Today is the day!! Andy posted a funny facebook status yesterday that I had to share. "Well, tomorrow at 11:15am Jennifer is getting pregnant with twins! It will be the first time it happens while I have my shoes and hat on" lol He took the week off work to help take care of me and help with the kids. We went to the market to buy organic snacks for the hotel and then headed to the fertility doctor's office for my appointment. When we got there the girl from the agency was already there and we just waited in a little waiting room for them to come get me. It was in the same building as the office but up one floor. It looked like it was a hospital and people were walking around wearing scrubs. After a few mins they took the three of us back towards a little room. The nurse confirmed they were putting two embryos in and told me to undress from the waist down and gave me a little paper blanket and said they would be back. The room was very dimly lit and a relaxation cd was playing with sounds of the ocean. The girl from the agency and doctor came in when I was laying down ready. She stood behind my head and Andy sat in a chair next to me. The doctor went over my restrictions and we waited for the nurse. As soon as he was done with his speech she there was a knock on the door. The nurse came in holding a giant suringe with a long skinny tube. I couldn't see how she was holding it because the ultrasound machine was in the way but she walked briskly yet cautiously to the doctor. He did a quick internal ultrasound. Then he put the long tube in, which I couldn't feel at all. Then he did another internal ultrasound and we could see the tube on the screen exactly were he said was the thick part of my lining. Crazy that he got it right there before he saw it on the ultrasound. He explained that we were going to see two white spots on the screen in a minute. Those spot were two air bubbles they had before and after the embryos. They do that so they know they pushed them out of the tube. After he paused the doctor smiled and said, "They are in your hands now." He had me lay on the table for half an hour and said we could leave after. That was it. After the time passed we said goodbye to the girl from the agency and headed to the hotel.
When we got to the hotel we were happily surprised the agency booked us a suite! Woo hoo! It was a super nice room. We ordered room service right away and then happily took a nap. When I woke up later that night I totally felt some activity going on in my uterus. It was mild cramping. Hope it is implantation cramping... Sticky thoughts!!!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
2nd Checkup and Start of Injections :(
I was totally dreading today. Today was the start of the progesterone injections. :( I was totally freaking myself out. I HATE needles. The shots almost prevented me from doing this. I finally realized me getting daily shots shouldn't stop me from helping someone have the baby they wanted to badly. The intended mother has done this whole process three times already. If she can do all this so many times I should be able to do it too, right??
So the appointment was another easy one. Quick internal ultrasound to check my lining. The doctor was very happy. He said everything looked perfect again and he showed me a darker spot on the screen that was the thickess spot in my lining and where he was going to put the embryos. Then they took me to another room to get some bloodwork to make sure my levels were good and show my husband how to give me the injections. They also lowered my hormone pill back down to just twice a day. As nervous as I thought I was before, now that it was time I was way more nervous. Ugh!! So the nurse asks me to pull the top of my pants halfway down so she can mark me. She get a sharpie and draws a giant rectangle on both sides of my bottom. It was a lot higher than I expected and way more to the side. If you drew an imaginary line dividing my cheek in half my injections go on the outside, upper half at the top quarter. The shot didn't hurt nearly as much as I was anticipating. It wasn't fun but it was totally doable. Yeah!! Good news= shot is so much easier than I thought. Bad news= I have to have them TWICE A DAY! Oh my goodness. I couldn't believe it when they told me. Oh well, at least it isn't as bad as I thought. So we are all set for the transfer on December 10th. Only 5 days away...
So the appointment was another easy one. Quick internal ultrasound to check my lining. The doctor was very happy. He said everything looked perfect again and he showed me a darker spot on the screen that was the thickess spot in my lining and where he was going to put the embryos. Then they took me to another room to get some bloodwork to make sure my levels were good and show my husband how to give me the injections. They also lowered my hormone pill back down to just twice a day. As nervous as I thought I was before, now that it was time I was way more nervous. Ugh!! So the nurse asks me to pull the top of my pants halfway down so she can mark me. She get a sharpie and draws a giant rectangle on both sides of my bottom. It was a lot higher than I expected and way more to the side. If you drew an imaginary line dividing my cheek in half my injections go on the outside, upper half at the top quarter. The shot didn't hurt nearly as much as I was anticipating. It wasn't fun but it was totally doable. Yeah!! Good news= shot is so much easier than I thought. Bad news= I have to have them TWICE A DAY! Oh my goodness. I couldn't believe it when they told me. Oh well, at least it isn't as bad as I thought. So we are all set for the transfer on December 10th. Only 5 days away...
