The Transfer Post !!

**  Let me warn you that this post will be heavily laden with pictures!  Since my IPs live so very far away, they were unable to come over for the transfer and I wanted to make sure they were able to experience as much of it as possible. Bonus for you- it's like a mini documentary.. lol.


Transfer was amazing!!  Sorry I'm slow on reporting on it..  Our clinic requires 48hours of "couch potato" rest and while I am perfectly capable of being on the computer while also being a couch potato, my computer is downstairs and I didn't want to run up and down, up and down..  So you all just had to wait on me! :)

Let's start at the beginning..  The husband stayed home to take the kiddos to school and fun things like that, so I took my bestie ( @MsRandom ) with me for the transfer !  Girl trip! WOOHOO!  

We headed up to ChiTown the night before due to a way too early in the morning transfer time.  There were some jokes made about having to share a King size bed and she told pretty much everyone she ran into that she was going to get me preggers.. ha!

Reminder- I did this all before about 10yrs ago. Same RE, same transfer clinic.. It was like deja vu..  And so I thought we needed to make sure that we did many of the same things that I did last time -for luck.. I got pregnant the first try last time and I am bound determined that I will do it again!

Sooo Ms. Random and I went shopping prior to our trip.  A mighty search for good luck fertility charms..  Just when we feared we would find nothing, a seated search thru a huge bin of socks scored us the win!!

Turtles - some cultures believe they are a lucky charm for fertility.. Plus they are GREEN socks (a lucky color!)

Elephants - Feng Shui symbol for protection, good luck, & fertility..  I'll take all those!

My agency had already sent me this-- I love it!  It's an Orgami Owl necklace with the Miracle piece & a December charm.. Love it!  I was so surprised when I got a package in the mail and opened it to find this!  I love presents :)  Yay!!

Naturally, I had to go ahead and start my stockpile of  HPTs (home pregnancy tests).  I am currently 2 days 12 hrs past transfer and I'm dying to pee already.. ha!  Patricia (IM) laughed at me when I sent this picture.  She asked me how many times I needed to pee to know I was pregnant ?? ONE!..  but I like to have lots of practice and lots of proof!


So I had all these goodies but I hadn't found anything frog yet.  Last time I had froggy socks and it was killing me not to have that lucky charm too.   And then I found these :

Adorable frog necklaces (Green!) that were also best friend necklaces.. PERFECT!

Ms. Random (who is super crafty) surprised me with these adorable froggy pins :

 Perfect!  We were set to go!  We were soo psyched for transfer and off to ChiTown we went.  We got to our hotel and then immediately started our search for some Lou's pizza for our supper.. I started that tradition with my first surrogacy and Lou's was a must.

mmmmm.. We ate way too much and then went back to the hotel.  Ms Random had been teasing me for days on how she couldn't wait to give me my PIO shot..  When it came down to it, I think she was more nervous than I was.. ha!  Knowing that we were way too excited to sleep, we stayed up until midnight and finally called it a night.  Ms. Random proceeded to get up 50million times for a bathroom break (which is normally me, but ironically I didn't have to pee once! ha).  Everytime she got up, I'd wake up and freak out that my alarm hadn't went off .  One time I was all prepared to jump up and take a quick shower, only to realize it was only 2:45am.  Oops.   Back to sleep.


Finally time to go to transfer arrived and off we went.

For some reason, I wasn't told where to go for the transfer so when I arrived at the hospital- I went to FCI clinic..  I got inside only to be told that I had to go to the basement for transfers.. Oops.  Back out and off to the elevators we went!   We were highly amused by this sign on the door (our appt was at 6:30am) :

 The waiting room was tranquil and serene.. I'm not sure if bamboo is a fertility symbol or what, but it's all over the walls.

Quite honestly, we barely sat down in the waiting room when I was called back to my little 'pod' to get undressed and sit and wait for my transfer time.  

Pod 1  just tickled me to no end.. ha!

 

Our waiting room/ change our clothes room

We laughed a little that with all of the good luck charms , the only real thing that would show on me was the socks.. ha.  Since I wanted both turtles & elephants, we each wore mismatched socks.. ha.

Aren't we adorable in our scrubs?  All that time doing our hair for nothing.. It looks dang fine under that hair net.

Ms. Random & Me

I'm not sure how long we were in the "Pod".  I had to drink my bottle of water (which we thought was funny that we had to bring our own water bottle.. Hello IVF costs how many THOUSANDS of dollars and you can't provide a bottle of water to fill my bladder?) and wait.. While we waited, Justin the embryologist came in to talk to us.  I asked about embryo quality.  He explained that because they were frozen- after the thaw they only grade them as good or fair - ours were both GOOD!  yay.. He did say that prior to freezing they were graded traditionally.. One embie was a 6BA & the other was a 5BB.. Click here if you want to read more on embryo grading..

Finally it was time to go into the transfer room.. Now let's all take a moment to remember that I have a gown on and no bottoms.  While the gown was tied, we all know how flimsy hospital gowns are.. Ahem.  So while I'm walking out and trying to put my sheet around behind me, I somehow managed to FLASH everyone..  oops..   Our very friendly guy-who-I-have-no-idea-his-job henceforth called me Flasher.   lol.. At least I have a nickname.. 

