Wednesday, February 15, 2012

We Transferred!

I have been so busy enjoying the culmination of all that we have been working so hard to get to! Transfer Day was Saturday, February 11, 2012. We made it!

We got the news on Friday morning that we had 8 embryos still a-growin and that we were going to have our transfer at 8am on Saturday. The guys had already booked their flights, hotel and rental car so I had them send over that info and we booked a room at the same hotel so we would get to spend even more time together before the transfer. Sadly due to a small snow squall, the guys didn't get to the hotel until just after 2am Saturday morning! I felt horrible.

The morning was slow getting up for us all (thanks to my husband and I attempting to sleep on a FULL SIZE bed together). We just made our 7:45am arrival time. We hauled ass up to the Toll Center and quickly took celebratory pictures of me and the guys in the waiting room. Before I knew it, the nurses were shuffling me back to the transfer room. After laying on the table undressed from the waist down for about 5min the crew arrived! Frank, Adam, Eddy, Jenna and Ryan all shuffled into the room to be present while I got knocked up.

Thank goodness Dr. Barmat has a lot of patience and a good sense of humor because there wasn't much room for him in there. He discussed with the guys the two embryos we were going to transfer and gave them a picture. Both Adam and Frank had a grade A, 8-celled embryo ready and waiting. Sad news was that the doc was only going to be able to freeze 1 of Adams and 3 of Franks. But we were just pleased at the moment that all our hard work had panned out and I was laying on that table in stirrups. So the doctor sat down and got to work. Before we even knew it, the embryos were transferred to snuggle in! We did it, that was it.

After the transfer the embryologist came in and discussed that they wanted to keep an eye on two of Adam's embryos and see how they grow. Of course there was always the scary chance that in a few days they still wouldn't be good enough to freeze. After agreeing to keep an eye on them, she left and came back a few minutes later SHOCKED. Adam's two embryos had grown so much in a couple of hours (since that am) that they were going to be able to freeze them BOTH! So my IF's have FIVE embryos on ice. What awesome news. Of course, we all know we will have no need for them.

We spent the next few days really enjoying eachother's company. Swimming, lunch, dinner, movies. So much fun and so many memories for them as well as my family to always cherish.

Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for the gift of being your surrogate. I am blessed.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Two Proud Daddies

Wow, have I been slacking with these blog posts. Since starting the progesterone on Tuesday, I have been way lazier and I can't freaking poop either! I can't stay up past like 8pm. I tried in vain last night to watch Swamp People with the hubby but I think I may have fallen asleep on him because I woke up alone, in the dark, on the couch. Eh, atleast there was no morning breath to contend with in the AM.

So Stitch had her retrieval on Wednesday! We were SHOCKED to learn that the doc was able to retrieve 12 good healthy eggs! Holy cow was that a surprise because IF you remember, we were told maybe 9 follicles but most likely only 7 mature eggs. Needless to say the next step was FERTILIZATION. Frank and Adam were about to become petri dish daddies. This morning we got the call that 5 out of 6 eggs fertilized for Frank and 3 out of 6 eggs fertilized for Adam. Team FRADAM now has 8 beautiful embabies! I am beyond thrilled for them. And I can't even begin to thank Stitch enough for her selfless act of being an egg donor. Two amazing men who have so much to offer a child(ren) will now have the chance to become parents. How awesome is that?

Anyhow, we are now waiting to find out how they FRADAM embabies are growing. That will determine if we have a 3 day transfer (3dt) on Saturday or a 5 day transfer (5dt) on Monday. The guys fly into Philly on Friday night and if it's a Monday transfer, they will stay up here in the Wilkes-Barre area. If we transfer on Saturday than we'll all hole up in a hotel down by the clinic in Abington. Either way they're stuck here til' Monday and get to spend tons of time with my family! I made Frank promise to take my kids swimming at the hotel. I also tried to make him promise to wear green however he insisted it wasn't a good color on him. We agreed for him to wear green somewhere secret.. or was it turquoise? LMAO

I also came home to three packages from the UPS man (and he wasn't even cute). My fellow surrogate friend Bethany Jones had sent me out a few packages. I was quick to assume that one of them was the lucky socks she wore at her last transfer that left her knocked up with twins! And guess what.. I was RIGHT! It meant so much to me that she bought the very same pair she wore, just for me. I am also sporting a neat bracelet. They are Lucky Karma Beads and the one she purchased for me is called Unexpected Miracles. The tag reads "Wear these beads always and you can overflow with unexpected miracles and everythign you desire can come your way". Well shoot, these aren't coming OFF until I deliver a baby or two into Adam and Frank's arms!

Yeah, that's right, I said baby or TWO. The plan is to transfer an embryo from each daddy. It could become complicated if we only get pregnant with one or if we get pregnant with idential twins. We won't know who the baby daddy is until afterwards (unless we need to do testing during the pregnancy). I would love to have a healthy pregnancy no matter how many babies we conceive, but goodness knows one is easier than two!

