Transfer Update

Ahhh! I had a nice little break from blogging. 

Negative cycles can take their toll and with the Holidays I wanted to take some time away to spend with family and not stress about it.

That being said, we are gearing up for Transfer #2.

I started Lupron injections Christmas Day. Tomorrow is my last birth control pill and I'll have my baseline monitoring appointment on Tuesday, January 6th.

If my uterine lining is thin and estrogen levels are low then I'll start taking the Estrace twice a day to build up my lining. Then next lining check will be January 21st.

If uterine lining is nice and fluffy (aka thick) then we'll fly out January 29th for a transfer on January 30th. Then I'll have a nice flight back on my birthday ;-)

Gotta be good luck right??!

I'm keeping faith that this transfer we'll get a positive beta and be on the way to a baby brother or sister for D & I's son!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and want to 

wish you all a Happy New Year!!

Round 2 to come

First of all, sorry for the delay. 

After the delay in getting my beta results then Thanksgiving I just now am finding time to sit down and write.

After seeing negative home pregnancy tests we were expecting a negative beta. It still doesn't hurt any less knowing beforehand, and it especially doesn't hurt any less when getting those results is delayed by days!

Apparently a contracted courier (not the regular courier) picked up my blood specimen from my local lab Monday and it didn't arrive to LabCorp. Well that was the first story. We were later told there was a mixup with my name causing the delay. However, in between those stories, on Thursday I went to Quest for a redraw only to leave without it after many issues arose there. Thankfully, later Thursday afternoon we received the official results from the first test. Negative.  :~(

We are currently planning round 2. Tentative transfer date is January 16th.

We are staying hopeful and praying hard these next embryo(s) snuggle in for the long haul. And, we're also praying for cooperative weather for travel. Fingers crossed!!

Transfer complete!

We traveled to Connecticut yesterday for the embryo transfer today.

We left our home around 7am, dropped off the kids at grandpa's, and headed to Lambert Airport.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:35am and about 30 minutes prior they announced a 1 hour delay. So I quickly called our shuttle service that was supposed to pick us up at LaGuardia to postpone the pickup. The flight was pretty seamless, just a bit of turbulence going into LaGuardia for landing as we had to hook around and fly into LGA from the southeast instead of straight in.

Amazingly the shuttle was ready for us when we arrived (this is amazing because every time we've flown into LGA we've had to wait at least 45 minutes to an hour for the shuttle to arrive. Then the trip to the hotel which was twice as long due to traffic. We finally arrived at the hotel about 5:30pm.

It was a very exciting night as we were meeting D & I in person for the first time!!

Once they arrived at the hotel we got to meet and went out for dinner. It was really great chatting about everything from our previous surrogacies to Black Friday craziness. Lmao!

Then we headed to bed as we had to be at the clinic at 9am this morning for transfer.

We didn't wait very long and were called back. The Doctor chatted with D & I a bit while I finished getting ready for transfer. Getting ready for transfer meant I had to drink TONS of water this morning and keep my bladder full for the transfer. Then it's just clothes off waist down and put a gown and drape on. The Doctor and nurse do the rest. It was a nice, small and quiet room. A TV was playing a nice, calming color swirling show. Once the Doctor was ready a speculum was inserted and D & I got to come in to watch the embryos being transferred to my uterus on the ultrasound screen. It is actually a pretty cool thing to watch.

After the transfer I had to lay there about 10 minutes and then we were free to go.

D & I had to make it a quick trip so they could get back to work so we said our goodbyes and forgot a group photo. Darn it! My husband and I were even talking about not forgetting to do that right before transfer. I guess it was just a little too exciting and our minds all got sidetracked.

 I was able to take a nice little nap and relax in the hotel room. We ordered some delicious local pizza and watched some movies. Tomorrow morning will be a quick breakfast, checkout and shuttle back to LaGuardia for our trip home.

Monday I will go to the lab and get blood drawn to check my progesterone level to make sure it is optimal for implantation and then the official blood test for pregnancy (beta) will be on November 17th (even though we will probably not get those results until the 18th).

I do plan on testing at home and since the 2 embryos we transferred were already 6 days old I may be able to get a positive home pregnancy test as early as Tuesday. So we are keeping our fingers crossed and praying this transfer is positive!

Here are the two embryos we transferred which are A and A- quality.
If you look closely at the sonogram photo you can see two little white dots at the arrow. Those are the embryos after being transferred to my uterus :)  Super awesome!

Pre-Transfer Update!

Can you believe we are down to single digit days?!

That's right! Only 7 1/2 days til transfer! 

I had monitoring appointments yesterday and got the official word that travel is being booked and we'll be on our way to Connecticut next Thursday with embryo transfer on Friday, November 7th.

At my previous monitoring appointment my uterine lining thickness was 6.5mm and yesterday it measured a nice fluffy, triple-striped 11mm!!!

I don't have my lab results for the estrogen and progesterone levels yet though the clinic said if all was well they wouldn't contact me.

So, we are all getting super excited! I am so happy to be meeting D & I in person next week and to be able to give their embryo(s) a comfy, cozy home for 9 months!

Fingers are crossed and prayers are going up that in approximately 2 weeks we'll see 2 lines on that test and make the little Canadian (D & I's first son through surrogacy) a big brother!

