Once Again, It's ON!!!!!

Edit:  This post was turning out WAY longer than I had anticipated, so I've broken it up into two parts so that we can take a breather halfway through and not just quite reading it altogether because one post is just entirely too damn long.  Okay?  Okay!  Read on!

So...Insem 5.1 & 5.2.  Honestly, it felt a lot like 1.0, but with a few caveats.  I mean, I've already been through the process of donor searching, selection, ordering, and shipping before; but never with this Bank and it's a new donor, so of course it's all butterflies and "I hope he's the one".  I've already done the whole thawing and preparation process, but not since summer of 2011.  It feels like forever ago.  I've already done the home insemination process before, but I tried a few new things this time.

Basically, same-same but different.

So, this time around, I used Manhattan Cryobank.  There were a couple of reasons for this switch. The first and foremost being that Pacific Reproductive Services has increased their fees for swimmers incrementally (and exponentially) since I began this journey four or five years ago.  MCB, on the other hand, still has those same rates for Open Identity swimmers, so financially it makes more sense.  PRS used to boast the "most open identity donors in the industry" (or something like that), but with Open ID being increasingly in demand from prospective parents, a lot more banks are presenting that option.  I also chose PRS, originally, because they seemed to have a wider selection of donors of color.  While I think that still holds true for them, other banks now also seem to have a (slightly wider) selection, so in that arena, cost was still the mitigating factor. I did also consider European Sperm Bank USA (their cost per vial is a little higher than MCB, but they don't make you put down a gazillion dollar deposit on the cryotank that the spermcicles are shipped in - most places, PRS included, require an $800 deposit).  On the other hand, I'd still have been paying for long distance shipping costs as well.  Plus, I found the donor that I really liked at MCB.  I'm sure if I'd really wanted a EuroUSA donor, the cost difference is narrow enough that I'm sure I'd just suck it up and make it work.  Oh, wait! There was a time when I was seriously considering EuroUSA over MCB.  EuroUSA is ONLY open-identity donors AND when you're browsing the catalogue, you can  get a 3-month, all-access subscription for $50.  MCB doesn't advertise any such deal, so I thought I'd have to pay per item (full medical history, childhood photo, audio interview, etc...) for each donor I was interested in learning more about.  In the end, I thought, "What the hell?!" and I decided to register online with MCB just in case there might be a donor that really stood out for me.  Turns out that MCB has the same 3-month, all-access subscription deal, but they don't advertise it anywhere on their site that I ever saw.  It popped up once I registered though.  I think that's what changed the game for me (and led me to my good-looking, really swell guy of a donor).

Moving on...I looked through a bunch of profiles at MCB and came up with a top 5.  Turns out that the donor I liked best also had a really high supply of vials in stock (both ICI and IUI).  My second choice was also a great guy (as far as I could tell), but his supply was quite a bit lower and I think he may have only had IUI vials available (which is fine, even for a home insem, but just a little more expensive).  I gave my cousin my login info and had her give my selections a once-over, and she agreed with both my first & second choices, so I felt ready to go.  I had just enough saved up to give it a go for one cycle.  THEN, I got a really generous one-year bonus from work, and that cemented things (always good to have a bit of wiggle room, and also a shot for a second cycle if need be).

I put in the order, spoke several times with the extremely patient coordinator at MCB, tracked my cycle and scheduled shipping.  Just like that!  I ordered one ICI and one IUI vial.

The tank-o-sperm arrived on Thursday (CD11) and I picked it up at the package place after work & took it home. PRS was a bit more discreet, listing only PRS and the address on the box.  MCB has Manhattan Cryobank spelled out on their box, so I'm glad I didn't have it delivered to my job.  Looked like this.

Checked inside to make sure it wasn't damaged in any visible way,














Then opened it up (with my protective gear on, of course) to make sure that they'd sent the correct vials.



Then it was a waiting game.  Not much of a game, admittedly, since my uterus runs with Swiss time precision.  I knew I would get my first digital OPK+ either late night on CD11 or morning on CD12.  And I did get the smiley face at 10am on Friday, CD12.

FYI: I used to use just the regular, non-digital midstream OPK's.  And I think they were pretty accurate.  I might still think that, but early-pregnancy-tests.com (where I order all that sort of thing from) either switched to a new supplier, or their supplier "improved" their product and I find the whole "is the test line the SAME or DARKER THAN the control" line interpretation to be a bit murkier.  So, I've still been using them, but I've added Clearblue Easy digital OPK's as well (for a definitive "smiley face" or "no smiley face" result).  Note: I tried the Clearblue Advanced (purple) and I don't like it BECAUSE once you get a positive, it stays on the screen and you cannot test again for 48 hours.  So, if I'm trying to gauge how long my surge is, it's not really helpful, and really quite frustrating.  So, just the regular pink Clearblue digital OPK's for me.

(continued in next post)