It's Happened Already...

No, I didn't have a spontaneous pregnancy. That's not possible, remember?

It's something far more frightening: after almost 5 years of playing hockey at least once a week, these days more like 3-5 times per week, we have started to feel like the impending parenthood attempts are just more important. All of a sudden, hockey is not the critical thing it once was.

I guess that means we're ready (c'mon eggs, drop!) but it's still bizarre to be at this point, after being at such a different point for so long. Don't get me wrong, hockey is still fun, but suddenly, we're willing to miss games for things like dinners with other moms and crap like that.

First Andrea cooks, now this. What's next?

Holy Crap! It's Almost Time!

When we first set our start date for trying to conceive (TTC), June seemed so far away. Eons, epochs of time. We could magically clean the house, win a million dollars and do everything necessary to assure the world that we're ready to Be Parents.

But then I blinked and it's almost March. Our tenative, assuming all my little eggies are cooperating date is June 15. That's in like 3 months.

Am I sure we're ready? Are we sure we're ready? What if we've forgotten to do something? Left the baby light on, left the baby oven open before we left for a grand adventure that will change our lives forever?

Maybe we should wait until Andrea and I have known each other longer. Maybe 10 years of friendship, almost 9 years of being together just isn't enough. Or maybe, we should make our withdrawl from the sperm bank tomorrow.

Let the Nausea Begin!

And I'm not even pregnant yet! I started taking prenatal vitamins a few nights ago because Susan pointed out that I should have started taking folic acid 2 months ago. Already, I'm a bad mother and we haven't even thawed the sperm yet! I have the GNC brand, which are HUGE, absolutely HUGE and taste like ass. More importantly, they make me pretty nauseous if I don't have a totally full stomach. And that's just not cool. I'll be switching brands before too long.

At Last: My Pee Is My Own!

Today was the first time in 20 days that the magic egg prediction machine (which, to date, has not been magic, but has dramactically increased my ability to pee on a stick) did not ask me to pee on a stick. Nope, I got to do my bidness just like Regular People who are Not Preparing to Get Pregnant.

It felt good, if a bit empty. What? No flashing machine to check later in the morning? I just...get up? Hm.

My friend who has been trying to have her baby for far too long and with more heartache than any one person should have to go through in a lifetime, asked me if just seeing a stick made me have to pee yet. Then she held out a straw and I'll admit it, it did make me have to pee, just a little.

The Challenges Continue

When we decided to start charting 6 months ahead of our planned insemination adventure, I honestly thought it would be sort of superfluous, that everything would fall into place and I'd just have those 6 months for show, a way to pinpoint exactly when we should head to the city for the Sperm Bank Withdrawl.

But no. It's month 2 and thanks to a fever last month and god knows what this month, we still don't know when I ovulated, or if I even did at all. I'm trying not to let the stress get to me but when there's all this money (not covered by insurance) riding on how closely we can time this, well, you'd be stressed out, too.

I think the magic egg prediction machine hates me. It refuses to acknowledge my eggs. They are there, I swear! For that kind of money, it should find them, damnit!

In other news, the sperm bank has raised their prices by $60 per vial. Consider each IUI cycle uses 4 vials, that's a lot of change. Great.