#131 Sperm Relief (09/17/12)

As mentioned before in #126, our sperm donor is no longer in the system.  I was getting very stressed over having enough chances to have two pregnancies.  Originally my wife and I said, we would try three times each to get pregnant, otherwise, we would adopt, thus in the end would need 6 vials from the same donor.  We didn’t purchase all at the same time, and should have. 

Today, I got an email from our sperm bank, leading me to believe we could buy more, but do it soon.  I thought there was some mass confusion on this, so I emailed back to double check. They responded there are the last 3 vials available; please respond soon as there are other clients interested in them.  I emailed and texted my wife urgent to call me to double check with her.  I have just placed the order to have the remaining three we wanted/needed.  That is a huge perfect birthday present for me.  I am just tearing up waiting for the response that the vials will be ours. 

There is always a chance that I won’t get pregnant in three tries, or my wife won’t get pregnant in three tries or we both could get pregnant on the first try and have extra, but then we are covered for more kids if needed.  Our original plan was to each try three goes and go from there.  We should have just stuck to that and purchased the 6 right off the bat.  But at least now, we have the “supplies” to follow our original plan. 

I guess now I need to book the acupuncture and massages to give things every chance they have. 

I just got the email from the bank.  The order has been placed and the sperm will be in transit to Canada.  They will hold at their location until we order a transfer to Calgary.  Woohoo.  My nerves are still a little bit on edge, until they get here and we have paid for them, but this has helped tremendously. 

#126 Catch Up (09/10/12)

Well, it has been over a week since my last post.  First major concern, last Friday, I found out, or donor for sperm is no longer in the system, and may not have sperm available for second pregnancies.  We are now having regrets not purchasing the full six at the time of purchase.  Alas, all things happen for a reason.  We will see how things go.  But it was a shock to our planning.  We are soon going to blitz through the sperm banks again and look for CMV positive donors as well, as a possible to save the current purchased items for my wife who needs CMV negative.  There are multiple options, but while we have the subscriptions for full profiles, we might as well use it. 

For the past week my wife, my MIL and I have been on vacation.  We went on a Cruise to Alaska.  It was a fantastic experience.  I had been worried about sea sickness, as I’m very prone to motion sickness in general, and while in Mexico, on various excursions on boats, experienced it to a varying degree.  Alas, I had my herbal Gravol in my pocket and took it when needed and was good to go.  I’ll post a few more pictures in a few days, with a bit more detail of our trip.  But here is one of a bear crossing our pathway while at a park in Juneau, and a rainbow we saw while on our boat.

The cruise was a floating buffet, so it was hard not be eat a lot.  It was diet killing, but worth it, I think.  In the end, I gained about 6 pounds, hopefully I can burn then off quickly.  Not holding my breath though, but will be working on it diligently. 

It seems Sunday was a day of days.  We got off to a slow start to have a morning to relax, watch some TV and started laundry.  While we were going through flyers to make up our shopping list we got a call from my FIL.  My MIL had slipped in a grocery store and was being attended by EMS and would be taken to the hospital, he just didn’t know which one yet.  Thankfully nothing got broken, but did end up with a lot of pulled ligaments in the back/inside of her legs. 

In the evening, while I was trying to take out the food processor to cut celery and cucumber for lunches, I sliced my thumb pretty good.  I yelled out ouch, and my wife yelled if I was ok, from upstairs, and I said “Not really.”  I had managed to get to the sink before blood started flowing quickly, but couldn’t get anything to put over it to stop the bleeding.  She rushed in and handed me some paper towel to be able to get me to the first aid station in our house upstairs.  We were on the debate on stitches or not, but once my thumb was above my heart for a while it stopped bleeding, one trip to emergency in a family per day is plenty.  So she put on a make shift butterfly bandage and taped/splinted me up so I couldn’t move my thumb and bust open again.  By this time it was after 10:00 pm and we still hadn’t had dinner, my MIL didn’t want the casserole I had made, she only wanted mushroom soup, so we made her some, then dished out the casserole for the three of us and took the plates/bowls to their house. 

While we were there, MIL finally reached the point where she needed some pain killers.  She hates taking anything, even for a headache.  So my wife went to our house to get something for her.  While there she let out the dogs for a quick run outside.  When she went to let them in something happened.  And this part is a good chuckle, only because he is ok.  My dog Tuffy was running full board into the house, but he missed the first step by a hair and ran straight into the slate riser.  It resulted in a temporary TKO (Total Knock Out).  My wife said Eep, and while she was wondering what to do, he regained consciousness.  He was a little wobbly for a bit, but seemed fine otherwise.  The story reminds me of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, so I have to chuckle. 

Now we are finally back on track, ready to work off the cruise pounds and process crab apple trees, browse sperm, and follow up when my Polyp surgery is.  Never a moment to say, what should we do today, there is always a long list of things to keep us busy. 

#116 Donor Update and Random Thoughts (08/16/12)

Our choice donor has had 34 babies, as mentioned before.  The new information is 18 of them are girls and 16 are boys.  So a pretty even split gender-wise.  Also, the other news is, only one set of twins.  The twins are probably due to fertility drugs of IVF, thus this may help my twin thoughts calm down a little. 

Yesterday, due to the doctor update, it seemed old habits die hard.  I stress ate a lot of food during the day, and had a non healthy dinner.  It was only by luck that we ran out of time to be able to have desert.  Over eating, under watering, and bloating starting, the weigh in tomorrow isn’t going to be good. 

My wife thinks I write too much, but for me it is like being able to catch thoughts before they are gone, as well as articulate my thoughts, as verbally, I don’t do well.  Even after I’ve written about my thoughts, if you ask me to tell you about them, they are ether gone, unless I read them, or I just can’t really tell you without referring to my notes as such.  I would make a horrible public speaker. 

I’m doing better in general about the stress of the doctor follow up on Monday.  Still a little stressed though.  At least we are doing something about the problem instead of ignoring it.  As for the pain in my leg, I am coming to think, somehow, it may be tired to period related symptoms.  I’m going to monitor the frequency, and what not over the next few months and figure out what it may be tied to.  We have ruled out Sciatica in the past with back X-Rays.  Might still be the end result and not quite caught on the x-rays, but I’ll see if I can track the pain and when it is worse and better. 

#111 New Donor Information (08/15/12)

When we were first shopping for sperm, I emailed Xytex regarding our donor choice.  There was a delay in the send due to an email issue, so I didn’t hear back right away.  Alas this morning I got some shocking news.  The donor all ready has 34 family units worldwide.  That is all ready, 34 half siblings that our possible bambino has.  That also puts us closer to the max of 40, which makes is important to have enough sperm to get preggers.  If we don’t get pregnant on the first three goes, and he has reached the maximum of 40 before we get the next purchase, we won’t be able to, which we would have to go through the shopping stress again. 

It was a shock though, to think that even though our donor has only been in the system for a year ish, all ready has 34 babies.  That does put high hopes on the fact he has proven sperm, now the stress lies on my body to be primed and ready and welcoming.  I think I need to practice meditation to help me be Zen the day of insemination to help my body welcome his active sperm. 

It will be hard to rationalize the fact that, if we get pregnant with this donor, there will be at least 40 siblings worldwide.  That is a huge family reunion.  We do plan on doing Donor Sibling Registry, so that could be interesting.  Hopefully most of the families decide to do the same.