So here's the story...

Here it is, the much anticipated (not really), aBc Baby Newsletter!
So, as some of you know, Adam and I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to have a baby for quite some time now. After much frustration and disappointment, we finally decided it was time to seek out the help of a fertility specialist. We had our first consultation appointment a month or so ago and came up with a plan.
This newsletter was an idea that I came up with as a way to communicate everything that is going on to some of my family and close friends without actually having to "talk" about it. This is such a scary time for me and I think it will be really good for me to get things off my chest.
There are a couple of catches though. The first one being that I do not want anything I say in these newsletters to be repeated to anyone. It may seem like there are more than a few people reading this blog but this is a private matter, these are the people I have chosen to share it with, and I want to keep it that way. This is a very vulnerable place I'm putting myself in and I hope you all understand that.
Ok, whew, got that off my chest. Now for the second catch. If you are not comfortable reading about my ovaries, follicles (whatever those are anyway), hearing about sperm, or whatever other body parts or fluids that come into play here (god I hope there aren't anymore that they haven't told me about yet), please let me know now so I can stop torturing you with TOO MUCH INFORMATION!

Now that all that is out of the way, we can move on to the good stuff. After having our two hour consultation with the doctor we decided to try IUI with injectable medications. In case you don't know what that means (I didn't before all of this), IUI stands for Intrauterine Insemination, same thing as Artificial Insemination. It is when they take sperm and inject it directly into the uterus. This is not the same as IVF which is a much more invasive and involved (and expensive) procedure.
The reason we decided to use injectable medications is because I do not ovulate on my own. The injectables stimulate the ovaries to produce lots of follicles (eggs) and then to release those follicles. I tried taking Clomid (oral medication) for four months to ovulate and it never worked. We were pretty frustrated and decided that instead of taking more oral medications and waiting around, we would go for the sure thing. Apparently the injectables are a sure thing.
After deciding on our plan we then had to wait. We ordered all the medications (not cheap) and waited for cycle day 3. On that day I gave myself my first injection in my belly. I was very nervous about having to stick myself with a needle but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. The needle is very small and I could barely feel it. The medication burns pretty bad once its in but that I can deal with.
After doing four days of injections, it was time to go in for an ultrasound to see how well the medication was working. Success! There were lots and lots of follicles. They also ran some blood tests to check for hormone levels. Those all came back good as well. Great news! Doctor said to continue doing injections and come back in two days.
Two days and two more injections later, I went back for another ultrasound and more blood work. Same result! Follicles were getting bigger and hormone levels had doubled. So far, so good. Doctor said to do another injection that night and come back again tomorrow.
After another injection and another ultrasound, we found out I had 8 mature follicles. Seeing as how you are only supposed to release 1 in a normal cycle, 8 seemed pretty scary. We are not looking to be Octo-parents! Since the chances of this all working anyway are so low, we decided to go for it. We scheduled the insemination for that Sunday.
Preparation for insemination is pretty easy. Just one injection of a medicine called HCG. This is used to trigger the follicles to release from the ovaries. Adam had to give me this one in my behind. It hurt alot and made me sore for two days but, whatever it takes, right?.
So, with high hopes, we went in on Sunday and did the insemination. It was actually quite uneventful. A lot easier than I was expecting. The doctor uses a speculum to insert a tiny, tiny catheter directly into the uterus and then injects the sperm. It took all of two minutes. That's it.
The hard part is waiting two weeks to find out if it worked.