Getting into the swing of things

Last weekend we did our counselling at the clinic for pursuing using a donor. It is legislated that every couple who uses a donor has to have counselling to cover the different aspects of donor conception, from telling the child, to making sure that both partners want to do this (that I hadn't dragged Murray along kicking and screaming!), to learning about the legalities involved (eg our names will be on the birth certificate as per any other birth). At the end the counsellor decideds whether we are suitable to use donor sperm which thankfully we were! One small hurdle crossed.

Then we met with the Donor Coordinator, which we were really excited about. However it ended up being really boring. We had a piece of paper with a section for both of our heights, weight, eye colour and hair colour which they will use to put together the closest donor profiles for us. After being told that there would be no waiting list to start using a donor, now apparently there is approximately a three month waiting list. Which is frustrating, and in the past I would have had a tantrum about it, but right now I am really focusing on getting myself ready for this.

Speaking of which, I have finally gone the whole hog and am starting chinese herbs. Just across the road from my new work, there is a tiny little acupuncture place which I stopped into yesterday. The guy there straight away picked up on the baby stuff and I decided to have some acupuncture done. This wasn't the ordinary acupuncture that I was used to though. The guy put four round needles into my ear and covered them with tape! Scared the crap out of me (and it did hurt a little bit when he did it), but it is actually kind of cool now. I have to keep them in for a week or so and see him again in two weeks. You can see on the ear map below that the two points he put in were for more ovaries and uterus (I had to look it up afterwards because I couldn't understand his accent during the consult!) 

I have also given in and am trying Chinese Herbs. The two that I am taking are 'Xue Fu Zhu Yu Wan' and 'Mai Wei Di Huang Wan', as well as some tea that I am yet to try because it is freaking me out! Luckily the herbs are in a pill form so easy to swallow and no major smell or taste. I've never been a big believer in herbs but I guess I can't really judge until I've tried it myself, and if I'm willing to give myself needles and other drugs, I should try this too. The dr brought out a huge folder of thankyou cards and letters of recommendation from women he has helped to get pregnant, and a lot of them had been doing ivf or were infertile, so I am encouraged that this may just be the boost we need.