Some of you might remember I posted here asking for advice over a month ago on birth control options, and decided on the Paragard IUD. Well, I finally got it and I'm actually pretty cramp-free right now (four hours later)!

What took so long was a series of mishaps and mis-communication between me and Planned Parenthood. First time I went in, they told me they could insert that day but I declined (oops) thinking that I'd go in when I had my period. I was told at that point that I could do a walk-in when I started bleeding.

Well, my period was late (which freaked me out) and the Saturday I was going to go in there was a huge storm which knocked out power to half the city. So I waited. When I called that Monday, I was told that a walk-in wasn't possible and that I'd have to make an appointment. Nothing worked for me; the only appointments they had open were 2 weeks in the future and on the dates that my sister and parents were visiting. I wasn't going to risk cramping and bleeding on the days that my family wanted to visit and work on our new house (we're doing a lot of heavy work on the floors and walls).

So I ended up waiting 3 weeks for the next appointment date... got there and they told me that because I had told them I'd had sex recently and used withdrawl, they would not put it in until I had my NEXT period, just to be sure I wasn't pregnant. Period came, went in again... doctor wasn't there. At this point (this was Tuesday), I was laughing about it because it just couldn't get any more absurd. They re-scheduled me for today with a lot of apologies; and I was the first one in this morning. Wooo!

So I -finally- have it, and the doctor told me that it was the easiest, most relaxed insertion she's done in a long time. I laughed and said that I was just ready to get it done with, having been there too many times already!

Insertion was painful, but the worst part was getting my uterus measured before she put it in. OW. And 4 hours later, either the Midol hasn't worn off or my cramps are nonexistent. I'm loving this; if I continue to be cramp-free up to my period, I'll never take this thing out!