Thursday, March 29, 2007

Progress!

Yesterday I got my medication schedule emailed to me from the clinic! Yippee!! I guess that means I am now officially cycling! I will be starting meds on April 9th. Unfortunately, those meds are injectibles - icky! Although I have been told by many surros that this injection is not bad. It's the progesterone ones that are painful. You know, the ones I have to do for 10 weeks - oh yay :-P

On another note, it seems as if everyone in my family is starting to feel better. I feel 100x better than I did on Monday. Paul still has a nasty cough but seems to be doing better. And Shayla was in a much better mood yesterday and slept through the night last night - good girl!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Not again!

Well, we were all sick AGAIN this past weekend. We all had coughs and head colds. Shayla was up until almost 4am Sunday night (Monday morning). So, between her being up all night and my being sick, I decided to take the day off work. It was wonderful to be able to sleep in and then veg on the couch and watch movies all day. Unfortunately, Shayla was a banshee on Monday evening. She screamed, threw hissy fits, punched and kicked for almost 3 hours straight. That's when we decided to take her to the emergency room. We knew something wasn't right. After only 2 hours in the ER (sad that 2 hours isn't a lot, isn't it?) we were sent home with a prescription for a strong antibiotic for her. Turns out her ear infection either never cleared up all the way or came back with a vengence. She slept well on Monday night, thank goodness! Tuesday she was pretty good. She was kind of clingy and cranky but that was nothing compared to the few days before. She did not want to sleep last night at all. We kept getting her out of her crib and letting her sit in the living room with us to try and get her tired. Finally, when we went to bed at midnight, she seemed to be tired enough to go to sleep. She didn't sleep the whole night through but she didn't keep me up much either, so I can't complain. All I can do is hope that the antibiotics are starting to work on that ear infection so my poor baby can finally get back to the happy baby she usually is!!

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Ding Dong!

Ding Dong, the witch is here, the wicked witch. Ding dong, the wicked witch is here!!

Yep, aunt flow arrived right on schedule this morning. I never thought I would be so happy for her to visit!! So I start my birth control pills (which I did finally get on Friday, by the way) tomorrow! Yippee!! Can you tell I'm excited? ;-)

And I had a wonderful day today with my sister. We went to Babies R Us to register for all her baby stuff. It was so much fun! I can't wait to start buying a ton of stuff for my nephew!! :-)

Friday, March 23, 2007

Completely Off Topic

Ok, this has nothing to do with surrogacy but I had to share -- my sister just got back from her big ultrasound! The baby is happy, healthy, looking great, and ALL BOY!! Yippee!! I'm having a nephew!! :-)

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Complete Bliss

So this 'calm' hit me today. It happened when I realized just how happy I am with my life.

I have a great family -- I have a wonderful, loving, completely supportive husband. He is by my side through thick and thin. He loves me more than anyone could ever love someone. He is a gift. I have a beautiful little girl that I get to watch grow into a little person more every day. She's so smart. I could sit there and watch her play for hours. It seems like she learns something new every minute.

I love my house - it's so charming, so beautiful. I'm lucky that we found it when we did. It's a beautiful OLD house that is still in great shape. It still has original radiators, windows, some doors, bathroom sink and clawfoot tub, floors, walls, etc. All of this stuff is 150 years old and still in beautiful condition.

I have a great job that I enjoy going to. A lot of people would hate my job. There are so many small projects every day. But it comes easily to me. I could do my job with my hand tied behind my back. My co-workers are awesome. We sit around and talk about everything and nothing all at once. We have fun at work, which is something I've never really experienced before.

And last but certainly not least, I get to embark on this amazing journey. I get to watch a couple grow into a family. I get to make their dreams come true. It's not every day that someone can say that they made someone else's dream come true. It's a truly amazing feeling.

I am blessed. My life is so wonderful right now. I hope it stays this way forever <3

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Argh

There isn't much going on in the surrogacy world this week as M&M are sitting on a beach drinking something wonderful, I'm sure. About the only thing I can report is my unhappiness with the clinic today. Last week the coordinator asked for the name and # of my pharmacy so she could call in the birth control prescription for me. I went to the pharmacy today and she never called it in! It's been a week lady! So I emailed her asking her to please call it in and I still haven't heard from her. I guess I need to call her tomorrow (which I don't really like doing -- I prefer emailing her so she can answer me when she has time and isn't rushed while on the phone).

I told my sister-in-law (my brother's wife - so MY family) over the weekend that I was going to be a surrogate; she seemed excited. My mother-in-law announced it to the whole family while we were sitting there eating our St. Patrick's Day dinner -- needless to say I was not too pleased. I'm not particularly close with my husband's family AND some of my mother-in-laws friends were there - I don't even know them!! I guess everyone was going to find out sooner or later anyway, I just would have rather it been after I got pregnant!! I was only planning on telling those closest to me beforehand (pretty much the people that already know - my mom, my sister, my boss, a couple of friends). I figured everyone else could find out after the fact because I don't really want to hear their opinions. I am doing this and nothing they say is going to change it; I figured why even tell them until it would be too late for them to voice their negative opinions and try to change my mind, know what I mean? Not that they COULD change my mind, but at that point they would *know* they couldn't change my mind. Eh whatever, no one gave me a hard time about it so I guess I should just be thankful.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Snow? What do you mean, snow?!?