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
1st Checkup
Another super easy visit. My fertility doctor did another internal ultrasound and said everything looked perfect. He said I look right on track to do the transfer December 10th. Yeah! They took blood and changed my meds a little. One of the pills I was taking twice a day was changed to two in the am, two at lunch and two at dinner. Of course that is the one that makes me more hormonal. Ugh. lol. I wasn't too bad last week.... ;) He wants me to come back in a week to do the last checkup to see if my body is progressing on track.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Officially starting...
Today I went to the fertility doctor's office to officially start this journey. It was a really quick visit. They just did an internal ultrasound to get the baseline of the thickness of my uterine lining. They took blood, got a urine sample and also started me on the fertility meds to make my body think it is pregnant. They instructed me to take my meds morning and night and that I may feel a little moody and/or gain a little weight. Woo hoo! My husband had to go to this visit so they could get blood and urine from him too.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Ready to get this started
TMI but the entire blog is going to be a lot of TMI. lol. I started my cycle yesterday so the endless Dr. visits are beginning. It is still funny to me that I had to text/call/email a variety of people that I started my period but I did. I had to email the Intended mother, text my case manager with the agency, call my lawyer and call the fertility doctor. Privacy for the next year is out the window.
Today was an insane day. I tried to schedule my doctor's appointment but they said for me to come tomorrow instead because they were expecting the meds to be overnighted tomorrow. I started a day early and they don't have the meds arrive until they expected me to have my appointment. Tomorrow I have to have an internal ultrasound to get a baseline of how thick my uterine lining is. They need to keep checking it until it gets to the right thickness for the transfer. More details about all that after they explain it to me tomorrow.
I had to tell my lawyer because I still didn't have a contract to sign as of this morning and needed it to get done asap. I am not allowed to start any meds until it is signed. Their was some more discussion about the part of the contract still and I hoped to get it resolved in time for my appointment tomorrow. Ugh. Nothing like getting down to the wire. I was slightly stressed and I'm sure I was bugging my lawyers office with all my phone calls. It did end up getting mostly resolved but contract is signed now and we are past that bump in the road.
My case manager needed to know the play by play about the lawyer and her progress and what the doctor's office said and my appointment time since she would be meeting me at it. I'm sure all the agencies are the same but the owner or my case manager goes with me to every appointment to know the progress of everything first hand, to help make sure I am comfortable with everything and just for support.
I emailed the Intended Mother to tell her the upadate and she was super excited we are officially starting everything now. She gave me some tips on how to do the injections for later next month. I'm really not looking forward to the shots part of this process and I wish it wasn't as long as it needs to be but I do feel better knowing that she has been through all of this before me. Not that I want anyone to have to go through sucky shots but it is nice to know that she isn't asking me to do sucky shots when she didn't have to do it.
Not much more to share than that until tomorrow.
Today was an insane day. I tried to schedule my doctor's appointment but they said for me to come tomorrow instead because they were expecting the meds to be overnighted tomorrow. I started a day early and they don't have the meds arrive until they expected me to have my appointment. Tomorrow I have to have an internal ultrasound to get a baseline of how thick my uterine lining is. They need to keep checking it until it gets to the right thickness for the transfer. More details about all that after they explain it to me tomorrow.
I had to tell my lawyer because I still didn't have a contract to sign as of this morning and needed it to get done asap. I am not allowed to start any meds until it is signed. Their was some more discussion about the part of the contract still and I hoped to get it resolved in time for my appointment tomorrow. Ugh. Nothing like getting down to the wire. I was slightly stressed and I'm sure I was bugging my lawyers office with all my phone calls. It did end up getting mostly resolved but contract is signed now and we are past that bump in the road.