.....and only ONE more injection tomorrow!

Starting Saturday my daily medication protocol will change to:

2 2mg Estrace morning & night

Prenatal vitamin and DHA capsule

Low dose aspirin

Crinone morning & night

2 200mg Prometrium

Starting Sunday my daily medication protocol will change to:

2 2mg Estrace morning & night

Prenatal vitamin and DHA capsule

Low dose aspirin

Crinone morning & night

2 200mg Prometrium

Prednisone 10mg

Doxycycline 100mg morning & night

Then after transfer next Friday it will change again. I am happy that I'm a planner and know I will rock this med protocol even if it does mean that my calendar is used for nothing other than this purpose. Lol

And the cycle goes on

The med cycle that is!

I went to my first monitoring appointments yesterday.

Bloodwork at 7:30am and ultrasound at 8:15.

The blood draw is always easy although I am sure it helps to have a good technician (is that what they're called?).

Then on to ultrasound. First the pelvic ultrasound with a full bladder. Fun right?

Then on to the transvaginal ultrasound. What's that?! Even more fun you say?! Lol

These ultrasounds tell the Reproductive endocrinologist (RE - he's my Doctor at the clinic) every single thing about my uterus and ovaries. How many follicles I have, how big/small they are, what my uterine lining thickness is, if there is any fluid, etc.

I received the results today around 2pm.

Everything is exactly where it should be!

Uterine lining is 6.5mm.

Progesterone is 0.3.

Estrogen is <10.

So now I can progress to the next step of the med cycle!

This is what my daily regimen looks like for the next 16 days.

Two 2mg Estrace tablets twice a day -- this is what will thicken my uterine lining making it a nice, comfy, cozy, fluffy home for D & I's embryo(s)

One low dose aspirin

Prenatal vitamin and DHA capsule

5 units of Lupron injected subcutaneously

I will have my next monitoring appointments on October 29th so be on the lookout for another update before Halloween.

It's Christmas (well kinda)

That's right!  Cycle medications have arrived!

So that means I spent quite a bit of my evening writing out my calendar and all the medications I'll take on what days. I still need to finish it but it's filled out through Transfer weekend. So I am now in single digit days until starting the subcutaneous injections of Lupron. I've been contemplating posting a video next Thursday when I start the daily injections. Which just so happens to be my husband's birthday. He thinks he'll get to administer the injection. Haha! I don't think so, but I may let him do the recording.  :-)

Until next Thursday I just continue the birth control pills. You'll see later on my days will be pretty filled with scheduling medications so plenty of alarms will need to be set. Until then there are plenty of YouTube videos I'll be refreshing myself with on the Lupron injections since it's been probably close to 18 months since the last time I've done them. They really dont hurt, it's just the mental part of stabbing myself with a needle that gets me. Lol. So that video might be pretty entertaining. :-)

Medications scheduled to arrive!

Any surrogate will tell you that medication delivery is like Christmas.  Lol

Well my Christmas delivery is scheduled for September 23rd.

I received the cycle calendar yesterday with all the details

 on what I will be taking and when.

Then a fellow surro posted this on Facebook with such perfect timing

I will say that this medication protocol is a bit more intense than my previous cycles.

The Lupron is a subcutaneous injection that will suppress my ovaries (and produce some lovely menopausal symptoms) and once we confirm by ultrasound that it did its job I will begin oral estrogen to thicken my uterine lining making it the perfect 9-month home for D & I's baby! So fingers crossed all my results from bloodwork and ultrasound are what we need them to be. And come November 7th we'll be PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise). Beta to test for qualitative Hcg levels is typically scheduled about 2 weeks after transfer and repeated 2-3 days later to make sure the hcg level is rising. That would give us all something to be very thankful for come Thanksgiving! Obviously I am very hopeful for transfer #1 considering my first journey took 3 tries, but either way I am in it until D & I have a baby in their arms!

Next Update...Christmas delivery lol

You've Made It!

Yes, surrogacy journey #2 starts here!! Are you excited? I know we are!!

So where are we in the process, you ask?

Here's a timeline on what has happened so far:

April 11 - I was contacted by my agency regarding a second journey.
April 12-17 - Completed Application and all Paperwork
April 18 - Completed Social Worker Screening call
April 23 - Signed Commitment Letter
April 25 - Received Intended Parent Profile for D & I
April 28 - First Skype Call with D & I
April 29 - Officially Matched with D & I
......intermittence....... (due to the elimination of my position I lost my job therefore I lost my insurance and needed to hit the pause button so I could dedicate my time to job searching)
July 21 - First Day at the new job!
July 27 - Received First Draft of Contract
August 15 - Medical Screening Appointment at CFA
August 15 - Finalized Contract
August 29 - Received Medical Clearance


So, you're dying to know about the Intended Parents? Here's a few tidbits:
They are an AWESOME same sex couple from Canada.
They have an 18 month old son through surrogacy (who has an Awesome surro mommy by the way).
They are in their 30s.
And, we can't wait to meet them in person!

As of now, we are tentatively planning a November 7th transfer of 1 or 2 embryos depending on quality. That means medications (other than birth control pills) should start in just about a month.


...If you want to read about my first journey please visit my blog at
www.5000milestosurrogacy.blogspot.com


Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!! Thanks for visiting.

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