Octavia (31) and Daja (30)

Octavia and I have been together for 5.5 years.  We've been ttc for 3 years, off and on.  Because Octavia has 3 children already (ages 12.5, 8, and 6.5) we were fairly certain that the reason we weren't getting pregnant was a matter of bad timing (our known donors were known all right- known to flake out!) and/or bad sperm quality of our donors.  We must have been right, because our very first month trying using frozen anonymous donor sperm, where we knew the quality (we checked it under the microscope at home even!), and where WE were in control of the timing, we are pregnant on our first try.  We had already purchased vials for next month!  LOL

The scoop for those interested:

We did this "au naturale" other than the sperm being donor sperm.  At home, no doctor, no fertility meds, no Robitussin, no pineapple, no soy, no cinnamon, no honey, nothing, other than Pre-Seed, good timing, and the Universe smiling upon us.

2/26/09 - OPK yesterday afternoon at 2:00 (Answer brand dip strips) was negative. 

2/27/09 - OPK this afternoon at the same time (approx. 2:00) seemed *thisclose* to positive, if not for sure positive, so we went and got some Smileys this evening and got a smiley on the first try at 7:10.  We couldn't inseminate right then, but we did inseminate at 9:00 on the dot.  First I lit several candles: 1 pink, 1 blue, 2 green, and 1 yellow.  I also brought our Gaia statue into the bedroom, and a "fertility box" I had made for my art class a while back.  We used Preseed, about half of the contents of the tube, in her vagina.  We put a bit on the speculum as well.  Her cervix was high, soft, and open.  Our insemination time put us inseminating 7 hours past our first positive OPK, but only 1 hour and 50 minutes past the smiley.  The speculum BROKE inside her vagina(!!!) when I was trying to open it, so I had to do this process completely by braille!  My lubricated (and clean and thoroughly dry) fingers found her cervix, then I maneuvered the catheter tip up to her cervical os.  I put it RIGHT AT the os, maybe a tiny bit inside (less than 1mm) and took my hand out.  I was worried that taking my hand out would move the catheter out of place, but apparently this didn't disrupt things too much, considering our BFP!  Afterward, her hips stayed elevated for about an hour, but it was nearly bedtime anyway, so she just went to sleep after that. 

2/28/09 - Amy woke up with a stomach virus that our kids had had the day before.  Her temp was through the roof, and we thought for sure that she had ovulated the day before and that we were too late.  The ladies on the board kept my thoughts positive, as they agreed that surely with the other fertility signs the fluke high temp was from the virus she had.  This morning there were GOBS of EWCM.  We inseminated again this morning at 9:15 just in case we hadn't missed our window after all.  We did the exact same things as the night before, except without a speculum at all, AND I forgot to use the Pre-Seed because we were in such a hurry!  Also because we were in a hurry, we didn't have time to light our candles, but we did still have Gaia and my fertility box present.  Octavia's hips could only stay elevated for about 30 minutes this time because we had plans this morning.

The whole second week after inseminating, Octavia peed in a cup and I dipped our leftover Answer brand OPK strips in it.  They were all decidedly negative.

3/13/09 - Dollar Tree HPT with FMU - Negative.

3/14/09 - Dollar Tree HPT (late at night, not FMU) - Negative.  But I also wanted to use the digital one we had.  I have no idea what possessed me to use a "good" one, I just DID it.  And lo and behold, when I flipped it over, IT SAID PREGNANT.  After a LOT of crying and screaming and flipping out, I picked up the instructions and noticed that it said to keep it flat and don't pick it up while the test is running.  WELL DANG!  I had picked it up, carried it around, laid it upside down!  So off we went at 1:30 am to Walgreen's for more tests.  WELL DANG AGAIN!  We had poured out the urine we'd used!  So with Octavia in her pajamas, we stopped at White Castle for some sweet tea so she would have to go again by the time we got home.  We stopped at Walgreen's (she stayed in the car!) and I got another EPT digital (the same kind we had just done) and a pack of Clearblue digitals.  Yes, I spent $50 on HPTs but I didn't EVEN care.  I just wanted to get home and make sure I hadn't messed up that test!  She managed to squeeze out JUST ENOUGH pee to dip one of each test in, and 3 minutes later, we were assured that I hadn't messed the test up, and that she is having my baby! 

3/15/09 - I'm still in shock.  UTTER SHOCK!  Her temp is still high, and the HPTs on my night stand still say PREGNANT.  I kind of half-expected them to have changed in the night...  I feel like I'm walking on clouds today!

3/19/09 - FINALLY got a positive on the Dollar Tree test!

For future updates, see the Our Story on the Our Train of Hope board!

Last edited by twomoms (2009-03-28 23:06:41)