Please keep your hands and arms inside the car...

Whewwwww...so this cycle has been quite the roller coaster this time!

My cycle has gone back to its normal CD15/16 ovulation time (acupuncture maybe) which ironically stressed me the heck out! I kept waiting and waiting for the smiley face and he just wasn't showing up! Then on my lunch hour last Tues, there he was! (Well after a 2 line test, they are harder to "interpret" but I thought it looked positive to me. My lovely wife went to the store for me and got more OPK's and she grabbed the wrong box, but its the thought that counts!! She also bought me a little treat...I enjoyed it on the way to SF!)

There was some lack of communication with the sperm bank, on their part, that really made me mad. I think J used the word "livid" and she was right. I was downright pissed. In short, they apparently have a "cut-off" time for same day insemination's that I was never made aware of.

To PRS: Hello...aren't you in the business of HELPING people get pregnant!! You should know better than anyone that timing is everything and can't be predicted! Why would you have 2 one hour windows ONLY to inseminate people, that just doesn't make any sense!!

Ok, I'm done with that now! LOL  So long story short, we more than likely won't be using their services for anything but sperm now. If this cycle isn't "the cycle" we will be looking into other options for the actual procedures. Genius J suggested that we pick up one of our vials and get a hotel room in SF and do another "at home" insemination. Why didn't I think of that, oh because I was livid...that's right! So we did. Our timing was right on track, positive OPK around 1:00pm, vaginal insemination around 10:00pm and then IUI around 11:00am the next day.

The vaginal insemination went really well, although in our haste to get out of the house we realized that we forgot a couple things...but we found replacements:

                                       
Scissors to open the zip tie on the tank...nail clippers worked!
A bowl of water and Ziploc to thaw the specimen...

Yes, that is the coffee pot from our room and the bag for the ice bucket, hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!!

After that we were good to go and had a goods nights sleep. When I woke up in the morning I was feeling some ovulation pain, this was a good sign as we prepared for the IUI.

For the IUI we were placed in the "goddess room" this time. They had a little mobile of fertile women above the bed. It gave me something to look at and hopefully those goddess's sent some good fertility vibes my way. J got to push almost the whole syringe this time! We were both really excited about that.We stopped at the acupuncturist on our way home and it was a really good session. I even dosed off a little bit! I was super relaxed for the rest of the day and night!

Overall we were really happy with this cycle, even with the extra stress and irritation. It can't all go perfect 100% of the time right!

I am 4DPO now and so far am still really positive and optimistic, although I try and hide it. I feel more like the first cycle where I just feel pregnant. Here's hoping I am!!