It's Beta Day Hip Hip Hooray! (5/21/13) Journey #4

*I apologize that I did not get this finished and posted on actual beta day. (yesterday) In my defense it was a long day and I was gone and driving half the day and also pretty tired.
So this starts out with my pondering in the morning before the beta and then what we found out.
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I am starting to think that I'm not the kind of girl that has high numbers. My beta was 60 with my first surrogacy- singleton and about 324 with the twins. So I have no idea what to expect, but hoping for 100.

If you're part of the surrogacy/IVF world, you know most of us are POAS (peeing on a stick) addicts. In other words, we test at home.

After the embryo transfer you enter what is called the 2ww- The 2 week window, or 2 week wait, or the dreaded 2ww. It can be torture waiting and waiting and wondering. Some of us pee to pass the time.

For me it has been helpful to know what's going on. I do better when I know what's going on. It doesn't always mean anything though because anything can change at any time. Last time I tested at home and got positives, but they were on the light side. It ended up being a chemical pregnancy.

It's not like when I got pregnant with my own kids. I only tested at home once with my own pregnancies and then would do a follow up blood test at the nearby lab to confirm. Easy peasy. With IVF and someone else's genetics, you never know what will happen. You could be pregnant one day and not the next. That's why it's so encouraging to see the lines keep popping up and getting darker each time. That's usually a good sign! Either way, I'm always nervous to get too excited at first, even when I see the positive results.

I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to test this time. It sucks to get excited and then to lose the pregnancy. However, with my 3rd couple we had a failed transfer and I didn't get any positives, so it was nice to be prepared that way as well.

Here are my tests this time around:

(this is just what I started with before the transfer... the collection grew)

I am only posting the ones you can see... not every single test. So be grateful!  

:)

You can always skip ahead if you're not interested...

I know you're not supposed to trust blue dyes (and yes it's light) but hubby found these on sale for me at Walgreens and I couldn't tell him no. I loved that he had accepted and possibly even encouraged my addiction.

The digitals are always nice to see. Do you notice the pink lines getting darker?

I believe these were 7 days also. Aren't they cute? Pink and purple. Only oops, the pink one is an ovulation test. It looks like there's a line on the pink one, but it's a shadow. LOL.

Getting better all the time!

Oh my gosh! Look at those lines!!!

These cheap tests are 88 cents at Walmart. They're great to get it out of your system (literally, ha ha) but for some people (like me) the lines don't get very dark. They did however get dark(er).

I started getting excited!  

It's a good thing the Dollar Tree test provided this caution!

This one gave me butterflies with how fast it showed up and how dark! Great test the night before the beta.

The morning of the beta. Not bad for the cheap tests!

Just hanging out, waiting for results after getting my blood drawn.

I was hoping that Amazing Grace would call to tell me the news.

And then later Amazing Grace called with our number and I was super happy!

 (5/21/13 11dp3/5dt =62)

The clinic was happy and thought 62 was a good number. We're pregnant!

We have gotten over the first hurdle- the two-week window and now we know that we have a good number that indicates a pregnancy. Next step is for the number to double and then in about three weeks we should be doing an ultrasound to look for a heartbeat. And then we pray that we have a lovely uneventful pregnancy for the next 9 months.

Itchy bruised, knotty, sometimes sore bum/hips (from the progesterone), but a small price to pay and well worth it. 

Oh and sometimes you prick your finger..

I have been extra tired the past week. I could easily take 2-3 naps a day. I wonder if that means anything. Maybe it's just my body doing everything it can to protect the embryos and make them nice and comfortable and stress free.

I know I was super tired with the twins, but I don't remember if it was this early. Maybe I'm just getting old.
I also started feeling pretty nauseous today. Hmmm...

Please please let the numbers continue to rise and let us incubate a healthy baby or 2 or 3...

I go back tomorrow and the number should be around 120.

*Update- 2nd beta was 140! Woohoo, we're pregnant!

Embryo Transfer Update 2nd try #4journey #surrogacy

Hello. We had our embryo transfer yesterday. I would have updated last night but I was on bedrest (still am) and hubby never brought me my laptop. LOL.

First of all, I've been taking Baby Aspirin and Prenatal Vitamins for a few weeks. I started Estrogen patches about 2 weeks ago.

I started Progesterone (PIO) shots Sunday. I did them all by myself. It wasn't my first time, but the first time in about 5 years!!

For good luck I got a manicure and pedicure from my friend on Tuesday. I had her paint my nails and toes purple and green for good luck. (Green is supposed to be a lucky fertility color. Purple is just my favorite color and a happy, magical, spiritual color. It also represents peace of mind.)

I also colored my hair green and purple.

