Transfer day!

Hello October 8th! We have been waiting for you...

Our shirts arrived yesterday just in time. I slept great last night, no nerves, just this nice calm knowing we are finally at this point. Every ultrasound, every blood draw, every pill and injection has got us to this point of the best possibility of having these babies implant. Now we put our faith in the clinic that they will thaw the embyros out just right, to transfer one little girl and one little boy.
Patty and Shawn are flying in for the afternoon and I am so happy this worked out for us to all be there.
Let the adventure begin!!

UPDATE: BABIES ON BOARD! The transfer was a success and wonderful. The doctor seemed pleased with the embryos and where he placed them. Even though he gave us a scare when he was a little unfamiliar with the little tubes they were shipped to the clinic in and we thought he accidentally handed Patty the actual embryos. Good to know, he did not! The embryos were in the back, thawed and beautifully hatching on their own and ready for a ride.

Feeling: back side is a little sore from the injections but only when I sit quickly or my lovely daughter is playing around and smacks my back, almost dropping me to my knees. At least she could see the humor in the situation. The nausea that started after the estrace pills has pretty much gone away as well as the headaches and fatigue so we are going into the transfer almost symptom free!

Current weight: 169
Next appointment: October 18th at 9:15 for the 10 day blood work

...Estimated Due Date would be in June...

Ultrasound check in

This morning we had what should be the final check in (blood work and ultrasound) before the transfer Tuesday. The u/s tech from today is the same one I saw during the my first surro-pregnancy. She is very direct and no-nonsense. When I went in for the heartbeat confirmation and to see how may babies implanted, I was waiting for her to chat a bit and gently inform us if one or both babies were in there. However, she said nothing while she started the ultrasound then said "there's two" and didn't say anything else, with no emotion on her face! Yes, I know we transferred two but it was still a shock to hear that I was pregnant with twins. The dads and I were silent for a moment while we absorbed the news, then absolutely overjoyed and laughed after about how she gave us the great news with no ice breaker.
Today was no different, there was no emotion or giveaway on her face as she did the ultrasound. I asked  what she was looking for and she said they measure the lining thickness and she checks to make sure the ovaries are "quiet". I kept looking at her waiting for me to tell me my lining thickness and volume of my ovaries, but I got nothing. She said they would contact me this afternoon. Then right as she was about to walk out she said "You've done this before right? So you know the shots are coming..." I said she was correct and knew all about the shots.  I may be reading into her brief words but since she mentioned the shots I am going to assume my lining was good and ovaries were quiet and we will still be starting the POI shots tonight.

Side note, while looking at a group of current articles that gets sent to my work email, one of the titles was 'Twin Birthrate Drops For First Time Since The '80s' and my first thought was "not if I have anything to do with it!"

Update: Lining looked great, though there was a little bit of fluid. We are still on for starting the POI shots tonight which the clinic says should help to get rid of the fluid in time.

Next apt: Sunday October 6th at 9:30 to confirm the fluid is gone and give us clearance to transfer those babies!

If we do transfer the babies Tuesday they should be born in June! :-)

The view from NRM. The leaves are changing!

Getting ready for the first shot!

 

 

The little blue pill

I started Estrace on Sunday September 22nd. I don't remember any harsh side effects last time and I was also taking Lupron injections at that time. This last week I have felt a little more fatigue, some nausea and slight headaches which I think may have happened last time too and are all known side effects of the pill. Progesterone shots start Thursday after the Ultrasound. I still am not a fan of needles but I am almost looking forward to the first shot since that means we will be close to transfer day!
People often ask "How can you do that?", referring to many parts of surrogacy. For me any of the pain doesn't really calculate into the situation. Obviously I would not just submit myself to all of this if there wasn't the possibility of such a wonderful outcome, but everything just blends together in this journey as one direction and you cant keep going in that direction without all the moving parts, one of which is a big ass needle in the back. So when I see the look of sympathy on the IP's faces knowing I am sticking myself daily, it is easy to brush off and say don't worry about it because to me, it is just another part of the process!
Each shot and pill is just a moment in the day. So you grin and bear it, knowing that the end goal is like a bright light overshadowing all the little things that are part of the journey.

Shirts are ordered for transfer day! I’m drinking as much water as I can to stay hydrated and make sure the medication is distributed as best as it can, take the stairs whenever I can at work to keep my blood flowing, and decreased caffeine to increase the ability to fluff up my uterus.
One week until transfer!

We have a transfer date!

