we did it!

sometimes it's really just so hard to put emotions into words.. and since marisa already gave a run down of the past couple of days i've decided to just fill in some dorky little details.

so on saturday when we went in for the ultrasound and the doctor told us that we would be ready to start insemination on sunday, we were both so excited that when the doctor left the room we started dancing around. the rest of the day was filled with loving glances at each other follow by "we're going to make a baby!"

on sunday we were getting ready to leave for the doctor's office to go inseminate and marisa goes, "i'm surprised you didn't make a mix cd for this... you make a mix cd for everything!" all i could do was start laughing, because i had in fact made a mix cd to listen to on the way to the doctor's office. in case your curious, here's the track list... and in case you couldn't figure it out, the them is baby lol.

• All My Life - KCI and JoJo (this song is just on here for the beginning where they start saying baby over and over again lol)
• Baby Baby- Amy Grant
• Baby Baby Baby - TLC
• Baby - Justin Bieber
• Be My Baby - The Ronettes
• Hey Baby - No Doubt
• Pretty Baby - Vanessa Carlton
• Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey
• Push It - Salt-N-Pepa (Marisa was a little confused by this one at first because all she could think of was the part where they say, "push it real good" and i had to remind her of the "ooh baby baby, ba-baby-baby"
• Baby Mine - Bette Midler
• Baby, I Love Your Way - Big Mountain
• Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n' Roses

do I like all of the songs on there? not necessarily, however i knew i had made the right decision in making the mix when we started singing along to "Always Be My Baby" at the top of our lungs so early in the morning.

it really is the little things, and i'm so glad that marisa and i can have these moments together and that one day we'll be able to share them with our child :)

and now the wait begins!

here we go!

so the ultrasound yesterday showed that we were ready to inseminate today and tomorrow (7/10-7/11)!!!  the doctor said i was ovulating from the right side and i had one big healthy follicle that was "ready to blow", lol!  he said he would aim for the right!  soo, today we inseminated for the first time!  we had to go in at 7 AM to sign paperwork, then leave and come back at 8:15.  The actual insemination took about 5 minutes... it really was over before i knew it started.  i stayed there for another 10 minutes laying down, and then we were out of there by 8:40.

i missed a few things here, so let me backtrack... i set up an appointment for saturday (yesterday) and monday (tomorrow) for acupuncture.  yesterday's acupuncture appointment was amazing!  so relaxing and stress-relieving!  so i was already feeling pretty good.  I couldn't go in for an appointment today because they are not open, but i have these apps for my ipod that help you meditate and relax, so i did one for a half hour before the insemination and one for a half hour afterwards.  overall today has been a very relaxing and stress-free day, which is pretty important at this point!

i also had to give myself the ovadrel shot to make sure that I was ovulating.  long story short, it wasn't that difficult.  the only thing that was a pain is that my insurance wouldn't cover it, unless i filled the prescription through mail-order which obviously wasn't going to happen because it needed it right then.  so hopefully if i need this shot again, we can figure it out ahead of time so that we don't have to use our own money for something that the insurance would have covered.  this is mostly my nurse's fault.  :)  even though she was assigned to me, she "drops the ball" a lot.  we actually call her a "unicorn" because she's like a fantasy character... we weren't sure if she existed for a while because we never actually saw or talked to her.  at this point, i've obviously talked to her and i've seen her once, but i feel like i get more information from some of the other people there.  and technically, she should be the one passing along important information.  she's on vacation this week, so she wasn't even there today.  and actually, our doctor wasn't there either, we had another doctor, for today and yesterday, who we kind of liked even better.

anyway, tomorrow we inseminate again at around 8:15-8:30.  :D  and then another acupuncture appointment around 12:30.  we could not be happier at this point! and we are thinking positive thoughts and hoping, wishing, praying for the absolute best outcome!

getting closer...

so we are getting very close to trying to conceive for the first time!!  :D  i can't even really explain how exciting it is!  i mean, obviously, i always wanted to have kids.  and then even through this whole process, you know that you're doing all these tests in order to get pregnant.  but i feel like it didn't completely "click" for me until this week... the week leading up to our first try!!  yaaaaay!!  so excited and soooo hoping for the best!!

since we're not using fertility drugs (although we might, if it doesn't work after a couple times), we found out that acupuncture helps to increase your chances of trying to conceive and helps to eliminate stress.  i read about the benefits on several different websites.  plus, we actually know another couple who had an acupuncture treatment before and after their IVF and they are now pregnant!  (so happy for them, btw!)

