Second T42 Attempt

Fair warning: Lots of TMI ahead!

I'm not feeling too good about this cycle, but we'll see what happens. I hear stories all the time about how the cycle people don't think will work is the one that does.

I got a positive OPK last night around midnight, and then again this morning. I was expecting it because while the OPK was negative yesterday morning, I had a lot of EWCM. I guess maybe I was supposed to have the IUI tomorrow, especially since you're only really supposed to test once a day, in the morning, so I should've just gotten the positive today and gone in tomorrow. I kinda wish I'd thought of that before, but I also kind of I figured if I went in late in the day today, it would be perfect timing - about 16 or so hours from when I first got the positive. Also, I'm off today, and I work tomorrow. As I think I've said before, I wouldn't do an IUI on the wrong day just because of my work schedule, but I really thought the timing today was good. At the time, anyway... now I'm not so sure.

When I called the midwives' office, I was told the only time I could come in today was at 1:00, because the midwife working today had a meeting to go to later in the afternoon. So, that kind of ruined my "late in the day" plan, but at least it wasn't first thing this morning. I had to wait a bit, so the IUI happened around 1:30, so only about 13.5 hours from the first positive OPK. Is that too soon?? I don't know, but I hope not.

The midwife (Phyllis again, same as last time) had trouble getting the catheter through my cervix. We tried the same trick that worked last time, with me putting my fists under my hips to raise them higher, but even that didn't work. She said something about "twisting the speculum"... I don't know what she was doing. It didn't really hurt, but I could tell she was moving things around to try to get the catheter in. Eventually, she called in a nurse to help. She wanted someone to lift up my uterus by pushing down low on my belly, just above my pubic bone, and pushing up. This is the other trick we tried last time that didn't work, but this time she wanted to do both at the same time, and we didn't have enough hands between the two of us. So, with my feet in stirrups, knees spread, speculum in, the phlebotomist (I think) walked into the room. Slightly awkward, but whatever. She did the uterus-lifting trick, I had my fists under my hips, and the midwife asked me to raise my hips even MORE in the air. I was like, WTF, how do I even do that?! But somehow, I think by pushing down with my feet in the stirrups, I managed to lift my hips up off of the bed (off of my fists, really). And at one point, she asked me to cough, twice. Who knows what that does, but it guess it can help somehow.

And finally, she was able to get the catheter through the cervical os, and she pushed the plunger. Whew! She said she pushed it as soon as she felt it go through, so it wasn't all the way up at the fundus (I think that's the top of the uterus?). She said something about not wanting the tip of the catheter to get blocked. Anyway, I don't think it was in as far as usual, but at least it was further than with an ICI (or just plain ol' sex), so hopefully at least one swimmer can swim the rest of the way! Assuming the egg will be there ready at the right time, that is... She did say, when I asked, that she'd looked at the sperm under a microscope and seen lots of swimmers, and they were swimming well.

Phyllis said I had a lot of clear cervical mucous, so that's good. But she also said that because of the mucous, and because I was spotting, I was going to have some "leakage". At first she said maybe I was spotting because I was ovulating, but then she said it could also have been because of all her twisting and moving things around in there for so long trying to get the catheter in. I'm pretty sure that's the more likely explanation, because I never have ovulation spotting. She had me put my hips on a folded-in-half pillow so they were pretty high up, and lay like that for 15-20 minutes (I stayed there for about 22 minutes for good measure!). It wasn't very comfortable, but I thought maybe it would help since so much else seemed stacked against me, so lay there I did. Even so, when I got up and wiped before getting dressed because it felt so wet down there, I felt like I was wiping all the sperm away. :( Pretty sure that's not possible, and the wetness was more than likely a combination of mucous and blood, but I couldn't help thinking it!

And while I lay there, I posted on the SMC forum. Because Phyllis suggested that I go back tomorrow for a back-to-back IUI, because she thinks I was there too early. She said it would increase my chances, since if I go in tomorrow morning, which is what she suggests, it would be be better timed than the one today. I really don't want to use another vial this cycle, since I only have three left of Jordyn's donor, but if the one I did today was otherwise basically wasted, then I guess I should. Kind of feels like a vial would be wasted either way, which really sucks. :( I'm leaning towards not having another one, because I think the timing may actually be ok, from what I read in "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" just now, and from what people have responded on the forum so far. But if anyone reads this on time and strongly disagrees, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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The good news is that, unlike last time, I was able to go to this IUI appointment without Jordyn. We'd been at our temple this morning for a class Jordyn takes, and we'd had plans afterwards to play and have lunch with a little girl in her class and her mother and younger brother. We've become pretty friendly with them in the past few weeks. Since I had to go in for the IUI at 1:00 instead of later, I had to explain to this new friend of mine why I needed to change our plans. She already knew I was trying to get pregnant since we'd talked about it before, and she struggled with infertility herself, so she understood the timing sensitivity. I was able to swallow my pride and ask if she would watch Jordyn for an hour or an hour and a half so I didn't have to bring her with me. She was fine with that, so I dropped Jordyn off at their house after following them there from temple, and went alone to the appointment, which was about five minutes from their house. So much more relaxing that way (not that an IUI, and this one in particular, is so relaxing!)! And then, when I got back to their house, the little brother was napping, and the girls had decided to take a nap together (yeah, right - they most definitely did NOT nap!). So they hung out upstairs in the girl's room while her mom and and I sat downstairs on the couch and chatted. We did, of course, have to go upstairs every few minutes when the girls called for us, and then Jordyn had to poop, and well... it was nice anyway! I was very thankful to have been able to go to the IUI by myself.

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Oh yeah, and one more quick thing... As I predicted, if today's IUI miraculously works, my due date will be on Jordyn's birthday (using LMP to calculate; two days later using date of conception). Could get interesting!