Since the baseline ultrasound looked great, we have a tentative transfer date of October 8th!
This means our due date would technically be around June 25-27th depending if on if the babies are a 3 or 5 day blast  :-)
During the last pregnancy I delivered the twins at 35 weeks 4 days. Nice and healthy, almost 6 pounders! I delivered both my son and daughter 9 days earlier so I think it is safe to assume these babies will also come early.
Our kids get out of school in mid June and I think it would be great to have a week of recovery while they are in school sine life gets a little chaotic during the first few weeks of summer, so if all works out well, we will be able to meet those babies in the beginning of June.

Two weeks and counting!

 

 

Current Meds: Estrace pills 3xday

Next Appointment: Thursday October 3rd at 8:30 for an ultrasound and blood work

 

 

 

 

 

 

Way to go Aunt Flo!

My period started Friday! I emailed our awesome nurse at the clinic to let her know and instantly got an email back saying she was out until Sunday. (AHH!) I had to laugh because it feels like every time we were ready to move to the next step, something comes up to slightly delay our momentum. Even though everything has worked out perfectly even with any delays, so I told myself to relax and everything will continue as needed. Then I got an email from our agency saying the clinic nurse happened to be there that day (luck me!) and told me to call the clinic and say she gave me permission to schedule the ultrasound on Sunday.
I called the clinic to inform them I was 'cycle day 1' and schedule the baseline ultrasound (which needs to happened 2 days after the period starts). They tried to schedule me for Monday but since I got permission we got scheduled for Sunday :-)

Things feel like they are moving right along now!



9/22 confirmed meds with the pharmacy and scheduled delivery.
9/21 Meds were delivered!
9/22 Baseline Ultrasound and blood work

Estrace pills (3xday) and Progesterone in Oil for the IM shots.

The view from the clinic. Fall will be gorgeous from up here!

Baseline Ultrasound looked great!

Signed, sealed and delivered.. to NRM!

Contracts were signed Tuesday, which fell on our 2 year wedding anniversary! Lots to celebrate!
Shortly after sending the final signed contract to our lawyer I got an email from Northeastern Reproductive Medicine (NRM) that they got the clearance to proceed.

The next step is to call NRM when I get my period to go in for the first baseline ultrasound and to pick up the meds they ordered. My period is supposed to come this week so the timing could not have been better. The last BC pill would have been Saturday but I continued until Monday to make sure it did not come before contracts were signed or we would have had to wait for my next cycle.
I have never looked forward to getting a period before and now I get excited for each cramp because it makes me hopeful that Aunt Flo is coming to visit meaning we can continue this journey smoothly and start meds soon!

The first two week wait...

Well, both our lawyers went on vacation for a week right when we got our medical and psych clearance! I guess that was to be expected right before school starts but my oh my that put a stop to our progress for a couple of weeks. Were on such a roll I thought we would be on track to sign those contracts, start meds and transfer in no time. Now it looks like we will be looking at a possible October transfer if we can get things moving.
Luckily they used a very similar contract as last time so we should not have to go back and forth too many times. There was not much for me to edit once I did receive the contract a week after the lawyers returned (the first two week wait...ahh!), and hopefully once the IPS and their lawyer approve it we can sign and get started with the medications.
I was looking over my med schedule from last time and I think I was on the estrace pills and Lupron shots for at least a month to fluff up my uterus, though I think since we are doing a frozen embryo transfer this time as opposed to the fresh embryo transfer last time, I was told I would not have to do the Lupron shot. The main question on my mind at this point is, if everything goes according to plan, how long is it expected to take for the meds to fluff up my uterus enough to transfer those babies!

I joined a group on Facebook for surrogates transferring soon, and I have read about some who had to rescheduled numerous time because they ovulated through the meds, their uterine lining was not thick enough or too thick, and other barriers that got in their way of transferring. I always assume that this will go smoothly and the issues will be minimal so I have refrained from reading any other surrogates experiences because they are putting so many situations in my head that I feel will not have to be a worry of ours! Though I think it will be helpful once we get started to have that additional level of support, right now I am going to stay focused on whatever the next step on our journey will be.

During the contract phase I believe that the surrogates and the IPS don't have much contact while the legal stuff is taken care which has been a little sad not taking with Patty and our check in texts. It will be a relief to see that final email come in asking us to sign those contracts so we can get this train moving faster again!

I had a dream last night that I was pregnant, with a girl. I was 39 weeks + 5 days, and someone asked when I was due and I started to panic when I realized I was 2 days away from 40 weeks and had not planned anything or asked for time off.
Clearly, I am a planner so that part of the dream is nonsense (hahaha) but I woke up with a smile on my face that the pregnancy dreams have already started and my body is ready to make some babies for our wonderful IPs <3

I have hit refresh on my phone's email app so many times it may start fighting back soon...