Thursday, May 24, 2012

meet the doc

Yesterday morning was the first medical appointment in Frisco with IM's ivf doctor (Dr. B). The appointment was at 10am and I was told to get there a little early for paperwork. I got there really early so I went to grab some food and come back. I started filling out the paperwork and K (IM) met me there in the waiting room. She of course knew the entire staff and they all were saying hi to her (she did two IVF procedures with them before) I got all the paper work filled out and K and I sat and visited while we waited. One of the things we talked about was how to explain everything to our kids. Her kids are age 9-girl, age 5-twin boys, and age 1-girl. I told her about the book I've heard of called Kangaroo Pouch, which I'm having sent to my local library to check it out. I'm concerned also about explaining it to my 3 year old daughter Olivia, and also told her about my concern about talking to her about her own adoption (Mike is adopting her yay!!) Conner won't need much of an explanation at first but I know he will too. Ive heard people say one of the important things for the carrier to do around her kids is often say "K&M's baby" and not just "the baby" when talking about the pregnancy.
The office had some scheduling mishaps which put us about 45 minutes late being called back, but it ended up working in our favor because they were able to spend 2 hours with us! Dr. B brought K and I back and we went over our plans with him. He asked a ton of questions and went over possible dates. The tentative plan is for me to finish out my birth control pack, aunt Flo comes to visit, then I start estrogen pills the 2nd day. Once we have a for sure date set for the embryo transfer, I will start the progesterone injections 9 days prior to that, and continue them for 4-6 weeks after pregnancy is confirmed (and/or switch to progesterone suppositories at that point). Right now the transfer is tentatively scheduled for the 2nd week in July (9-13). (Right around the corner yay!!)
After we talked, I had some regular vaginal ultrasound pictures taken of my uterus and ovaries. I had a saline sonogram done, which means the doctor and sonographer filled my uterus with saline and performed an ultrasound to get pictures. It felt weird but not painful, just a little crampy afterwards. I also gave them blood and urine samples. The care coordinator went over how to do the progesterone injections with me. I'm gonna have to teach Mike, he offered last night to do them for me although I had planned to do them myself. I love my sweet husband!
We finished up the appointment and K and I said goodbye and went our separate ways! I said "next time I see you we'll be making a baby" but of course in reality the babies are already made, they are just awaiting a comfy spot to grow! The embies were fearfully and wonderfully made back in 2006, which is a great answer to the question "how can you just give a baby away after you carried it?" Well these baby/babies were never mine, in fact they were in existance before I was even pregnant with my first child. Even if we were doing a fresh embryo transfer, the baby is never the gestational carriers.
K told me one of her friends asked her why a woman would want to seek being a gestational carrier. I will do my best to explain.
I love pregnancy, I loved being pregnant. I love the medical appointments. I love the energy I had during the second and third trimesters (which was lacking drastically during the first!) I love not having migraines. I love seeing baby bellies! And yes I now have stretch marks and pregnancy has done a number on my body. I also have had some friends who have suffered with infertility and it breaks my heart. I cannot imagine the pain that has to be. I love my kids so much and although I had at one point thought I wanted a large family, for now we are considering IF we will even have more, but also we know if we do it will be a little while. So I wont be needing my womb anytime soon! Most of all, my reason for doing this is unexplained, I just have this God-given desire and am drawn to it. Even when my husband asked me why I want to do this so bad, I couldn't give him a real definite answer. Yes there is compensation involved for time, pain and suffering and expenses, but that is not my reasoning, and in fact Ive read that those women that look to it as just a way to make money usually end up not going through with it one way or another. The more I researched and met other surrogates, the more I saw what a beautiful thing it is. Additionally, I cannot wait to see K and M's faces when they hold their newest addition!!

Here is K & I after our appointment!

4 comments:

  1. Your such an amazing lady! I love everything about you Julie! Congratulations on the first steps girls, GOD is good!!

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  2. Aww thanks Shannon! Yes He is!

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  3. How exciting! Is everything still on schedule?

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    Replies
    1. almost! had a minor adjustment so our new transfer date is the 17th (in just five days!!)

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