Tuesday, July 31, 2012

second beta

Sunday after church I started feeling REALLY nauseated, hooray! As much as I hate that feeling, its just a good ole symptom of pregnancy! Mike and I grabbed a bite to eat and went to a local resort here on Lake Conroe to spend the night, so I started feeling much better when we got there! The kids stayed with my parents but we definitely want to go back with them sometime too!

I woke up early Monday morning and drove to the lab to do my second beta test. Generally you'd do the second one two days after the first, but I did three days since it was over a weekend. The nurse called from the clinic Monday afternoon with the results: 754!! I was certainly thinking it was going to be higher after all that nausea, but its a great number! The number should double every 24-48 hours and mine double in a little less than 40 hours. I looked up numbers on a chart that women submit to a website. The median for singleton pregnancies at 18 days past ovulation (I was 13 days past a 5 day transfer, so 13+5=18) is 416, while the median for twins at 18dpo is 809. So my number is a little closer to the twin median! K & I texted throughout the day and she's very excited that we have good numbers, and we are all ready to see that sonogram on August 20th!!

Friday, July 27, 2012

It's official!

Labs confirmed today with a beta of 219, we are officially pregnant! I spoke with K today and she is of course excited that it is confirmed now. We were both trying to analyze the number and figure out if both babies implanted or one. It's a good strong number but it really doesn't tell us much except that I am indeed pregnant with at least one baby. The number should double every 24-48 hours, and I'm going back to the lab Monday. We have a date set for the first sonogram- August 20th, at which we will be able to see if both babies implanted. And we will likely see the heartbeat(s) at that time! It's amazing how much growth happens in such a short amount of time!
So far I've had only very mild symptoms of pregnancy, much like my pregnancies with my kids.
Funny story: Olivia caught me slouching the other day and told me that I shouldn't sit like that because the babies don't like it when I do. That's my little bossy-pants! And tonight while playing restaurant she asked if I wanted Dr Pepper, Sprite, or Sweet tea. I acted all sad and said I can't have two of those! She asked "do you have a baby in your belly?" I said yes. She asked "right now?" "yes". "well then you'd better have Sprite!" This girl knows I'm missing my Dr Pepper and sweet tea!
Conner is really too young to know what's going on but I'm curious how he will be as he nears age two closer to the due date. I'm thinking he'll be more interested in hot wheels than anything else haha!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Big fat positive!

So excited to announce I've been testing positive with home pregnancy tests! I got the first very faint line on Saturday at about 4 days past transfer! The lines have continued to get darker and this picture was yesterday's test. Of the seven tests I've taken, all have been positive except the one I took the morning of three days past transfer. (I know, why was I even testing that early?!) K wanted me to tell her when I tested positive so I sent her pictures Sunday morning. Mike thought Saturday's was too faint to tell her. I'm so excited for K and M and now the next step is beta (official hcg test) this Friday! We won't find out til next month if it's one baby or if both stuck around. I'll be going back up to Frisco for that appointment.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

"two week wait"

Well we aren't waiting quite that long, official labs will be 10 days after transfer, which was Tuesday morning! Denise came and got me early EARLY Tuesday morning and drove me (along with her sweet daughter) to Frisco for the transfer! I started to get nervous right when it was time to drink my 32 oz of water prior to arriving at the clinic, I was hoping the nerves wouldn't make it all come back up! Once we got there, Denise gave me a wonderful gift in the car, a scented candle, shower gel and lotion, and of course a pack of home pregnancy tests! We went inside and K&M were already checked in and sitting in the waiting area. We hugged and I could tell K was feeling a little nervous. M went out to their car and came back with a large picnic basket filled with all kinds of snacks, and things that I could use while on bedrest, magazines, face wipes, etc. So sweet and greatly appreciated, I kept it right next to me the whole time I was on bedrest.

Denise and I ran off to do my morning injection of progesterone (Mike normally does them for me, I don't prefer to do them myself). Not long after that, the nurse called us back! Just K and I went back, everyone else waited out front for us. We donned our wonderful gowns and hats and I was given something to help me relax during the procedure, so I got on the bed and chatted with K while we waited. Soon enough the embryologist came in with pictures of the embies, and filled K in on how well they were doing. She said they looked much like K&M's youngest child (as far as embryo quality goes) so that was great news!
K with the picture of her babies taken just before transfer:


And here they are up close. They were 5 day old (blastocyst) embies. Aren't they cute?! ;-)


It was time to go to the procedure room. They wheeled my bed just across the hallway, and got me situated. The ultrasound was shown on a screen hanging above me where K and I could both see. We got to watch the catheter go in and the embryos enter there new temporary home! It was great being able to see the ultrasound! Makes me think of how absolutely amazing God's ways are, especially when it comes to the miracle of life and modern medicine. We have seen His hand over and over again in this situation.

After transfer, it was off to the hotel for bedrest! It went well, I did get a headache and got sick at night, but other than that, I slept, relaxed, watched TV, read magazines. K came back and checked on me before they headed back out of town. Denise and her daughter kept checking in and bringing me food. After 24 hours of bedrest at the hotel, it was time to head home. Denise drove me back into town, and my sister Lacey came over with my kids and her son. Lacey and Mike were both great about taking over with the kids, I'm so grateful! Today Lacey and I did a couple things with the kids, then tried to go shopping (total fail with 3 kids around naptime!) Mike had me go home and told me he'd stop by the store for me after work. So I've been doing lots of "taking it easy" to help those embies get a head start hopefully! I plan on doing a home pregnancy test sometime over the weekend and/or Monday. K doesn't want to know until its positive, so I don't see the point in testing TOO early even though I'm dying to go test NOW!!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Let the fun begin!

I cannot believe how quickly the transfer day is approaching! These last couple of weeks have seemed to fly by. I am getting a little nervous, and super excited! I have been on the estrogen pills for a couple of weeks now, and just started the progesterone injections yesterday morning. I have been getting up with Mike before he goes to work so he can give me the shots. I got some pineapple yesterday and plan on having some everyday up til transfer and a few days after; its supposed to make for a very cozy womb! I've already stocked up on a few home pregnancy tests, there's no way I could wait til the first lab test, which will be the 27th! I've been speaking with K (Intended mother) these last few weeks and we are so excited and ready!
I went to a get-together last weekend and met some wonderful surrogates. Its nice meeting others who have been through it all or are going through it now; we are all part of different groups/forums online and its great to have them there for support. And of course, having Denise as the coordinator during all this is so wonderful!
Alright, we are five days away now! Send us lots of prayers and "sticky" thoughts this next week please!
Just a glimpse of my bathroom turned clinic for those morning shots!

surro get-together, yep, those are my kids looking fabulous in there ;-)