Thursday morning hubby and I hopped on a plane. I wore my "on my way to the transfer" shirt.

 

I was having some anxiety because hubby and I weren't able to get seats together on the plane. We were at least able to be in the same row. I was hoping that someone would switch seats with us.

When we were at the gate ready to board my name was called. They got us seats together without me having to ask. The lady that helped us had the same name as Amazing Grace. *not her real name* 

I wondered if maybe Amazing Grace had called the airline.

We were so excited to sit together!

When we landed it took forever for the rental car shuttle, but finally we were on our way to meet a surro friend for lunch. I knew her online, but this was the first time meeting her in person.

She was adorable! So sweet and easy to talk to and lunch was delicious. I was excited when she gave me a hug. You never know what people will be like in person. What's cool is, not only is she a surrogate too, but she also wrote a book about surrogacy. (like me) It wasn't a children's book, but it's a great book!!! I reviewed it awhile back on here. She also runs an agency.

Time to check into the hotel.

As we're standing in line to check in I spotted something behind the counter...

Do you see what I see? Check this link to see why it made me smile and laugh- http://mormonsurrogate.blogspot.com/2013/02/embryo-transfer-update-4journey.html

We upgraded to a Jacuzzi suite for the first night. (After the embryo transfer and throughout the pregnancy I cannot take baths or play in Jacuzzi's)

I thought this is going to be so nice after my shot! 

Very nice!!

Ready for bed the night before the transfer.

 Yay, it's transfer morning! Eating my lucky, yummy pineapple. It's supposed to help with implantation.

Then we went down to the lobby and ate a waffle breakfast.

Beautiful morning view from the hotel!

John colored his hair green. (we found a funky kit at Target) He is wearing our lucky transfer shirt. The cute Kokopelli guy is a Fertility God.

I had to empty my bladder and then fill it up.

After about 10-15 minutes, Amazing Grace and I were taken back to the recovery area where I got into my lovely gown and was given a Valium. Then when they were ready for us, I was wheeled into the operating room. (not that it's an operation, but it IS a procedure)

I didn't think the Valium had really kicked in yet, but this picture proves it had. LOL. Amazing Grace had found some purple and green beads for both of us to wear. (She borrowed them from Spunky Monkey... Shhh!)

About 10 minutes later Big Daddy and my husband were brought in.

That's when they filled us in about the embryos.

2 embryos were thawed the day before the transfer. (Thursday) They didn't make it.  :-(
So 3 more were thawed this morning. (Friday) Actually I think one was thawed the day before and was in addition to the 2, so one DID make it. Now we had 3 and 2 out of 3 were good. (As far as I understood) 1 blast (blastocyst), 2 early blasts. We transferred all 3. I believe there was some assisted hatching as well with the early blasts so they can attach better. Cool! We were also told that they had a better chance of becoming full blasts in my natural incubator. Yay! Sounds good to me.

I was told to bring some warm, comfy socks. I wanted to find green fuzzy socks and I found green AND purple. They are aloe infused and SO comfy!!!

The Dr. checked my bladder and wanted it fuller. By the time he was comfortable with how full it was, I was super uncomfortable.

Into position....

The transfer itself was kind of awkward. There were some uncomfortable (physical) moments where I didn't know what the heck the Dr. was doing. I didn't know what was going on the whole time. I've never had a bad transfer experience, and I don't want to say it was bad, just awkward.

Amazing Grace was sweet and put her hand on my shoulder. After a while, I held her hand. Hopefully she didn't mind.

Then after what seemed like forever the Dr. showed us on the ultrasound this bright light of fluid where the embryos were. I didn't know they had been transferred.

I had to stay laying down for 30 minutes. I had to pee SO BAD! Worse than any other embryo transfer.

Finally I was able to get up and pee. Wow, was my bladder full!! I changed back into my clothes and they wheeled me out in a wheelchair.

We were all starving. My husband had noticed a Dickey's truck earlier so we looked it up. We love that place and decided to introduce Amazing Grace to it. She loved it! I got pulled pork, waffle fries and potato casserole. Yum! (supposedly fries are lucky to eat after the transfer and may also help with implantation.

We came back to the room and ate.

 I was pretty tired and soon fell asleep. I slept for about 3-4 hours.

Hubby picked up Smashburger for dinner. Love that place too.

Time to get ready for bed and into my lucky transfer jammies.

;-)

Johnny gave me my shot.

John woke up at 6:30 this morning, which woke me up too. He went downstairs to get us breakfast. Can't complain about breakfast in bed.

Today (Saturday) Hubby went to get ice cream and a movie and an ice cream cake for Amazing Grace and I for Mother's Day! 

Crossing our fingers that at least one of these lovely embryos sticks around for the next 9-10 months!