excited...and then, not so much.

We had IUI #1 for baby #2 today. Totally weird being back in the stirrups hearing the same ole schpeel again. It should have been a good day. One of relaxation and optimism, but it didn't turn out that way.

For starters, we had to wing this cycle as MBL was going to be out of town for work. Not too big of a problem (so we thought) as there was the option of freezing sp.erm and still using it for IUI. I was not too pleased with the fact that he was going to be gone during my "prime" week, but figured it would all work out.

I took Clo.mid (5omg) cycle days 3-7 in hopes that we would be able to do a fresh IUI before MBL left for work. We had our consult with the local RE on Friday and were SHOCKED at the results. I already knew that I was going to convince him to do an IUI this month as I had already taken the clo.mid. It wasn't hard to do. He got me in for an ultrasound during our consult and took a look at what the clo.mid had done. I thought for sure that I was going to see zero follicles as I was beginning to believe that my fertility was total crap (besides the fact that my ovaries had been aching for several days). As it turns out I responded quite well to the clo.mid and had THREE follies developing. On only 50mg!!! The doctor was as shocked as I was and said that was quite the unexpected (in a good way) result. I was geeked.

Next, they took MBL back to get a sample for the actual IUI as my follies were not ready for an IUI on Saturday. So, we were going to have to do an IUI Monday (today) with frozen spe.rm. We asked the lab to call us with the number as MBL wanted to give another sample if his first was not as high as we wanted. I got the call while I was at a friend's house and I was SHOCKED to hear the nurse say that his total motile count was 95 million. That's seriously at least THREE times higher than it has ever been! We were geeked out of our minds. I have three good looking follies, he has a bajillion spe.rm, this cycle was going to rock!

Fast forward to today, I drop Piper off at daycare and then head to the clinic for the IUI. Due to the fact that MBL is out of town and we did not BD before that (due to him still being sore from the surgery on 12/30), this was literally our only chance at getting preggo this month. I was expecting to hear that the count had decreased, but was devastated to hear that after thawing and washing it, we had only 1.5 million motile spe.rm in the sample. WTHECK???!!!! And I had to deal with this all by myself. Awesome. I asked the nurse about it and she was just like, "Oh yeah, that is a huge decrease. We usually see a loss of 50%, but that is a lot... Now can you sign this paper?" Gah. I told her I wanted her to check with the lab and see what went wrong. I can understand a sample losing some of it's potency, but 98.5% of it????? We have NEVER had an IUI with that low of a count (and none of our other IUIs worked). I decided not to cry and instead just laid back and tried to remain calm. There was a new nurse training today, so I got the pleasure of not only hearing awful news, but having my IUI take approximately 5 times longer than it should have.

I told MBL that there is still a chance (albeit quite small) that everything will work out and we will get pregnant from this disaster of a month. What we have going for us is that I did have 3 follies and we were able to "try" even though he was out of town. The downside is that we just spent $600 on a crapshoot.

I was thankful that we got a chance to talk after the IUI went down because I needed to be able to process the whole situation with him. Basically, he is going to talk to his future boss and let him in on the fact that all his traveling is costing us money (MBL is fulfilling a role that would give us a nice salary increase, BUT he is not yet being compensated for it). I've had a beef with the fact that his work is sending him across the globe every one to two months for a week or so at a time WITHOUT giving him a raise, for months now, but MBL is finally getting as fed up as I am with it. Especially because we have the baby (#2) itch.

So, along with MBL talking with his superior, I am also planning on talking with the RE at the local clinic about what went down with this cycle. I did some googling this evening and while it seems normal for a sample to lose quite a bit after freezing, thawing, and washing... Getting down to only 1.5 million is NOT normal. Basically, I feel like losing 98.5% of a sample is a big enough deal that they should have called me to see if I still wanted to go through with the cycle. We would have lost out on TTC this month and $300, but I wouldn't have had to spend $300 more on crappy odds. I fully intend on insisting the RE cover our next IUI. No, it's not his fault that MBL was out of town this month, but it is his responsibility to make sure that we aren't allowed to go through with a cycle that was a waste of time and $$$. (all of that makes it sound like I'm being a real negative nancy about this cycle, but, in all reality, I wouldn't be that shocked if I got a BFP from this insane situation). I just want the clinic to own up to the fact that, in all likelihood, someone messed up. And, hopefully, MBL is able to get his work to understand that he needs to start being compensated for his time asap.

I guess this means I'm officially in my first real two week wait post Piper... Woo hoo?!