Post-Transfer

We did finally get to transfer on Saturday morning and of the three, we had two embryos left that morning.  One 5AA blastocyst and another that was progressing well but didn't have a defined inner mass that could be graded.  We transferred both and the transfer went smoothly.  Dr. Wilcox was positive about our chances and said we did all we could to guarantee a successful pregnancy.

So here I wait....

This is a picture of me going, "This damn thing has only moved one minute since the last time I checked it!"  Time is creeeeping by and I'm over-analyzing every twinge and sensation asking myself, "what does that mean?"  I'm still on medications that make you feel pregnant and make your body think it's pregnant so I can't rely on those symptoms.  This is the part that's hard.  It's not hard to carry a baby and hand him/her/them back to their parents.  It's hard to know all of their dreams are in your hands (or uterus) and that you have done everything you can (including wishing, hoping and praying) but all you can do now is wait.  Wait...wait..wait.  There's nothing more you can do right now to help the situation, except maybe let your IPs know that you're waiting too and it's killing you as well! :)  Misery loves company, right? 

So, here's to a few more days of waiting and maybe we'll start testing somewhere along the way and have some early news.  Our beta isn't scheduled until April 4th, which is FOR-EV-ERRRRRRRRRRRRR away, so I hope we get our + well before then!

Stay tuned and keep those positive thoughts coming!!!  We can feel the love! :)

Delayed transfer

Well, we weren't able to transfer yesterday like we'd hoped. The embryos were frozen with a "slow freeze" and that makes the thawing out run a little behind sometimes. So, we are sitting here waiting on the report on the three embryos today and transferring the best two. I'll update after the transfer!!!

We made it to Cali!

Some quick pictures to share with y'all before I head to bed!!! Transfer in the morning!!!

My IPs have been spoiling us silly!!!! California is fantastic! :)

A very surprising message

Well, we are just hours away from leaving for California and I'm feeling excited, impatient, at ease, hopeful, and happy.  I don't feel at all anxious and that's a little surprising, but I guess it's because I just have such a calm about all of this.  I do wish this day would be done, however!  :)

So, I got a surprising message yesterday and while it will not come to fruition for a year or two, if it even happens, it completely made my day!  To protect this person's privacy, I won't disclose much as it's not my place to accounce someone's parenting choices!

Anyway, I was approached by an old friend about carrying a baby for them, their first child.  We had lunch and joked about this almost 2 years ago and it's kind of funny that they've decided surrogacy is for them and that they really do want me to carry.  I felt so honored and excited and I sincerely hope I'm medically cleared to carry for them when the time arrives.  It was really a special message to get and I hope they know how much it means that they even asked! <3

Now, I'm (not so) patiently waiting for 5 o'clock so I can go home and pack, get my three babies ready for 4 days without me and get to bed early so we're rested for our day tomorrow.  I've already checked us in for our flights and we have massages planned in the morning, so we'll drop off our two oldest at school and the youngest at the sitter.  Then we rendevous with the IPs at LAX!

Our transfer is set for 9:30AM (PST) on Friday at HRC, so please think snuggly thoughts at that time!!!  They have 7 frozen embryos from their first surrogacy so all of them will be thawed and we'll transfer the best.  It'll likely just be the one embryo, but there's a chance we'll do two.  Our goal is one healthy baby though, so everyone think good thoughts, please!  I'm not sure if we'll be testing or not and even if we are, not sure we'll share.  I know, I know, I know!!!  But I want to respect my IM's wishes and I'm leaving it up to her.  After all, this is her journey too. :)

So, I'll probably post from California.  For now, pleasant dreams, little totsicles.  I'll see you in a couple of days! :)

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Fresh cycles?? Ain't nobody got time for that!

So we are doing a frozen embryo transfer in six days, people!! My awesome IM made us some really fun shirts to wear for the transfer. If you don't understand them, please google, "Sweet Brown," wipe away your tears and come back here and laugh and laugh and laugh.

:)

The Facebooks

For those of you that are more Facebook friendly than blog-followers, you can keep up with our journey on a more regular basis by checking out my Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carmelas-Surrogacy-Journey/543381649035108?skip_nax_wizard=true

I know, just what you always wanted! Another way to Internet stalk me! :)

Almost 200 hits

And barely any love...what gives?  Was it something I typed?  Can you smell my breath through the internets?  Did I bring up my uterus too early in the conversation?  Did my thighs look big in that post?

Don't be scared.  Hit the "Join This Site"  button or heck, even comment.  I need validation from internet strangers that I'm funny. :)

Here, I'll even give you some ideas:

• "Dear Carmela, I love you more than I love crave cupcakes.  XOXO!"
• "Hey C!  Your blog had me cracking up like humpty dumpty on his worst day!  Keep on posting!"
• "Oh brilliant one.  Where do you come up with this wonderful substance on which to blog?  You inspire me.  I hope to be as amazing as you someday"

All of those are acceptable comments.  There, now that I've gotten you started, feel free to lavish me with legible love!!

TMNT

TMNT...can you guess what that stands for?









Go ahead...











I'll wait...







No, it doesn't stand for "Torturous Maximum Nutrition Test" or "Tumultuous Mischievous Nuisance Tracker."  It stands for this:

Heros in a half shell.  Turtle Power.  (You know you had that in your head!)

So my IPs came in for the weekend for the get-together I mentioned in my last post.  Their sweet son, N, is a fan of the TMNT; as are my kids and this song has been in my head since Saturday! 

