We Have a Tentaive Date

I have the strangest story to share about how I ended up getting scheduled for my covid vaccine that I'll share in another post.  I'm SO GRATEFUL that had my first one done on on January 21st.  I truly believed in the depth of my soul it would happen before the transfer.  And it did!

After the painless injection, I was instructed to wait for fifteen minutes after the vaccine to make sure I didn't have any kind of reaction and then I was free to leave.  About five minutes into my wait I received a call from Jill, our nurse coordinator at CRM.  All of my labs came back normal and we are ready to proceed!  I believe my response was, "Jill, I didn't know the day could get any better!  I'm literally sitting here waiting after getting my covid vaccine and now you're telling me we're ready to schedule the transfer!"  I was elated!  Jill shared with me that she had just gotten back from receiving her first covid vaccine, too!

Jill was aware of my days off of work and double checked with me that the monitoring appointments and transfer would work in my schedule.  Starting February 9th I'll begin prepping my body, and we have a tentative date of March 11th (my favorite brother-in-law's birthday) for the transfer!!!  This means, if all goes as planned, we could have a baby in T and J's arms around Thanksgiving!  Although, I always seem to go late.  So, by early December they should be Daddies!

 Just when I thought my day couldn't get any better - it did!  As I was gathering my things to leave after waiting my fifteen minutes, I saw my cousin's husband sitting down to get his vaccine.  I was fairly confident that it was Brian but I asked him to make sure.  He told me that my cousin, Amanda, was out in the hall waiting for her turn, too.  We did an air hug and then she was called back.  We snapped a selfie quickly before she went back.  It made me so happy!!!  It also makes me miss living close to all of my relatives.  I love just randomly bumping into them.  Hugs are coming to all of you soon!  I can't wait!!

So far I only have one odd reaction to the vaccine other than the typical sore arm.  I ate an apple with peanut butter on it and the peanut butter tasted so salty that I had to spit it out.  I had the kids try the apple and peanut butter combo to see if they though it tasted weird but it tasted normal to them.  It did bring back some feelings from when I had the tainted progesterone suppositories and became sensitive to sweets when I was pregnant with Spencer.  Hopefully this won't last nine months!   

Magical Uterus

 Happy 2021!  The list of reasons 2020 was the worst year ever is decently long; however, the list of reasons 2020 was a wonderful year is longer.  Us introverts aren't having as hard of a time with all of this.  I actually felt like it was a much needed slow-down for our family.  I gained so much time with our busy teenagers and have really enjoyed spending our nights in the hot-tub we purchased this fall.  We've had so many great conversations and laughter in that tub.  I think it's quite possibly the best purchase of our life.  I wish we would have had it higher on our list of goals so we could have gotten it years ago.        

We are so lucky that both of our surro-fams live close by.  Spencer and Chloe brought their dads for a quick outdoor visit just before Christmas.  The connection our kids have with these two is undeniably unique and greater than anyone could have dreamed.  Jack had Chloe laughing more than I've ever heard her laugh before.  It's in those moments that I have to pinch myself to realize it's not a dream.  A perfect dream!  I sure hope that this new wombmate will fit in with all of these sweet kids.  Can you imagine their reunions when they grow old?  Generations of people connected by the passion of surrogacy and a magical womb!  I just don't think there could be a better story written.        

Speaking of a story...Through the surrogacy community, I was able to connect with the author of the book Milo's Adventures: A Story About Love.  I purchased the book as a gift for Spencer and Chloe as one of their Christmas gifts.  It was signed by the authors and Milo himself.  The book traveled from the place where all of this began - Toronto, Canada.  It's a perfect book to add to your children's collection. 

https://www.gayswithkids.com/life-plus/books/milos-adventures-a-story-about-love

Our family added a new bunny earlier this week.  Jeff is a 10 week old Holland Lop who has stolen our hearts.  He is far different than our first bunny but seems to be warming up quickly.  He was much needed after our first bunny passed just a couple months after we got him.  I feel a little sad that their personalities are so different.  Our first bunny, Bill, was the best, sweetest, most cuddly little bunny ever.  I hope Jeff does well with our energy healing and calms down enough to enjoy the snuggles.  George instantly felt better when he held Jeff for the first time.  We needed him, and we hope he loves his new home.    