My case manager needed to know the play by play about the lawyer and her progress and what the doctor's office said and my appointment time since she would be meeting me at it. I'm sure all the agencies are the same but the owner or my case manager goes with me to every appointment to know the progress of everything first hand, to help make sure I am comfortable with everything and just for support.
I emailed the Intended Mother to tell her the upadate and she was super excited we are officially starting everything now. She gave me some tips on how to do the injections for later next month. I'm really not looking forward to the shots part of this process and I wish it wasn't as long as it needs to be but I do feel better knowing that she has been through all of this before me. Not that I want anyone to have to go through sucky shots but it is nice to know that she isn't asking me to do sucky shots when she didn't have to do it.
Not much more to share than that until tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Everything is happening so fast :)
I have always thought about being a gestational carrier but I wasn't sure if I could do it. By the way, a gestational carrier is basicly an incubator for another couple's embryo. I would love to help a couple have a baby but I didn't know if I could carry a baby for 9 mos and then hand he/her over to her parents. On and off for years the thought would rarely come up but I didn't think much of it because I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I have 4 kids of my own and love being a mother. After my son's 1st birthday two years ago the thought came up again. But this time it lingered. I thought about how much it meant for me to be a mom and couldn't imagine not having my kids in my life. I had really easy pregnancies and deliveries with my kids and I would love to help someone to have the same joy of children of their own.
A year after I really started considering it I finally decided this was something I wanted to do. I contacted a friend from high school that worked for a fertility Dr in San Diego and she referred me to an agency. I called the agency to ask a ton of questions and they were so nice and helpful. I really wasn't sure if they would take me as an applicant because I didn't want seledtive reduction to be an option for me. They said it wasn't a problem. I might take longer to get picked because they have a lot of applicants that don't have that restriction on their profile but that I should apply if I didn't mind having to have a longer wait. I was fine with that. I figured if it was meant to be then it would happen. I applied in May and decided I would leave my profile with the agency for a year. If I didn't get picked that was fine. I would just put myself out there and see. The profile was practically a novel I had to write about me and my family. My husband even had a set of papers he had to fill out about me and his feeling about me being a gestational carrier. We had to turn in family pictures and pictures of me alone. It was a lot of information but I would expect any less for such a personal experience. I would want to know eveything I could about a person that might carry my baby.
On October 4th I received a phone call from the agency telling me a couple was interested in my profile. They had some extra questions they wanted answered to see if I was a good fit for them. They wanted to know if I would avoid caffiene during the pregnancy, which was fine as I only drink soda occasionally anyway. They had a couple more questions but I'm totally blank what they were right now. :( I was a little shocked that there was a couple considering me and really excited that this might actually happen. My case manager from the agency said she thought the couple would like my answers and would let me know later.
Almost a week went by and on October 10th she called me back and said the couple loved my answers and wanted to schedule a phone call to "meet" me. Normally we would meet in person to see if we all click but this particular couple is in London and we would need to "meet" over the phone first. My case manager appologized for the short notice and told me that they wanted to schedule the phone call for the next afternoon. I told her that would be fine and hung up excited and nervous. I hoped they liked me enough to pick me. I was so nervous the next day to talk to them. The day totally dragged by. Finally the time came for me to call into the conference line. The case manager and IM (intended mother) were on the phone. I thought it was going to be a really awkward conversation but it was pretty smooth. The IM told me a little about her fertility situation and complimented me and my family about our profile. She asked if I was willing to carry twins. I thought that was so ironic because when I told my girls about me doing this they were very excited and told me they wanted me to have twins for her. She asked if I really could carry her babies and then give them to her. I told her that I felt that it was just extended babysitting and that they were her babies so yes. She loved that and was very excited about everything we talked about. She seemed so nice and friendly and was ready to get her family started. I wasn't sure if I was trying to get her to pick me or she was trying to get me to say yes to her but we both seemed to pick each other during that call.
