Beta Testing

Typically after a transfer you would do blood work 10 days later to test your HCG levels to see if baby stuck. Many people refer to this time as the 2 week wait and it is filled with a lot of hope, anxiety and emotion. Due to the date of my transfer my beta testing was intitally scheduled for the 23rd. This day happened to be the day after Thanksgiving and my local monitoring clinic was closed for the holiday...just my luck! 

Luckily Dr. S asked me to take a home pregnancy test that day and send him the results so I didn't have to wait, but I would still have my blood work done on Monday when the clinic opened to see exactly where my HCG levels are. Apparently, anything below 5 is considered negative and an HCG level 100 or above is excellent. If it is between the two then I would follow up two days later for more bloodwork to see if it doubled from the inital level.

The guys and I had skyped to talk about the home test on Friday. They were anxious to know the results of the test, but I was hesitant because I have seen surrogates get faint positive tests and it turn out to be what is called a chemical pregnancy (where your levels rise enough to show a faint positive but then drop and essentially result in the embryo not sticking) We agreed that no matter what the result, we would share them and just know that Monday was the true indicator if this baby deciding to stick and hang around a while :) The guys stated that if the test were to be negative then they did not want me stressing or feeling bad all weekend until results of Monday's tests came in. Seriously these guys are amazing. They are always concerned with my feelings before theirs and are always so supportive. <3

So without further ado, here are the results of Friday's tests.

This is the video I sent to the guys to reveal the results of the test to them <3

A just because test yesterday morning to confirm that Friday wasn't a dream ;)

I feel so relieved and a bit of pressure off of me after these tests and the guys are over the moon excited! They can not stop smiling, one cried while the other was in disbelief (in a sense) that this was truly happening and we all just feel incredibly grateful to be in this together. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and sending positive vibes, love and luck and of course for all those crossed fingers <3

Next hurdle is beta tomorrow and to get the OFFICIAL thumbs up from California that my levels are good and we continue to move forward as we are!

Welcome to LA!

We flew out to Los Angeles for our transfer on Monday, November 12, 2018. This is the day I had been dreaming about since I applied to be a surrogate back In May <3 

(don't mind Ian's crazy eyes, this dude rarely takes a serious picture) 

 

Flying out there I was in a bit of disbelief that we had made it to this special and very critical moment in our journey. Over the last 4 months our family has been getting to know the guys and their families. I should really say that we have been bonding because upon matching with them I felt we already knew them. These last 4 months have been absolutely incredible for our family and I couldn't imagine going on this journey with or for anyone else. These two incredible men have become like big brothers to me and even our young girls mention them daily and include them in their conversations often. We have not only began his journey to help them have a family that they so very much deserve, but we have added to our family in a way that I couldn't be more grateful or happier.

After much reminicising and excitement thinking about my appointment, we arrived in LA. We picked up our rental car and were a bit early to check into our hotel so we went for a relaxing drive. We wandered about the winding roads up a hill where the most beautiful homes and breathtaking views existed. You just don't see neighborhoods like this in Florida! We saw houses built on the mountains and their tennis courts and pools in the back yard were simply held up by wooden posts and frames. It was almost scary to me that they were held up the way they were. 

We finished up our evening with a nice relaxing dinner just the two of us and skyped with the girls before they went to bed. After all tomorrow was a HUGE day!

On Tuesday, we woke up and had breakfast before making our way downtown for our appointment. We were told to arrive at 10am and that our transfer would be anytime between arrival and noon. Luckily the office seemed fairly quiet that morning and we got into our transfer room within and set up within 30 mintes. I had to have a full bladder for the procedure so I was extra anxious to get things moving quickly. 

 TRANSFER DAY!!!

Lucky pineapple socks and my big fat positive vibes shirt to carry me through the appt!

The procedure itself was very quick and not painful at all. The doctor came in and did an ultrasound and said things looked great and ready for the transfer, then he did a wash of the area at that point a nurse came in with a syringe holding the precious little embryo. The syringe had a long flexible catheter attached to it and within a minute the doctor had the embryo in place and I was left to lay on an incline for an hour. (Mind you I still had a full bladder and had to pee so bad!!! This hour wait  was pure torture!!!) 

Stick baby stick!!! 

The guys had a choice between transferring a girl or boy embryo, but they could not make the decision. They kept going back and forth between which they would decide and since they had 4 equally graded embryos ready to go no one was better quality then another. At the end of the day they decided they did not want to know and the clinic chose one at random. 

Once I was released from the clinic we were told to go straight to the hotel were we finished out our trip with LOTS of bedrest and UberEats ;)

My bedrest was up at 11pm the night before we were scheduled to leave so we woke up early and walked Venice Beach area a little bit, stopped by the cutest breakfast place (where we had the absolute best server that we have had in a while) and then headed off to the airport for a LONG day of travel. 

Lots of love, luck and fingers crossed that this little baby sticks!!!

T- 10 days until Beta Testing to see if he/she did <3

It's getting real y'all!

Guys!!!! I am literally smiling ear to ear right now! On October 25th I started estrogen injections every 3 days to prepare my body for a possible transfer. This morning at 8am I went to my monitoring clinic for some bloodwork to check hormone levels and to check my uterine lining to see that it is optimal for a transfer.

The appt was so quick and easy! First up was the lining check. Vaginal ultrasound revealed that my lining was measuring 10.1mm thick (over 7 is good, but 8 or higher is preferred) and had a trilaminar appearance (trilaminar can also be called triple striped and has shown to increase chances of implantation rates).  Both of these things are an absolute must for a transfer to be scheduled as well as the hormone levels being in check. They drew my blood and off I went.

Image shows uterine thickness... 10.1 mm!

I left my appt and continued on with my day, you know work, oil change for the truck, skyped with the guys to give them the info and share in excitement, all while trying to keep my mind and eyes out of my email inbox waiting for California to get my labs and give me the official yes or no. 

Then at 2:30pm the email came through! I had literally just ended a video chat with the guys when I received the email that everything looked great and the transfer is officially scheduled for Tuesday, November 13th! Literally in 1 week Ian and I will be back in California hopefully making the guys dream of being dads a reality! 

I can not believe that we have finally reached this point in our journey and I am so incredibly happy for them. If you are the praying kind, please keep our families in mind that all works out and these daddies will be receiving good news sooner than later. They are so very deserving!!!

And for those of you that have asked, the injections have been easy peasy ;) (Sorry I haven't made a post about the injections at all) The last few I havent even felt at all. Either Ian is really good at giving these injections or I was just worried about nothing. In a few days I add in progesterone injections so we shall see if I take back my words here soon. Hopefully not! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