It's a go!

Last night we finally signed the contract!  It has been a very stressful work in progress but at least it is finally done.  The intended parents came to our house and had a notary come so that we could all sign the contract at once.  It was great to see them again as we are all excited for the things that will happen in the coming weeks, hopefully ending with that positive pregnancy test. Once again the kids had a great time and I like seeing that they have a friendship too.

The intendend mother had her first ovary scan on Wednesday and then her second on Saturday.  She got the word on Saturday that it is time for the egg retrieval.  Her appointment was this morning and they were able to get 10 eggs.  While not the best number that they could retrieve, hopefully they are good quality eggs.  Today/tonight they will fertilize the eggs and then watch them as they begin to divide and become embryos.  As the week goes on it will be exciting to hear about how well they are all doing.

Now that the eggs have been retrieved the transplant will happen on either Thursday or Saturday.  Of course I am hoping for Saturday so Tim can stay home with my kids and I don't have to bother anyone else with my kids.  I am waiting for the phone call from the clinic today to get a better idea of when the transfer will be.

I can not believe that I will be pregnant in less then a week!

Finally some good news!

After 2 weeks waiting for the IM's cyst to go away or even get smaller it was half it's size at her ultrasound on Monday.  So, this weekend she gets to start taking her medicines which will stimulate her overies to release more eggs so they can get ready for the egg retrevial.  We are now 2 weeks behind the original schedule putting the transfer somewhere around the 3rd to the 8th of February.  Hopefully nothing else delays us and we will be full steam ahead!

I have gotten to reduce the amount of Lupron I am taking but had to start with Vivelle patches.  The patches are a little bothersome and caused some irritation when I removed the first set of them.  All of the prep work can not end too soon, I would rather just deal with the pregnancy side effects:)

A question that was brought up at Bunko the other night was whether I will have to pay taxes on the money we receive from the surrogacy.  After doing a little research (and I mean only read a page or two on the internet), as long as the contract wording states that the money is for pain and suffering while pregnant then it should not be taxable.  I did go back and look at the wording on our contract and it looks like we should be fine as that is exactly how it reads.  Definitely glad that was brought to my attention as would not have even thought about that!

What a wonderful night!

I just got home from a wonderful night with friends at our monthly bunko (or just girls night out as it usually ends up being a night to catch up and not a night of games, but Bunko Night sounds much better!)  I was inspired to catch up on my blog as I have been very bad at it all, I will do better...can't get much worse though can it?

It was so refreshing to get this surrogacy out.  After thinking about it for years, it is awesome to finally be able to tell people about what I am doing.  It was also great to hear so many positive comments from the other moms.  It was so funny how fast our game night ended when I said I could not host Bunko until November so I could enjoy the night (not have to worry about drinking and driving) and the conversation all turned to me with questions regarding the surrogacy.  I definately did not mind as this is such a foreign concept for most people and I know that if I am still learning about the process and others don't know much either.  Maybe my story will inspire someone else to do this for another couple/family in need.

But, we have had 2 weeks of bad news.  The intended mother found out that she has a cyst 2 weeks ago that has delayed things at least 2 weeks.  With this cyst she is unable to take the medicine needed to do the egg donation.  Without the egg donation we are unable to make the embryos which will be implanted to get me pregnant.  They think that the cyst will begin to shrink since her estrogen level is low, and the cyst needs estrogen to live, so I will keep praying for good news on Monday.  She did acupuncture today so maybe that and the low estrogen (and a few good prayers) will shrink this cyst so we can begin the good stuff on Monday!

Not too bad

A late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  My New Years resolution is to do better writing in this blog so we will see how I am able to do with that!

I am 2 weeks into the injectable Lupron and it is all going well.  No major side effects except for a few nights where I experienced night sweats.  Nothing serious and that I can't handle.  I am very anxious to get this all started and to see the positive pregnancy test!

