T42 IUI #3

Well, IUI #3 is in the books. Had it late this morning, after some debate whether to wait and do it tomorrow morning instead. I've been doing OPKs in the morning and at night, and it was first positive at 9pm last night. It was still positive this morning just before 8. If I hadn't tested last night, I would have been going in tomorrow for the IUI, but since I did test last night and it was positive, I knew this morning's positive had to be closer to the end of my surge than the beginning. I'd rather err on the side of too early than too late, so I went in today. I would have liked to have gone in a little later in the day, but since it's Sunday and the midwife had another IUI to do this morning, she didn't want to wait around all day for me to come in later. It ended up being at 11:30am, about 14.5 hours after my first positive OPK. If I'd waited til tomorrow at 9am (my other option), it would have been 36 hours after the first positive, which I thought would be too late. I think I may have felt some ovulation pains this evening, so if I'm right about that, then the timing was perfect. I'm just not sure if it was ovulation or cramping from the IUI.

As traumatic as last month's IUI was (took forever to get the catheter through my cervix, a second person coming in to help, etc.) this one was the complete opposite. It was the easiest, smoothest, quickest IUI yet! I don't know if it had to do with the midwife doing it, or the timing was better, or what, but I was amazed! The midwife today (Tamara) was one I hadn't met before, and I was a little worried that she would have trouble, but she absolutely knew what she was doing. When she said I might feel a little cramping (as she was passing the catheter through my cervix), I actually said a few seconds later, "wow, did you already get the catheter through my cervix?!", and told her how hard it had been last month. She said it seemed like my cervix was open a bit, and that there was good CM, so another good sign. After the IUI, she had me put my hips up on a pillow, turned off the overhead light and turned on a small light, and had me lie there for 20 minutes. I was able to really relax and scrolled through Facebook on my phone while I enjoyed the quiet.

I'm feeling pretty good about this one, but I've learned my lesson - I absolutely will NOT get my hopes up if I start having symptoms!! I may not be able to prevent my hopes from going up if I get a positive HPT, but at least not until then.

I almost had to take Jordyn with me again today, but ended up not having to at the last minute. The whole thing was pretty last-minute, deciding around 10:40 to go in today instead of tomorrow after discussing it with the midwife. She asked if I could be there by 11-11:15, which is very possible since I live less than 10 minutes away, but it didn't give me much time to try to figure out an alternative to bringing Jordyn with me. I texted B, a friend of mine who lives nearby, who's daughter L is one of Jordyn's best friends, asking if they were home today and if by chance I could drop Jordyn off for an hour, hour and a half at the most (and I told her why, since she already knew I'm trying). She didn't respond right away, so a few minutes later I threw my iPad and a few books into a bag with snacks and put it and Jordyn in the car. As I was putting Jordyn in her carseat, I heard a text come in, and it was my friend saying sure, the house is a mess, but come on over! So, I dropped Jordyn off quickly, but was back an hour later. I was planning to just pick her up and leave, but we ended up hanging out for a while and ordered pizza for lunch with them. It was nice; my friend's husband was working on something in the basement most of the time so we chatted while the girls played, and then we all had lunch before the girls had meltdowns from being tired, and Jordyn and I went on our merry way.

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I realized today that for SMCs, it takes a village not just to raise a child, but also to make one. I thought of all the people who had a hand in making today's IUI possible - me, the donor, the midwife, my friend and her husband, not to mention the sperm bank employees, the UPS or whatever shipping company employees, the person who first answered my call this morning at the midwives' office answering service and sent out a page to the midwife on call (different from the midwife who actually performed the IUI)... I mean, for a heterosexual couple without infertility problems, it takes exactly two people to make a baby: the husband and the wife. Compared to that, a whole village helped make my IUI happen today!