Wiegand Writes

It's rare to find friends with whom you can trust with your most personal thoughts. The positive feedback we have received regarding this blog means more to us than you will ever know. I just wanted to take the time to thank each of you for your love and support. Megan and I are extremely grateful to have you in our lives.

Since we were on the topic of sperm (and the fact that my best friend says I need to blog more) I figured I would tell you how we chose our donor. It wasn't an easy decision (I hope you're sitting down...this might take a while) Originally we thought we wanted to go with a known donor (a person who we know personally) for a couple reasons. The first reason being that we (and by we, I mean Meg) read that fresh sperm works better than frozen sperm. The biggest factor influencing this decision was my personal experience. When I was a camp counselor I had two campers. The boys were always talking about their dad (and their mom), so when their mom pulled up in the same car as an obvious lesbian (with a rainbow sticker in the window) I was completely taken back. I never would have guessed. With that said, our idea with the known donor was to recreate the camp situation and give our child as close to a "normal" life as possible. Now, I used quotes around normal, becaus...

He's here!!! Meg received the call from the doctors this afternoon confirming the arrival of our very expensive sperm! For those of you who are new to the life of ordering spermies, let me just tell you, it can be very frustrating. You see, I'm a gold-star (look it up, lol) and I'm madly in love with my wife. The problem is that I have no access to sperm (stupid biology). While I am, in no means, a man hating lesbian, it kills me that we need a man to help us get pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful we are able to even try to get pregnant, but I can't help, but wish the circumstances could be different. Meg and I will never know what it's like to make a baby together.

I already told you I was obsessed with reading blogs, but what I didn't tell you was that I had to familiarize myself with the pregnancy lingo used on online forums. I didn't even know what the hell the two week wait was and I definitely didn't know that it would be the longest two weeks of our lives. Though we understood the statistics (6-26% chance of getting pregnant), each "symptom" got our hopes up. We took 7 pregnancy tests (all BFN-big fat negative...don't worry you'll catch on...I did!) Our friends reassured us that sometimes the Hcg levels can be too low to detect on a test, so we clung to that idea. We were so afraid to be intimate (it usually brings on Meg's period) that I barely even kissed Meg. Thinking about it now, this is probably another reason why it felt like the longest 2 weeks ever! I guess I should explain that the two week wait is the 14 days from ovulation (and in our case, insemination) to the start of the next period/cyc...

As naive as this may sound, Meg and I honestly thought we were pregnant after our first insemination. The truth is that no one can prepare you for the emotional rollercoaster that is TTC (trying to conceive). I was constantly on the computer looking at blogs trying to convince myself that the negatives on the HPTs (home pregnancy tests) were normal. What I failed to mention in the Cycle 1 recap was that the doctors office had Megan using a progesterone gel to thicken her lining and increase the chances of implantation. Meg used the sample packets of gel for 4 days. When we found out it would cost $240 for 15 days, I had Meg call the doctors and tell them we were going to discontinue using the product. The doctor brought Meg in to check her progesterone levels. They told her that if her level was above 10 she would be safe to discontinue the gel. It came back 10.8, so we given the green light. Needless to say, Meg felt horrible and had every symptom that indicated a pregnancy....

Meg and I met with our doctor 4 days into her period (day 4 of her cycle) on May 19th. We didn't really know what to expect. The visit started out as a consult in the doctors office. She explained the process of IUI (intrauterine insemination). She answered some of our questions, but we never really discussed the details of achieving pregnancy (this will come into play later on). Meg had some blood drawn (11 vials...talk about bruising!) and then we went into the room for her first internal ultrasound. Meg was freaking out. I, on the other hand, was documenting our journey by taking pictures of the ultrasound monitor and Meg uncomfortably sitting on the table. She was a good sport though!!! When the doctor came in, we watched her highlight the eggs, the uterine lining, the follicles and measure the diameters of everything. She then printed out pictures to put in Meg's chart! It was pretty cool! From there we went to an office to discuss finances. This part was pretty pain...

Friday marked the start of cycle 2. Meg and I went in for the typical baseline blood work and internal ultrasound. The doctor confirmed that we will try another natural cycle and later told us that we are anomalies for lesbian patients. Turns out there are a lot of angry lesbians out there that don't take well to the idea of a male doctor! They called with the blood results Friday afternoon. I don't have any numbers to report, but everything looks great so far. Our next appointment is July 5th. Fingers crossed...