I had a busy day yesterday.  I had to go to the fertility clinic in Charlotte to get my monitoring done.  I got there at 7 for bloodwork and then an ultrasound to check my uterine lining, done by 7:30 so that was great.  All looks good and we would have been progressing to the next phase but found out the intended mother has a fibroid so things will be delayed at least a week before she can start her medicine for the egg retrieval.  They check her again next monday and either give the go ahead or will have to drain it before continuing.  I am feeling ok about things getting pushed back but am ready to just keep moving forward. 

Tim and I also had to go back to Greensboro again yesterday to meet with the psychologist with the intended parents.  It was kind of a worthless meeting but one that was required by the fertility clinic so we did it.  It was good seeing them again and I am glad Tim got to talk to them again as he had not seen them since the time they came to Charlotte to meet us.  The psychologist just kept trying to get more from us in what our expectations are for this "open" surrogacy (where we both want to keep in touch after the baby is born).  We are not sure what this will ultimately look like and how much we will see/talk to each other but we both know that it is something that we both want to happen.  I can't fathom how other surrogates can carry a baby for 9 months to say goodbye and never hear anything else about the baby.  I guess only time will tell to how things end up.

Here we go!

I am officially the worst blogger!  So much has been going on with this surrogacy and I can not believe that I have not written in so long:(  

Last Monday I went to Raleigh to go to the fertility clinic with the intended parents.  I had a 9:00 appointment to get my IUD out and to do a saline ultrasound to check the lining of my uterus  I was anticipating a couple hour appointment so was surprised when I was done in 10 short minutes!  We then just had to kill time while we waited for our 1:00 education class to teach us all about the timeline of the process, drugs we will be using and to sign all the paperwork.  We were not done until about 4:30 so it made for a pretty long day.  It was great to see the excitement in the IP's eyes as they are finally getting close to having a new little baby.  Both the genetic mother and I left the office with birth control pills in hand to start that evening.

Fast forward one week and  today I started the drugs necessary to get me ready to carry this baby (and hopefully just one!)  I have never had to inject myself with anything so it was a little scary to think that that will be my life for the next couple of weeks.  I know that in the end it will all be worth it when I am able to hand their new baby over to them.  

The way things are going right now, we are hoping to do the embryo transfer the 20-25 of January and the baby would be due somewhere between the 9 and 15 of October.  Hearing these dates makes everything so much more real!

The only main thing we have left to do is sign the final contract.  I am waiting on someone to read it over for me which should be today and then we are going to finalize it all.  

Until next time, Casey

Working on a Contract

We got the first list of items that the IP would like in the contract.  While I understand that they are placing their full trust in me to start the life of their new baby I was slightly taken back by some of the items on their list.  I am sure their requests are common, I was just taken a little off guard.  As a pretty strong woman I pride myself on taking care of myself, and did I mentioned I have already birthed 3 very healthy children, so it is hard to swallow that I now have someone else saying what I can or can not do for the next year.

This is obviously something that I am going to have to adjust to as I know it is important to provide the best for this unborn miracle.  This is definitely an area that might be easier to navigate through when choosing to surrogate for a family member or friend.

Nonetheless, with a little research and careful conversation I know we will be able to come to terms that we both agree on!

Busy Week!

We made our first offical steps towards the surrogacy last week.  Last Monday I went in and had blood drawn for tests (5 vials, holy cow!).  I asked her all that they were testing for and of course it went in one ear and out the other.  The only ones I can remember are a full thyroid panel and the gamet of STD's.  It feels weird to give all this information to someone I don't know well but I know it is necessary.

Friday, T and I had to go to Greensboro to meet with a psychiatrist.  I was just hoping that we would not "fail" the screening, though I am not sure what that looks like.  It was a good talk and overall very easy.  The psychologist asked us lots of questions and as I am sure he is a great guy I could not help but think that I was going to say something wrong.  I know that he is there to make sure we are not crazy (which I am confident we are not) but it was hard to not fear that I would say something wrong that would make him look at me and say "no way should you carry this child"!

I know that things are getting crazy in my life when I enjoy our "date" to the psychologist!  It is the quiet time with just the two of us that I always enjoy, obviously it does not matter where that quiet time might occur.