I thought that once contracts were
done, things would be a piece of cake. I was wrong. Lately I feel like I have
been pulled in a million different directions all at once. I have such a busy
life in general, I coach cheer for my oldest daughters team which means more
often than not I am out of the house from 6am- 8:30pm for work, school carpool pick-ups
and practice, my husband coaches soccer for our youngest daughters team which
has him out of the house all day a few times a week, we each have full time jobs,
our nephew is going through chemo so we are trying to do what we can for him and
his parents but really, it is just weighing heavily on us, I have an ex-husband
who tries his hardest to make life more difficult than it needs to be, my
oldest just started middle school so all you moms with pre-teens understand the
struggle of that, in the middle of all that I am trying to be the best mom and
the best wife and somehow keep up on laundry, which, let’s face it, is a lost
cause (I literally sprayed my daughters school uniform with febreze last week
before I rushed to work..and for a second, I really questioned whether I should
have been entrusted with these perfect little humans, then decided who cares,
they smell spring fresh lol)…I know I am just one of countless other moms who
feel they have no time to breath and I am no more special then they are at all
but then I decided to add an independent surrogacy journey into the mix. I am
not complaining or regretting this by any means! I know that I am capable of
doing it all and I am beyond thankful for the fact that I have this crazy
schedule, it means I have a family, a beautiful, busy, learning, growing, able-bodied
family and I would not trade it for the world. I think I am mainly writing this
down as my way of working through the crazy and my apology to my friends and
family who are not aware of the surrogacy and might be questioning why I have
been so distant, or if you have been around me you may be wondering if I am
slowly losing my mind… I can’t definitively answer the later but I guess we
will all find out eventually lol. But that is all for my whining today, let’s
just blame the hormones, ‘kay?
*Side note…..if you guys don’t have
a husband like mine you are sorely missing out! This guy has been my rock
though this! It is impossible to love a man more than I love him and I think it
is impossible for a man to love his wife more than he loves me. Knowing and
feeling that kind of love is the most amazing thing and after 10 years?!
puhlease…how lucky am I?!*
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| Isn't he divine?! #LuckiestWifeInTheWorld |
Contracts finished 9/25/17.
Everything went smooth, like I said, it helps when you and the IPs are on the
same page and understand the need for each party to be fully covered. We trust
each other, but it is so important to be safe and covered legally. I have seen
way too many surrogates and parents get screwed because they “trusted” each
other enough and didn’t get the correct legal protections.
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| The Surrogate Christmas! |
Anywhoo…as soon as contracts were
done I got that beautiful package every surrogate looks forward to; The
surrogate Christmas! That giant box full of needles that will sting and leave
bruises and lumps for months, bottles of hormones that will cause you to burst
into tears at any commercial that remotely ends sadly, or too happy, or just
ends at all. Pills that will turn your tummy upside down and throw you into a
fit of rage when you can’t open the peanut butter jar….all those ingredients
make a surrogate giddy with excitement because the end result is this miracle
pregnancy, the faint little pink line the eventually turns into this beating
heart (or two!) and makes this amazing astounding dream come true, so that my
IM can feel all the crazy feelings I expressed in the first paragraph. It is so
amazing and so worth every second!
The Medication Run Down:
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| Lurpon |
I have been taking prenatal
vitamins to get my body ready as well as a low-dose aspirin daily. The aspirin
aids in blood flow to the uterus, essentially helping the embryo find a nice
cozy place to implant itself.
I started Lupron on 10/4. These are
tiny little diabetic sized needles. A small amount of Lupron is injected every
morning into the stomach. Some can do arms and upper thighs but I have plenty
of cushion so the stomach hurts less for me lol. Lurpon basically suppresses the
pituitary stimulation to the ovaries, essentially just turning them off.
I take a steroid oral tablet every
morning, which basically just aids my body in accepting the medications and
preventing infection.
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| Steak Knife Time |
I began taking estradiol injections
twice a week. This is the injection I hate, it is a giant needle, an 18 gauge
needle to be exact, if you don’t know what that looks like, imagine a steak
knife. Okay, maybe it is not that big, but it hurts. Some surrogates, like my
good friend “Dee”, says it does not hurt at all. I think they are lying to themselves
haha. Thankfully this is just twice a week. I am going to be honest and let you
know that I am not 100% sure what this does. All I took from the research was
it helps aid in the next wave of medications come transfer time.
