And now we wait...

Once again, a lot has happened since I last posted about our journey. Contracts are signed and the "business" portion of the journey is out of the way and we can focus on the fun stuff. I finished all my Lupron shots and managed to get through them with only a small bruise on one side. Considering things I've heard about these, I am pretty proud of myself for this!

With those being complete it means we moved onto the big guns, the PIO (progesterone in oil). Those come with a large needle and go into the muscle in my backside. Yuck, right! I'm not going to lie I was dreading these shots, and really felt for all the couples going through this process that have to do these shots to have a baby. It's kind of like adding insult to injury in my opinion! Chris said he would help me with these ones, as I just wasn't sure I could jab that needle into myself. We received an email from the clinic that the egg retrieval would take place on 11/13/15, so I started the shots the night before.

The first night was not fun, we figured out the right location to inject and drew a circle on my skin so when we got around to the shot we knew where. There is a decent sized area where you can inject these, and I've heard it is best to find your sweet spot. If you find this is will hurt so much less! After about 20 min of going back and forth between Chris would do the injection to I would do the injection, and hormones getting the best of me with some tears. It was finally decided that Chris would do it and I just couldn't look. He just had to stick it in. After all of that it really wasn't that bad. I'm not going to say it was painless, but fairly close. I massaged the area afterwords and let a heat pack sit on it for awhile. It was starting to get sore, but that was supposed to happen right? That night I didn't sleep much due to the pain in my hip and got to get up the next morning only to have another shot right away. We switched sides and adjusted the area up slightly. MAJOR difference on that one! Since that first injection I have had very little pain with them after. We have the system down pretty good currently. I warm the PIO up under my arm while I brush my teeth and put my contacts in. Chris then injects it and I massage and use a heat pad. It's working so far. Maybe one of these days I will get up the courage to do them myself, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. 11 shots down and only like 9 more weeks of them.

Five days after the retrieval it would be transfer day! We flew to CT on the 17th and hung out in the hotel for a little while and then ventured out to the mall to kill some time. Once again I found a Target! And this one was two levels which meant that it had a cart escalator! I know, your thinking seriously, but they are really kind of cool! After some shopping and supper we headed back to the hotel to hopefully sleep. After all the next day was transfer day! We met with Colin and Tracey for breakfast at the hotel that morning and then all rode together to the clinic. 

 

Transfer was at 9:30 and we arrived at 9 so we were ready to go! Up until this point we were planning on transferring 1, unless the doc thought we should do two. I asked if anyone had heard with the embryo grade was and Colin mention that they were thinking of doing 2. It was probably a good thing I was sitting down! I was always willing to transfer 2, but in all the discussions the thought was just 1, so I had wrapped my head around that. So this came as a slight shock. Statistically transferring 1 would give them a 60% chance of having a baby, transferring 2 gave them an 80% of having 1 baby, so they decided to go for 2. In the end the embryo grades were both A's and the doc said they looked great!

I was taken into the procedure room and got prepped for the transfer and then Chris, Colin and Tracey came in and stood at the head of the bed. They had an ultrasound machine to see the embryos going in and a tv on the wall where we were able to see the embryos in the lab. The embryologist then brought them in and the procedure probably took all of 5 min. and was completely painless. IT still amazes me when I think about and what all happened in such a short amount of time! Chris and I headed back to the hotel after and just spent the day hanging out. Chris was able to work some and I watch tv and took a nap. Colin and Tracey had an 8 or 9 hour drive home so they took off right away to get a start on that. The next morning we got up and flew home. A quick trip, but a very important one.

So now we wait, and wait, and wait! I had some blood work done a couple days ago just to make sure my levels were where they should be and all looks good, so more waiting. The day after Thanksgiving I will go in for more blood work and we will find out if we are pregnant. 10 days is a REALLY long time to wait!!! So here

s to hoping that at least 1 took.

On The Move.

 A lot has happened since my last post! We spent two very busy (but not busy) days in CT and DC. Thursday morning we got up and walked over to Target for a coffee. My girlfriends joked that I would be able to find a Target while on vacation! #Imaybeatargetaddict We had until noon to kill some time so it was a logical step considering it was right next door! After wandering around we headed back to the hotel room to chill for a little while until the taxi picked us up. Neither of us is used to that much downtime and so I'm not sure that we really knew what to do with ourselves!

