Snuggle time!

We did it! What an awesome experience this has been. We got there and went in the back to get ready. I took a valum to help relax my uterus before the transfer. Then got dressed in my cap and gown. Bryan got to put on scrubs too and he looked mighty fine! The owner from the agency came to be with me too and her support meant the world to me. We all talked and laughed and had a good time.
I told Bryan yesterday that I had a dream that I was told I was pregnant with a girl which I thought was interesting because I was dreaming about some one else's baby. I have been right about my own pregnancies, but some one else and before even being pregnant... Odd
So the Dr. Came in and told us that out of the 6 embies 2 passed the PGD testing! Hooray! This means they are very healthy and I have a very small chance of a miscarriage and high chance of a great pregnancy. He then let us know that due to the PGD testing they can tell the gender of the embies (which is amazing) and they are both girls! My dream was right! So we went in to the operating room, which was nice and cold and laid down on the operating table. The nurse put a nice warm blanket over me and the showed us the picture of the embies. One was completely hatched and the other was just starting to hatch. We took a picture before the procedure then got started. It was very quick. They insert a catheter in the cervix
Then in the catheter are the embryos. They then release them in to the uterus way up.  After that they tilt the bed so that I'm at a slight angel with my head down and I lay there for 30 mins.
After that we headed home and I am so tired from the valum I passed out on the drive. It's been a good relaxing day and I am excited to start POAS! AKA Peeing On A Stick.

Transfer Day!

Today is the day! I slept well and feel positive and excited about this transfer. We had 11 embies on Friday and as of yesterday 6 have continued to grow well and have undergone PGD testing. We will know when we get there how many actually pass the test. The good news is after the testing there is a higher chance of a successful pregnancy! I have butterflies in my stomach.
So my understanding is the procedure is going to take 10 mins, then I have to lay at an angle with my head lower than my abdomen for 30 mins. Then it's back home for bed rest till Wednesday.

Sending out prayers and good vibes for a positive visit. <3

Gold Star **

Right now is 2am and I am rocking my Lil one and realized I haven't written all the details of the past few weeks. Which have been wonderful! So here is a time line of events:

7/7- I have been taking Lupron daily and Delestrogen on Mondays and Thursdays. At this point I have only had 2 shots of the Delestrogen. I had a monitoring appointment to check my uterine lining and make sure it is getting thick. Typically after you ovulate your body starts to make a lining in your uterus for the egg, which has become a fertilized embryo, a nice cozy place to snuggle in and grow. A good number to see at this point is an 8. Anything more than that is great! If for some reason your number is a little less, well you still have time for it to change and get better, hopefully with out needing extra medication. When she checked my lining it was at a 12!!!!! The doctor tools me I get a Gold star for how well my body is responding to the meds. This made me so happy and relieved that my body was responding so well to the medication and I felt this was the beginning to great news all around.

 

 

 

7/14 - I had another lining check to see how my lining was doing and to make sure my blood work looked good.  If all is well then I would begin my daily injections of Progesterone.  The main Dr. was the one to actually check me and see how I was progressing.  He said he was extremely pleased with how well I am doing.  My lining was now at a 15 and was a triple line. When you have a triple line it means your uterus is nice and 'fluffy' and ready for an embryo.  It will look like a feather in pattern. This is great news for the embies to be.  They will have a wonderful cozy place to snuggle in and grow!

 

I was then told that the egg retrieval would be the following day from the donor and then fertilized.  From there we would know on Friday how many eggs were growing well and would go on to have the PGD testing done.  This is to make sure that there are no genetic issues.  This testing will be done on Sunday.  This is a hard test to pass and after speaking with the other surrogates, usually only 1 out of 10 pass this testing.  However the success rate of a good pregnancy increases when this testing is done.  I won't know this news until Monday morning when we get to the doctors office.

 

7/18 - I had to give blood and make sure that my Progesterone levels were looking good. 

 

7/19 - I got an email from my IM saying that they have 11 embryos growing well and will be tested the next day!!  I am very excited that we have such a great number.  This increases our odds of one passing the PGD testing.  Now if they have two that look good, then two will be implanted, but I am just crossing my fingers for one good one!

 

7/20 - Today the testing will be done and tomorrow is transfer day along with 3 days of bed rest. I am getting really excited about Monday.  Today is going to be a good easy day. I need to relax and enjoy the day and the family.