Tomorrow, 10/17 I will have an
intralipid infusion. This is brand new to me. My last two surrogate protocols
did not have this one. This is administered via IV over the course of 1-2hours.
It is a mixture of super wholesome goodness that will be pumped into me to get
this rig into tip top shape to carry a baby. I am kind of hoping that after
this infusion is done, I will feel like superwoman and have the energy and
ability to not only finish the aforementioned laundry when I get home, but to
get everything on my to-do list done with time to spare before carpool at 4pm,
a girl can dream! This particular item proved to be one of the most difficult
tasks to get on the books. My doctors office could not perform it, no big deal,
there are several fertility tests they do not perform. So IM and I began looking at other clinics and
locations. After a month of searching we determined that there was no place
near me that will do this and some places wanted to charge over $1000 for this
procedure! We finally found a place that was a reasonable price and only an
hour drive from my house. Once we called them, we ran into another issue. The
fertility clinic we are using is out of state, and the infusion center needed a
California doctors signature on the order just to prove that I have a doctor
who can care for me if the need arose. So I called my regular doctor who said
she cannot sign the form and fertility treatments are not her specialty, and
suggested that my OBGYN could sign. I got a hold of my OBGYN who told me he
cannot sign the form either as this is out of his area of expertise. So I
worked with the very helpful woman at the infusion place and we figured that
part out. Next, the infusion center needed basic information and demographics
for me provided by my doctor, once again I reached out to both my regular
doctor and my OB each said they could not help me. I understood the denial of
my first request because they are not fertility doctors and cannot sign a
fertility order however, I didn’t see why they couldn’t simply forward just my
basic information and general health questionnaire. But like I said, they have
their own way of doing things, it works for them but makes it way more
difficult for us. Thankfully the fertility clinic we are using came to the
rescue and got that part of it done for me.
At the same time I was panicking
trying to figure out how to get this infusion done on the day it was required.
The fertility clinic called me saying they were missing several blood tests and
needed them THAT NIGHT or I would not be cleared to begin the EV2 injections,
which would throw the entire cycle off. This weighed so heavily on me. I was in
a double panic! Last month I was given a paper with about 700 different blood
tests (if you don’t know by now…I might have a tendency to exaggerate) that
needed to be done. I handed it to by OB during my physical and he circled the
ones that he could not perform because they were strictly for a fertility
clinic. He performed all the rest. I then took that list to a local fertility
clinic and got the rest done. The tests our main clinic was missing were the
ones I had done earlier that week, once I realized that, I was a bit calmer, as
I knew they were at least done, but the labs were not sent to the main clinic
yet. But it turns out one of the 7billion blood tests got lost in the chaos and
was not done by my doctors or the local fertility clinic. Thankfully it was one
that the main clinic said they can perform when I go see them next week. (Did I
confuse you yet with the Main clinic vs
local clinic? Lol) finally that was all settled along with the infusion issues
at the same time late Friday night. Once those were done it was such a weight
lifted off my shoulders. We were still a-go for this cycle! WHEW!
This next week looks like it will
be smooth sailing. All the tests are figured out and/or done. All that I need
to do is go get hooked up to an IV tomorrow and be forced to sit and do nothing
for a few hours. That sounds lovely! Next
week I am flying out of state to meet up with the IPs, stay in an awesome hotel
with them, go to a doctors appointment at the main clinic in the morning and
then enjoy the evening with the parents. I will fly back home the following
day, just in time to celebrate my youngest daughters 7th birthday.
It is crazy to me that we are already here! The last monitoring appointment
before the transfer! It is so exciting! My husband and I did decide we felt it
was best if he stayed with the kids during the transfer. I am a little bummed I
won’t have him by my side, but I am glad he will be home to take the kids
trick-or-treating and keep them to a normal schedule. I am so excited for what
is to come! I am already looking forward to taking 100 pregnancy tests and
being able to tell the parents that we are pregnant!