At noon a taxi came and took us to the fertility clinic. We were able to meet with the doctor, and run a few tests. I've read stories about these, but they really weren't that bad. We also met with one of the nurses to go over injections! Yikes! I knew what I was in for (she did mention some people had no clue they would have to give themselves shots?!? To that I say you clearly haven't done your research!). We got the 411 on everything and were sent out our way. Pretty painless all in all. From there we headed to the train station. We had no idea how far it was, so we just went straight there. Big mistake on our part! It was of course in not the nicest part of town and we now had 2 hours to wait for the train. We were both hungry, but didn't really want to wander to far with luggage and things, so we camped out and snacked on a left over snack from the airport.

Once the train came, the ride was pretty uneventful, we were able to get some food and just sit back and chill. I finished 2 books on this trip due to all the down time. I can't tell you the last time I sat down and read more than a chapter? We arrived at Union Station in DC around 11pm that night. A taxi was lined up to pick us up, but was about 20 min late. We were some of the last people hanging out outside waiting. The homeless people were yelling at us and I felt like the Amish coming to the big city for the first time! I've been to DC and traveled plenty, but standing on the curb of a big city late at night with only 1 other person around is a little daunting!

We made it to the hotel and grabbed a quick bite from the make shift store in the lobby and headed to our room. I have to say our eating while on this trip was lacking due to times of things, but we made it work

The next morning we got up and met with our case manager for coffee to go over a few things and then she took us to the therapists office for our psych evaluation. I'm assuming we passed as we are moving forward! Once our portion was done we finally got to meet our IP's in person. Their names are Colin and Tracey and they are both so sweet! We had a quick joint session with the therapist and them and then it was on to lunch. Lunch was just the 4 of us and it was very pleasant. You never know how things will go with someone you just met, but there was never a lag in the conversation (although Chris was with us!) It was wonderful to get to know them a little better and discuss things that will be happening in the coming months.

After lunch we walked around the area a little bit and then parted ways. We had to get back to the hotel to catch our taxi to the airport. The flights home were uneventful and smooth sailing. Like I said busy, but not busy! It was a good trip and a lot was accomplished in a short amount of time.

 In the week following the trip, I got a call that by box of meds would be delivered. I was very excited when I received my box of "goodies" to get the process rolling. My box came with lots of meds and needles, all of which will help tell my body to not discard the pregnancy.

 

 I had done some research on how people store all of these things and keep them organized and found a good tip on getting a over the door shoe organizer. So that's what I did! A girls got to be organized right!?! I started my Lupron injections last week and those have been going well. They are injected into my stomach with a small needle and really aren't bad at all.

Onto this week and we are in contract negotiations. Which I expect to run smoothly and then comes the fun part. The actual process.

A new journey

The sun is up, the birds are singing...actually it is raining, a lot and I'm pretty sure most of the birds have flown south for the impending winter. But in my mind the sun is up and the birds are singing! Today is the day that Chris and I are embarking on a new journey. I am hoping to become a surrogate and today we fly out on a whirlwind trip to do some screening and meet our IP's.

Say What?!? I have mentioned this to some, well quite a few, I'm just a little excited about this. But for those who don't know, this post will fill you in on whats been happening behind the scenes for the last few months and what the coming months will hold for us!

Back in April I applied to an agency, Creative Family Connections. Due to our insurance not having a surrogacy clause we were unable to use it for this process. Because of this I had to wait until June to start the application process to be going in it when their insurance open enrollment started. I know it is nothing compared to the years that couples going through infertility deal with, but that was several long months for me.

June 1st rolled around and you can be sure I emailed right away that morning. With that, the application process got started with reference checks and medical file reviews. Easy breezy right, well then it means more waiting. I'm a very patient person, but I'm so over the moon excited to do this for someone that I feel like a 4 year old waiting for Christmas!

After a little more waiting and a few emails back and forth checking on where we were in the process, (okay maybe more than a few!) I got an amazing email saying that they had some potential IPs (intended parents) for us. I could hardly stand it, but had a busy morning and didn't get a chance to read their letter until the afternoon. After getting a chance to read the profile, our potential IPs sounded wonderful on paper, and sound like someone we would get along with great on this crazy ride.

So after letting CFC know we wanted to move forward, we got to set up a Skype meeting with them and our case manager. We were able to set it up later in the afternoon so that Chris was able to join the call as well. With a meeting in the afternoon, that also meant that all 3 kids would be home! Luckily Belle napped during our call and both boys were super excited to play iPads that we had an uninterrupted meeting. All went well and the next day we were setting up meetings with the fertility clinic in CT and our journey to the east coast was planned.

So here we are today. After a day of travel by plane and town car we are hanging out in our hotel room excited for what the next few days will bring! Make sure to check back and follow the blog to follow our journey!