The devil made me do it January 7, 2008

Reasons that it was a bad idea to engage in an act yesterday that required me to call for a certain prescription:

1. I just started a new job today! (Puking is a great way to make a first impression, yes? Would I even be covered under FMLA?)
2. I still don’t have the results from my repeat pap. (DUH! How much of an idiot can I be?)
3. I haven’t been taking my folic acid regularly over the last 2-3 months, as recommended by my OB. (I am now, though!)

But I’m still excited and hoping it worked. Although not hoping enough to try again to increase our chances. (LH surge was today so we were a little early but not outside the realm of possibility.)

(Oh, and I only had some minor burning afterwards so I’m not sure what to do with my theory about the semen allergy. Once again I am stumped. But hey! If this didn’t work, I know we can try again the natural way– no IUI– in future months and that’s great!)

GAH!

My name is Shaw-NEE! You are captured, Ha! I poopie I poopie I poopie. January 2, 2008

From Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris:

A fun thing to do to let off steam after layoffs began was to go into someone’s office and send an e-mail from their computer addressed to the entire agency. It might say something simple like “My name is Shaw-NEE! You are captured, Ha! I poopie I poopie I poopie.” People came in in the morning and read that and the reactions were so varied.

Jim Jackers read it and immediately sent out an email that read, “Obviously someone came into my office last night and composed an e-mail in my name and sent it out to everyone. I apologize for any inconvenience or offense, although it wasn’t my fault, and would appreciate from whoever did this a public apology. I have read that e-mail five times now and I still don’t even understand it.”

I read that during Gatito’s nap and I laughed until I cried. That last line is the best part. Then I called A at work to read it to him but I was till gasping for air and could barely get it out. When Gatito woke up, I read it to him and he thought it was funny, too. So I coached him until he could recite the email and we’ve been laughing ever since.

Oh, him! January 1, 2008

I am such an in-my-head kind of planner, and I’ve been thinking about/planning for a potential #2 for so long, that I realize I have forgotten to let A in on my plans at all. For months I was planning an artificial insemination (at first I thought I would do an at-home low-tech turkey baster version) before I thought to let him know.

It turns out he is against the IUI, as he deems it unnatural. I think he’s thinking of it in the same way I was thinking about trying in March vs. April– he doesn’t want to have that kind of explicit “control” over the resulting child. Also I guess he’d just rather have sex without a condom for once. Ahem. But in case you think I am exaggerating about the pain and my reason for doing IUI, I will tell you that the one time a nurse looked at my area after condomless sex, she said it looked like I’d been raped. I’m not kidding around about this stuff. So, while I find it vaguely curious and somewhat interesting that he is anti-IUI, I don’t really care!

The other thing is that I asked him what he thought about March vs. April and he immediately said April, because it’s farther away. It always surprises me when he acts like a “typical” guy, because mostly he doesn’t. I know he didn’t feel quite ready to try the first time– but the threat of infertility and recurrent miscarriage suddenly changed his mind! I think he was mentally much more ready to be a dad when Gatito finally got here than he would have been if it had happened the first month. But apparently he’s not at all concerned about our ability to have a second and so… cold feet!

How involved is your partner in your planning and decision-making around reproductive issues? Do you also find yourself making the decisions and just informing him/her? Do you ever forget to inform him/her?

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Oh, and happy new year. You don’t mind if I skip the whole introspective post, do you? 2007 was good. Hopefully 2008 will be, too!