleverusername Some time ago I was looking into whether or not I had a yeast infection or BV. I bought these litmus strips that test pH and you compare the color on the strip to the color chart to help determine if you have BV or a yeast infection. Since the vagina is acidic, a more basic pH indicated BV. After reading some reviews on these pH tests, that lead me into looking at articles about the acidity of the vagina and learned about how that changes over the course of our cycles . From what I remember, people are using the strips to check their pH around the time they ovulate to make sure things are optimal for TTC.

I don't remember exactly, but normally the pH is around 4.5-5.5 but moves up towards 6.5 or higher near ovulation and sperm has a pH of maybe 8? If anything, I think it would just help you know that you're better off using a sperm friendly lubricant than nothing.

fantasyflyte

Oh God. My parents are on a cleaning/organization tear. They're working their way through the attic. My mom just said tomorrow they're going through the baby boy boxes from when my brother was a baby. She means well and she's pretty good overall about mentioning grandkids, only ribs about it every few months and doesn't know yet we're trying. I guarantee tomorrow is going to be full of "should we save these for you??!!?!??!??? " AND tonight or tomorrow is CD1. Send chocolate.

chgilmore

@fantasyflyte sending lots of good vibes and vibe-chocolate

[Deleted User]

@fantasyflyte aww, yes sending you all the chocolate.  At least you know they do mean well, and mean it with love... (((Hugs))) stay strong.

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