At Home Insemination - Buddies?

[H8624]

For several reasons hubby and I are going down the route of at home insemination. It can be quite a lonely process I think - does anyone want to join me and we can go through it together/share tips etc?

Bit of background - we've tried for 2 months now both unsuccessful. I'm using clearblue ovulation detector to get my peak, and we've been doing the insemination every day from when I get my flashing smiley to the day after the peak, give or take the odd day! Using 10ml syringes and laying down afterwards for 20-30 mins.

Finding the 2ww a real struggle, and my heart breaks every time AF comes! I know it's only been 2 cycles and could take a lot longer so need to be patient! Altho feel like everyone around me is having babies which doesn't help!

Anyway sorry for going on - anyone want to join and share their experiences/tips? Need some motivation and hope!

Hi ladies! Never posted in this thread before but I have a quick question which I'm hoping doesn't sound too silly...

I'm self inseminating with the help of a donor (no partner for me, going the single mum route before all my eggs dry up!) and it's going to be my second cycle soon. First go I used a syringe, my donor has suggested softcup for the second cycle.

Now here comes the very silly question. My donor (who is a doctor) said I should practice finding my cervix and inserting the softcup, checking to ensure it's covering my cervix. I have no idea what's going on inside my lady bits but I cannot find my cervix at all - I'm very tall (almost 6ft) and I'm wondering if perhaps my fingers just aren't long enough, but I've tried at different stages of my cycle and I just can't find it.

What I CAN do perfectly easily is insert a softcup, they're no problem for me. What I'm concerned about though, is that I'll insert the softcup and somehow miss my cervix - I'm concerned I'll kind of trap the semen from entering my cervix if I can't confirm that it's covering it. At least with a syringe I don't have to worry about inadvertently trapping the swimmers from entering my cervix in the first place!

So my question is... is this possible? If my cervix is particularly high, is it possible that the softcup will be too short and 'cut off' my cervix and trap the swimmers away from it? This feels like such a silly and embarrassing question but if I'm being honest, I don't really understand where the softcup sits inside me and I'm just paranoid of using it and doing things wrong!

Thanks so much to anyone who can help and I hope you're all having lovely relaxing Sundays! x

Welcome @restingwitchface86, I hope someone can help you with the question, it is not silly at all. I thought the softcup sits in 1 position and when you put your feet up, everything goes down then it helps to stop things going out after. I have found my cervix before, that's good info about pointing to it. If you can't find it, maybe use syringe and then put the softcup in.

I can’t reach my cervix most of the time either @restingwitchface86 but I do use softcups. I can’t imagine that they have anywhere to go that would block your cervix. The cervix sits at the neck of your womb so the softcup really has nowhere else to go.

My donor has decided now he can’t do this month so am frantically trying to find someone else

@Coolhand2 it is going quite fast! I'm not sure about the photos yet. I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster at the moment as work are preparing for me to start wirking from home by latest 28 weeks which is mental!

@Busybee143 28 weeks really isn’t far away for you.

@Waiting2BAMummy keeping my fingers crossed you find another donor.

@restingwitchface86 I’ve also use soft cups and I find they just end up going where they want to - I did have a success using one. I figure they are good as they get the sperm a bit closer and also keep it all in.

Thank you so much for your help and reassurance ladies! I'm glad my donor suggested the method as it seems like a good one, crossing my fingers for a Christmas BFP 🤞🏻

@Waiting2BAMummy where have you been finding your donors so far?

Co-parents and pride angel @restingwitchface86

Good luck

@Waiting2BAMummy I recommend Pollen Tree! That's where I found my donor, the only problem is they don't tell you when someone last logged in so it's hard to weed out the inactive profiles but I found a lot of the men to be less creepy than Pride Angel and Co Parents x

Great, thank you @restingwitchface86 x

@restingwitchface86 I would just use whatever you're comfortable with. I used to use a 10ml string but the process got really uncomfortable so I switched to a 5ml and now I have a little baby growing inside me, I think me being comfortable went in my favour

I’m feeling pretty rubbish again today. I’ve just been to my ultrasound to check there isn’t anything wrong inside and just come back to my team meeting and my boss has announced to the team her pregnancy. She told me 1:1 last week - but I feel horrible all over again. When I was briefly pregnant over summer I imagined me making it. I’m really happy for her and she’s really lovely. I just wish I didn’t feel jealous as well.

You’re entitled to your feelings @Overlyanxious and you have to own them or it will eat you up. I had a chemical pregnancy in March and one of the ladies I work with is due the day I would have been. I know when the inevitable photos arrive that it’s going to upset me but I have to focus on my journey.

Hopefully this will be you’re month and you’ll have your own announcement very soon.

Thanks @Waiting2BAMummy. You also provided some words of wisdom when I mentioned it last week. I do feel a bit better getting it off my chest.

We’ll be here when you get all those pictures. I guess we just have to remember when it finally happens all of this upset and stress will be a distant memory

Exactly @Overlyanxious and I try to remind myself that I don’t know what those peoples experiences in getting to that place have been, just as they don’t know mine.

Can’t wait to celebrate your BFP with you, good luck.

So, I know this is a really ridiculous thing to get excited about but I’m CD10 today and my opk is darker than it got at all before I lost the will to live and stopped testing last month. I know it’s not positive but it’s definitely darker than last month.

That's dark @Waiting2BAMummy, maybe you will get your peak soon.

@Waiting2BAMummy that’s definitely a move in the right direction and hopefully means peak in a couple of days

Thank you ladies.

Those of you that temp, this morning my temp from OvuSense dropped to 36.19 and the lowest I’ve had for the last 2 cycles was 36.25. So you think this might mean I’m ovulating today? I wonder if that opk yesterday maybe caught my surge on the way down as that was the first time I tested.

I’ve attached a picture of my chart, it only has 4 temps so far as I’m only CD11 but certainly seems more stable than the last 2 months.

Helps if you actually attach the picture!!.... I’ll get my coat 😂😂

And now I’ve attached the wrong picture I’m going back to bed 😂😂

@Waiting2BAMummy I always used to get a temp drop the day before/day I ovulated so it definitely could be!

Have you done an OPk today? Was it darker?

I will be doing one about 2 as I didn’t think you were supposed to use FMU @H8624 (except for clearblue digital ones). I did do another about 10.30 last night and it was much lighter which is what makes me think maybe I caught my surge on the way down.

That said my earlier test yesterday was about 5pm and I hadn’t had a drink since 7.30am yesterday morning. I probably drank about 1.5 litres after that so maybe that affected my later test. I HATE OPK’s!!

@Waiting2BAMummy ah yes maybe try later this morning/early afternoon.

Drinking lots could definitely be a reason last night was so light, and if your temp has dropped today its a good sign so I'd definitely try not to drink anything for a few hours and then test!

OPKs are hard work!

Have you got a donor lined up for today/the past few days?

I have got a donor but haven’t arranged a meet yet as wasn’t expecting to ovulate this early @H8624. Will message him and see if he can do tonight. The fact that I didn’t have a temp this low last month or confirmed ovulation makes me think this could be it.