Sex Education and Baby Making

Today we had an appointment with Shady Grove Fertility Clinic.  First, let me start by telling you our appointment was two hours long.  That is the actually time we spent with doctors.  So we arrive on-time with coffees and notebook in hands, prepared to just collect some basic information on what we needed to do and what the steps were to this whole baby making process.  Our doctor must have figured that since we were lesbian, we had no idea how babies were made and proceeded to tell us in great detail how 'it' happens.  Seriously, it was like 7th grade health class all over again including diagrams.  LOL.  Yes, the doctor drew us a picture of the sperm swimming up to meet the egg.  The doctor then told us all the statics involved in conceiving a baby. Some facts we learned - you only have a 48 to 72 hour window each month to conceive, most pregnancies end in miscarriage, and even when the sperm fertilizes the egg it only has a 25% chance of implanting.  It's a miracle any babies are ever born!  After our sex education lesson, we were moved to another room to meet our nurse.  She went through a folder full of papers with us covering everything you could ever want to know about having a clinic get you pregnant.  From the basic cost to the steps to what happens if I don't get pregnant after four cycles.  We learned that we both needed what seemed like 5 million tests which we would have to get done at our PCP's office, because of the whole insurance issue.  A silver lining, a way to screw the insurance company, to trick them into covering some of my fertility treatment.  Shady Grove had learned that in situations such as ours that if they preform the necessary blood work the insurance company denies coverage because of the Shady Grove logo.  However if our PCP orders the tests and blood work, it's cover completely by our insurance.  Really?? Insurance companies are stupid. So after meeting with our nurse and learning about this nice little loophole, we met with the money lady.  She detailed the cost of having a baby.  Surprisingly, not as much as we thought.  Office visit for each try is only $155.  Sperm much more - between $450 and $650.  But for two people who thought it would be about $2,000 for each cycle, $800 per cycle was a nice number to hear.  Needless, to say I left the office feeling a mixture of emotions.  Scared, overwhelmed, nervous, excited, overwhelmed.  The feeling that stood out the most was being overwhelmed.  We had a list that was a mile long of things that needed to get done.  Seriously, if everyone had to do all these things there would be a whole lot less unwanted kids in this world.