So depending on what "day" we transfer on, we start counting days post transfer (dpt). So if we transfer on Saturday, on Sunday we will be 1dp3dt. Got it? And to complicate matters even more we can add those numbers together and that will be equivalent to days post ovulation (dpo). We count dpo to determine when a good time to test is as well as for due date purposes. As of now, if we conceive, our due date will officially be October 31, 2012. Which just so happens to be my 6th wedding anniversary and three days after their father's wedding anniversary! How perfect is that?

Now my good friend Bethany Jones has been through plenty of transfers with me. She's always supportive and absolute understands my need to pee. She gets it soo much that she sent me 23 pee sticks today too! Of course, I know how bad my addiction is and so I had already purchased 25 (for $1.49 how can you go wrong?). I think the day after transfer would be a super unrealistic day to start. I think that I might just see how long until I get the urge and then start peeing like 10 times a day. Valentine's day will be a MUST no matter when we transfer. It would be a small miracle if I got a positive on that day. And to be honest, if I did, I would probably be carrying way more than twins! With my first surrogacy I got the fainted big fat positive (BFP) 3.5dp5dt and it was twins. So that's equivalent to 8.5dpo. SUPER EARLY. I have no expectations for that kind of craziness but I'll take a surprise.

So that's the gist of it all. I will keep you updated as to what tomorrow brings. Stay tuned!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Let's-A-Go (as I sound like Super Mario)

So I got the email AND the call today that our ED "Stitch" is ready to trigger tonight. That call brought forth soo many feelings for me. First and foremost I was elated. My bois (ha ha, get it Frank!) and I have been waiting for this moment since matching in September. My gosh, we've been through enough crap together already that I feel like our relationship can weather ANY storm (not that I plan on having any)! The moment we transfer we will be solidifying their fate (one way or another) into parenthood. Wow, just wow. What a miracle.

Wednesday will be "Stitch's" eggie retrieval. She'll be brought into a cold room, layed upon a table and drugged until she's funny. And then, the doc will poke a huge ass needle through her vaginal wall into her ovary and suck her sweet genetics out. It's a very romantic process, as you can tell. And anyone who is willing to sign up for that process, to give so much of herself, is AMAZING in my book! On Wednesday, she will donate half the genetic material needed to make Adam and Frank daddies. As of right now she has 9 follicles and they are confident they will most likely retrieve 7 mature, fertilizable eggies. Not every eggie retrieved is mature and not ever mature eggie will fertilize. But it only takes 1 (or we're hoping 2) sweet embryo(s) to make a baby(ies).

And that brings me to my next bundle of emotions. I want this SO bad! I'm going to sound super selfish when I say this but I didn't get into surrogacy for other people. I pursued surrogacy for ME. I miss feeling like a complete woman, full of child. I miss the heartburn (and having a real good reason to bitch). I miss my round belly (no longer hanging around waiting to turn from flabs of steel to abs of steel). I miss feeling that life thrive and grow, knowing I did that. Of course, we all know fat kids LOVE cake and boy is there icing on my cake..... I miss seeing the parents' faces when they first hear their child(ren) cry for the first time. When they feel the soft skin on their child's face as they gaze into their own eyes. When they realize that all they've waited for is right there. I can do that. I can do that for them and that is the best, most rewarding feeling ever.

So tonight, when I shoot up for the last time (unless a sibling journey comes into play), my feelings will be very bittersweet. Adam and Frank are not the only couple whose dreams I've attempted to fulfill. There was another couple in particular that I will also be thinking of as I travel through this journey of swollen ankles and 90 trips to the bathroom a night. They will always be dear to my heart and I will always cherish the dreams we shared together. For they will never become a reality and as much as it pains me to realize this, it pleases me to know that out of failure comes success. Success is my only option.

Stay tuned for updates

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

My cups runneth over


Ok, so I'm not really one to hold my tongue, as most of you probably know. So I just have to share this lovely titbit (pun intended) of information. MY BOOBS HAVE GROWN.

I have been pregnant 3 times and birthed 4 children. Not ONCE in all my pregnancies OR IVF cycles have my girls decided to bust out.

You see the funny thing is, I didn't even realize they had grown. Shows just how much attention I really give myself. I ran upstairs to slip into something more comfy than dress clothes (aka yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt) and happened to put on a tight shirt. When I came downstairs my husband's face lit up like a Christmas tree! He was like "Hell Yeah", "When did you get those"? To my surprise he was referring to my bazookas (no squirt guns here, I'm running with the big gals!). So of course, being the shameless woman I am, I grabbed a hold and measured with my hand and wouldn't you know? My cups runneth over! Hallejujah!

So enough about my jugs. I know you're all dying for an update on the surrogacy front. I went for my last date with the weenie wand today and my lining is looking MaHvElOuS at a "12". And the little bit of fluid in my lining is GONE baby GONE. I haven't heard back about my labs, so we're left to assume one thing. I'm good to go!

As far as Stitch, the eggie donor, she had an appointment on Friday that resulted in this email from the clinic's ED Coordinator, Charlene....

"Donor was seen this morning. Everything was baseline as it should be. She had 4 basal antral follicles on each ovary that were reported. She has been instructed to start her stimulation meds tonight. She will be seen again on Monday at the IVF clinic in Florida. I will let you know how everything looks on Monday however I do not expect much to be different. Thanks."

