Setbacks!

So I know this process can be filled with so many setbacks.  I guess I can deal with them as long as they aren't permanent stops. Well I had my baseline bloodwork and ultrasound on Friday and I thought I would be starting my medication Saturday. The nurse called to tell me that my lining was still a little thick and my estrogen was a bit high. What this means is that I waited until today to start my medications and the transfer will be postponed by 2 days. I am excited to get to the transfer but I also know at my next appointment they may have to push it again but I sure hope not!

Moving on!

We went to get all the medical screening stuff done a few weeks ago! I was cleared to carry again! We did the contract negotiations and I signed on Wednesday.  The parents are out of town so they will sign theirs on Monday. The next step will be to get a medication calendar with a potential transfer date! We had time during the screening to speak with the parents and they are great! We have so much to talk about but this is far from the end. We will get to know each other very well throughout the process.  I am excited to get the process moving!

Next step!

So now that I am matched the next step is to go to their clinic and get medical clearance from them. I know I am healthier now than I was but I am still nervous. What if one of the blood tests is off and they don't allow me to continue? Or what if there is something wrong? I really want to be able to do this for my IP's. Now we just have to hope all is well. The clinic is in Conneticut so we get to fly in to New York! That is exciting since we have never been there before. We fly in the day before at like 4pm so we have time to maybe see some sights! I think we will also get to meet the parents for the first time! I am excited and nervous!

Matched!

So I had a call with a new couple last week! This couple is in the US this time and we spoke and both decided we would like to work together! The wait was horrible, the call was on Friday and we didn't touch base until Monday. Not knowing is very hard. I also Skyped with the twins parents and we are going to meet up next month when they come to the states. I had a productive weekend. Now we just wait on the clinic so we can start that process. I am excited and nervous all at the same time!

Potential IP's

So a couple weeks ago I got an email that the agency had a set of potential IP's for me. We set up a phone conference to speak as a group, it included my husband and I and the couple then a representative from the agency. I went well and I really liked them but the call ended with them saying that they were told that C-sections can be risky. Since I have had 3 and would have to have another one they wanted to speak with the fertility specialist about if it was a big risk. The agency submitted my records on my behalf to their doctor. They discussed it and decided they wanted to go with a less risky choice. I was bummed! Now I am just waiting again for someone to choose my profile so we can see if we are a good match. I am hoping that it happens and I am also a little discouraged that it might not. This is the first time that I have had someone not pick me and I really don't like it. In my support groups they liken the matching process to dating. Well I guess I was dumped LOL. I have asked my previous IP's to write me letters of recommendations to maybe make my profile even more desirable. I just want to do this one more time.

Exciting!

So today I went to the doctor to see if I was fit to carry again. He says I am perfectly healthy and seem mentally stable. So in otherwards I will be pursuing another surrogacy journey. This is very exciting! I can't wait for it to begin. Now is the waiting period. Soon I should be matched and I will make a trip to the clinic for them to medically clear me. I am blessed to be able to help yet another family! Wish me luck!

choices

So I decided that I wanted to do a sibling journey for the last couple. We figured it would be easier for us to send my records to the clinic to see if they would accept me as a surrogate. Unfortunately they decided to not use me a carrier again. That left me unsure what I want to do in the future. Recently I found another agency that works with clinics that allow a carrier to have had 3 c-sections. After much deliberation we have decided to do it one more time. I love being able to help make families, and I am happy that I am able to do this again. I am in the process of setting everything up and will update as things happen!

I just don't know!

I went for my 6 week checkup and the doctor said everything looks great! He asked if I was going to do surrogacy again, I said that depends is it safe for me to repeat? His response was well I don't see a problem with it you didn't have any issues. That really surprised me! Now I have so many things to think about. I can go ahead and do it for the last family again, or I can go with a new agency that has contacted me. However I first need to decide if I even want to go through all of this again. I love helping families and also love being pregnant but I am getting older and things get harder. If I do it again it will be as soon as it is safe so probably around this time next year. I just don't know what I am going to do but I will let yall know when I do make a decision!

Success

I have now delivered a 7th baby! She is definitely beautiful! I have been spending the last two weeks recovering. I did have a little issue during delivery. They did the spinal and I started to get numb. I was laid on the table and as they prepared me for delivery the tingling and numbness got more prominent. The doctor came in and started checking to make sure it was in full effect and I couldn't feel the poking. When he started the incision I could feel it! I almost thought that I was not really feeling it that it was my imagination. However I spoke up and they immediately stopped everything. The anesthesiologist told me "We can do an epidural or we can put you to sleep". Of course the needle in my back made me nervous for the spinal so I decided just knock me out! As all this was happening they were bringing John in to sit with me and as soon as we had to change it they took him right back out of the room. They didn't really explain anything to him just took him back out to his spot in the hall. Next thing I knew I was awake and in recovery. The only bad thing about being put out was the tube they had to put in my throat really made it sore. That all being said it went well and she came out very healthy! Now I need to take time to work on me and put some deep thought into some things! Stay tuned!!

Interesting day!

