The new regime - end of week 1

Well, we've been taking the supplements for a week now. I don't think either of us feels any different, though our wee has (as we were told it would) turned an interesting fluorescent shade.

I've struggled a bit with the logistics of it - trying to get DH to eat healthily without providing him with a hot meal in the evening. I made a big pot of beef casserole with loads of vegetables in and some leek and potato soup last week, so he had casserole on Tuesday and Thursday and soup with home-made bread on Wednesday. On Friday we went out in the evening, so he had his usual sandwich for lunch. This week I have slightly more variety planned, but it's still a matter of balancing practicality against the huge list of prohibitions from the hair analysis people.

Then over the weekend he just wasn't co-operating - meals have to be at least four hours apart, because each dose of the supplements has to be taken with food and there must be at least four hours between doses. He didn't get up early enough yesterday to have his breakfast four hours before our planned lunchtime, which meant the lunch plans had to be changed.

We went for lunch with friends yesterday, and DH drank wine and grumbled to our friends that I wasn't letting him have any of the things he enjoys. I pointed out that I was being deprived in equal measure, but I was a little irritated by the whole thing.

On the way home in the car, he apologised and said, "I'd forgotten you were having to cut out things you enjoy as well, and it's not just me that this is hard for."

I reminded him that because I'm the one who has to worry about providing meals, reminding him to take his supplements every time he forgets, reminding him of the rules about when and how to take them, and change my entire shopping and cooking routine for this, it's probably harder for me than it is for him - but if we're going to do this, it's important that both of us do it properly.

I have explained to him, as I had it explained to me, why it's so important to take the supplements at the right time - they interact with each other, and taking one at the same time as another might affect the absorption of both. Optimal absorption and processing takes place if the supplements are taken exactly as directed.

He was thoughtful for a while, and then I said that it probably was more important for me to do it properly, since I'll hopefully be carrying a baby for nine months. And then all by himself, he remembered that he has a part to play in all this and that his sperm need to be healthy too, and he promised to try not to let all the burden of this fall on me and to be more careful about remembering these things in future.

I think he'll continue to enjoy making out to people that I'm the dragon woman who's making him stick to this horrible routine and take hundreds of awful pills. But I'd never have started this without having discussed it with him and got his full agreement to it. And in a way, that's why it annoys me that he's made so little effort to remember and follow the rules. We've already picked and chosen which bits we're going to follow in order to make it more workable for us, but we really do need to stick to the bits we are following.

When I ordered the supplements, the woman I spoke to said that it was always the men who had the most trouble sticking to the plan. She said if I managed to get DH to stick to what he was supposed to do for the full six months, she would want more of his DNA so that she could clone him.

I had to tell him this weekend that at the moment, he's not in any danger of being cloned. But I am grateful that when he's not grumbling about what a pain it is (and he's right - it is a pain having to remember all these things and stick to a more rigid routine than we're used to), he sees the value in doing this and is willing to do it.

So the weekend ends on a positive note, with DH back on message.