Things went well - my husband gave his collection, we had a lovely breakfast at Bob Evans, and had Dr. Williams do our insemination. The sperm count was little bit lower than previous times, but Dr. Williams said he's still happy with the number of sperm that we had. He did tell us that if we could "be together" today - that would probably be good. When he left, my husband was like, "What did he mean by that?" We will be sure to follow the doctor's orders. :) Dr. Williams also said my mucus looked good - not something you get complimented on everyday. I asked him if the Gonal-F shots were helping the lining/mucus more than the Clomid did. He said that the Gonal-F is definitely helping with all of that (which is a result of higher estrogen levels) and that the Clomid actually kind of blocks the estrogen. (By the way, my estrogen was around 1300 on Saturday when they checked it.) While we waited for my time to be up on the table after the insemination, we listened to "I Get Around" to inspire the sperm. When that song was over, I played "Meet Me Halfway" to get the sperm/egg to try to cooperate and work together. And just like last cycle, I had my husband take a picture of me from the side - which will hopefully be the start of future baby bump pictures. We are hopeful that with good-looking mucus, thick lining, and lots of big follicles - that the sperm will find the egg(s), the embryo will grow, and implant to get us a pregnancy!
What's next? Well, I need to go in to get my blood tested a week from today (August 1st) to check my progesterone levels. I thought I was done with shots for this cycle - but as part of this protocol, I need to get one more shot of HCG. It's only 1/2 mL and they call it the "HCG booster shot." Assuming that implantation occurs, this shot will help the pregnancy along. Our instructions are for me to get this shot anytime after my blood test next Wednesday. We never did this as part of our other IUI cycles - so hopefully this is another differentiator that will make the difference. Having the booster shot in your system can give you a false positive on home pregnancy tests, so I'm not supposed to take a home pregnancy test until August 11th. As you all know, I'm good at resisting the home pregnancy test - so that won't be a problem for me. ;)
Now we just wait, hope, and pray for the best! Thanks to everyone for their positive thoughts, prayers, blog comments, and texts this morning. One of our buddies called my husband last night to wish us luck today. He also suggested that with the upcoming Olympic games, perhaps my husband's sperm would be inspired by the Olympic swimmers. Love it!
Happy 4th Birthday to Jenna!! :)