Once Again, It's (still) ON!!!!

(continued from previous post)


Right! So, I got my first positive digital OPK smiley face around 10am on Saturday, which was CD12.

Regular Midstream OPK & Digital OPK
CD12 at 10am

 I spent most of the day arguing with myself over whether or not to do one insem that night or wait until the next morning.  Honestly, if I'd had three vials, I probably would have, but I didn't want to waste a chance by going for it too early and having the swimmers die off before an egg was even released.  Naturally, this made sleeping a bit Night Before Christmas-ish.  I was just so excited!  A friend from one of my message boards conceived both of her children at home with IUI vials (even though it was just an intravaginal insem done by herself), and she'd conceived her first child by doing the insems at something like 20 & 30 hours after her first OPK+, and her second with just one insem at about 30 hours after the first OPK+.  I figured I'd follow her lead.

Midstream & Digital OPK's on CD13
before the first insem...Still on surge!

I got up a little after 6am and started getting things ready.  Brushed my teeth, got a glass of water & a cup of tea ready to set on my station next to the bed.  Did another round of OPK's (because my obsessive nature compelled me to do so).  Still coming up with a smiley face on the digital.  Moving ahead with confidence that I made the right decision about the timing.  I pulled on my protective gear and extricated the ICI vial from the cryotank.  Following the thawing instructions (see inset), I let it sit for a moment until it was warm enough to touch with my bare hand. Then I placed the vial in one finger of a pair of sterile gloves and put in a cup of tepid water until the sample within was fully liquified.

ICI vial getting ready for its bath

Fully liquified 1ml ICI vial - hoping
for so much from so little

Then I gently agitated the vial.  I connected the catheter to the syringe and pumped it a couple of times to break the seal, then I inserted the catheter all the way to the bottom of the vial and drew up the specimen (swimmers).

After drawing all of the sample into the syringe/catheter, I pressed down on the plunger (slowly) to expel any excess air. While doing this, I also expelled a small droplet onto an ovulation microscope.

Place the droplet onto the lens and
then replace the lens onto the scope,
turn on the light, and focus until
you can see the tiny swimmers.

 The magnification is not the greatest, but it's good enough that you can ACTUALLY SEE THE TEENY TINY SPERM SWIMMING!!!  From a strictly nerd perspective, this is just awesome and cool.  From an at-home baby making perspective, it's comforting to know that I haven't completely screwed up the thawing process and the sperm is still alive (which is also awesome and cool). Then I hurried off to my bedroom to lie down and inseminate. For the first insem, I used a vial of ICI prepared sperm and guided the catheter up to (but not into) my cervix and pressed the plunger very slowly.  Then I inserted and Instead cup. It works like a diaphragm and caps around the cervix.  In this case, instead of keeping sperm out to prevent pregnancy, it keeps the sperm already released close to the cervix in an effort to assist a pregnancy.  After that, I lay in bed for a couple of hours and fell asleep.  When I woke up, I went out to brunch with my houseguest and walked around the city.

I wanted to time my inseminations at about 20 & 30 hours after the first positive OPK.  So I headed home early that evening to prepare and do it all again.  For the second insem, repeated all the same steps, but used a vial of IUI prepared sperm.  It's a smaller sample (.5ml instead of 1ml), but it's also more concentrated and has had all of the seminal fluid removed, leaving only the sperm itself.  It was evening, so I stayed in bed for a while afterwards.  It was my houseguest's first weekend in New York, so I went back out after a while to meet her for dinner.  I had a LOT of cramping at dinner, but I think it was just gas (really weird gas that I've not experienced before).

On to the Two-Week Wait!

Stay tuned...