Just How Do Two Women Make a Baby?

Wednesday, November 28th: Cycle day one.

Got in contact with the sperm bank. Weirdest thing I've ever done in my adult life:
Order sperm over the phone.

Friday, November 30th, 7:30 AM: day three blood work.

Monday, December 3rd, 7PM: day 5 Letrozole (oral med to stimulate follicle growth, taken for 5 days) begins, a day late, because we were waiting for blood test results over the weekend.

Friday, December 7th, 11AM: Ultrasound to check follicles. A day earlier than usual, because it's Friday and that's the only choice. The biggest egg is 14mm. Insemination date set for the following week.

I always leave love notes in Chels's lunch.
This one was extra special.

Actual injection was
10,000 units.

In case you were wondering,
there's a how to video on
 YouTube.
You're welcome.

Tuesday, December 11th, 1:30 AM: We've set an alarm to wake up so Chelsey can give me the trigger injection, to release the egg, so that in 36 hours, we can go for the IUI and have the best chance possible for a successful pregnancy. I'm a little nervous, but Chelsey is steady; this isn't her first rodeo giving injections. I've been up throwing up for an hour--food poisoning, we think--and I start to worry that this will mess things up. The shot goes so smoothly I don't even know it's done (there are no nerve endings where the injection goes in the hip/butt area). I continue throwing up  for another 7 hours. It seems like an omen.

Brought an oddly ironic book,
but didn't end up reading it. 

Wednesday, December 12, 1:30PM: Insemination day, or "turkey basting day", if you ask my sister-in-law. She's not wrong! Procedure is similar in duration and sensation to any other pap or pelvic exam I've had. Afterward I lay for 20 minutes with a pillow under my butt.

I spend the next two weeks waiting. Waiting for some kind of sign. Listening to my body and waiting to feel different. I know this is stupid. 

These are the instruments that were laid out, ready and waiting.
Afterwards, the NP said, "I didn't even have to pull on your cervix!"
This is the most terrifying thing I've heard yet.

Sunday, December 16th 8am, 4 days post IUI: laying in bed, looking at articles about pregnancy, the physiological process, and mentally willing these things to happen to my body. Waiting to feel different.

Is it gas? Is it pregnancy? Am I bloated? Am I pregnant? Still waiting.

Tuesday, December 25th: Predicted start day of my period comes and goes. Feeling hopeful.

Wednesday, December 26th, 10AM: I go out and run some secret errands while Chels is at work, getting things ready for the eventuality of telling her we're pregnant.

Wednesday, December 26th, 12PM: It's only been two weeks, which they say is the time to take a pregnancy test. Although I've vowed to wait a few more days, I can feel my period coming. So I take the test: NEGATIVE.

Thursday, December 27th: My period comes. Disappointed is an understatement. It's not a feeling I can really describe, and you can't really know unless you've gone through it. I had to experience my period happening to me for several days. I dread going to the bathroom, because then I would switch from feeling it to seeing it.

We decide to wait a month.

Tuesday, January 22nd: After what seems like an eternity of more waiting, it's day one again.

No blood work this time, round one only. It says that right on the paperwork. But hey, they also said to expect up to four tries, so I suppose that's no surprise. 

Saturday, January 26th-30th: days 5-9 Letrozole

I'm happy to have
some say in the IUI date...
Monday lines up perfectly
with what my tracker app
says will be my most
fertile day.

Friday, February 1st, 8AM: Happy Chinese New Year. It is the year of the pig. I've been encouraged by my friend to take these as good signs, as I happen to love pigs, and new years bring great things. And it's ultrasound day. I'm told I'm an easy scan by the nurse practitioner. Its a great way to start her day. She also informs me that she is doing 4 of these today, so statistically, one of us will get pregnant. I have the deepest empathy for these other women, but I kind of hope its me.

Follicle on the right side has a solid 17mm egg. The NP is excited about this. She says that tomorrow it will be 18mm, which is the beginning of the size range where we want it. We decide on Monday for the IUI.

I relax as best I can over the weekend. With the crazy whether throughout the previous week, I had had 3 snow/cold days off from school--so I was, all in all, pretty relaxed.

Although the video won't work,
you all know I have an affinity for
Boomerang videos. This one is just
Chelsey mixing the injection.
Stirred...not shaken!

She's basically a pro.

Saturday, February 2nd, 10:00PM: It's Chelsey's favorite day; I've been trying really hard not to piss her off in the days prior...

I have a great video of my face while she's giving me the injection, if I can find a way to post it. 

Just as a point of reference, the
small vial is what the sperm comes in;
the box is what the vial comes in.
Nothing says "I've just been inseminated"
like carrying that out of the hospital to
send back to the bank.
PS...you can drop, push, submerge,
or ignite this box, but for the love
of God, DO NO TUMBLE!
  

Monday, February 4th: I go into school for an hour to get things ready for the sub (honestly, it's more work to be out than it is to be at school!) I leave at 9, pick up Chels, and head to the doctor. My doc is doing the IUI this time. It goes quickly, she says to call her in two weeks when we're pregnant. This time we put two pillows under my butt.

On the way home we pick up Qdoba for lunch. At the house, I let mine sit for a half hour while I lay on the recliner upside down (you've all seen that episode of FRIENDS where Phoebe does this; I'll remind you she has triplets!) 

I eat. I relax. I go back to school. 

It's a stressful week, much like they all are. I constantly worry that I'm so stressed, that pregnancy isn't even a possibility. You guys, I'm STRESSING ABOUT STRESSING. 

And still, I'm waiting to feel different. 

Is it gas? Is it pregnancy? Am I bloated? Am I pregnant?

Another friend gently reminds me that I'm not going to feel different yet. 

We are thinking happy thoughts, both her and I.