our first ultrasound!

she started her period thursday, which counts as day 1 of her cycle
we called the center and they scheduled us an appointment for monday afternoon
we went to the appt and had some blood drawn, discussed the next few steps, and we had a vaginal ultrasound to count and measure the sizes of the developing egg folicles on her ovaries!
she had something like 11 on one side and 7 on the other.
it was strange sitting in the room while another person had intimate contact, i shall say, with my girl.
i held her hand, i guess maybe i just wanted her to know that i was right there next to her...
it was kinda neat watching the ultrasound itself, i could see the folicles, some were very big, some were small.
the nurse perscribed some clomid, which is going to help her ovaries produce more than one egg this ovulation cycle, so she will ovulate multiple eggs and we'll have a better chance of concieving.
the chance of multiples rises up to 20% with this stuff, i am hoping for twins to be honest, but one healthy baby boy or girl would be just wonderful!
the last thing they did was draw blood to monitor her hormone levels i think the lady said, and then they scheduled us to come back this monday.
she takes the clomid for 5 days, once a day and has been taking prenatal vitamins for a little over a month now i think.
she has been very brave and cut out caffiene from her diet, and quit smoking too!
i know its hard for her but i am very proud of her!
i have been cheating a little bit with the caffiene and i haven't quit smoking, but i have been smoking less.
i am trying to be as supportive as i can, but it's hard when i work 106 hours a week...that's how many i worked last week.
monday we will have another ultrasound to determine how effective the clomid has been and they will guestimate when she will be ovulating.
we are supposed to use the ovulation predictor kit's you can buy at the store to know for sure and then we just call and schedule the appt for the insemination!
it's going to be as early as monday or tuesday!
i am looking forward to the entire process, but am trying not to get to overly psyched and elated as we aren't pregnant yet!
though i just know that she is fertile and i get the feeling from all the energy around us that we're going to be one of those lucky folks that it happens for them on the first time!
i am so excited!
we are really only days and days away from our first try, and though i am stressed/anxious/nervous/giddy about it i am more excited than anything.
she has also been drinking red raspberry leaf tea, as that is supposidly good for the female system, and helpful in couples trying to concieve, i have been encouraging her to drink that and green tea and i think that it helps with the transition especially with that morning cup of coffee!
gotta jet now, in the middle of another 100 hour week and gotta run.

some research...

here is a post i found about different names for dad online

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070104003836AAoFrs0&show=7

First Timer

welcome.
it's my first time.

be gentle.


so, i'm new...
and we're getting ready to go through this huge life change thing
we used to be huge party people, though lately not so much
gearing up for insemination
and hopefully
pregnancy.

i don't know why, but i just know that my girl is going to get pregnany on the first try.
she's got to be super fertile

this month has been the longest month ever.
i have never wanted her to get her period so bad....and there have been times...trust me!
it's because we're trying to have a kid this time!
i am so stoked about the chance of being a parent.
more than anything else ever i think!
been feeling very overwhelmed and nervous lately, there's a lot of information out there and i've been trying like a fool to soak it all up.
i think i retained better in college though...
we've been getting lots of questions about how and where and such, so i'm gonna post what resources we've been using and where and such for others who might be curious...
i answer questions from friends daily...
we live in va, the most assinine commonwealth in the united states, but good for some things....like
www.thenewhopecenter.com
it's apparantly one of the best places to go in the country for couples having fertility issues
it's also pretty gay friendly, i don't want to air anyone's personal business since we all have professional things and images and such, but we know one of the higher ups personally, and she is gay and has been very supportive and helpful throughout this process, going so far as to give us her personal information for any questions we might have.
hooray for family helping family!
the sperm we are using comes from the california cryobank
www.cryobank.com
they are one of the better cryobanks in the country because of their stringent screening of the swimmers and also because they guarantee at least 10 million of the swimmers will thaw and be usable.
some places say you are lucking to get 5 mil.
i don't know about you but i'd rather get my sperm from a place that is accredited and has a better process, not to mention that the bang you get for your buck is double what most places say.
the process consists of a bunch of costs, though a lot less than i expected
here's a small run down...
*preliminary office visit $125
*clomid $40+/- (a fertilty drug to encourage the ovaries to produce a egg from each ovary during the ovulation cycle, though the chance for multiple babies is 7% or less, taken for 5 days.)
*ultra sounds $465 each (these are gonna suck the money straight out of my bank account...for a simple procedure, meaning no initial issues with fertility or problems, we're roped in for 2 at least, one after the clomid is complete to check and see how my girl's body responded, more than one egg or not, and the first is also used to gauge about how close she is to ovulation....the second one i believe happens after the insemination itself to see what we've got going on up there!)
*insemination procedure $340...this figure was much cheaper than i anticipated, really.
*ultrasound #2 $465
and then of course....
*sperm 1 vial, shipping and handling incl...$595 bucks

so i mean all tell, this first time, the whole thing is costing about $2 g's, a little over really but about 2 g's.

and my sperm arrived friday at The New Hope Center for Reproductive Medicene, which is where we'll be doin it.
my girl is scheduled to start day 1 of her cycle tomorrow, we go in for the first something something between day 2-5, then the clomid then ultrasound then insemination then ultrasound then...
well after we concieve, we are referred back to her gyno/obgyn, though we're finding a new one now!

so this is my first post, the job doesn't allow a lot of time for internet use, but i'm gonna try to keep up with this so that later on maybe i can share this with my wife and kid (when they're old enough)
it'd be kinda neat to have a record of daddy's pregnancy stuff....
speaking of daddy's

i am on the hunt
i want to be called daddy but my girl says that it's probably a little too progressive and we'd encounter too much difficulty with gender roles and discrimination towards our child...
so i'm looking for alternative names for daddy!
any and all suggestions welcome...
i've heard "baba" so far and kind of like that
i will keep you posted with other responses and things i find!
for the time being
stay safe and if you have some to spare, please send some positive energy to my girl and i
and here's to hoping for our first!