Well, M&M left this morning for a beautiful, sunny vacation. I'm jealous! It's sleeting here! And they are calling for up to 5 inches of snow by morning. Ugh. It was just 75 degrees 2 days ago!!!

I don't want it to snow tonight. We are supposed to be going to my parent's house tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day. It's a big deal for me. My family and my husband's family are both very Irish. And I got my first positive pregnancy test on St. Patrick's Day in 2005. 2 years has gone by since I found out I was having my baby! I can't believe how quickly it has gone! And I would love to share the story for those of you who don't know it already:

My husband and I had been TTC for a long time. I had gone in for laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery to remove a septate wall and endometriosis in November 2004. We started trying again in January 2005. Every month we were TTC I always thought I was pregnant and then I would get crushed when I got that negative test and aunt flow reared her ugly head. In Feb/March of 2005 I knew I wasn't pregnant. It was the first time in the 2 years we had been TTC that I actually didn't have any symptoms. I wasn't even going to bother testing. But I woke up on St. Patrick's Day and decided I had to pee on a stick just because of the special day that it was. I peed on the test, put it down, washed my hands, let the dog out, and came back to look at it. I looked, said "yep, that figures" and threw it in the trash. It wasn't until I was a few steps out of the bathroom that it registered with my brain that there were 2 lines there!! I ran back in the bathroom and grabbed the test from the garbage. When I saw that it was indeed positive I fell to the floor crying tears of joy. I WAS FINALLY PREGNANT!! I will never forget that day as long as I live. And it just makes it even more special that it was St. Patrick's Day! <3

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

We have a tentative transfer date!! Woohoo! After emailing back and forth with the coordinator at the clinic, she has given me a possible transfer date of May 7th! I'm so excited, it is taking everything I have not to dance around my office right now - haha!

Turns out the other coordinator that I spoke with on Friday didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Yes, I have to go on birth control pills. However, the protocol is for a transfer 6 weeks from the start of the pill, which is the first/second week in May - which is exactly when we were looking to transfer anyway. So it all works out. :-)

The only bad part of all of this is that I'm on really gross antibiotics for the next 9 days. Turns out during all of my testing they found a bacterial infection that is supposedly very common. I asked a nurse friend of mine about it and he said it usually comes from a UTI that was not treated. But the antibiotics they have me on make me want to hurl! I have a very specific way of taking them which helps with the nausea but it doesn't make it completely go away. I eat, wait a 1/2 hour, then chug a half a bottle of Gatorade, take the pill, and chug the other half of the Gatorade. I look really silly at work sitting there chugging a bottle of Gatorade - lol!! In the long run, it doesn't matter. I'll do whatever I have to in order to give M&M a baby, so if it means taking nasty pills, then that's what I'll do. =-) Besides, I'll be sticking myself in the ass with a huge needle everyday for 8 weeks after the transfer, so I guess some nasty pills right now are pretty tame compared to that!

Friday, March 9, 2007

Always something!

It seems there is always something that throws a wrench in my plans! I called the clinic today to find out what the next step is and the coordinator (who was quite rude, by the way) told me I had to call her on day 1 of my cycle to start birth control pills. When I told her that my cycle wasn't going to be starting until the end of the month and we were looking to do a fresh transfer end of April / beginning of May she says "well, you aren't going to be ready by then so you will have to do a frozen transfer". Uhh...you can't just decide what I am or am not doing without talking to M&M!! So I told her that this would be a problem, that we pushed really hard to get everything done by now so that we would be able to do this when the ED triggers. She says "I don't know what to tell you". So I told her that the Dr. I had seen twice in the last two weeks told me that we would have no problem with a fresh transfer in the timeframe we were giving...so why is it a problem now? So she gets extremely rude to me and tells me she is going to have to ask someone else there if they can skip the birth control pills for me and just start me on the meds with my next cycle. Uuuggh!! I really, really hope the other person there says that I can skip the pills!!! *fingers crossed*

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Moving Forward

Yesterday was a LONG day. First my daughter was up half the night because of an ear infection. Then I went to the clinic in the morning for my sonohysterogram. Semi-painful, but mostly just uncomfortable. They put a balloon catheder in my uterus and filled me with water and did a sonogram. This let them see my uterine cavity to check for scar tissue, polyps, fibroids, etc. She said my uterus was in perfect condition - no problems at all - woohoo!!

Then I went to a hospital imaging center for the second test, the hysterosalpinogram (HSG). During this test they inject dye through a catheder in your cervix; the dye travels through the uterus and into the fallopian tubes allowing them to find any scar tissue in the tubes. Apparently I have a cervix of steel because they couldn't get the catheder through. She would just get it in, start the test, and then it would fall out. They had to poke me with that stupid thing 4 times. She even had to "pinch" my cervix to get it through - can we say OUCH! After 45 minutes of torturing me, leaving me crying and bleeding on the table, they decided they couldn't do the test. So, all that fun for nothing.

