3 DPO - Or 3 days post ovulation & IUI!

Three days down, 11 more to go! I don't think I'm going to make it to the 14 day mark. I'm usually starting my testing around DPO 7 or 8. I know most likely it's early and there's high risk for evaporation lines on the cheap internet tests (ICs) but I can't help it! Plus I think I enjoy seeing the progression of lines.

I still have two of my collections from past miscarriages (one chemical pregnancy, where you get positive pregnancy tests but the miscarriage happens very early on). I'm not sure why I kept them all this time, but it just dawned on me that maybe other people might benefit from seeing them. Since the sticks are already dry, it's hard to see the beginning of a line on the early dates, but I only started collecting the sticks that I thought I saw a line when I squinted. That seems to be around DPO 9 for me!

The set of blue sticks was my 8 week miscarriage. It was devastating, because I went in early to confirm and we were able to see the heartbeat a little over 6 weeks. Sadly, I started spotting and bleeding and there was no more heartbeat on the next ultrasound  at 8-9 weeks.

This is the first time I am sharing this picture, I keep it in my desk drawer to remind me that this infertility is temporary. It's very personal and I decided I wanted to share what I could on this blog in hopes that maybe I could help at least one person out in their quest. It might be interesting to look back on everything later.

IUI update!

So, it's been a while since updating. Today was our first ever IUI + Clomid. I meant to make a post a few days ago about the Clomid, but I blame the hormones on not doing it, haha! The medicine wasn't *too* bad, although it did make me extra emotional. I didn't have the crazy physical side effects people talk about, so I guess I was lucky there. Maybe a few headaches, but not even enough to make me think the two were related.

My RE gave me a packet of paperwork about the IUI and how to handle everything and when to schedule the sperm washing and actual IUI based off of when your ovulation stick tests positive. Now, I normally use cheap ovulation (OPK) sticks and start using them twice a day starting around day 12. My LH surge has been on day 16 for months now. The paperwork told me to use the Clearblue Easy sticks, the ones with the smiley faces on them, and only do it once a day in the morning. Ok, here's where I turn into a bad patient. I work nights, so I had to pee before bed around 8-9am. Your LH surge usually doesn't hit until about 12-2pm. I NEARLY MISSED MY SURGE listening to their directions. It came up with no smiley face cycle day 16, so I decided to take another one a few hours later after I slept a bit. Smiley face. Of course, it was too late to call the office as they were closed already. So I waited and tried to hold my urine so I could catch another smiley face "technically" on the next day. I only lasted until about 30 minutes after midnight. Hey, still a new day right? NO SMILEY FACE. So if I would have waited until day 17 I wouldn't have gotten my surge info. I got maybe 6-8 hours window with those sticks. But I tried using the cheap OPK sticks and my surge showed up on those MUCH longer. Moral of the story: should I need to monitor my LH surge again I'll be using both sticks and doing multiple times a day. This is my time and my money.

Since I didn't get my surge until late on day 16, I ended up doing my IUI on the morning of day 18. This timing makes me really nervous, but I did find some info that doing the IUI 24-48 hours from your surge is ideal. I think we were right around 40 hours or so. I haven't had any monitoring to see exactly when I ovulate so I don't know when my egg is released after the surge. I'm going to hope it's on the longer end at least for this IUI. We did have sex 2 days before the surge as well, for a little insurance. I didn't want to push it, as I didn't want the sperm sample to be weak for the IUI.

Speaking of samples... wow that was quite an experience! We live about an hour and a half away from the lab & office. So that means we had to wake up before the crack of dawn, get the sample, and drive straight there to drop it off. I was so paranoid I wouldn't let my husband stop for coffee or anything. I made him leave just a touch early too, in case we hit traffic. Then, when we arrived early to the lab I wouldn't let him leave the parking lot until we dropped off the sample that I was keeping warm between my legs. I'm sure I wasn't his biggest fan!

The lab said as long as we got there within 2 hours we would be fine, and we did. It took about an hour for them to do the washing, and the RE office said that everything looked fine. I'm kind of irritated I didn't get any numbers about the sample though. The actual procedure took a whole 30 seconds and wasn't bad at all. If  you remember my HSG experience from hell, this was nothing compared to that. Some slight cramping and a little bit of spotting after I got home. That's it.

So, the biggest pain now will be to wait until 14 days so I can see if I get a BFP!!! Of course, I definitely won't wait the full 14 days to start testing like a mad woman!