How did you go about organising a donor? What sorts of things did you need to know from him, and how did you go about it, did you need to draw up any contracts, did you go through the clinic for the insemination, or did you do it yourself, how did you prepare yourself for the pregnancy, fertility drugs, vitamins, how many attempts until you fell pregnant? sorry hahaha lots to ask

:-) yes it is all a bit of a military operation... lots of choices, lots of decisions, and then lots of technicalities to make it all happen... so my story is :
I had heard about a lovely man who was smart and successful but loved to travel and be free and thus was not interested in a family. So I arranged to meet him and asked him if he would consider being a donor, and luckily he was thrilled with the idea. He loved the opportunity to know that he had a child in the world, but with no responsibility or ties. He was willing to accept having no rights either as the compliment to this. So we discussed the nitty gritty and the research and realities.
I was quite clear that conception would be by self insemination as the legal implications are very different to conceiving the old fashioned way. Technically if you have sex, then he is the legal father - if you do it with a jar - he's a donor. He wanted to understand all of the legal ramifications so I put together a summary from internet research. I am in QLD and essentially this state has no current legislation - its up to the courts. Other states have bits of legislation but none of it is comprehensive yet. There is a legal precident case that I found from the High Court of Australia which found that a donor was not a legal parent for the purposes of child support requirements.
So we drew up a contract - there are many samples and examples available on the internet (google donor contracts, sperm donor contracts etc) and we simply adapted a few bits to suit us. The minimum legal requirement is that the donor agrees to be contactable by the child after he/she turns 18 and to provide genetic information if she requires it (health history etc). My contract stated that the minimum requirement was that they meet at least once - but we agreed verbally that there would be the option of regular contact if we were all comfortable at the time. This was dependant on what what in the child's best interest - as decided by me until she is 18 - and he has no right to any more than the one meeting unless I and my daughter agree. By the same token he has no obligation for more unless he agrees. In reality - we have become good friends and will be seeing a fair bit of each other - but the contract covers worst case scenario. There is, of course, no financial responsibility in any way. We decided that he would come to the hospital after the birth and meet the baby - he was initially wary of this in case it made him feel too bonded, but he was glad afterwards and is very excited about her - and very supportive of me...but from a comfortable distance. He went on an overseas trip a week after the birth. I guess his view is that he gets the good bits without any of the hard work (to visit and see photos and to know we are happy to hang out when he is around)... so he is happy...and I am happy because I have my precious child and no pressure from him in any way. It is clear that I am the parent and he has no say in anything at the end of the day. I was so lucky to find a really great donor - but I have also covered my back in case anything ever goes pear shaped.
The other aspect of the arrangement that we agreed on was that he would not be named on the birth certificate. This is a slight shame as he is from another country and she would have been able to get another passport - but this protects everyone from any potential issues - and stops the risk that the child support agency would pursue him for maintenance regardless of my wishes. It can always be changed later if we decide to, perhaps after she is 18. So her birth certificate will say Donor or Father Unknown...I am not sure, I haven't received it yet.
When I went to centrelink to sign up for Family Tax Benefit, Baby Bonus etc I also put Donor in all the "father" boxes and I just had to have a brief appointment with the social worker to explain and get an exemption from child support processed. They were all fine with it though, and apologetic for any inconvenience :-)
In terms of the technicalities - I did work with a fertility clinic for assistance with monitoring my cycles. They are not allowed to inseminate with fresh sperm however, due to the HIV risks, and my donor's little fellas did not freeze well (nor did I want to wait 6 months while they quarantined the sample) so I did an "off the record" home insemination. My doctor was wonderful and noted that I was "cycle tracking in preparation for IVF" which allowed me to have regular blood tests, ultrasounds etc without the fact that I was doing home insemination being on the books. The clinic cannot take liability for the fact that no matter how careful you are at home there is still a risk of HIV or other infections because it still relies on the trust you have in your donor. In order to protect yourself you need you donor to have an HIV (and other STD's) test and then abstain from any risk behaviours for 3 months, then have another test. If both tests are positive then you can proceed, trusting that he takes no risks during that time either. Some clinics are now recommending 6 months but I think that is overkill as the standard window period in which HIV does not show up is 3 months. This is really important as if the donor has been infected then during the first three months he is at his most dangerously infectious... but will test negative - because he has not yet developed the antibodies that are detected in the test. This is the bit that the websites such as free donors.com do not do... they rely on one negative blood test to say that the person is HIV free - and this is simply scary.
ok - this is getting really long so I will try and answer your other questions a bit more briefly :-)
Self insemination - I used a new yellow top specimen jar for him to provide the sperm in, and a 1-3 ml syringe barrel (no needle obviously) to insert the sperm. I also got from my doctor a thin tube that attaches to the end of the syringe to get the sperm up higher. Its not easy tracking down the syringes but they are free/cheap from chemists - not withstanding the looks some of them gave me!
I was successful on my 4th cycle - and did insemination the day before and the day after ovulation each cycle. My doctor would tell me the exact day that I would ovulate from morning blood tests each day leading up to when I was likely to ovulate. If your cycle is very regular you may not need this. There are lots of websites that show you how to chart your ovulation cycle by watching mucus and doing daily temperature readings. You can buy the home ovulation test kits but I found them an expensive option. Oddly it was the only cycle in which I definitely did not feel pregnant and I was already planning the next insemination date when I got my positive test result!
I didn't use fertility drugs (although I have in the past on a previous attempt - they made me feel crazy!) but I was planning to on the next cycle. I had a script for Clomid - but I had put it off because it makes me very emotional and because it increases the risk of twins by promoting more eggs to be released. I had some ultrasounds initially to check that my eggs were coming out of the follicles properly and all was flowing smoothly...and I had a procedure with a long and forgettable name which flushed out my follopian tubes with dye and tested that they were not blocked or restricted.
Vitamins - I found that cenovis pregnancy formula was the cheapest and the only one that didn't make me nauseous... its good for preconception as well. I also had accupuncture leading up to ovulation to promote fertility.
Anything else you would like to know? Happy to share!
Rhianon