IUI Day!

i have to admit i was a little more excited than i wanted to be.

woke the hubby up early, helped him out with his business (it's the least i can do...), and then tucked the "specimen" in its plastic container under my arm and headed to the fertility institute while the hubby showered and got ready. the nurse had told me it was super important to keep the specimen at body temperature during transport, which wasn't difficult considering it was already pretty humid and sticky outside and i didn't catch a bus. i gave it to the receptionist, who gave it to one of the nurses, who took it upstairs to the lab.

then i settled into the waiting room, read some Game of Thrones on my kindle, and waited for the hubby to arrive. he just made it; punctuality -- exact punctuality -- is his thing... he came through the door about 15 seconds after the nurse called my name. then we went into one of the exam rooms. the nurse brought in the "washed" specimen in a little test tube and gave it to me to hold. she told us that it had been a "really good specimen," 41 million sperm. the hubby was very proud of this, even though (as we both know) quantity has never been an issue for him. but when i repeated a couple minutes later, "wow, 40 million..." he was quick to correct me: "forty-ONE. that's a whole million there." ahhh, men and their manhoods. the nurse took some blood (of course... i look like a junkie these days) and the doctor explained how everything would work.

she did another sonogram and we could see that -- WHOA! -- there had been some serious follicle growth since yesterday. the one that was big yesterday was huge. and there were two more, right next to it, that were also really big. we had to explain all of this to the hubby, since he had no idea what he was looking at on the screen or what any of it meant. boys have no idea how girl bodies work, by the way. NO idea. the doc said the two biggest ones were pretty much ready to go (i.e. the egg is ready to burst out) and the third one could be ready by tomorrow, and that would likely be it for this cycle. but three! three is good odds.

then she did some "cleaning" of my insides, which just felt like a cool rinse. then the catheter was inserted through my cervix -- felt like a little pinch just like everything else they do to your cervix. then i passed the doctor the specimen and she inserted it in the catheter and started the insemination.

it took a minute or two or maybe three to actually insert it all into my innards. i didn't feel much during that time but definitely could tell something was going on down there. the hubby was sitting next to me and we made small talk. with the nurse and the doctor in the room, totally silent, possibly getting me pregnant. it was kind of awkward, but kind of sweet. then i had to lay down and rest for five minutes during which they left us alone. i think we were both more excited than we wanted to admit. it was nice to have that time together. knowing now how it all happens, i would have been pissed at him if he wasn't there.

and that was it! they gave us another specimen cup for tomororw, and we go in the morning to do it all again. in the meantime, i don't have to give myself any injections, which is a bonus. so now i'm just trying not to get my hopes up TOO high... though a little optimism surely never hurt anyone. :)