Stitch also had an appointment today and these were the emails we received...

"I was not in yesterday but the donor’s appointment was unremarkable. She had 3 follicles on each side that were still less than 10 mm as expected. Her estradiol is rising slowing also as expected. She will be seen again in Florida for bloodwork and ultrasound tomorrow."

and because we were a bit upset that she went from 4 on each ovary to 3, we had our agency email the clinic and this was the response...

"Unfortunately, this is the reason we like to see them in our office at some point. I can only count on what they are reporting. Her labs look good so we would not want to adjust her meds. It is a wait and see at this point. She only had two ultrasounds so far, so I would not expect much to be going on just yet. She is young so they tend to all of the sudden perk up mid cycle. I will keep everyone updated. I will be out of the office tomorrow but will be back on Thursday."


So feel free to make what you can of it all but needless to say the clinic likes to make it painfully obvious that we're an annoyance to them and we inconvenience them. Good thing I have a HUGE amount of respect for Frank and Adam or else I would have torn someone a whole new asshole way before this point. Do they forget that they work for their clients? Maybe one phone call to the doctor to inform him that his Jaguar payment won't be made this month will get someone's attitude in check? Ugh, I have IVF clinics! Always on their high horses.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Eeeek, 1st appointment down for Stitch

Sooo, I'm super psyched to report that Stitch went for her first appointment today. Nothing big or exciting to report other than she had 4 basal antral follicles on each of her ovaries. Which is good because they're "resting" right now. She started her stim medication tonight and goes back to the FL clinic on Monday.

Monday is going to be a big day for my IF, Frank. His mother has been in the hospital for two weeks now, not well enough to have her surgery and they have finally decided to move forward. I will be doing lotsa praying for her on Monday and peace for Frank. Poor guy has so much going on right now.

But, welcome to the life of IVF/Surrogacy... it's a wild process. It's a hurry up and wait and anxiety ridden process.

Becomming a Drug Addict



I had my second monitoring appointment on Tuesday and all went fairly ok. My lining was measuring an "8" with a bit of fluid. So we upped my estradiol to 3 times a day. I am starting to feel like a darn drug addict carrying around all these pills, needles and whatnot! I currently pop my levothyroxine (for my thyroid), folic acid, prenatal, baby aspirin, estradiol and my azithromycin (for my ear/sinus infections) in the am. At lunch I down 1 estradiol and I take the last estradiol with my lupron shot at 8pm. Yeah I am becomming a drug addict, of the best kind!

Today marks antibiotics for Eddy. I don't have to take them because I'm already on them for my infections. I'm half tempted to continue onto them though because I'm still feeling like crap.

Anyhow, it's also a VERY big day for our ED Stitch. She is going to a clinic in FL today for her first weenie wand appointment as well as labs. And, if all is good, she starts her stimulation medication today! Holy crap, this is it. This is everything we have been working towards since JULY. She also has to go back on the 30th and then on the 1st. Then on February 2nd she'll travel to the lovely state of PA and have her appointments at our clinic, Abington Reproductive Medicine, on the 3rd, 4th and 6th. Depending on how things look at those first few appointments at the clinic, she could take her HCG trigger shot (that triggers her ovaries to prepare for ovulation) anytime between the 4th-6th. Once she triggers I get to stop the Lupron and move onto Progesterone suppositories. And tentative retrieval is anytime between the 6th-8th. Once she retrieves they will fertilize the precious cargo and Adam and Frank will each have a batch of embryos. We are hoping that 5 days after retrieval we will be safely transporting one of each batch of embryos back into my fluffy uterus for the next 9mo! HOW SURREAL?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Thanks, I quite enjoyed that!

So Thursday has come and gone. What happened on Thursday you ask? Well, I had my first date with the weenie wand for our cycle. Today also marks our potential 3 week anniversary until transfer! I can not believe we are only 3 weeks away from Making It and Baking It.

A whole lot is going to happen in between too! Stitch (our eggie donor) has her first date with the weenie wand next Friday (1/27) and also starts her stims on that day too! Poor thing is surely going to regret deciding to go on vacation and cycle at the same time because now she can't have any alcohol and surely won't be up to partying because those drugs are gonna make her cute, skinny little ass bloat like a 4mo pregnant woman. Eh, she'll know better next time than to make plans without having a calendar for her cycle!

I go back for monitoring on 1/24 and 1/31 and then we just wait... Waiting is the name of the game in Surrogacy. You get your paperwork to the agency and you wait to be matched. You get your appointment at the clinic and you wait to be approved. You get your testing done and you wait for your calendar. You start your meds and you wait for the egg donor.... you get the idea. Because all that waiting has added up to about 6 months for Adam, Frank and I. But you know what, all that waiting is ok because in 9 months we are praying Adam & Frank have one or two adorable miracles in their arms.

Surrogacy is all about miracles. By golly I deserve to fulfill my dreams by carrying another surrogate baby or two. Won't hurt to fulfill Adam and Frank's at the same time!