I've been inseminated :)

I had my 1st IUI today. Vid had a bit of trouble producing the goods @ the office; apparently the porn that was offered was sub-par for his needs. He looked @ me like I was completely nuts when I suggested that if we need to do this again next cycle he should bring his own South Indian porn. FYI South Indian porn is really pretty PG-13 by our standards; there is almost never full nudity involved. Also, while Hustler & Playboy tend to favor thin women, so-called "masala movies" usually feature fuller-figured movies. Curious? Take a look for yourself:



The procedure itself wasn't bad; just a bit of cramping & spotting afterwards. Vid was both fascinated & grossed out to see my cervix as they were inserting the speculum & catheter in for the IUI. He kept saying (think about a thick Indian accent as you're reading this) "Oh God" & wincing; I was trying my hardest not to laugh but was also worried he might pass out. My husband as a rule does not do well with medical procedures; thankfully there was no blood involved or he'd have certainly passed out.

So now comes the dreaded 2 week wait. I go for a HCG beta (blood work to test for pregnancy) on July 9. Of course, the reality is I will most certainly test with a pee stick before then; I'd go insane otherwise. And my husband, per usual, is completely convinced I am pregnant only 8 hours after the procedure. I hope he's right.

All clear!

No, that is not my ute in the x-ray above. However, that is what I got to see @ the hospital today; pretty neat, actually. I am happy to report I have a normal uterus, clear tubes & all looks well. Besides a bit of cramping & lovely discharge from the dye they shot up there, it wasn't bad at all. My RE said we can now move on to IUI; I am expecting my LH surge in the next day or so. And away we go!

Happy belated Father's Day (I guess)

Yesterday was Father's Day here in the good ol' USA; we went to my parents' house for a cookout. Well, we cooked food on the grill then eat in inside since it was pouring rain & in the 60s. We also did some laundry while we were there & I finished crocheting a baby blanket for 1 of my 4 pregnant co-workers. If something's in the water, my Brita water bottle is certainly filtering it out!

I asked Vid about his thoughts on the day, if it affected him the way Mother's Day affected me this year given our IF dx. He said he didn't think about it a lot being they didn't have a day like this in India when he was growing up. However, he did say he hopes he will be more than a "doggy & kitty daddy" by next year. Actually, he is convinced that we will get pregnant with our 1st IUI because our RE is a graduate of Madras Medical College which is apparently the medical school to go to in India. Kind of like he's been convinced I'm pregnant every cycle, I guess; I wish I had his optimism.

So tomorrow is another stop on the road to hopefully getting pregnant. I get the pleasure of having an HSG @ 8am. Yay! I am hoping they don't find anything funky in my ladybits; my RE says he doubts it given my regular cycles. Hey, at least if they do find something odd we'd have a reason for our inability to get pregnant instead of an "unexplained IF" dx.

Should all be well with my ute, we will be moving on to IUI, if not this cycle then next. So now when I look in my schedule book @ work I try to keep blocks of time available for when I should be getting a + OPK so I can run to my RE's office & get inseminated. Kind of like going home for lunch & a quickie with the hubby, but instead we're in 2 different rooms with lots of other people dressed in scrubs looking @ our privates. How romantic!

OMG, like, fat women can get pregnant?!?one!?!

Normally, when I watch TV, it's TLC, Travel Channel, History Channel (or as my dad calls it, "The Hitler Channel" with all the WWII stuff on it) or Discovery Health. What can I say? I'm a nerd through & through; if I didn't suck so hard core @ math I would have certainly gone to med school. I love learning, especially about weird stuff, like conjoined twins & rare genetic diseases. And even though it's self torturous in a way having been TTC unsuccessfully for 12 cycles now, I've watched at least a show or 2 each night on "Baby Week" all this week.

Last night, they had a show on it called "Obese & Pregnant" that followed 3 women's journeys to motherhood as plus size women. As someone who came into this world weighing 9 lbs 15 oz & who has NEVER been anything but fat, I was interested to see what kind of sensationalized view of obese pregnancy would be shown.

Before someone out in cyberspace jumps down my throat, let me be clear: I am by no means saying it's just fine & dandy for anyone to be over 100 lbs heavier (or more) than you should be & pregnant. Of course, there are medical issues both mom & baby may face due to such an excess of weight. However, weight alone is not a good indicator of how one's body will respond favorably or unfavorably to pregnancy. A prime example is my own obese mother who had 2 successful pregnancies without gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. She actually called me up during the show to remind me of this; I love my mommy. :)

I think what bothers me most is what 1 woman on the show, Christie, said about not being able to find cute maternity clothes. I guess most fashion designers assume since fat women are un-fuckable we couldn't possibly get pregnant, right? Unfortunately, I could not find a clip of her on YouTube so this will have to suffice:



Just like back in high school when I went shopping for a prom dress & when I was engaged & went shopping for a wedding dress, I was made to feel like a second class citizen by having to go to a "specialty" store. Half of the women in the US are over a size 14; wouldn't that also mean, using basic reason, that roughly half the pregnant women in the US are also plus size? I've not seen any commentary about this on Shapely Prose; I'm kind of suprised, actually.

Vid & I have been actively trying to get into better shape these past few months after having fallen off the proverbial wagon this winter. While my hubby isn't obese, he is overweight & a non-insulin dependent diabetic, which I am always harping on him about...in an extremely loving way, of course.

All the bloodowork I've had & other tests show I am reproductively normal & my doctor says my weight doesn't appear to be the reason we aren't pregnant. Yet, I always wonder in the back of my head if those who know me & know we are having trouble TTC assume we aren't pregnant yet because I'm fat. My RE has told me he'd obviously like to see me lose some weight to get "the best possible outcome for everyone" but also acknowledged "given your medical history, there is no reason to worry at this point." Have I mentioned before how much I love him? I think I have. :)

Our appt with the RE: Cliff Notes version

I may leave my husband for my RE. Well, not really, but I really liked the guy; very thorough, did not talk down to us, pleasant demeanor, etc. He & his internist spent over an hour talking to us; he even praised me for being so "dedicated to charting" when I whipped out my Fertility Friend chart copies. He told me what we already knew at first: my cycles are regular & appear ovulatory, my hormone levels are normal, etc.

But then he told us something we weren't expecting & *gasp* it was actually good news! Apparently Vid's 1st sperm analysis results were a fluke since the 2nd ones we got back today were normal. Yay for normal spermies! However, this means we now fall into the "unexplained IF" for the time being, which is kind of scary; I like actual reasons to go along with my diagnoses, thank you very much.

Anyways, I am being sent for an HSG to rule out any abnormalities. Given my normal cycles, bloodwork & pelvic exam today (where I was told I have a "very nice cervix") the doctor doesn't think he'll find anything; as he says "99.9% of the time there isn't anything weird up there" but it's part of the protocol. I am also going for CD3 bloodwork just to make sure too but given all my other bloodwork was fine there's not much to worry about.

So, AF should be here tomorrow since my temp dipped to my coverline today. When she arrives I call to schedule my HSG, which is done between CD's 5 - 12. So long as there's nothing abnormal found I am to use OPKs like I have been & call when I get a positive one. When I do, Vid goes in to give a sample, they wash it & inseminate me; for those not familiar with IF terminology, that's known in the biz as an IUI.

And that's what' going on with my ute. The end.