so our schedule for the next few days is pretty jam-packed!  we have one or possibly two ultrasounds, two inseminations if everything looks good, two or possibly three acupuncture appointments, a birthday party, a bridal shower, a double date, and a partridge in a pear tree!!

cross your fingers!

sooo much has happened since i posted last.  first i thought my "day 1" for this cycle was on tuesday june 28th.  i call rma and they say to come in tomorrow, wednesday the 29th for the ultrasound.  initially i was told that this ultrasound would be done on day 3 (thursday).  so i go in on wednesday and the doctor says, "no... today is probably you're day 1, not yesterday".  then i had to go back on friday, july 1st.  so we get up bright and early before we leave for the beach.  luckily, this time the doctor says that everything looks good to try this cycle.

however, since there is some confusion about which day is "day 1", she wants us to go in on saturday, july 9 for an ultrasound and then depending on the results one of two things could happen.  1) we need to come back on sunday for another ultrasound and then hopefully inseminate on monday and tuesday OR  2) everything looks good on saturday so we have to come back to inseminate on sunday and monday

in other news, after a long time on the phone last week, we bought 10 vials of sperm.  we had two donors in mind.  one who was pretty much just like andrea, same ethnicity, same interests, same features.  the other donor had similar ethnicity and features, but very different interests and beliefs.  i told andrea that either one of the donors is fine with me.  the donor we decided on was the latter.  even though he had different interests and beliefs, the good thing about him is that his parents have four sets of twin siblings.  and two couples who had used him shared that they were pregnant with multiples.  one who had twins and one who had triplets.  i think this was what caught andrea's attention.  ;)  she's all about getting the most bang for her buck!  although, i'm pretty excited at the prospect of having twins too!

more updates to follow next week.  until then we'll be doing four things... thinking positively, staying stress-free, praying, and crossing our fingers!!  :)

bleh!

so today, i was feeling a little disheartened, disappointed, discouraged, dis-everything!  after waiting around all afternoon (for 3 1/2 hours) for our nurse to call me back, i found out how much my summer class is going to really throw a monkey-wrench in our whole plan to try for the first time in july.  It would be VERY difficult if not impossible for me to take off the number of days that i would need to in order to try for july.  i would need to be available on days 3, 12, 13, and 14 of my next cycle.  However, this could work depending on when i get my period.  if it doesn't work out, then we can't try in august due to vacations, probably can't try in september with the start of school, and so we would be trying in october which is so late!  the kicker is that i could easily be to their office by 1:00 pm on ANY of those days in july, but they only do insems in the morning!  hence the reason for my disappointment!!

BUT, if i get my period this sunday, monday, or tuesday (monday, june 27th, being the optimal day), then we can probably swing it for july.  and since we have absolutely no control over any of this, i guess we should say our prayers and cross our fingers and think positive happy thoughts!!!  i think i can, i think i can!!!!

counseling

so one of the requirements that we have to meet before starting to try to conceive is a counseling session. in some ways it's kind of ridiculous that this is a requirement, in other ways this should be a requirement for anyone who wants to have children, but we all know that would never happen. we went to see the psychologist today, and what an interesting experience it was. she informed us when we got there that she would make an assessment of us to send back to the doctor on whether or not she felt that we were ready to have children. the psychologist's office was located on the ground level of an apartment building, which was odd to begin with... and then when we walked into her "office" it pretty much looked like the inside of an apartment. at this point i wouldn't be surprised if she actually lived there lol. so today was a very very hot day, and while there was an air conditioning unit in the room that we had our session in, she for whatever reason refused to turn it on. the whole thing was bizarre.. and very warm. she asked us a lot of questions about our relationship and our family history as well as how we were going to handle various situations that could arise. there were several times where we felt like she was trying to stump us with questions- which we keep joking about like, "what would you do if you knew you were pregnant with triplets and one had 4 arms and the other had 2 heads and they were both cannibalizing the third triplet... what would you do?" she didn't actually ask that, but that's how ridiculous some of the "trick questions" seemed to be lol. anyway, great news... we passed the test with flying colors!!!

update!

So i went for the saline sonogram on may 31 due to the results of the hsg test and luckily, everything looks good!  tomorrow morning, i'm going to get a few other blood tests done, just to test genetic things.  after that, we're pretty close to actually trying to conceive for the first time!!!  yaaay!

we have three things left on our "to do" list... first, on june 20th, we are going to the counselor which is a weird requirement but whatever.  then my thyroid levels will need to be checked again at the end of the month.  and then we need to pick some sperm!  ha!

in other news, i'm pretty sure that my favorite names are Eden Quinn for a girl and Augusten Lee for a boy!   =P