Saturday, July 27, 2013
Meds Came!
Last week my meds came. In a huge box. I will start taking two of these on Monday: Lupron injections and Dexamethasone. I'll be starting with the small, easy needles, then graduating to the more complicated drugs a week and a half after I start. Jenn's already a pro at this, and she started taking hers last Monday! I am NOT excited about this. (PS. one of the little bitty bottles is for Marc)
Here We Are... Ready to Start!
We had a get to together last night at Macaroni Grill with our families, and wanted to make SURE we got some photos in to post to our blog!
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Journey #3, Part #2 :)
So, after deciding to move forward with Carrie & Marc, and feeling in my heart that it was the right decision for us, our next step was to obtain the blessing of my OB - the same one that had mentioned uterine "retirement" and all.
I was nearing time for my annual "visit" so I scheduled a bit of extra time to chat with Dr. R, and brought Michael along. We talked for what equated to about an hour, discussing the pros & cons of embarking on another surrogacy, the possibilities of another high-risk pregnancy, the bigger possibility of another placenta previa, the guarantee of another c-section delivery, etc. etc. etc. It was a long, lengthy, detailed discussion. We posed questions, he answered without hesitation. And when we came to the bottom of our list, he gave his blessing!
When we left his office, I called Carrie and told her the good news. With Dr. R's blessing, we were all set to proceed. Our next step would be the contract. Never a fun step in the process, but a very necessary one.
It took us a few months of waiting, then back & forth between attorneys to find our common ground and make our final agreements, but we finally signed the contracts, had the attorneys contact the IVF clinic giving them the legal go-ahead, and met with the IVF NC (nurse coordinator) to sign our legal waivers, get our preliminary med calendars, and discuss any questions or concerns we might have.
Its been a long road and we are already experienced in the hurry-up-and-wait mantra - and seriously, that's exactly what surrogacy is all about, right? - and with the arrival of Aunt Flo for Carrie, we have received our official calendars and will begin meds within the next few days (the 22nd for me and the 29th for Carrie).
If everything goes exactly to plan, we will be looking at transferring Carrie & Marc's little embabies to me on either the 23rd or 25th of August! EEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! Personally, I think August is a "fertile" month for me considering it was 4 years ago in August (2009) that we transferred two little embies for Allison & Doug, which resulted in little Emma Madison's birth in April 2010 :)
I was nearing time for my annual "visit" so I scheduled a bit of extra time to chat with Dr. R, and brought Michael along. We talked for what equated to about an hour, discussing the pros & cons of embarking on another surrogacy, the possibilities of another high-risk pregnancy, the bigger possibility of another placenta previa, the guarantee of another c-section delivery, etc. etc. etc. It was a long, lengthy, detailed discussion. We posed questions, he answered without hesitation. And when we came to the bottom of our list, he gave his blessing!
When we left his office, I called Carrie and told her the good news. With Dr. R's blessing, we were all set to proceed. Our next step would be the contract. Never a fun step in the process, but a very necessary one.
It took us a few months of waiting, then back & forth between attorneys to find our common ground and make our final agreements, but we finally signed the contracts, had the attorneys contact the IVF clinic giving them the legal go-ahead, and met with the IVF NC (nurse coordinator) to sign our legal waivers, get our preliminary med calendars, and discuss any questions or concerns we might have.
Its been a long road and we are already experienced in the hurry-up-and-wait mantra - and seriously, that's exactly what surrogacy is all about, right? - and with the arrival of Aunt Flo for Carrie, we have received our official calendars and will begin meds within the next few days (the 22nd for me and the 29th for Carrie).
If everything goes exactly to plan, we will be looking at transferring Carrie & Marc's little embabies to me on either the 23rd or 25th of August! EEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! Personally, I think August is a "fertile" month for me considering it was 4 years ago in August (2009) that we transferred two little embies for Allison & Doug, which resulted in little Emma Madison's birth in April 2010 :)
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
My Side of the Story
Well, after Jenn's wonderful introduction, here's my side:
I'll start with how we got to where we are now:
Marc an I got married five years ago. I was 33 when we got married- so I already felt very old! After we were married for about two years, we figured great, let’s have a baby! It ended up that I wasn’t given the full story about the medications I was on (for complex reasons that I won’t go into here). I did not know that I would not do well off of them after stubbornly trying- trying everything, to the point of making myself sick- so long story short I could not be pregnant. The realization of this came slowly, I thought I could still do it and continued seeing doctors. Last summer Marc and I started pursuing other options. We thought about adoption, as we have friends who are adopting. We thought about fostering (foster to adopt) and went to an orientation meeting. We realized our need to have a *biological* child was too great and overshadowed these other options. We started researching and looking into surrogacy. In January the time was right to seriously put ourselves out there by actively seeking a GS and I put up some ads on various bulletin boards. We felt that if we were supposed to have a child via surrogacy, that God would bring the right person to us. That doors would open. I joined TOSS, and introduced myself. The same day Jenn e-mailed me. And the rest is history(for now as our story (Mine and my husband’s, with Jenn and her family’s) is just beginning to be written. Jenn starts her meds next Monday, and I'll start the Monday after that.
I have no idea what is ahead for us. I don't know what taking the fertility meds will be like (which is in the forefront of my mind now) or what having my eggs aspirated will be like. This is definitely a lesson in taking things one step at a time, steps of faith for us, trusting that God will hold us up each step of the way. On the other hand I am super excited to get started! We have waited so long, and I feel like all my life I was just meant to be a mom.