I talked to my husband that night and we were both happy with everything the IM said and I called the agency the next day to tell them I was happy to be matched with this couple. They sent me papers from the lawyer I was assigned and a health insurrance application I needed to apply for that day. The papers from the lawyer just stated that the couple agreed to pay for me to have a lawyer and that even though they were paying my lawyer would do what was in my best interest. That all happened Oct 12th. Now I just had to wait for my next cycle to start so I could see the fertility Dr to get all the screening done.
A little over a week later I started my cycle and they scheduled me for my screening appointment one week and two days later. I also had to make an appointment to see a therapist for a phych evaluation and a couple's session with my husband. We saw the therapist on Oct 29th and it was a nice meeting. She went over some of the questions couple's tend to have and explained to us that she wan't evaluating us to see if we were a good match. She was our advocate and was there to make sure we understood what we were doing and how we felt about all of it. I had to take a phych evaluation which was very interesting. There were about 400 questions and they were so weird. I'm curious what my results will tell me about myself. lol.
Today, Oct 31st we met our case manager at the fertility dr. I was pretty nervous because they were going to take pictures of the inside of uterus. They told me it could cause some cramping and to take 600-800mg of Ibuprofin an hour before my appointment. Ugh. I totally thought it was going to be really not fun and was not excited for it. But I knew it was just the start of being a science experienment and it wouldn't be the end of the world. The Dr was totally great! He took the three of us, the case manager, my hubby and I, into his office and recorded my family health history and personal fertility history. He also explained everything he was going to do at this appointment and asked if we had an questions. After that he took me to an examination room and did a normal pap appointment and an internal ultrasound of my uterus and ovaries. Then they took me to the procedure room for the fun pictures I was silently dreading. The case manager, my husband, a nurse, a nurse practicioner and the Dr were all in the room. They set up a serile field around me and went to town with iodine. He expained that the camera would only be in for less than a min. It was slightly uncomfortable but I was surprised how easy it was. He said my uterus looked perfect and that I was good to go with my next cycle. I got dressed and my husband and I had to give urine samples and have a blood test. He explained that when I started my next cycle I would need to call to come in the next day for them to do an internal ultrasound to get a baseline of my uterine lining thickness. I would then start oral meds and see him a couple times for two weeks until the lining is thick enough. He is hoping to do the transfer around Dec 10th. He asked again if I had anymore questions and said he will be happy to get started soon. I did get some cramping after the procedure but it wasn't bad at all. After the appointment I emailed the IM and told her that everything went great and that I was excited to get started. She replied with lots of excitement and let me know that she and her hubby are trying to come to LA at the end of November or beginning of December and would like to go to dinner with us. The agency told us with the first phone calls that since they were an international couple they may not get to come to visit until later in the pregnancy or even close to the delivery. So it would be really cool to get to meet them in person that soon. Great day today and happy everything is falling into place.
A year after I really started considering it I finally decided this was something I wanted to do. I contacted a friend from high school that worked for a fertility Dr in San Diego and she referred me to an agency. I called the agency to ask a ton of questions and they were so nice and helpful. I really wasn't sure if they would take me as an applicant because I didn't want seledtive reduction to be an option for me. They said it wasn't a problem. I might take longer to get picked because they have a lot of applicants that don't have that restriction on their profile but that I should apply if I didn't mind having to have a longer wait. I was fine with that. I figured if it was meant to be then it would happen. I applied in May and decided I would leave my profile with the agency for a year. If I didn't get picked that was fine. I would just put myself out there and see. The profile was practically a novel I had to write about me and my family. My husband even had a set of papers he had to fill out about me and his feeling about me being a gestational carrier. We had to turn in family pictures and pictures of me alone. It was a lot of information but I would expect any less for such a personal experience. I would want to know eveything I could about a person that might carry my baby.
On October 4th I received a phone call from the agency telling me a couple was interested in my profile. They had some extra questions they wanted answered to see if I was a good fit for them. They wanted to know if I would avoid caffiene during the pregnancy, which was fine as I only drink soda occasionally anyway. They had a couple more questions but I'm totally blank what they were right now. :( I was a little shocked that there was a couple considering me and really excited that this might actually happen. My case manager from the agency said she thought the couple would like my answers and would let me know later.
