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!

Moving along

So things have been going really fast for us now! After the trip basically we had to get everything together to start the process. Originally we had come up with a date that would work for us. It was very convenient being the first week of Christmas break and my mom was coming down on her way south. After having everything set the clinic realized that the week I wanted to do it the doctor is out of the office so we had to either do it the week before or wait until after the holidays. The first thing was making sure we could get the contract in place in time. We have to have everything wrapped up prior to starting medications. Also there has to be a period of time for the process. So after much consideration we decided to do it the week prior which means we had to figure out what to do with the kids. We decided we would pull them out of school for the week before break and let them go to Ohio to spend time with family while John and I go to Portland. After all this we came to the best decision we could. Then it came to the contract once the agency got it finished it went quick I had a lawyer that got me in fast for a phone appointment so we wrapped that up very quick. When getting ready to sign the contract I had to print it out and have a notary to sign a few pages. About half way through the printing of course I ran out of ink. Had to run to the store and get more but we also had a limited time because it was Saturday and we had to get it done before 3 when they closed. We finally got it all done! Now once the guys get their's done we will get legal clearance so we can order medications and get a concrete plan in place. I am getting more and more excited!

First trip over!

Well I went to Portland this week! The biggest thing is no more hour or two flights it takes like 7 to get there. So one day trips are impossible. I was on 5 total planes in two and a half days! The trip went well! The hotel was nice even though I arrived there at 11pm their time and we are 3 hours ahead of them so I was exhausted. I also learned no more flying through Dallas/Fort Worth. That airport is crazy and hard to make it where you need unless you have 2 hours. I had an appointment on the second day early morning. The doctor did all the test and said everything went smoothly. He said I am good to go for the transfer. I then met with the coordinators where we went over all the paperwork and records that I would need. We also discussed the calendar and medication they use. I found out that I can plan it around my schedule. The first time we had to go on the egg donor's schedule due to using fresh embryos. The last time there really wasn't an option they just told me when to start. That may have been in part to me not asking about choices. Well now we just have a few things to get together and the contracts and we will be starting the medications! I am excited!