Try #2, day #2

So here we are on the 2nd day of our 2nd insemination. I'm currently sitting in my car in the parking lot at the fertility center with Marisa reclined in the seat next to me listening to her iPod and meditating, so I thought I would use this time to explain the process of what we go through each time we "try" to get pregnant.

First we wait for Marisa's cycle to start, on day 1 we call the doctor to let her know this has happened, and on day 3 we go to the Dr. for an ultrasound. This ultrasound is done to make sure everything is okay and that there are no cysts. We also get 2 prescriptions this day, one for Ovidrel and one for Clomid. The Clomid are pills that Marisa has to take from days 3-7, and we pick them up at our local pharmacy. The Ovidrel is a shot that needs to be mail ordered, so at this point we have to call them to arrange delivery because it has to stay refrigerated. At this time we also have to call the cryobank to arrange the delivery of our specimans to the Dr.

On day 12 we go back to the Dr. for another ultrasound, this one is to check for follicles, and to see how many there are and how big they are. The number and size of follicles you produce will determine how many and how healthy your eggs that are being released are. Typically women only produce one follicle on their own, but with the assistance of a drug like Clomid they can grow multiple follicles. Our first try (a natural cycle with no Clomid) Marisa had one healthy follicle at 19, and this try she has 1 healthy follicle at 24- so while she still only grew one follicle even with the help of Clomid, it is much larger than last time we tried, and therefor more capable of producing a stronger egg.

So anyway, on day 12 we find out when we can start insemination, which has typically been the following two days. That night we go home and Marisa has to give herself a shot in the stomach (this is the Ovidrel shot) which will guarantee that she ovulates during the next 24 hours. The next two days (insemination days) are exactly the same. We get up and go into the doctor at 7 am to sign off on paperwork and labels for the vials. We then get to leave the Dr., but have to be back by 8:30 for the insemination. This time period usually consists of me going to dunkin donuts and getting a coffee, and then sitting in my car in the parking lot of the Drs. office while Marisa meditates and tries to relax in the passenger seat next to me (this is where I am right now). At 8:30 we go back in to the Dr. and start the insemination. The actual insemination takes about 5 minutes, and then we relax in the room for an additional 10 minutes just to give the swimmers a chance to figure out where to go. As I said, we do this same thing 2 days in a row, and then 3 days after this we need to go back to the Dr. to have Marisa's progesterone levels checked. This is a blood test they do this to make sure that there is a healthy environment for a fertilized egg to latch onto, and if the level isn't high enough she will have to use progesterone suppositories (she did on our first try).

We have to wait 2 weeks from the date of our 2nd day of insemination to go back to the Dr. to have a pregnancy test done. Those two weeks are the hardest, especially since we now found that Marisa gets pregnancy symptoms from the Ovadrel shot and the progesterone even if she isn't pregnant- so it's almost a false sense of security. So that's the process, a lot of work isn't it? This just goes to show you how badly we want to have children. I have to go now, it's time to inseminate!