Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Possible Setback! :(

     Before I write a brief update, I just want to post a quick "Thank You" to all of you who have posted comments.  It is such a delight to read them.  I will start posting comments more (note:  I send lots of mental comments as I read your blogs, but I rarely actually post them.  I will actively start posting them now.).

     Now for the update...I awoke to an email from SCI stating that surromom #1, Miss D, was admitted to the hospital last night for heavy bleeding.  We are first and foremost very concerned about her wellbeing.  She generously signed on to help us in such a major way and our greatest hope was that it would ultimately be a good experience for all concerned.

     Of course, we are also very concerned and saddened because the reason for her hospital admission does not bode well for the pregnancy.  We are struggling not to jump to conclusions, but naturally our assumption is that she has miscarried.  Another ultrasound will be done in about five days.

     We are hoping that "No news is good news!" with respect to Miss J!

    

Monday, May 23, 2011

When It Rains..It Pours!!!

     So...I am a little speechless at the moment (in a wonderful way)!   I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Ray predicted that it was very important to go with two surrogates, because if we didn't there was a significant chance that it might not work, but added that of course, if we went with two, we would be expecting four babies!  Well....both Miss J and Miss D are expecting twins!!!

     We are trying to contain our excitement (and apprehension), because this is only week five.  It will be another week before there is a check for hearbeats...and then, seven more weeks before we clear the scary first trimester.  I am not sure if that applies to twins or if it is longer.

     I am going to go off on a tangent for a moment now and share with all of you that like most of you we had our issues expanding our family.  I may at some point write a "prequel" blog post to our story, but not right now.  It is much nicer to focus on this part of the journey.  But, that said I want to add an extra set of "Thanks" to Meg for saying that, after all else had failed, this really could work!  To us, Dr. Shivani is our miracle worker!

     It has been a really exciting week!  After the hcg results came in, we went window-shopping for the nursery (note:  my husband usually finds a convenient reason to escape the shopping, but not this time.  He enjoyed Babies R Us as much as I did).  The only problem is planning for a gender neutral nursery.  Most of the nicer sets are either girlie or decidedly boyish.  Any suggestions?

     As anyone who is reading this knows by know, I am very new to the blogging and haven't reached the point of being able to write the wonderfully informative and captivating blogs that many of the other families on this path post.  Those are the very blogs that reassured me as I was deciding on this path and the same blogs that helped me to maintain a modicum of sanity during the two week wait recently (it seemed more like two thousand years).  So, I want to say "Thank You" again to all of you in blogland who have shared your journey/ are sharing your journey with us through your blogs!!!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Fixed It!!!

     The last post "Help!" was because I did something wrong and entirely screwed up the blog page (it listed the names of some of the blogs that we follow in large print over the blog).  Anyway...after about a long, frustrating hour we actually fixed it (still not really sure how).

     So, I deleted the "Help" post.  But as it is still listed out there in cyberspace, I thought I would post an explanation.

     Thank you for any and all of you who came to the site to help! :)

Yay!!! Yippee!!! BFPs!!!

     The last thirteen days have been agonizing!  I mean, I have been counting down the hours (sometimes even the seconds) just waiting for the big news!  Ironically, I was traveling this weekend and did not check email (after all, I wasn't expecting the email until today or tomorrow).  In fact, in two weeks it was the first couple of days that I had not spent hours poring over everyone else's blogs...hanging on every minute detail!

     So, low and behold it was quite a surprise to discover two updates from Dr. Shivani!  It was an even greater surprise to read that both surromoms tested BFP!!!  Yay!!!  Wow!!!

     After sharing the wonderful news, Ray took great delight reminding me that he told me that we absolutely had to go with the second surrogate for insurance.  Specifically, he predicted that with one surromom it wouldn't work, but with two we'd end up with four babies.  Of course, my sisters are joining him in this delight (note: they each have one son and remind me on a daily basis that they need a niece or two - no pressure whatsoever! LOL!).  Together, they have all three instructed me that I am not to buy anything pink or girly for fear of jinxing the chance that one of the babies might be a girl!

     In case it is not readily apparent yet, in addition to having no patience, I overanalyze things.  In this case, surromom #1 (hereinafter "Miss D") had a beta hcg level of 279 on what I counted as day 12 (i.e. 12 days after implantation - but 14 after egg retrieval).  Surromom #2 (hereinafter "Miss J") had a beta hcg level of 600 on what I counter to be day 13 (i.e. 13 days after implantation - but 15 days after retrieval).  So, I looked up beta hcg charts and each of these seemed clearly in the twin range.  Does anyone out there in blog land have any thoughts or opinions on that?

     Yes...I really do know better than to read too much into that first set of numbers!  But ...wow...this is so exciting...whether one, two, three, or four, it worked!  We are actually expecting! 

     Huge thanks to Dr. Shivani for making this a reality!  And to Meg who told me that this truly could work!  And to all the other staff at SCI for their assistance!  And, especially, to Miss D and Miss J, without whom this would not be a possibility!

    

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Two Week Wait

     Counting down for the next 11 days...  The exciting update is that Dr. Shivani icsi'd 17 eggs.  Fourteen of them fertilized.  After implantation, Dr. Shivani put 6 on ice.  Lots of reasons to be optimistic...

     Ray is very relaxed about it all.  He is completely confident that there will be good news in two weeks.  I am just afraid to get my hopes up and feel disappointed.  My husband worked out the statistics first...going through our chances of conception with one surrogate versus two, then of conceiving twins, twiblings (yep...we are picking up the lingo of the surrogacy world...wow), triblings, and quadlings.  LOL!  Then he proceeded to explain to me that in our case, all statistics aside, if we went with one surrogate we wouldn't conceive, but if we went with two...we'll end up with four babies!!!  Frankly, I think that is Ray's wistful thinking!

     So... about 252 hours to go until it is time to obsessively check emails for Dr. Shivani's update!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

On Pins and Needles

So...the exciting news is that egg retrieval was yesterday...17 mature eggs were retrieved!  Yay!  Now comes the wondering and waiting.  How many will fertilize?  How many will be implanted?  And so on...the waiting begins....

Next comes the 2ww, then the wait until the end of the first trimester (i.e. into the safe zone), then the next six months until the big day!  Fortunately, my wonderful sisters are encouraging me through all the waiting...they are very understanding, as they were born lacking the patience gene, also.

My husband, Ray, on the other hand, has the patience of a saint!  He simply watched with amusement as I counted down the hours until he and the boys left for India, until his first meeting with Dr. Shivani, until egg retrieval, and so on.

So...I would welcome any suggestions or anecdotes about how those of you who have been through this before us have kept your sanity during the long waits!?!