This quite possibly could be the most asked question of Nicky & me over the last few months. Ever since we have been sharing our good news of the baby on the way with all of our friends and family the most common question (after the shock wears off that I (Becky) am carrying) has been "So, no offense or anything but how does it work?" So...here's a quick breakdown along with the very quirky story of our jouney to pregnancy.
The Donor: Nicky and I decided that we wanted to go with an anonomous donor, which leaves the option on about 3 major sperm banks in the US to choose from. One of them happens to be located in Roseville, MN. So we went online and began our search. We really had only a few criteria that were important to us. We wanted a donor with a fairly healthy medical history (since we don't know mine). We also wanted a few characteristics so we picked a donor with brown hair, blue eyes, cute dimples and a nationality background to match that of Nicky's decent. The only other option that we decided was critical for us was to have a donor that was part of the ID options program. This means that when our child turns 18, if they would like to find out who their bio-dad is they will have that option. This narrowed our search and then we read bios, looked at childhood photos, adult silloettes and made our decision from there.
The Process: For quite a while, I had been tracking my ovaulation cycle, so when the time came we called the doctors office to schedule a folicile study. This is an ultrasound where they check your eggs and determine when you are going to ovulate so as to give you the best chance of the pregnancy taking. It turned out that I would be primed and ready on June 27th which just happened to be Pride Sunday. There was only one little issue, the specimen was at our doctor's office and we had to go to a different clinic for insemination because it was on a Sunday. After much debate about the proper way to get the specimen delievered to the other clinic, I walked out of our doctor's office carrying a large cryogenic tank holding a tiny vile of sperm. I gave the nurses a good chuckle as they looked at me with confused faces and I promptly told them I was taking our baby daddy to another clinic. I laughed at myself as I strapped our donor's donation into the front seat of my car, snapped a picture, sent it to Nicky and we both laughed on the phone as I drove across town to take the tank to the clinic that we would return to on Sunday. The situation got even funnier as I realized that I had to parallel park in Minneapolis and walk down the street and into the medical building carrying the large tank holding the tiny vile (To give you a visual comparison it would be like putting a ibprophen capsule (only one) into a 5-gallon drum with a lid). I walked into the building, found the clinic, and was greeted with "You must be Rebecca". I guess it's not common for patients to bring in their own sperm in a large cryogenic tank. Who would have thought! I got the sperm all checked in and left it in their care for the weekend. On Pride Sunday Nicky and I made our usual trek to Loring Park to get her booth all set up for the day. From there, we took a little break and went over to the clinic in Minneapolis for a chance at adding to our family. We laid (well I laid and Nicky stood) in the room as the procedure took place and then we hung out and talked while the little swimmers went to work. We prayed, and hoped and prayed some more than this time it would take! Then we went about our Pride Sunday at the park and started the brutal 2 week wait!
More on how we found out to come...
We got to spend such great time with the Burton family. What a great trip...we can't wait to see them all again!
