Trip to ATL #1

Tomorrow (Tuesday April 21st) we are off to Atlanta for an appointment for a baseline ultrasound. This is over a week after starting my Lupron shots and they want to make sure it's doing it's job, which is stopping ovulation. I don't know if it does anything else. lol So, Shane and I will be out early in the morning for our 10:30am appointment. It'll be nice seeing P tomorrow. We haven't seen each other in a few months since the original cycle back in January. We'll go to lunch with her to catch up. She's so wonderful! I hate we won't get to see K, though. Duty calls. We'll be back tomorrow evening and then I'll get to add more medicines to my agenda. :) You know, no matter how many times I have given myself that Lupron shot, it just doesn't get any easier. Some nights it's not too big of a deal and other nights, like last night, I feel like it's my first time and I just stand there hesitating and frozen as though my mind can't transfer the signal to my hand. It really doesn't hurt, not everytime at least. Sometimes it doesn't hurt at all and other times it does hurt, but it's so quick and temporary. I mean, HELLO Alyson, I've had natural childbirth enduring hours of back to back contractions that are far more painful than anything I've ever felt, yet I'm a wimp when I go to give myself a silly little injection. hehe Oh, the joys!
Well, just 3 more weeks til transfer!! So close!!!

Moving Forward

After the first egg donor didn't work out, we were back to searching for another one. P&K finally got a few more profiles and liked several of them. They settled on one, in which the dr's office raved about and has also been a repeat donor which means we know her body should react properly. It all has moved so quick already! Once they picked her, we got our new medicine schedule. What was cool is that when I called the dr's office to tell them that I was starting a new pack of pills (I returned to BCP's after the first cycle) the day after the egg donor started her pack, which put us basically on the same schedule! God works so awesomely! We are now looking at an embryo transfer date of May 11th or 13th. I began my Lupron shots yesterday, Sat April 11th. We are all very excited and feel good about this cycle. What an awesome journey to come!!

So We Begin

With surrogacy, there's a lot involved. It's not as simple as deciding to become a surrogate and then getting pregnant with someone else's baby. There's a lot of preliminary testing that needs to be done. All parties have to go through a series of testings. One included tons of blood tests in which I swear I was just donating blood! I think the lady had at least 20 vials to put the blood in. Yikes! All I can say is you better not have a problem with people poking, prodding and touching you, because they do! Way more than a normal pregnancy. :) But, I had no problem with it. All good. I even had to have a psychological exam. I have to say, although I know I'm not crazy and don't have any psychological issues, I was still a little nervous. I mean, what if I said something that sounded wrong or was clearly nervous? We all know how psychiatrists and psychologists are! Then, I had to take a 500 question personality test (in which my husband fell asleep in the waiting room during this lol). I felt like I was taking my boards test for nursing again! I got many of the same questions over and over again but worded differently and many of them had more than one answer. lol Thank God I passed and she found me to be sane. :) Let me clarify that doing all of this was truly not a problem. Not always fun, but not a problem. I know this is what God wants me to do so I will do what I need to. Once P & K decided on their egg donor (well, first egg donor at least), the cycling process began. They have to get me and the egg donor synced (or the intended mother in cases where she has viable eggs of her own). They sync us first with birth control pills. Then we start an evolving list of medications. Of course I get on prenatal vitamins, in which I'll stay on for the whole pregnancy. I then start the Lupron. This is a series of shots I have to give myself every night! The first night I did this, I got the shot ready to go, alcoholed my belly, pinched some fat and.....nothing. I stood there for what felt like 5 minutes, but probably 30 seconds. My mind wouldn't let my hand move towards the belly. It's like I was frozen. haha Finally, I talked myself into and did it. After a few days, it got easier, although very annoying. Then comes the estrace. Oh boy, this one was even more annoying. Insertion with no applicator...that's all I'll say. :(~ I had to wake up at least 10 minutes before I wanted to get up to do this. 10 minutes isn't a lot, but when you're sleeping, 10 minutes feels like an hour sometimes! I also had to add the vivelle, which is a patch. That one I could do fine, although with every removal and reapplication my belly, thighs and bahooky looked like they were branded with a squares! I had one or two more meds I had to add on, however that's when we found out our egg donor was not going to work out.
One thing I haven't mentioned are the trips. Because our intended parents live in Atlanta and their reproductive specialists of course are there, we travel there until we get a positive pregnancy, good ultrasounds and the doctor releases us to use our own OBs. During the time I'm taking these meds, Shane and I traveled down several times for them to check and make sure these meds were doing their job, which thankfully they were. However, once we found out about the egg donor, all meds stopped and back to BCP's to regulate my body again. Then we played the waiting game and P & K began their search for another egg donor. We were all disappointed, however we also knew that God is in control and she did not work out for a reason. We knew that God had the perfect person out there for us to come around at the right time.
More to come.....