I am 38 weeks today, and my doctor requires that at every visit after 32 weeks that I have a nonstress test or an ultrasound. This is because of the IVF and the gestational diabetes. This week I had an NST. Every time they got her heart beat on the machine she would move so it took them a while to get it but she couldn't get a good strip. Their ultrasound tech was not in today so they sent me to the hospital to get some more monitoring. Mind you my first appointment is at 10 and I get to the hospital just before noon. They get me all hooked up and tell me they will be monitoring for 30 minutes to an hour. I lay there on the bed with these monitors on not being able to move around too much for 2 hours. With the test they are checking her movement and heartrate. This timeframe is usually her nap time and I hadn't eaten since breakfast its 1:30 by now. She was just starting to get active when they came in to do an ultrasound. My amniotic fluid was good and she was growing accordingly and moving on the ultrasound. They decided all was good and I could (finally!!!!) go home. I go in less than a week for my preop testing then my c-section is next Friday. Hopefully she cooperates and waits until then!

D-Day

I am 11 days from D-Day! I am excited for the father's to meet their new baby but also ready to get the baby out. There are a lot of mixed feelings that go with delivery. I am very happy for the new family that I have helped create! I am also nervous about the delivery itself. I expressed my worry over the spinal and my husband said well you have had 3 epidurals and 2 spinals so it is no big deal. I had to explain to him that anytime they stick a big needle into your back it is indeed a huge deal! What if something goes awry and I have spinal headaches or some other issue. Then there is the fact that they are cutting me open! So many complications that could possibly happen. Also the bleeding risks and hysterectomy risks. Then there is recovery. I am only getting older so recoveries are just going to be more and more difficult. Doing day to day stuff may be hard and with the boys back at school I may be on my own during the days. I know this is all normal stuff but I can't help but worry. I believe that everything will be fine but these things will still be in the back of my mind.

boring!

I know it has been a while since I posted but I am at the boring part of the pregnancy. Over the last couple months nothing new has been going on. I have been reduced to taking my blood sugar 4 days a week 2 times a day. My belly has been growing accordingly. She has been very active and I have been able to catch it on video a few times for the parents. I had a 32 week ultrasound and he determined that everything was wonderful. She is just the right size for her gestation. Later this week I have to go in and get a Non-stress test. Not nervous at all but it will probably be a bit boring. I will also be going in tomorrow for a 3d/4d ultrasound. We will get to see her sweet face (as long as she cooperates)! I will update again when something happens!! PS We only have 5 weeks and 3 days until delivery!!

Same old same old

Well this month is such a busy one I thought I would post while I had a minute. May is the ending of school and since I have two of my three moving up in schools we have parties and graduations at school. Also volunteering for the all important book fairs has taken up my time. We are planning our last little family get-away this weekend since we won't get the chance to all go somewhere together until after the baby is born. Next weekend the babies parents are coming to the states for a visit. Then Toby is leaving for a month to go visit family and friends. While he is gone we will have visitors here also. Then when he comes back the other two will leave for a bit. As I said busy, but you all want to know about the baby right? She is doing well with a strong heartbeat and she moves like crazy all times of the day and night! She is doing acrobats in there hopefully as she gets bigger I will be able to catch some movement on film. My gestational diabetes is doing good no high readings. My advice to other women that have to keep track of this download excel on your phone so when you take your readings you can just type them in there instead of using paper, then at the end of the month just print it out and take it to the doctor. No real changes I am now 23.5 weeks so after my next appointment we will move to every two weeks and do every 4 week ultrasounds after 32 weeks. They have to monitor the size of the baby and also the fluid because of the gestational diabetes. So all in all things are going well and we are on the downhill slide!

Halfway!

I made it to Halfway! I am definitely growing as is she! Honestly this has been my most difficult pregnancy. The nausea is still there in the background. Now the heartburn and indigestion are kicking in. The aches and pains are being amplified. I am not sure I would want to do this again even if the doctor said it was OK. I am getting older and it is getting more difficult. But then I see other people I know that have much worse issues with their pregnancies and think how lucky I am. 

Time

It has been a while since I have posted I have just been busy. Losing one twin was hard but we have had to move on from that and things are good. So at my first doctor appointment they do early diabetic screening if you have certain risk factors. I have multiple risk factors so of course I took the test. I failed the one hour test and moved on to the three hour test. You can only fail one of the 4 blood tests they take and I failed two. One by 6 points only! So normally you are diagnosed at around 24 weeks and you have to check your sugar 4 times a day. I was diagnosed at 12 weeks so I have 28 weeks of watching my sugar and carbs. It is really hard because I have a sweet tooth! You want your sugar under 120 two hours after every meal. Mine has been under 100 all week so today I got to splurge and eat a little cheesecake. I went to the doctor again last week and they did a blood test that can determine certain chromosomal abnormalities and she said it will also let us know what the sex of the baby was. They said it would take 2 weeks for the results. That was good because I had a 4d ultrasound scheduled for that time period. With this ultrasound the parents can get online and watch the ultrasound live and hear what is going on. That is exciting! When I got a message I had results on my patient portal I checked it not even thinking about what it might be. It was the results a week early! So now I know the sex and asked the dad's if they wanted to know or be surprised next week with the ultrasound. Of course, they wanted to know so I will be delivering a girl come August. I have to vent about the midwife at my doctors office, first she told me that because of my age and number of c-sections I have had I should probably not do this again. That I already knew so it was not a surprise. Then when she looked at my blood sugars she said you have the days but next time could you put dates. Her reasoning was that I could reuse the ones I had just given her. I was baffled because I don't take my sugars for her I do so to make sure the baby and I both remain as healthy as possible. Why would I make them up that wouldn't serve me to well. She was just kind of condescending and acted like I didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to remind her that this is my 6th pregnancy I think I can handle it. But I kept my cool and just let her give her speel and move on.