The doctor talked to M&M and explained pros and cons to them about going forward without this test being performed. After talking about it, they decided to just keep going. We've gone this far, the first test had great results, and the odds of my tubes causing a problem with an IVF pregnancy are slim - so onward we go! :-D

The only concern is that my stupid doctor's office will not return my calls to give me a copy of my blood test results. The clinic needs those results to take the next step. My babysitter's daughter is sick today so Shayla is home. I decided to take a 1/2 day so I could take care of her, and so I can go to my doc's office and demand my test results. Hopefully they will realize that not calling me back is not going to make me go away. I NEED these results and I won't stop until I get them! And as soon as I have them, I am changing doctors. I cannot stand them. It takes forever to get in for an appointment, when you are there it is always a minimum of 2 hours before you get done, and they don't return phone calls. They are horrible! So, I'm going to switch docs within the next week or two.

So, that's my update for today. I would like to thank all of you that were thinking of me yesterday. It was nice knowing so many people love and support me through all of this. <3

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Judgement Day

Well tomorrow is the new judgement day. I really need to stop being so nervous about these things - lol! Hopefully tomorrow is the last time we'll have this "waiting for the final answer" thing happening.

Of course it really, really stinks that they are calling for 3 inches of snow sometime in the late morning - early afternoon....ya know, right when all my testing is being done! So now I not only have to drive home from this painful test, but I have to do it in the snow! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the weatherpeople are wrong about this storm.

I emailed the egg donor today to ask about the dates of the retrieval. I also apologized for bothering her...I always feel like I am intruding on people or even annoying them. I guess that's why I am usually not the one to initiate contact with anyone -- I don't want to bother them. Instead I sit around waiting for people to call me -- I need to get over that. Anyway, back to the original point here. She seems very nice and told me I am not bothering her at all and to feel free to ask her any questions I may have. Phew! Looks like the retrieval will be anywhere from 4/27-5/3 so the transfer would be anywhere from 4/30-5/8. Which is actually perfect timing for me. I was getting worried because both of my backups at work are on vacation 4/23-4/27 and it would be sooo hard for me to convince my bosses to let me off work for the transfer during that time (I would have done it, it just would have been hard). So it looks like the transfer is going to take place after they are back and I won't have a problem getting a few days off. Yippee!!

Monday, March 5, 2007

Updates

Well that was a rough weekend!! Paul, Shayla and I were all sick the whole weekend! We all started feeling a little better yesterday so we took a ride to Costco just to get out of the house. They had pregnancy tests on sale, so of course I had to buy a pack with hopes of everything going smoothly on Wednesday. I have POAS addiction already and I'm not even close to the transfer yet - lol!!

I'm starting to get nervous about Wednesday. I keep reminding myself that I have no control over the amount of scarring in my uterus so I have no reason to be nervous...but it doesn't help. And it also doesn't help that it's supposed to snow on Wednesday!! Grrrr!

If everyone out there in bloggerland could please keep us in your thoughts on Wednesday, it would be greatly appreciated :-D

Friday, March 2, 2007

My day of pampering...

..has been postponed. I wanted to go get my nails done, eyebrows waxed, get my hair cut, and possibly a pedicure yesterday after my appointment but my entire family got sick instead! Ugh! So instead of a day of pampering I got a day of taking care of a sick baby while feeling crappy myself. Fun, fun! And we're all still sick today. Paul called out of work to take care of Shayla and I'm just barely making it through my day at work. So I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow so I can at least go get my nails done in the morning (I have my priorities people - lol!!).

Maybe I'll go get my hair cut on Wednesday after my procedures. Although I probably will just want to come home, take some Motrin, and go to bed - haha! All I know is I need to go get my hair cut soon - it's getting way too long!!

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Thumbs up for now!

I went to the clinic today for my consultation with the doctor. She was very nice...actually, everyone there was very nice. It was refreshing finally going to a doctor where the staff actually seem to care about you!!

We sat down and went over my medical records, over the process of surrogacy, what this journey would entail, etc. She wasn't concerned with any of the minor problems I had during my pregnancy. The only concern she had was the laporoscopy and hysteroscopy I had prior to getting pregnant with Shayla. She just wants to be sure that I don't have any major scar tissue build up in my uterus and/or tubes. I asked her why the tubes mattered since I was being a gestational carrier, not a traditional carrier and she said they most likely wouldn't make a difference. However, she would like to err on the side of caution and check them anyway; she said in very rare instances a woman with blocked tubes could have fluid build-up which could eventually leak into the uterus and cause problems for a pregnancy. Sooo, lucky me, I get to go for 2 not-so-fun tests in one day - woohoo! :-P I'm pretty sure the doctors exact words were "a day of torture" - haha!!

As long as everything goes well on Wednesday, we will be moving forward. The doctor said she sees no problem with syncing my cycle with the egg donors cycle for a late April transfer - yippee!! M&M could become daddies as early as January!!! :-D