 

Shots, shots, shots

*This was actually written on July 4th.*
Well I had my first self intramuscular injection last night and boy was I nervous. Right now I'm starting with Delestrogen and only do this injection on Mondays and Thursdays.  I watched a video of how to do it 5 times before I did it just to make sure I would not mess up! I was so nervous. I made sure to ice the area first so I wouldn't feel the needle go in. Warmed the medication that was in the syringe to help the oil (the medication is oil based) go in easier. Put on the new smaller needle (some surrogates have not changed there needle to the smaller one and I can't imagine how much that hurt!) and located the area the nurses marked for me.
Then injected myself!  I did it! And it wasn't bad at all! Now I'm ready for when I have to do daily Progesterone injections. Oh boy!

It's getting real

So what has happened since my trip to SD and back?  A LOT! 

Well, got my contracts, reviewed them and had to get them finalized.  Note to self (and you if you want to be a surrogate) Make sure you have your bases covered. Or as they say in Big Brother ~ Expect the Unexpected!! Expect you will be pregnant with twins and will have to go on bed rest.  What will that mean for you? Child care cost, lost of wages cost, house cleaning cost, if your significant other has to take time of work cost. Yes make sure you have ALL of that covered!!  Do not sign if you don't.  If you don't think you will be able to make things work and this becomes a financial strain on you then it will cause problems.  That is not something you want when you are trying to do something to help another family.  If you don't want to have to worry about this, then only sign up to transfer a SET (Single Embryo Transfer). Just ONE baby. Although things could still happen, then chances of it go WAY down!!  Some things were not very clear to me.  The agency gave me a benefit sheet to sign that gave me the breakdown of cost but it wasn't my contract.  So I figured this was the basic information and anything extra could be discussed.  Well I was wrong.  This was put in the contract and not up for discussion.  Now that may seem crappy, but I will say that things change for me (the IPs) and went quickly so I am not sure if this would have been discussed more otherwise. I didn't sign the contract right away.  I contacted other surrogates and asked a lot of questions.  One even allowed me to review her contract so I could see how comfortable or not I was with what I had in front of me.  After looking it all over I was relieved.  Some parts of my contract were more flexible then hers.  My compensation would be enough to cover cost should something come up (well according to my calculations) So I moved forward and signed my life away. 

 

 

After that was done I got the thumbs up to start Meds. I was already taking birth control ~ this is to help sync my cycle up with the donor ~ and baby aspirin ~ this is to help the flow of blood to the uterus where the embryo will need to implant.  I need to be nice and "fluffy" in order for the embie to get comfy, settle in and grow! I started with Lupron.  This is a daily injection I give to myself in my stomach. It's actually not bad, doesn't hurt and is easy to do. The only side effect I am having from it is headaches.  I didn't have any for the fist couple of weeks but got my first one this past Thursday and it turned in to a migraine!! Ever since I get one daily and they are annoying. I do to the IVF clinic tomorrow to get my blood checked and ultrasound and if all is well I will start Delestrogen.  This is an injection that I will give myself in my booty.  So tonight I decided to watch a video on it.... 

 

 Yep.... That's how I feel. My mouth dropped open, my eyes popped out, my stomach turned over and over.... I'm not prepared for this injection I have to start giving myself.  I am nervous as heck to do it but I will.  I hear the anticipation for it is harder than actually doing it.  I also have heard there is a trick to doing it so that it is easier on my.  First I need to Ice the area for the injection, heat up the medicine so it goes in easy, rub it in and then put a heating pad on it after .  These are the tricks to make it not hurt so much. I was going to show you a picture of needles but after looking at a few I decided this was best:

 

 

This is a happy place I want to be thinking about instead of those long 1 1/2" Needles.  Well ~ time for bed.  I have a big day tomorrow. 

 





It's a DATE!!

