1st IUI Procedure

|Leading up to our 1st IUI procedure|

Aside from taking the Femara, this was the first time I had to start taking shot injections at home. So many days after my period, I had to go up to Cincy so the doctor could monitor how well my follicles were growing in my ovaries. For those of you that do not know, after your period each month, you have follicles that begin to grow in your ovaries. Each day they get bigger, to ultimately get big enough to be able to release your eggs. The Femara medication is suppose to help induce ovulation, making these follicles grow. The shot injections would be taken to also help with this. If your ovulation is not timed just right for these procedures, then you could miss your window for when the eggs release. See, told you, it is actually really hard to get pregnant.

After being monitored after my cycle, the doctor then gave me a schedule for the days I would start taking the injections at home, and how much to take each day. I would do these injections typically for four-five days straight, and then go back up to Cincy to be monitored again. Depending on how well my follicles were forming, would determine when the doctor felt was perfect time to take a trigger injection and schedule the procedure.

Everything about this process was so unpredictable which was frustrating at time. Especially being two hours away from the doctor. It made things a little more stressful, driving there and back so much in a short time frame, without knowing how quickly you would have to go back. Because a lot of my monitoring appointment were so unpredictable, Bud was not always able to leave work to go with me. I didn't mind the drive by myself so much, it was just the thought of what if they find something wrong at one of these appointments and I was alone? But that was just me being worried about EVERYTHING at this point. My mind was never at ease.

Taking the shots at home were nerve racking. I didn't want to mess anything up and giving them to yourself sucks! Bud is terrified of needles so I didn't want to force him to do it and then pass out or something. But after the first couple times, I got the hang of it. Once I had my final monitoring appointment, on Monday November 2, the doctor decided my follicles were at a good size and I was ready for the trigger shot. The trigger shot was a different medication that had to be taken so many hours prior to your procedures. This shot is what has the hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) pregnancy hormone in it that helps spark ovulation. I would have to take this shot at a certain time on the night of the 2nd, and our appointment for the procedure was scheduled for Wednesday, November 4. This is what I mean by everything was so unpredictable. But there was nothing we could do to change that. We had to proceed at the drop of hat for whatever day was best. You can't change the way your body works in this manner.

The Ovidrel trigger shot came with a lot of cramping the next day and even more cramping the morning of the procedure. My nerves weren't helping the cramping the morning of either, I am sure. Bud and I took the day off work for this procedure, because we had no idea what the expect. We did not tell anyone in our family or friends what we were having done. There was too much that had already happened that we had kept private, so we wanted to keep this private as well. What if it did not work, and everyone knew we had this done? The element of surprise was already down the drain for us at this point, so if it did work, we wanted to at least be able to surprise our family. Made sense to us anyway!

|Happy Birthday Bud|

November 4 | 2015

Today is Bud's birthday! And today is also the day we are driving back up to Cincinnati for our first IUI procedure. Rise and shine at 5am..we got a 2 hour drive a head of us!

We were both anxious, nervous, exciting...just all emotions mixed into one. With this being our first time having this done, we really did not know what to except. I was just ready to get it going and get it over with. Praying this was going to turn out great and we would be able to say we got pregnant on Bud's birthday!