The Eternal Guest Room

Easter is one of those days that gets me down. It’s such a child-centric holiday. At least for Halloween and Christmas you can have grown-up parties – but who has Easter parties that don’t involve kids?

We didn’t even consider going to church today. I knew I couldn’t handle seeing all the cute little kids in their new easter outfits, and being surrounded by all those brand-new babies.

For a long time I had hoped (and even stupidly expected) that this easter would be a super happy easter…but it was just like the last two.

We did yard work this morning instead.

We’ve started the process for our IUI, and I’m going to try to explain it for those of you who might want to know and don’t really want to sift through the information on the internets. I’m not super good at explaining things, but I’ll do my best.

First of all, what the heck is an IUI? It stands for intrauterine insemination, which basically means they put the little guys directly into your uterus. Fun. And awkward…

There are several different ways you can do an IUI. The doctor actually gave us a choice between 2 different protocols (the last decision we were able to make, I believe) and we chose the one that had a lower risk of twins. Turns out it involves less shots too, so double bonus (well, if it works).

I start by taking a drug called Clomid for 5 days. Because I’m not good at explaining medical stuff, I’m just going to give you web md’s definition: “It works by stimulating an increase in the amount of hormones that support the growth and release of a mature egg.” Basically it makes you ovulate.

Two days after starting those, I start taking shots. The brand name I take is Gonal-F, and it’s FSH (human follicle stimulating hormone), which basically does what it says – stimulates your follicles. For those of you who had a shoddy sex-ed class like I did, follicles contain the eggs. So they’re pretty important. Normally only one follicle releases an egg, but when you start putting more FSH in your body you’re more likely to release multiple eggs. Hence the risk of twins.

I get an injection every other day for a week, starting today.

It comes in a nifty little pen. You take the top off and put on a needle. One day I might take a picture of the needle…but today, this is what you get.

To get through the shots, I keep my eyes shut and squeeze my little friend, the Flu.

I swing between excited and sad.