Almost a week went by and on October 10th she called me back and said the couple loved my answers and wanted to schedule a phone call to "meet" me. Normally we would meet in person to see if we all click but this particular couple is in London and we would need to "meet" over the phone first. My case manager appologized for the short notice and told me that they wanted to schedule the phone call for the next afternoon. I told her that would be fine and hung up excited and nervous. I hoped they liked me enough to pick me. I was so nervous the next day to talk to them. The day totally dragged by. Finally the time came for me to call into the conference line. The case manager and IM (intended mother) were on the phone. I thought it was going to be a really awkward conversation but it was pretty smooth. The IM told me a little about her fertility situation and complimented me and my family about our profile. She asked if I was willing to carry twins. I thought that was so ironic because when I told my girls about me doing this they were very excited and told me they wanted me to have twins for her. She asked if I really could carry her babies and then give them to her. I told her that I felt that it was just extended babysitting and that they were her babies so yes. She loved that and was very excited about everything we talked about. She seemed so nice and friendly and was ready to get her family started. I wasn't sure if I was trying to get her to pick me or she was trying to get me to say yes to her but we both seemed to pick each other during that call.
I talked to my husband that night and we were both happy with everything the IM said and I called the agency the next day to tell them I was happy to be matched with this couple. They sent me papers from the lawyer I was assigned and a health insurrance application I needed to apply for that day. The papers from the lawyer just stated that the couple agreed to pay for me to have a lawyer and that even though they were paying my lawyer would do what was in my best interest. That all happened Oct 12th. Now I just had to wait for my next cycle to start so I could see the fertility Dr to get all the screening done.
A little over a week later I started my cycle and they scheduled me for my screening appointment one week and two days later. I also had to make an appointment to see a therapist for a phych evaluation and a couple's session with my husband. We saw the therapist on Oct 29th and it was a nice meeting. She went over some of the questions couple's tend to have and explained to us that she wan't evaluating us to see if we were a good match. She was our advocate and was there to make sure we understood what we were doing and how we felt about all of it. I had to take a phych evaluation which was very interesting. There were about 400 questions and they were so weird. I'm curious what my results will tell me about myself. lol.
Today, Oct 31st we met our case manager at the fertility dr. I was pretty nervous because they were going to take pictures of the inside of uterus. They told me it could cause some cramping and to take 600-800mg of Ibuprofin an hour before my appointment. Ugh. I totally thought it was going to be really not fun and was not excited for it. But I knew it was just the start of being a science experienment and it wouldn't be the end of the world. The Dr was totally great! He took the three of us, the case manager, my hubby and I, into his office and recorded my family health history and personal fertility history. He also explained everything he was going to do at this appointment and asked if we had an questions. After that he took me to an examination room and did a normal pap appointment and an internal ultrasound of my uterus and ovaries. Then they took me to the procedure room for the fun pictures I was silently dreading. The case manager, my husband, a nurse, a nurse practicioner and the Dr were all in the room. They set up a serile field around me and went to town with iodine. He expained that the camera would only be in for less than a min. It was slightly uncomfortable but I was surprised how easy it was. He said my uterus looked perfect and that I was good to go with my next cycle. I got dressed and my husband and I had to give urine samples and have a blood test. He explained that when I started my next cycle I would need to call to come in the next day for them to do an internal ultrasound to get a baseline of my uterine lining thickness. I would then start oral meds and see him a couple times for two weeks until the lining is thick enough. He is hoping to do the transfer around Dec 10th. He asked again if I had anymore questions and said he will be happy to get started soon. I did get some cramping after the procedure but it wasn't bad at all. After the appointment I emailed the IM and told her that everything went great and that I was excited to get started. She replied with lots of excitement and let me know that she and her hubby are trying to come to LA at the end of November or beginning of December and would like to go to dinner with us. The agency told us with the first phone calls that since they were an international couple they may not get to come to visit until later in the pregnancy or even close to the delivery. So it would be really cool to get to meet them in person that soon. Great day today and happy everything is falling into place.
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