"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
I'll start with how we got to where we are now:
Marc an I got married five years ago. I was 33 when we got married- so I already felt very old! After we were married for about two years, we figured great, let’s have a baby! It ended up that I wasn’t given the full story about the medications I was on (for complex reasons that I won’t go into here). I did not know that I would not do well off of them after stubbornly trying- trying everything, to the point of making myself sick- so long story short I could not be pregnant. The realization of this came slowly, I thought I could still do it and continued seeing doctors. Last summer Marc and I started pursuing other options. We thought about adoption, as we have friends who are adopting. We thought about fostering (foster to adopt) and went to an orientation meeting. We realized our need to have a *biological* child was too great and overshadowed these other options. We started researching and looking into surrogacy. In January the time was right to seriously put ourselves out there by actively seeking a GS and I put up some ads on various bulletin boards. We felt that if we were supposed to have a child via surrogacy, that God would bring the right person to us. That doors would open. I joined TOSS, and introduced myself. The same day Jenn e-mailed me. And the rest is history(for now as our story (Mine and my husband’s, with Jenn and her family’s) is just beginning to be written. Jenn starts her meds next Monday, and I'll start the Monday after that.
I have no idea what is ahead for us. I don't know what taking the fertility meds will be like (which is in the forefront of my mind now) or what having my eggs aspirated will be like. This is definitely a lesson in taking things one step at a time, steps of faith for us, trusting that God will hold us up each step of the way. On the other hand I am super excited to get started! We have waited so long, and I feel like all my life I was just meant to be a mom.
"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Journey #3
Well, here I am, back at the beginning, starting another journey with a fabulous new couple. C&M will be along shortly to introduce themselves, but I thought I'd post an update and explain how the surrogacy road led me to this place, once again.
As you all may remember, my last pregnancy was a rough one - lots of unknowns, warnings, resting, and lots & lots of doctor's appointment. Placenta Previa. It wasn't my friend and wasn't cooperative. But when the end arrived, we delivered a healthy little baby girl. That little baby girl is now almost 19 months old!
My subsequent post-op visits and conversations with Dr. R pointed us in the direction of uterine "retirement" and while my heart shouted NO!!!!, I made myself accept and be OK with that decision. My family asked me to be content, my husband asked me to be content, and so, I decided that I would be content. In my mind, my future days in the surrogacy world would be one of advice and friendship.
Until January 2013....when Michael came to me one evening and briefly said "you know, I've had enough time that if things were right, I'd be OK with you doing one last surrogacy". I'm sure my eyes were as big as saucers, but I calmly replied "well, OK, we'll see what happens. But I'm not going to go out in search of a family or couple to help. If its meant to be, it will be". And there I left it.
In February, a sweet lady by the name of Carrie joined a surrogacy support group that I have been a member of for years. She gave her introduction and mentioned that she was (1) very new to the world of surrogacy, (2) lived in the NW Houston area, and (3) was an IM looking for a GS to help them become parents. I sent her response message introducing myself and asked if she'd be interested in meeting up? My intention was to just help point her in the right direction and to offer some advice, answer questions, etc. NEVER did it cross my mind that I would be meeting my next "match".
So anyway, we scheduled a little meet-up at a nearby Starbucks. What I thought would be a quick meet & greet turned into a 2 hour tell-me-about-yourself-I-can-tell-we're-gonna-be-good-friends meeting. When I left that Starbucks, I just KNEW that God had lined this up. I made a few phone calls to my surro family, and then told Michael "I think I just met our next match". Later, I got an email from Carrie and after a little discussion back & forth, we decided that our hubbies needed to meet. We all had dinner later in the week, and the rest, my friends, is a fantastic story that you will have to come back later to read :)
As you all may remember, my last pregnancy was a rough one - lots of unknowns, warnings, resting, and lots & lots of doctor's appointment. Placenta Previa. It wasn't my friend and wasn't cooperative. But when the end arrived, we delivered a healthy little baby girl. That little baby girl is now almost 19 months old!
My subsequent post-op visits and conversations with Dr. R pointed us in the direction of uterine "retirement" and while my heart shouted NO!!!!, I made myself accept and be OK with that decision. My family asked me to be content, my husband asked me to be content, and so, I decided that I would be content. In my mind, my future days in the surrogacy world would be one of advice and friendship.
Until January 2013....when Michael came to me one evening and briefly said "you know, I've had enough time that if things were right, I'd be OK with you doing one last surrogacy". I'm sure my eyes were as big as saucers, but I calmly replied "well, OK, we'll see what happens. But I'm not going to go out in search of a family or couple to help. If its meant to be, it will be". And there I left it.
In February, a sweet lady by the name of Carrie joined a surrogacy support group that I have been a member of for years. She gave her introduction and mentioned that she was (1) very new to the world of surrogacy, (2) lived in the NW Houston area, and (3) was an IM looking for a GS to help them become parents. I sent her response message introducing myself and asked if she'd be interested in meeting up? My intention was to just help point her in the right direction and to offer some advice, answer questions, etc. NEVER did it cross my mind that I would be meeting my next "match".
So anyway, we scheduled a little meet-up at a nearby Starbucks. What I thought would be a quick meet & greet turned into a 2 hour tell-me-about-yourself-I-can-tell-we're-gonna-be-good-friends meeting. When I left that Starbucks, I just KNEW that God had lined this up. I made a few phone calls to my surro family, and then told Michael "I think I just met our next match". Later, I got an email from Carrie and after a little discussion back & forth, we decided that our hubbies needed to meet. We all had dinner later in the week, and the rest, my friends, is a fantastic story that you will have to come back later to read :)
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