In transfer room with Dude Who Named me Flasher (on left), me and then Justin the Embryologist (on Right)
I have no idea why there is a light shining on my stomach.. Pretty sure it's the glittering from my awesome uterus. HA!!

The transfer itself was amazing. We had such wonderful people in there.  I didn't get pictures of  my favorite RE (okay, the only RE I've worked with.. lol) or the ultrasound dude who was beyond amazing.   We were able to take so many wonderful pictures (ok- Ms Random took the pictures while I just laid there and looked pretty.. :-)

This is one of the embryos still in the petrie dish.  See the tiny speck in the fluid?  That's the embryo.. Magnified 100 times :

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And here is the other one..  Oohhh ahhh... 

Now this was what I thought was amazing..  This is one of the embryos magnified 1,000 times..  Isn't science amazing ?? :

Our second embryo was actually hatching !!  Look how cool it is :

We were able to video tape the entire transfer- which I can't share here because they say names ect.. Privacy ,people, privacy..  Let me just say it was amazing (yes I keep using that word!) to be able to watch the embryologist suck the little embies up into a tube and place them into the transfer fluid.  Our ultrasound dude was awesome with the commentary making sure to tell us exactly what was going on and pausing things so that we had good pictures to share!  I Loved him!!

Once the embies were placed via a catheter into my uterus, we got one final picture, our very first pictures of them inside my uterus. 

Okay-- see the green arrow?? and the little white speck below it?  That is the embryos along with the transfer fluid.. Awww :)   Pretty neat huh?

And basically that was it.  It was over and done with in a matter of minutes.  I laid still on the table just while Justin looked at the catheter with a microscope to be certain the embryos were no longer in it and Boom, I was pulled up to sitting and ushered out of the room.  DONE! This place was like a baby making assembly line.  They immediately sent me to the bathroom.  When I was done there and headed back to my little Pod to change (with the sheet firmly around my bum this time), I was paused to wait while the next couple was helped into the transfer room..  I was very thankful that I turned down the valium offer because this lady took it and oohh my was she out of it. 

I quickly changed and Ms Random took our first "pregnant" picture:

And now we are in the dreaded 2ww..  Ours will actually be even longer since I'll be on vacation when I'm due for a beta so I wont get one until I get home (Jan 6)..  Don't you worry though... You say all those hpts above.. I'll be peeing until I see two lines !   I'm officially PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise) !  lol..

Welcome to my chaotic world....

Welcome!  My first post on the new surrogacy blog!

I once saw the cutest thing over on pinterest.  Yes I'm a bit of an addict to of  pinterest and cute sayings..

 " I make families.  What's your superpower? "

Hence the title of this blog -  Surrogacy is my superpower !   Love it :-)

You can check out my About Me page above for a little more background, I thought we'd just jump right into it here.  It has taken me a little while to get this blog set up and so I have blogged a little about surrogacy on my family blog (just search the label Surrogacy).  I'll give a very brief recap :

My previous surrogacies (one completed, one attempted ) were both independent.  This time,  I decided to go with an agency.  I wanted to sit back and let someone else do part of the work for once.  Yes, I get older and lazier.. ha!

I applied with a few different agencies knowing that what I was really looking for was the best match.  Location didn't matter.  I wanted the best possible match for me and for my future IPs.  It honestly didn't take long at all!   Zara at Family Source Consultants was able to match me fairly quickly and with the best possible match I could have imagined!

My IPs  ( J- IF & P - IM) are from Spain which seems like a world away but even after only a few short months of knowing each other, we are forming a friendship that I know will last throughout time.  I can't even begin to tell you how fun it is to know that at 12:30 I can usually except a text from P (my IM).  We chat like we've been friends forever.   I simply cannot wait to be pregnant with their little one(s) !!

At this point in our journey -

• We skyped our first meeting (my first skype ever) with Zara (agency director), a translator, J & P.  It was a busy skype!! ha!   It was wonderful to hear their voices and see them! 
• The Husband and I completed our psych evaluation.. Yep, passed - I'm not certifiable crazy ! woot! woot!
• We waited ... a lot..
• Finally got all the paperwork turned in and waited for a medical screening appointment.
• We waited some more.   
• We FINALLY got our appointment for our medical screening -- Nov 1.
• And now we are - yes, say it with me,  Waiting some more.

The only progress (and yes, P & I are measuring any small amount of progress ) is that I got to start the dreaded birth control pills (I hate them, they give me headaches. bleck).   Hey, it's something  right?!

So for now, we sit in a waiting pattern.  The good news is that P & J have frozen embryos just waiting to snuggle into my uterus - that speeds up things just a tad.   The bad news it that they have frozen embryos just waiting - waiting drives me crazy.. I need to learn more patience.. ha. 

The next step is our Nov. 1st appointment.  IF and that's a very big IF, after that appointment we can manage to get contracts done within 2 weeks- then we will be on track for starting meds (woohoo!) in mid-November and transferring embryos in early December..  If we don't make the November cut off, then we will be waiting to start meds and cycle in January. 

I personally will have every body part possible crossed that we can make it and be pregnant sooner rather than later :)