My shipment arrived at my clinic at 13.24 today according to DHL!
That was quick from Denmark!

My sperm has shipped!
I can track it with DHL. How bizarre.
I wonder if they know what they’re transporting?
Do you reckon they go home like ‘I delivered a load of spunk at work today darling’

I called the clinic again because noone had called me back and booked my medication appointment on 31st October. It’s cutting it fine for work, but otherwise we were into November so I might have to miss the next cycle and I really just want to get started now!

So my order has shown up as paid on my online account, so it’s all looking promising (well, either that or the online and the telephone scammers have a well oiled operation going on, still ruling nothing out!)

I called my clinic today to tell them to expect it in the next few days and to book my appointment with the nurse to get my medication, I’m now awaiting a call back!

I got an email from the sperm bank today.
MR PERFECT IS IN STOCK!
They just haven’t listed it on the site yet.
4 straws of IUI quality samples. Exactly what I need.
This is too good to be true!
Pinch me!
My only problem is that I can’t pay securely via their website because it isn’t on there.
My options are bank transfer (SCAM WARNING! What do they always say? Don’t pay by bank transfer, you are as good as handing them cash with no comeback!) or phone them up.
I don’t have a credit card so this is all on my debit card (that’s ok theres a pittance in there so if this is a scam they can only take what I’m paying for this)
All correspondance so far has been via email so I shall ring them as a last check they are real.
I don’t think I’ll relax then until the clinic say they have recieved them until they have checked the samples and I know they haven’t sent me very expensive water!

Update: All paid! A £2.50, 5 minute phonecall to Denmark and I parted with my card details and £2600!
Keep everything crossed!

Whilst waiting for a reply to my email about Mr Perfect‘s donation status I had another browse on the other site, and found another potential donor. He’s not quite as much a match as Mr Perfect, he has wavy hair and isn’t quite as cute, but if Mr Perfect isn’t going to happen then this one is a perfectly acceptable alternative, however he is more expensive.
So now to just wait to hear back and have everything crossed, but atleast I have a backup so my stress levels can return to normal, and I won’t have to settle for Mr Arrogant’s offspring.

I sent a few emails to the sperm site and found out that my clinic allows free access to full donor profiles. Bonus, I saved £80!

I was instantly put off my original front runner by the baby photo (yes I’m shallow and fussy, but if I am spending this much on having a baby I might as well be!)
Another one had a cute photo but from his bio seemed arrogant and career driven. Who knows what is genetic, but I didn’t think I’d like him if we met so why have my child related to him?
And then I found Mr Perfect. Same eye colour, hair colour, age, height, similar face shape, and a gorgeous baby photo. AND HE IS OUT OF STOCK. I am so convinced he’s the one though, so I will email them and see if they are expecting any more stock from him soon, and then I shall decide whether he is worth the wait. (He probably is!)

I spent all of last night trawling the three sites the lady suggested.
CMV negative donors are RARE. The one test I almost wish had come back positive, how much easier that would have been!
I have narrowed it down. One site is WAY out of my price range. Looking at over £1k per sample…!
The other two are both danish. I have about 20 to choose from between the two sites, however I have pared it down to about 3.
I am on the basic profiles though, so before I make my final choice I think I’ll take a leap and pay the £80 to see their baby photos and long profiles. What’s £80 in the grand scheme of things?

I got a phonecall today to say my results had come back negative and that they had NO CMV negative donors. WHAT! I was offered to take the ‘small’ risk and accept a positive donor, however the risks include miscarriage and deformity. Great. So thats a no from me. I know better than many the risks pregnancy brings, and as this is one I have a chance to avoid, I am going to.
However, now I am worried. This was supposed to be easy, go to the clinic, pick a donor, get inseminated. Boom.
But the lady on the phone told me I have to source the sperm myself. I asked if she could recommend anywhere and she did come up with three places they have used before.

So here I go with some dodgy internet shopping!

I’m not a talker.
It may seem strange as I can talk for england on here, but in person, nah, forget it.
So counselling? Well that’s never going to work for me!
However, the counsellor was lovely and took the lead (she does this every day after all!) She explained the legalities of donor sperm, that the child can find their dad at 18 but the dad can’t find them etc. I already knew all this, but she told us about a couple of donor sperm kids she had met at a conference. Both were 27, but one had been told about his situation young and it hadn’t affected him, he had no desire to find out more about his ‘father’ but the other had only been told recently and had felt betrayed and lost her entire sense of self. Now I had always planned on being open with any future children, but this anecdote really cemented to me how much this, if handled wrongly, could affect them, but if handled right, would just be one of those things to the child.

She did pick up on my lack of chattiness and commented that people normally have a lot more questions – I guess the fact that I did my research before going negated that part!

She was amazed that at 26 I had my own house and was managing to work and pay the bills and raise my son alone, and she could see no problems in adding another child in the mix, afterall, I’ve done it before and know what I’m letting myself in for!

So I had my blood tests, to test my CMV status and blood type in order to find me a donor!
So now I’m just waiting on a phonecall!

So, honestly, I was dreading this appointment. Essentially the consultant has the power to say no, based on meeting me, my history, my fertility blood test results etc. he could shoot this whole plan down in flames.
But he didn’t!
Infact, he told me I seem like a very good candidate fertility wise and that I seem like a knowledgeable and sensible person!
Yay!
He did seem a little concerned by my history, the miscarriage and antiphospholipid syndrome, not a massive concern, but as IUI is quite uninvasive but with fertility drugs involved, there is a higher chance of a multiple pregnancy and he didn’t know offhand how antiphospholipid syndrome reacts to multiples – multiple amounts of hormones etc. however he said that as long as we assess the risks and do our research he is happy to continue down this route.
He suggested maybe a HyCoSy (checking my tubes are not blocked) however with two natural pregnancies and births under my belt he wasn’t overly concerned and didn’t push it.
He briefly mentioned IVF but agreed that as it is more invasive to start with IUI was as likely to work for me as anyone.

So here we are, I have to do a session of councelling to check my mental state and talk me through the donor sperm legalities etc and if she gives me the go ahead then off we go!