Mixed Emotions!

I had an ultrasound appointment this week and the results broke my heart and warmed it at the same time. This is hard for me to write about because it was a hard experience to go through. When we were doing the procedure the doctor determined that one of the twins failed to progress. My body and the other placenta had absorbed most of the baby. That was crushing but in that he also found a baby that is thriving. There is one baby in there growing well and had a strong heartbeat of 168bpm. It is hard for me because for most everyone, except the parents, it is something that happened to them not me. And yes it wasn't my baby but I was excited about it. This was very unexpected and a big shock. Now we are focusing on the remaining baby. I was finally released from the fertility clinic and will be moving on with my OB. My medication will be tapered and I will be done in lest than two weeks.  I am excited that we have a healthy pregnancy and just have to believe it will continue that way! Wish me luck!

Long time

It has been a long time since I posted on here but most of you who follow me on Facebook you have gotten updates. Those of you who have not seen my pregnancy blood test went from 145 to 1425 to 3440ish. Then last week I had an ultrasound and was able to video chat with the parents during the procedure. We saw two sacs and two heartbeats! One was 114 and the other was 124. They implanted one from each father and one of each sex so it looks like I will be having a boy and girl again. The nausea is of course horrible again. The clinic has started me on Diclegis. This is my first time using this but with my boys and the twins I took Zofran, which has since been deemed unsafe to take during pregnancy. It is a medication you take twice a day to prevent the nausea and vomiting. It works good but I have had some breakthrough symptoms. You can up the dose if needed but I am waiting to do that if it gets unbearable. I am beginning to taper off my medications so hopefully the injections won't be happening for much longer. I am not sure how much of that I have shared so I will say I now take 2 pills in the morning (levothyroxine, and Diclegis). Then one injection everyday and one Mondays and Fridays. Then I take Prenatal vitamins, baby asprin, vitamin D, and Diclegis at night. Also I do two vaginal suppositories a day. So needless to say I can't wait to finish with them. I know how important they are to the process to I don't mind taking them but as soon as it is safe I will be happy to stop them. I have another ultrasound in two weeks to make sure they are growing correctly. Wish me luck!

Bedrest sucks!

Well the transfer is done! It went great! The worst thing was the strict bedrest for 2 days. Laying in bed all day is not as fun as it sounds. It gets really boring but I got through it. We were in Portland for four days but barely left the hotel room. First of all it was cold after the sun went down. Also we are in a new town with no transportation. John did go out on his own while I was in bed and he found a few blocks filled with food trucks. I had a brat that was delicious and he had tacos. It was delicious! The room service was good though. It was good all in all and everything went well. Now we wait to see if it all worked out.

Transfer Time

Well I go for the transfer in 5 days! Everything is in place, the kids, flights and hotel. We are traveling tomorrow to take the boys to Ohio. They will be staying a week with our families. Then we leave bright and early Monday morning for Atlanta. This flight will layover in Denver! I read an article written by someone involved in the clinic I am working with now and it really explained the reason for surrogacy with people from Israel especially gay couples. There you have to go through a lot of stuff and meet many qualifications to even be considered for surrogacy. Thus the reason why many of them come to the United States. There are many intricacies that I did not know about and this article opened my eyes to the differences. Please keep me in your thoughts Tuesday!

Waiting

This is the hardest part of the process. We have a potential transfer date and have started the medications. We had some major discussions with the plans. The clinic prefers that you wait until the lining check (mine is in two weeks) to make plans because once they get those results the transfer date may change. However if you wait too long then the flights can be outrageous. So the agency, parents, and I talked and decided that we should just book the flights and hope for the best. The agency has been able to change flights with medical reasons. She also mentioned that Southwest has no change fees so if we could find flights with them that would be ideal. The thing about Southwest is they do not have assigned seats just boarding groups. This means John and I might not be able to sit next to each other. After checking out their website I found out for $15 per person per trip you can get early bird check in which means you get to check in 12 hours before everyone else. This means you will get a higher seating group. So we made the compromise with that. Then we found out they don't fly out of Chattanooga which is so much closer and we would have to go to Atlanta, an almost 2 hour drive, to fly out. That sucks but again we will compromise because it costs so much less and if we so need to change it then we don't have to pay the fees just the difference in tickets. Now everything is in place and I just have to take the medications diligently and wait. It seems so close yet so far. We have everything planned now we wait!