Friday night, we met J, D & N at the Cheesecake Factory.  The parking in the Galleria was bananas so we were pretty late, but they were sitting there with smiling faces as my children ran up, I walked in and my husband hobbled over.  (Poor thing ended up slipping on a wet spot with his crutches and hurt his foot even more when he landed on it.  Just wasn't his week!) :)  But, we powered on, errr, HE powered on, I just chatted my IPs' ears off! LOL  The kids played with their devices and we enjoyed our dinner, ending with delicious cheesecake goodness.  (We had the cookie dough cheesecake and it was so amazing!  They had the banana cheesecake and loved it, too).

After a failed attempt at bowling (a 2 hour wait!  That place was hopping!) we decided to call it a night.  The next morning, J and I texted and figured out our plans for the next day.  The first stop was the Alamo Drafthouse at Vintage Park.  We saw Megamind with my two oldest and her son.  It was great!!  If you've never been there, you order your food and can eat, drink and be merry all from the comfort of your theater seat!  Score!  They show new and old movies and they even do interactive events, which are my favorite.  Definitely check it out if you're ever near one. 

So, we drove all the way from the Northwest side of Houston down to the Southeast side to visit the NASA Space Center Houston.  This place recently added an Angry Birds exhibit and my kids go gaga for Angry Birds.  As they walked up to a giant Angry-Bird themed play center, the excitement was building.  My kids have been here twice since that was installed but this was N's first time.  We watched our little ones climb to the tippy-top while J & I sat and visited a little more.  Soon, it was time to explore the rest of the center. 

After that, we headed to Whole Foods before hitting the dinner party (on the West side of Houston).  We put some major mileage on that vehicle this weekend!!!  We arrived and instantly starting chatting up a storm with the other IMs/Surrogates while our children ran circles around our friend, H's house.  She has an AMAZINGLY beautiful home and is so laid back about the kiddos being there.  It was nice to relax and visit.  I also got to hug our beloved matchmaker, A.  I really need to send her flowers or something for bringing J and I together.  After a long night, we headed back across town to pick up my car which was a few miles from the hotel J was staying at for the weekend.  CURSES!  I'd forgotten my purse at H's.  I had the good fortune to be parked outside my BFF's apartment and she was rolling up as we got there.  My daughter and I hopped in her car and she hooked my son up with some Netflix.  45 mins. later, I crashed in her pad around midnight.  It had been an exhausting but wonderful day!

J, D & N headed home that Sunday in the rain but I'd like to think their sunny smiles kept them warm.  She was working on Transfer-Day shirts for us this morning and booked our hotel rooms for the transfer.  I'm ecstatic to report that I will have a beach view for my bed rest!  Oh, what a hard, hard life I live!!  ;) 

I cannot believe that we will be pregnant next week!!  It's like a fairytale how wonderfully things have gone.  I couldn't be happier and I can't wait to wear our designer shirts!!! :D

Shots, ultrasounds and dinner

Well, I had my second lining check today and things are looking great.  Lining is measuring about 8 or 9 and we have the coveted triple-stripe.  To be honest, I've forgotten what all of that means other than I know it's nice and fluffy in there and that's what you want when you're trying to convince an embryo to snuggle in!

My estrogen shots are going well.  I'm on 20 mg/ml of Estradiol Valerate every three days and last night, I was upped to 40 mg/ml every three days.  We should start Progesterone in about 8 days or so.  I have lozenges and vaginal suppositories to take for that so luckily, not more shots.  My husband gave me my first two but the poor thing has torn a tendon in his foot and has been hobbling about so I sent him to bed and he passed out pretty quickly.  I stood there for about 10 minutes before I got up the nerve to inject myself.  True, I did this over a 100 times the last pregnancy, but those first few pokes make me a little nervous.  As I hesitated a little, it hurt a little more, but not much.  It's like my IM said.  Do it like you'd pull off a bandaid; quickly! :) 

In other news, we finally get to meet J, D and their son N!! :D  They're driving as I type and will be hanging out in Houston for the weekend.  Tonight we're going to dinner and bowling and we'll have two of our three with us.  Our youngest is just a few days over 3 and if you thought the saying "terrible twos" was accurate, you've not experience "traumatic threes!"  :)  She's my sweet little princess but man, she's a handful!!  Plus, I think it's a bit much to ask a 3 year old to sit still for dinner and then behave during bowling for more than 15 mins. and it'll be past her bedtime, so I figure it's just best for her to hang out and get some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.  She'll enjoy all of the special attention.  J&D will have to experience that fun another time! :)  One where my husband can be tagged in and partake in the running around.

I hope to post a picture or two from our meeting!  We'll see if J&D are camera shy. :)  They might just want to stay anonymous for funsies!

TWO WEEKS from today!!!!!! :D  I cannot wait!!  The nice part about getting contracts and legal, psych, med. done is that you can sit back and enjoy the anticipation.  It's really humbling to be working with such wonderful people and I can't wait to give J a big hug!

Tomorrow, we're having an informal get together of surrogates and former/future/current IMs at my friend, H's house.  She has the MOST gorgeous house!! (It's true!  She won garden of the month once!)  So, tomorrow morning, I'll pick up J (D&N are going to hang out with family while in town) and she, my two oldest and I will hang out around town having lunch, shopping and just getting to know each other even more.  We'll be having dinner with our surrogacy buddies and then I'll drop her off so she can recooperate at her hotel.

What a fun weekend!!