Preparations Have Begun

With Operation Babymaking proceeding at warp speed this month, we have begun talking about the supplies we need to purchase.

How we wish we were a straight couple, who can prepare for ovulation by buying a bottle of wine, some candles, a new booty CD and some massage oil. Operation Babymaking in this household has a whole different set of requirements.

We have begun looking on line for:

needleless syringes (for squirting the goods)
a speculum (for seeing where to squirt the goods)
an Instead cup (for holding the goods in place post-squirt)
Pre-Seed (for speculum ease of use)

Timing, as is often said, is everything. From my extensive and obsessive research, I have learned:

Apparently, there is approximately a 12-24 hour window in which the sperm will live post-thaw. Those statistics about fresh sperm living for 3-5 days sound pretty good to me right about now.

OPKs apparently are not all that helpful for most women trying to get pregnant with donor sperm because even with an OPK, the window of time for ovulation is still too big.

Apparently, the best way to monitor ovulation (short of ultrasounds) is to look at your cervix with a speculum. So, this month, we are planning to use a speculum to monitor my cervix, rather than use OPKs.

This is where I get very thankful that I have a very regular cycle with ovulation on CD18 every month. And, the one month I ovulated early on CD14, I could tell ahead of time that I was going to do so. In fact, I said to Dyke Two on the night of CD13, "I think I am going to ovulate tonight." Of course, many women experience crazy cycles the first month that they try to use donor sperm. The stress and upheaval changes things for their body. We are assuming that everything will go ass over tits this month, and we are trying to be OK with it.

I am feeling remarkably calm about the idea, though I am sure that a week from now, I will be a basket case again. I have to keep remembering the mantra of one of the books I have read, "Your instinct is also a primary fertility signal." The book talks about have at least three primary fertility signals line up before inseminating. The signals that they outline are: cervical position, cervical texture, cervical mucus, cervical opening, sex drive, OPKs and ovulation pain, as well as your instinct. They also don't consider temperature to be a fertility signal since it only rises post- ovulation. I keep trying to remind myself that only three of the many signals need to line up, and that my instinct seems pretty spot-on so far.

And, neither of us are going into this cycle expecting it to work, so if it does, BONUS. If it doesn't, then we just had more practice in figuring out timing before we start for real.