6.5 Weeks Pregnant!

(This is an old post written when she was 6.5 weeks. This will give you an idea of how the process started. I will also let Beth tell her side of things)

Yes, you read that right. Beth is 6.5 Weeks pregnant! Well by the time you read this, she will be at least 12 weeks. I wanted to provide a bit of hindsight of our experience the last couple weeks. For you moms, you may be able to relate or maybe not at all. This is how it all began....

After talking about starting a family and the process, when we returned from our lovely Croatia trip we decided to try to make it happen. Beth got on the ball immediately by calling around different sperm banks/fertility clinics in London in search of black sperm. Crazy enough, we picked one less than 10 minutes away from our flat. Total number of black sperm donors willing to donate their 'juice' to lesbians.......TWO! Candidate 1 - medium dark toned, 5-11, cartoonist, enjoys sports, chillin' with friends, and food. Candidate 2- medium toned, 5-8, carpenter. We chose candidate #1 due to height! We'll see just how artistic our kid is. But they better be a darn athlete!!!

Once our donor was chosen, the week before the insemination, Beth had to stick herself with a massive needle filled with drugs. I guess the drugs were to make her follicles bigger. It wasn't very much fun watching her stick herself in the stomach each night at the same time for a week. It made me feel so happy that I was not going through this. (Don't get me wrong, I still felt bad that she was doing it to herself though.) The day of insemination, I was really nervous. I didn't know what to expect and no one really told us about this part of the 'baby making' process. You always hear the stories after one is pregnant and the labor pains.

We sat in the room of the doctor's office staring at one another waiting for the doctor of insemination to arrive. When he comes into the room, he kindly introduces himself and immediately gives us the stats of the sperm. '10% increased mobility. 23 million spermies.' 23 million??? And all it takes is one. The doctor even showed us the container the spermies were hanging out in. When first looking at the container of spermies, well, it's not really a container. It looks more like a test tube....a test tube full of water. And it looks like 4 drops of water were placed in the test tube. Can't believe there are 23 million in there!!! All it takes is one.

All it takes is one. That's all I could keep thinking right after the insemination. We waited two weeks to take pregnancy test #1. Well, almost two weeks. It was more like 1.5 weeks because we just couldn't wait any longer. On the first day, the test result was a bit faint but it looked like it was telling us the test was positive. Day 2, test result still positive but nearly as faint as the first one. We started to get excited but realized that we shouldn't get our hopes up only to be disappointed. Day 3, we used a digital pregnancy test so there was no confusion. After waiting a few minutes on a Saturday morning, it reads ' pregnant 2-3 weeks'. Holy cow!!!!! Our life may be changing forever after today. The first person we tell is my sister Jasmine. It was about 1am in South Dakota and she was 'hanging' out with friends. ('Hanging out' really means drinking). She was a bit tipsy but not to the point to where she couldn't understand what was going on. We have mentioned this moment in our baby book. So when he or she asks who we first told, we'll proudly say Aunt Jasmine!

So, here we are. 6.5 weeks pregnant. The last couple weeks haven't been very fun for Beth. She has been sick ALL DAY long. Constant vomiting. And I mean constant. I have never felt so bad for her. To make matters worse, she has a chest infection that has lasted one week AND AND AND AND received a bite from something nasty because it left quite a mark. On the first day of observing the bite on her arm, it was swollen and red. Second day, it started to blister and was hard around the edges. Third day, the blisters have formed into one big bad boy that just needs to be popped. It is quite a nasty looking thing looking like a grape stuck to her tricep!!! Of course she wants to pop it but the GP said that she should let it take its natural form. The doctor did prescribe some anti-biotics for the bite and it started leaking today. Should be interesting to see how it turns out in the next couple days!!!

How did this happen?