I've kept guarded feelings around this next surrogacy journey.  It's not that I wasn't excited about it, but trudging through the screening process I felt the need to guard my heart.  Deep down inside I know I'm meat to carry again.  Every part of my being loves the journey!  I think I understand all the hiccups that can come along with this process, and I just didn't want to get my hopes up that things would move so quickly in case they didn't.  It's going so much faster than I actually expected.  As fast as I had hoped.  I'm crossing my fingers that my IFs have their baby in their arms by Christmas.  I need to be on the beach by then anyway.

I had to get on birth control last month before heading to my medical screening this morning at CRM in Minneapolis.  I've heard rumors from many people that Dr. Casey is amazing.  She definitely lived up to my expectations.  I first met with Nurse Jill.  I've been communicating with Jill for a couple months now, and she obviously knows this process well.  She went through the medication protocol with me and we discussed the covid vaccine in depth.  The protocol isn't too different from my first two journeys, and they made a couple of minor changes to mimic what my body has already done and proven successful.  It's a win for suppositories over injections!  Woohoo!!  I'm also skipping the Valium for the transfer.  I've never had to use that before and I'm petrified of that stuff!  I'm ultra sensitive to medication.  I know, I'm an introvert, a highly sensitive person and empath all wrapped in one.

After chatting about the protocol I was off to get my blood drawn and a urine sample.  They check for communicable diseases and do a drug test prior to moving forward with the transfer.  The phlebotomist had to readjust the needle once it was in my arm.  It wasn't that big of a deal but worth mentioning.  Once the blood was sucked from my vein I was off to the the bathroom to collect my urine.  "Pee in the cup and use this pipette to fill this vial in-between the two black lines.  If it's under or over the line they won't test it.  It HAS to be in-between the lines.  Then put them in the separate bags and drop them off here when you're done."  Seems like easy enough instructions, right?  Here's the thing...as I squatted over the toilet to collect my pee in the cup, I accidentally dropped the cup in the toilet!  I've never done that before.  Thankfully, I was able to retrieve the cup that was floating on top without touching any of the toilet water!  I obviously can't use the toilet water contaminated cup to catch my urine, so I gathered my thing with my clean hand and headed back to fetch a new clean pee cup.  I was so humiliated telling the phlebotomist that I dropped the cup in the toilet.  She somewhat giggled and annoyingly said, "How did you do...never mind, I'll get you a new cup."  In addition, I ran seven miles (I'm still training for the Lake Wobegon Marathon because there are so many unknowns) before my appointment and my pee looked like I hadn't had a cup of water in days.  I'm not sure if it was a funny color because of all the beets I eat or that I just ran.  OMG!!!

After the pee experience I was ready for my saline ultrasound.  They look for polyps in my uterus and make sure it looks like it's ready to host a baby for nine months.  Any of you ladies out there have a uterus that's tipped?  I've known I am tipped for as long as I recall having exams.  I stopped counting after the fourth time the doctor tried to put the speculum in my vagina.  She apologized after the fifth or sixth time that she'll get it eventually.  It doesn't hurt but it's not the most comfortable experience ever.  Once she finally got it in the right place she inserted the saline (only about a tablespoon worth) and it took just a couple of minutes.  There was an area on my uterus that they double checked to make sure it wasn't a polyp.  She said it looks like the lining is waving but not a polyp.  Of course, It's like, "Hey girl, I'm ready for you to put that embryo in me!  I know they're here frozen somewhere.  I'm ready when you are."  We chatted about the protocol and the vaccine.  We were given the green light to proceed as soon as the lab results come back from the bloodwork and urine samples on the 25th.  

Ben heads in tomorrow morning for his bloodwork and then we just play the waiting game again.