Fail

 The IUI didn't work this time. We will try again in a couple of month once we've got some money saved up again.

Right now I'm trying to focus on our blessings in the season we're in...just being us, sleeping in when we can, going and doing what we want and not having to plan around little ones. We are blessed to be doing this life thing as best friends...but we are very sad it didn't work.

Thank you for your love and support through this.

IUI Days 1 & 2

 I had my IUI yesterday. Here's a little journey through the last couple of days...

July 6- I woke up early and gave myself my trigger shot. I was shaking so bad and my heartbeat was going crazy but it wasn't bad once I actually did it. It didn't hurt at all! My ovaries have been hurting this evening, hopefully that means they are getting ready!




 

July 7-Dropped of the sperm sample and then went for coffee and breakfast while we waited for my appt.

The IUI was quick and pretty painless. I laid on the table for a bit and prayed the little guys find the egg(s)! Trigger shot has already started making me nauseous so that's loads of fun. Please be praying this works. I will update in a couple of weeks.

Follicle Check

So my follicles (what holds the eggs before release) aren't quite ready but there are two getting close! One is measuring a 12 and one is a 15, they like to see them at least at 18mm for the trigger shot.
The doctor feels good enough with things that we won't do another ultrasound check and I will just give myself the trigger shot Wednesday morning. Yikes. And then Thursday at 8am is Ben's appt for the semen wash (it takes about an hour) and then 9:30 is my IUI!

Pray for:
-the eggs to continue to develop as planned/predicted
-the IUI procedure to go smoothly
-for the egg(s) to get fertilized AND then stick to my uterus and then grow healthy and safe there for the next several month.

Moving forward

I'm pretty sure everyone I talk to asks "what's an IUI?"...and that's ok! I didn't know what it was before all of this either so just wanted to give you a couple of links in case you you want to read about how this cycle will look for us in great detail. 😉 You can read about it here and watch a 3D animation here. 

So obviously, we didn't get pregnant on our own this past cycle and we're moving forward with the IUI this current cycle. Sad and excited all rolled into one! After a lot of back and forth with the nurses who originally said "nope, can't do it this cycle. You have to meet with your doctor again first", that was NOT what I wanted to hear and did a lot of arguing! I recruited my prayer warriors and cried some mad ugly tears (thank you to those of you who pray, encourage, and lift me up). Finally late yesterday I spoke with the head nurse who said since everything looked good on our tests, she said we can move forward with the IUI this cycle and not have to meet with our Dr again yet. Hallelujah!
So now we're scheduled for an ultrasound around when I'll ovulate and hopefully an IUI in the day or two that follows. This will happen early July.
Prayer requests:
-that the timing works out ovulation wise
-that the IUI works on the first try
-for a healthy pregnancy and baby

Good News

SO Ben and I have both heard back about our different tests and everything looks great! My levels came back normal so I'll continue on the meds I'm on. Ben's tests came back great and he'll continue on his meds. Praise!! What does this mean? Not too sure. They are saying they want to do more (expensive) blood work on Ben but since his analysis came back well, he already told them we don't want to do those additional tests (they are super expensive). We'll see what they say. I'm guessing our doctor will want to do another consult. I'm planning to call and ask about our next steps.

So if everything looks good, why aren't we pregnant? Good question...we're guessing and hoping it's because we're just now reaching the point of our different meds helping our bodies reach good levels and working properly. Now that our bodies are where they need to be and doing what they need to do, hopefully we'll get pregnant soon on our own before we even get to the IUI step! That would be amazing. :) I'll update again once we know our next steps forward. Thanks for your support and continued prayers!

HSG done!

 I was super nervous about the HSG procedure (the pain part, not really the results). Ppl keep telling me, "be sure you take some ibuprofen beforehand"...apparently it can be pretty painful during and/or afterwards. Thankfully I had my guy there for emotional support, a laugh, and as my DD to get me home! (pic from right before we went in)

It did hurt. Only when the dye was running through my tubes. which was fast, but it was very intense. I got a little dizzy afterwards and took a nap once we got home but so far not much cramping or anything else. Thanks for the prayers!

The results will be sent to our doctor at the fertility center and she (or more likely her nurse) will let me know what they find in a few days. Thankfully the doctor who did it was really nice and told me afterwards that it looked great and he saw no blockages. Yay!

Also, it was slightly cheaper than what I was quoted the other day. Woohoo! Before the HSG we went to our regular fertility clinic and I had a blood draw for some blood work to be done (just keeping up with my thyroid levels) and Ben had to get another semen analysis (because it's been so long since the last one) so total for today was $362 which was less than we were expecting to have to pay so it was a win there also!
Now we wait for our labs...

More testing

I've had a couple of phone calls with the financial consultant at our fertility clinic today. Blah! Insurance doesn't cover infertility so we pay everything out-of-pocket. We don't want this to be a source of debt so we save and do things as we can. Which makes the process even longer.
A few months back we decided that I would NOT have an HSG test (a dye test that sees if there are blockages in my fallopian tubes) because my ultrasound looked good and our doctor said it wasn't necessary even though she did recommend it. We talked through it all with her and she was fine with our decision...NOW our doctor is saying we really need to have it done before we move forward with doing an IUI (intrauterine insemination). Ugh!
Here are the price options:
Two outpatient places at $232 and $325 or we can have it done at our clinic for $475. Yikes. We're going for the cheapest but according to the nurse I talked to at our clinic this place doesn't always produce the best images so we run the risk of our doctor wanting a re-test which we will have to pay for again. Please be praying it only takes one test to get good images and also that everything looks good and is flowing freely so we can move forward with scheduling our first IUI. My appt for the HSG is Wednesday.