So, (this is Beth), I wanted to write about our process of getting pregnant. Some details may not be that exciting for you, but for others it may be interesting. And, a little shocking, most people that we've told ask 'How did that happen?'. Well, most of you understand the birds and the bees - but I get the question and will answer it :)

Fertility clinic search...yes, there is one located just 5 minutes walk from our flat! PERFECT! I set up an initial appointment (July 3rd) and...it begins. We first met with a genetics counselor; what is my lineage like and who has what, blah blah blah. Well, I need to be checked early for breast cancer....yea, I know this.....and I should be easy to match to a donor depending on how all my blood work goes. Then, we meet with 'the doctor', a slightly plump Indian (ie from India, not Native American) woman. She goes through all the options with us and explains all the tests I need to get done - 'woman part' scan and numerous blood tests. Now, many GPs (general doctors) won't do the blood tests through NHS (national health system) for lesbians - RUDE! (NHS provides free blood tests whereas the fertility clinic would cost a LOT). Our GP is amazing and literally sets me up with ALL the blood tests that I need - thank you to her by the way! OK - that was a sidebar. Then the doctor tells me that my BMI is too high and I need to take a few months and lose some weight. I calmly (at least I tried to be calm) tell her that I've been eating right and doing personal training for the last 8 months - my body won't get any better so I'm not going to wait. JaNae pretty much thought I was going to take the woman down....the doctor did press it quite a bit.....not smart. She says we can do what we want, but first need to get the tests done and set up the scan.

Right - next morning I head to the GP and get the form for the blood tests. I then head to the hospital and get the blood taken. Right - now I just need to wait for the scan appt to come up, which was only about two days away. So, the scan. No need for details, but the same doctor who told me to lose weight also told me that I was 'beautiful' inside :) Dang right woman! I may be a big girl, but my stuff is all good! The next week I get my blood tests back and set up the second appt with the main doctor. During this time, we are speaking with the cryo bank located within the fertility clinic as well. They can match me with donors once my bloods come back. Alright - I get them copies of the results and they tell me I was missing a few tests! UGH! So, I call the GP and ask why the results that I needed weren't there. Well, they didn't request it! So, back to the GP, get another form, and get more blood taken at the hospital. The woman at the hospital who took my blood (Elizabeth Louise...nice!) tells me she will put a rush on my results. Yea! Once the results are back, the cryo bank can get my matches to me same day. Sweet.

Our second appointment with the clinic doctor. Right, all my tests are back and look good. We go through all the options and decided that assisted IUI is the right choice. Assisted means - drugs; yup, this is where the needles come into play. Anyway, the doctor still thinks I need to lose weight and due to my cycle timing, we would be rushing to get everything in order for this month. I tell her I'm not going to wait and see if I can lose weight and as long as the cryo bank and nurses have time to get me ready, we are GOING to do this NOW!

As a side bar, I was VERY motivated to get pregnant. Something in me was saying 'It HAS to happen now and it WILL happen now.' I was going to do everything in my power to make sure it happened. So, I was on a mission!

After the doctor appointment, I needed to make a nurses appointment so they could go over the drugs with me. SET for the next day! LOVED the nurses at the clinic - so nice, happy and helpful! I call the GP and the hospital lab to get my blood results back. BOOM - donor chosen and ready for our use! Thank goodness they had it onsite! I meet with the nurses and get all my drugs.

3 days later, my cycle starts and the drug use begins. I'd like to say first off - it may sound like I'm a wuss, but I understand there are many women out there who have a very hard time with this whole process. Appointments take forever, tests results are not good, and the drugs are more plentiful! I feel for them and am impressed by their strength! The schedule - days 3-7 take a pill (no this isn't the whining part), then days 6-8 the needle drugs!! AHHH!!!!! I was hoping to get JaNae to do the injections, but got the advice from an IVF friend that I should do it myself. DOH! Fine. I get the needle prepped (keep in mind this is a TINY needle!) and KNOW I have to do this. Phew...I am getting very nervous...sweaty....hot....JaNae is across the room hiding her face in the couch! I stick it in my belly, push the drugs in, and I'm done! OMG - it didn't hurt at all, but I'd made myself so nervous that I almost passed out! I immediately had to set it down and set myself down! I almost puked! I'm not going to lie - I had to do this 5 more times (yes, the days increased because my body didn't react enough) and I was nervous each time. It never hurt, but it also never got easier.

Alright - last scan! My follicle (where the egg is released) is big enough to 'go'. Now, I have the choice of letting my body ovulate as normal or I can trigger it. Well, because I don't want to miss this, I decide to trigger it. One more injection and we are home free! This needle was much bigger, but still didn't hurt. First appointment - July 3rd. Trigger injection - July 22nd, 10pm. Insemination - July 24th. This may have been the fastest fertility treatment in the world!

And, SUCCESS!!!!!