Yesterday I had my medical screening. This was the next "Big" appointment I have been waiting for.  This is the appointment where the take you blood and urine samples, from both Surro and her Significant other.  They do a hysteroscopy to look at my uterus and make sure it looks good to carry a baby.  I was so excited for this day and made sure that I was prepared to go. We drove 2 hours to the Medical Office, which seems like a LONG time, but actually it was a beautiful day out.  The weather was perfect, sunny, in the upper 70's to  low 80's with a nice breeze.  There was a long stretch of road where we could see the ocean and the beach.  It was really peaceful.  Anyhow we got there and filled out all the paperwork, did the blood draw, urine samples and met with the Doctor.  He is super great.  Direct, to the point, funny and calm. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, which made me feel good that I have done my homework.  He asked if I had meet the intended parents and I told him that I only spoke with the Mother.  He told me they are absolutely lovely and I will really like them.  They have been waiting a long time for this and he is happy I am ready to go. The Hysteroscopy was like getting a pap smear, very simple and fast.  He said that I look great!!  No problems and my uterus is ready to bake a cupcake or two!!!  Wooooo Hooooo.  I am very happy, excited and ready to go.  I got to pick up my "Party Bag" to get started.  It was filled with birth control to help sync my cycle with the donor, prenatal pills to start taking and baby aspirin to help with blood flow.  I will start all of these on Sunday June 1st.  Then on June 18th I will start with my first round of shots.  June 20th I will stop my birth control pills.  June 30th I will start another shot (it's hard to read his writing so I can't tell the name) Then have a couple of lining checks on July 7th and July 14th, Transfer will be around July 20th!!  I am so thrilled to be doing this and to finally have a DATE!!!  I was hoping for July because being pregnant in the winter time is the best.  I am my own heater and there is all kinds of yummy food to enjoy.  I am so excited to think that this couple is going to have a baby in a year to hug, hold, snuggle, kiss, love, smell, watch and enjoy.

Afterwards we went out to eat and then drove home after traffic.  The sky looked amazing with a beautiful sunset.

and a few more miles down we saw some hot air balloons. 

It really was a perfect day.  I just know that this is going to work the first try and be an amazing experience to give to someone else.  I can't wait to help this family GROW!!!

Change in my pouch

I have been so busy this past month.  I had a final to finish and evaluations to complete but now they are all done!! Wooo Hoooo!!!

This month has brought a lot of change.  So last time I wrote that I was waiting for the doctor to look at my records and give me a thumbs up.  Well he did!!!  I knew that would happen but was so excited when I got the news on May 1st.  On May 5th I checked in with the agency to see how things were going.  She let me know that all was well and I would be getting my paperwork the next day.  She asked if I had a change to talk with my IM and I said I had not.  She told me it would be great to email her and check in.  I didn't have her email but knew I would get it the next day.  So on Tuesday May 6th I got all the paperwork and reviewed it late in the day.  I decided I would email my IM the next day to see how she was doing.  On Wednesday morning May 7th I got a call from my agency.  Apparently something had come up with my IM and she was going to postpone surrogacy until Sept or Oct.  My heart sank.  By that time it will have been over a year since I started to look in to this process and I really loved them.  I knew right away that I did not want to wait until then.  During one of our meetings I got the feeling the IM was not 100% on board.  I worried that she had some doubt going through her mind but brushed it off.  So glad that she decided to make changes at this point before getting to involved.  My agency said that the time is really interesting because they have another couple who's surrogate back out during meds. Which this is a HUGE shock.  Meds are not simple or easy.  This is a part of the process that I don't look forward too.  Sticking myself with a needle almost every day, gaining weight from those shots, being moody, bitchy, grumpy, having hot flashes, headaches and more...  So for someone to change their mind at that time means something big is happening to them.  So I was asked to look at their profile and see what I think.  Well they look like a sweet couple who is very open minded about everything and about their surros needs. I said I loved their profile and we had a phone meeting set up for the next day.  We spoke for about an hour.  She is a lovely women.  She is from Belgium so not close by, but that is ok.  We can keep in touch via email, phone and Skype. She has been trying for about 9 years to have her own child and has realized that for what ever reason, she is not able to stay pregnant once becoming pregnant and has decided to use donor eggs.  They already have the donor here local to me ready to go.   She asked me a lot of important questions about how I feel about doing this, why and if I would be ok with them being there at delivery.  I said that I had no problem with that but that I really don't want to be induced.  I have had two inductions that they are really hard on my body.  I would really love to go in to labor on my own.  She said she was fine with this and is just excited to meet someone to carry her child.

Since then I have had my psych screening and am on to medical.  I will get my medical screening this Thursday and find out how everything looks.  I will also find out how soon I will be transferring.  I am so excited!!