My photo
I'm a wife, mom, and gestational surrogate. I've been blessed to be able to have 2 beautiful daughters of my own and 2 cute little surro babes for IPs. With the support of my WONDERFUL family and friends, I'm doing it again!! Follow me on my journey...

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Quick Update

On Friday, Kevin and I made the 3 hour drive to the RE's clinic for my baseline ultrasound appointment. I still don't understand why I couldn't have this done at my monitoring clinic. I mean, the appointment lasted all of 2 minutes, but whatever! The Dr did the ultrasound and some measurements and said "everything looks good". That was literally it...oh, the best part of the appointment was seeing this...

"Sheathes" AKA unwrapped condoms filled with blue jelly...
Lol, I know I'm a dork, but I just thought seeing this was funny...and odd...
ANYWAY...so we were on our way out and the nurse stopped us to tell us that we needed to go to the lab to get blood drawn because our previous blood work was about to expire next month. Ugh.
If you've been following me long enough then you know how much I detest getting my blood drawn! It seems something always "happens"...and this time was no different.
Kevin and I got to the lab and when I was called back the lady (a big burly lady, yikes!) was clearly in a rush; I don't think she would have even addressed me had I not said "good afternoon" to her. Nonetheless I told her that I have small veins (which most other phlebotomists know means to use a smaller needle) and she still pulls out this 'big mama' needle! I should have said something to her again, but I just told myself "ok apparently she knows what she's doing"...ummm..apparently NOT! When I say it hurt, that's an understatement. She started moving the needle around inside my arm and it took all of me not to kick her! So of course the tears started and she said "do you want me to stop? I said yes because at that point my arm was literally burning! So she had to go to the other arm. Ugh. It wasn't bad on that side, but now I was already sobbing and was ready for it to be over! I felt like a loser , but dammit, that sh** hurt!!
After I was done being tortured by Paul Bunyan's sister, Kevin went in, but all went well with him of course.
We left there and headed back home and that's about it! :-) I'll start estradiol Monday and we'll be moving right along. Not much longer 'til Feb. 19th!!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Thank you

Oftentimes in a surrogacy journey it is the surrogate herself that is given the praise and recognition for "the great gift she is giving", without much thought given to the people "behind the scenes".
Today I'd just like to say Thank You to all of the wonderful people that have helped me, encouraged me, and motivated me throughout this entire process.
To my dear friends that have been brave enough to give me shots when I didn't have the courage. Who've been there when I've had complete meltdowns for no apparent reason (we'll blame it on the hormones!), and who continue to support me and cheer me on even when they think I'm completely nuts!
To my mom, I can't say thank you enough. From taking care of the kids while Kevin & I had to go out of town, to taking off of work (for a week!) to fly with me to my transfer, to giving me my PIO shot in an airport bathroom! You've done so much for me during this journey I've chosen to undertake and I will forever be grateful.
To my 'granny', you have been a God-send too! I don't know what I'd do without you being so supportive. You haven't complained once about extending your "day care" hours to accommodate my crazy surrogacy schedule. You're the best Granny ever! :-)
To my beautiful girls, you two are awesome!! I know that sometimes you question why I have to go out of town to "get a baby in my tummy", but you two are some of the most understanding kids I know and I'm so lucky to have you. You know how much this means to mommy and you've always supported me 110%! I will never forget it.  
Last, but especially not least, thank you to my wonderfully, amazing, husband!!! Without you by my side during this journey there's no way I would have made it. You've been there for me through 2 failed transfers and a miscarriage; allowing me to cry, question, and vent all of my emotions onto you. I know it's tough just to deal with this self-proclaimed Diva on a normal day, so I can only imagine how you feel when I'm really hormonal! And I know that you have your reservations about me putting my body through all of the stuff it has to go through to achieve a pregnancy, but you've voiced your concerns and have still been able to support me whole-heartedly, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Although I'd love to take all the credit for being the "surrogate", the truth is that it takes a team; I couldn't do it without them. And I have to say, I'm truly blessed with the best team ever!!! Thank you all so much!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Been a while, right?

I know you missed me. :-) I just haven't had anything to really "report", but today I do!

I got a call yesterday, I picked up and the lady on the other end was like "Hi, this is Blahbadee blah from blahbadee blah Pharmacy and I'd like to schedule the shipment of your medications"...I was like "ummmm...ok...and who asked you to call me?" I was completely lost for a minute b/c my clinic hadn't called to tell me that I'd be starting meds, so I thought this was one of those illegal pharmacy telemarketing calls, lol. Anywho, after I verified that they were legit, I got really excited!!! My meds will be delivered on Thursday and guess what!?
I start Lupron on Friday!! And guess what else!!?! I got a calendar!! Of course all dates are tentative at this point b/c we have to do the lining checks and the egg retrieval, etc, but if all goes as planned (and I pray it will!) then we will be having a transfer on February 19th (if 3-day transfer) or February 21st (if 5-day transfer)!!
That's only ONE MONTH away!!!! AAHHH!! Can you tell I'm a little excited? :-) I'm nervous too, of course.

Anyway, that's about all I have for ya today! I'll keep you posted.

Short & sweet.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Movin' along

Things are moving right along lately. My fam and I made the 3 hour drive to A-Town on Thursday night. It was actually a good drive. The girls didn't even fall asleep, which was surprising. (probably had something to do with the fact that they borrowed my mom's portable DVD player and had their new Ipods too) Oh, and by the way, thanks Mom for getting them those Ipods; when they have the earbuds in they apparently can't hear anything and obviously can't hear themselves singing either! They won't be on American Idol anytime soon.
Anyway, we made it to M&M's house at exactly 10pm, stayed up and chatted for a little while, then got ready for bed. Kevin and I talked about how we felt, even more so after being there, that M&M will be such great parents. They are so loving and have such open hearts! And the IF is a big kid at heart, it's so funny! (My girls really liked all his toys!) I can't wait to help them fulfill their dream.
So my appointment the next morning went well, just a regular physical and ultrasound. The staff was really nice too. Here's what was freaking me out...you know the Dr. asks all these questions and then he gets to "when was your LMP (last menstral period)?" And I answer meekly "um, Nov 30th"...the Dr. looked at me kinda sideways and was like "hmm, so you're late..." And of course M was there too and was like "um, do we need to get a pregnancy test?" OH DEAR GOD NO!!! Can you imagine how that would have gone down? OMG, I don't even want to. Anywho, so needless to say I was totally schitzing when I had to get the ultrasound cuz now all I had in my head was that there was gonna be a baby there and how the hell would I explain that?! Well nothing was there (not that I really thought there would be, but the thought was placed in my head so of course I took it and ran with it), but then the Dr. was like "oh well it would be too early to see anything anyway. Oh great. Thanks Doc. (I swear he said that just to freak me out!)
Anyway, long story short, I did start my cycle and it's TOTALLY NORMAL to have a late cycle after stopping all those meds. :-) So I'll start my BCP's on Wednesday! And depending on how things are moving along with my IM will determine our schedule. I'm excited! And I'll keep you posted.
TTYL!
**Oh yea....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!*** :-)