feeling emotional today

don't know what triggered it, but i'm feeling a bit emotional today. i was listening to NPR while driving to work. they were talking to listeners about their song for the year. i started getting all choked up over the silliest song....... "chumbawumba" (or however you spell it). it was probably more that i was thinking about all that has happened this past year.

alot of people mentioned obama's election. wow, just thinking about that brings tears to my eyes. i am really looking forward to what happens during his term. i hope he is as good for this country as, i'm sure, alot of us are dreaming he is.

2009 is also going to be a very big year for us. hopefully, by this time next year, we'll have our own little bundle of joy:) anna and i will have been together for five years and celebrated our second wedding anniversary. i think all that will suffice. i just need love and family and i'm set. i'm such a sap! ha:)

hilarious american dad episode

check out this video on hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/3241/american-dad-surro-gate

of course, stan, the "american dad", is a complete ass. just watch the whole thing and see how it ends:) loved it.

making progress

i have today off and pretty much i've been dinking around on the computer. ie- i'm being productive without being productive:)

here's what i've accomplished:
i scheduled an appointment at puget sound midwives and birth center. anna and i will go in a couple weeks and meet the staff and tour the birthing center. i can also find out if my insurance will work there. they do home and center births, as well as, water births. they are licensed in washington.

i purchased an ovulens after a suggestion by another blogger. i researched it before purchasing and of course found pros and cons. i think if i just remember to not utterly rely on it for ovulation prediction and use the BBT and physical symptoms, i should be able to figure out my cycle.

speaking of BBT (basal body temperature), i found a chart online so i can map that out clearly. this was at www.4women.gov. it's a national gov website so i was a little leery at first. it has some good info though and tools. it has an ovulation calculator (obviously not to used as a definite predictor) and i believe it was correct. i had estimated that i was ovulating around christmas and that's what it said too.

i'm also going to try to stay on top of taking my vitamins. i have a pre-made package from nature made that is for diabetes. i don't have diabetes, just hypoglycemia (controlled with diet). this package is good for anyone though. it has alpha lipoic acid with green tea, multivitamin/mineral with lutein, chromium, selenium, folic acid (800 mcg- double recommended dose for pre-natal- is that ok?), and vitamin c.

movin' right along:)

finding a donor

anna and i aren't comfortable with having a known donor. we've discussed it, and i've read about it. i think it's appropriate for some, just not us.

so... we've been hunting online at different cryobanks. you may ask how we started out search :) we googled "mail order sperm". ha! i thought we would get a bunch of porn. thank god we didn't. it's amazing how many different sources there are. we were looking at one last night called cryolab.com. there was so much we could find out about potential donors for free (thank god). we could even find out what kind of eyebrows they had :). they also had a childhood photo and audio interview. i had assumed we would need to pay for all of these things. i'm sure it's different with each bank.

we also googled checklists for what we need to do. if any readers have suggestions please send them along, you can just leave it in the comment field. anyways, i'm thinking it would be helpful to have a reproduction specialist. i'm hoping a midwife can do this for us so we can just have one person instead of having to go back and forth with information.

we did find a donor that interested us. he was german/norweigian/lithuanian. we want the donor to have physical traits and interests like anna, and this guy fit the bill. he also likes outdoor activities and is in school to become a psychologist because he wants to help people. sounds sweet huh :) it's a little odd to be looking at all this information about a man we don't know so we can have his little swimmers.

i was curious what our baby would look like. we found a website called makemebabies.com. we tried with with a few different photos of us... they looked weird:) i don't know if it was just the photo generator or what. anyways i decided to try it with the childhood photo of the donor we were interested in. that's the photo i've posted here. hmmm... is this what arden would look like?

never had a blog before

so this is all new to me. we'll see how it goes.

i've created this blog as a spot to put everything about anna and my adventure in making a baby. i think it will be helpful to me and potentially to other women trying to created a family in a non-traditional manner.

here's what we've done so far:
i've talked to my nurse practioner about various testing and preparation for conception. she was encouraging, albeit not extremely helpful. i don't think it was because she didn't want to. i think it was more she wasn't entirely sure how to proceed. and i'm feeling just as clueless.

i have a book called "lesbian guide to conception, pregnancy, and birth". great book given to us by good friends. it can be a little overwhelming. i'm trying to pare it down. i feel like i need a specific checklist of "to do's".

i am taking my temperature every morning when i wake up (suggested in the book and lots of other places). i have a basal thermometer, but i don't think it's necessary. i think you can just use a regular digital read therm. with a memory. it's suggest to to a temp. reading for three months in order to figure out your ovulation cycle. i'm not sure if it matters what time you do the reading. i don't exactly wake up at the same time every morning :)

i'm keeping a journal with my temp. and details about my day and body. you are able to tell when your ovulating by being aware of physical changes. like any changes down under (i'm not even sure how much i can talk about this on a blog ???). also sleep patterns, sex/desires, food, dreams- all interesting stuff. it's amazing what your body is telling you, we just need to tune in.

to do next:
talk to our friends that had twin boys a couple years ago (lesbian couple) for local connections and advice.

find a midwife. i'd like to do a natural birth, possibly at home. i'm getting a little nervous about the home birth part. we'll see about that.

find a bank.

keep saving our money!

phew, well here's to a new year with new experiences!