Countdown has begun !!

Last week was a busy week!  The day we've been waiting for since August.  It seems like forever!  Finally, I had the appointment for my medical screening.  I don't know why but I was enormously nervous.  I've done this before and been told my uterus is perfect, but the stress of something having changed in the past 10yrs was driving me bonkers.

We are using FCI in Chicago for the transfer.  Since Chicago is 2-4hrs depending on the lovely traffic that they can have, we opted to spend the night on Thursday nite for our early appointment on Friday.

Our agency was great and booked the hotel and had it all taken care of for us.  When we checked in, the staff was super nice and even gave us a little bag of Halloween candy..

mmm.. mmm.. mmm.  Reese's!  I was prepared to fight the husband for it, but in the end I took one bite and gave it to him. Nerves strike again.

I did get quite a giggle out of the privacy sign for the door :

I mean, come on... how cute is that?! lol!  I may need to make a sign like that for home :)

It takes some getting used to - sleeping in the city.  Downtown in the big city is never quite.  Plus the time is an hour earlier than our home time so I had my alarm set for bright and early to make sure the kids had gotten up for school.   Needless to say- I didn't get a lot of quality sleep.

Finally it was time for the appointment.  I'm sure people thought I was a loon, taking pictures of everything.  I am documenting people. DOCUMENTING!  ha!

First sign of good luck -- we parked on purple ( love that color) and # 5 (IPs have 5 frozen embies).

Here at last!  

We got signed in, The Husband sat down and I went to the restroom.. I'm nervous. I have to go.  As soon as I came out, Caryl (the coordinator) was waiting to take us back to get started.. Naturally she wanted a urine sample.  Uhmm.. you are like 2 minutes too late.. ha!  

Weighed (ugh), blood pressure done (a tad high- yes, showing my nerves since I am always on the low side).  Finally into the ultrasound room where the tech proceeds to try to find all the basic parts.  

"Do you have a right ovary?"    

Uhmm, yes.. I'm sure it's just shy. lol. 

Everything is found, documented and Dr K comes in.   Now I should mention ahead of time that I used the same clinic with my first surrogacy and the same Dr.  I absolutely love Dr K.  He is such a wonderful man. Always so caring.  We chatted for a few minutes, I made him feel old commenting on the last surrogacy.  And then the lovely saline ultrasound.   The place a catheter into our uterus, then put the u/s wand back up there and proceed to shoot a little saline into your uterus to watch it on the u/s machine.  All in all, it took maybe a minute.  Dr K held my hand the entire time.  The procedure can cause some cramping.. But as usual with me, always a day late - my cramping didn't happen for a good 10mins and lasted way longer than the reported 5minutes.  Go me.  Always the overachiever. 

Dr K announced that everything looked perfect!!  He promised to try and get me preggers the first try again :)  

The Husband felt I should have a picture while I sat waiting on Dr K to come in..  Ha.!

Once we were done with the u/s- it's off to the vampires... I mean lab.  They only took 3 vials of blood from The Husband but my blood is much more appealing.  7 vials later.  

I love how accommodating they were about letting me document.. ha!  I whipped my phone out and got ready to take a picture when the nurse said Oh let me arrange things nicely first.. !  ha :) Love it! 

We then sat down with Caryl to sign many many papers and go over everything.  Much of it we already knew from doing it previously.  The medication protocol has changed slightly since the last time.  They now use a progesterone vaginal gel.  I was all excited when she mentioned that, only to be shot down when she said that they still use the PIO shots.. BOOO!  oh well, we do what we must! 

The only thing we are waiting on is bloodwork to come back.  Caryl assured me that we'd have that back by Wednesday at the latest.. I'm sure we will all be very surprised if something came back amiss there.  So we are CLEARED!  Woot! Woot!

I now have in my grubby little hands, the medication calendar!  Transfer is scheduled for Dec 19! 

And so, the countdown begins my friends!!