only lesbians would be surprised...

we couldn't possibly keep it to ourselves so naturally we told the donor and our friend who assisted, then we went to a friends house for dinner tonight and shared our news with them as well.

The highlight of the evening came when our friend, in response to our disbelief at being pregnant, proclaimed "Only a lesbian would inseminate their partner with sperm during her peak fertility and ovulation and then be suprised to find she is pregnant!"
well, yes, actually! when you start researching this whole process it makes you wonder how heterosexuals have ever gotten pregnant. it makes the whole process sound nearly impossible! To think of all the things that can get in the way and prevent you from conceiving....

and the results are in!

WTF!!! OMG!!! We're pregnant! Seriously. OUR FIRST TRY!!! this is insane....!!!

We took the test this morning and could barely believe it. It's only 9 days past ovulation, so it's very early. We were perfectly prepared for the results to be faint and barely able to be interpreted as positive, but instead it was the exact opposite. The plus sign came us as clear as could be almost instantly. Naturally, we began googling false positives to see if there was any chance it was wrong. We were debating whether it was worth taking another test today since you are supposed to use your first morning pee, but we did it anyways and that one was a first response and it was also VERY CLEARLY two lines for PREGNANT!  there is no doubt in our test results and we are both completely over the moon.

The wait to take the test was insanely long - and now imagining a 12 week wait before we can tell anyone is just crazy.

Supplies Needed

Prenatal vitamins, or at least folic acid
OPK test sticks
Clearblue Fertility monitor
Zestica fertility lubricant
Instead softcups
oral medicine syringe 10 ml
Clearblue easy pregnancy tests
First Response pregnancy tests



The first thing we used were Ovulation Prediction pee sticks, (OPK). We used the Clearblue Easy ones and they worked okay. If you're cycle is really regular then you can easily determine your ovulation day. My cycle wasn't that regular so we invested in the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor which I actually preferred using, though it'll cost you around $80. It's easy to use and very reliable. If I had stuck to just charting my cervical mucus and using the OPK sticks, I would have misjudged my O day by a week, so I'm really glad I got the monitor.
Zestica is a really great fertility friendly lubricant. It claims to create a sperm friendly environment which allows them to swim better and live longer, which drastically increases your odds of conceiving. The instead soft cups serve two purposes: First as a receptacle for your known donor to make his deposit, secondly to keep those swimmers in place after you have inseminated. It works a bit like a cervical cap- and while your free to do headstands if you wish, I found it more comfortable to just squat so my cervix was dipping into the instead cup pool!
Now the last two things on the list- pregnancy tests. Why do you need two? Simple, to double check yourself. Either way, I want to be able to have a second opinion via a different brand of test. We bought tests that had two to a pack, just incase we wanted to test 4 times. :) 

Third time, and it's PEAK fertility!!

Today my monitor showed peak fertility at 8 in the morning. The last two times we've inseminated it's been in the evenings around 8pm. Since it's Saturday we decided we would do it earlier today and inseminated at 4pm. We had made plans awhile ago to have a weekend in London with friends this weekend, so we didn't let that get in our way. We just had Mark come to our hotel room and leave his sample there.  He texted us as he was leaving and then we went into our room and created the magic. I only left the instead cup in for a few hours this time. For some reason it wasn't as comfortable this time so I didn't want to sleep with it in. The weather isn't supposed to be great tomorrow (MORE SNOW!) so most likely we won't do it again tomorrow. Ideally, I suppose we should since tomorrow should also be PEAK... but the weather is the weather and we'll have to see how it goes.

Round two!

Today I also have High fertility so we're going again tonight!

I did have lots of liquid leftover the other day when I removed the instead cup. I'm glad that I know that is normal. Don't be surprised if this happens to you. Apparently sperm is only 5% of the semen and the warmer it gets the more it liquifies so all is well!

It worked well the first time, so we aren't changing anything this time.... fingers crossed!

Success!

Everything went as planned. I'm going to sleep with the instead cup in just to maximize chances and because it's safe. There is going to be leftover liquid, but that's normal so I'm not going to freak out and think it has failed in the morning. It was all a bit amusing as we went through the process. We were giggling with excitement in one room and a man was masturbating in the next room- and we all knew what was happening. Talk about pressure.
When we were given the sample there was this initial freaking out where we didn't know where to set it and were paranoid that we'd knock it over or tip over our golden chalice of priceless sperm. Or that we'd forget what we were supposed to do and when. Thankfully we got it together and averted any disasters. All in all it was super easy but we're treating it as a practice run just in case. We probably could have waited a bit longer for the sperm to liquefy but we were anxious, next time we'll wait a full ten minutes.  Fingers crossed!!