54 Million....

No, we didn't win the lottery. Although that would be a nice occurrence!

54 Million was the number of sperm that were cleaned and prepped for the IUI today. We had a really early start to the day. We dropped off Y's sample around 8:40 (after a 50-minute drive to the office) then went for breakfast while we waited for our insemination time.

I was all prepped in a new room. Y and I were joking that the room had mood lighting with just a small tabletop lamp lit. We think maybe they need to start piping in some Barry White to help set the mood.

Anyway, Dr. H brought the specimen vial in all labeled. He explained what was going to happen. The sperm were going to be loaded into a syringe. A catheter would be attached to the syringe and placed through my cervix until it reached just the edge of my uterus. He said 27 million will go to one side, 27 million to the other...all going willy nilly. He even warned us that some may leak out when the catheter is removed but it's usually very minimal. Before we got started Dr. H asked us if we wanted to save the vial. We laughed and said no thanks. He then shared a brief story of a patient who kept the vial, syringes from the HCg shots, and other memorabilia and put them all in a shadow box. That was a good laugh to help me relax even more.

The sperm was injected. The catheter going in really wasn't that uncomfortable nor was the insemination. We did lose a bit when the catheter was removed but Dr. H guesstimates 40-some million made it into the uterus. Much more than we needed. A minimum of 5 million sperm were needed for insemination....Y's apparently an overachiever!

While lying still for the 10 minute post-insemination wait, we talked with Dr. H and asked all the important questions...most importantly..."How soon can I test?"!

I can start testing in 10 days (for those of you counting that's March 24th). I am to take any negative results with a grain of salt until AF arrives. If I don't get a positive nor a period by the 28th, I'm to call the office so they can order blood work. If I DO get a positive or blood work reveals one, I'll have blood drawn every two days to check that my Beta levels and progesterone are increasing at the correct rate. A good pregnancy, the hormone levels will double (or more) within two days and continue to do so. A possible miscarriage will plateau or not increase so they'll be able to prepare us for a loss if one should occur.

So now the wait and countdown begins. I feel really positive right now and hope I can continue feeling this way!