A little update on our journey first (from notes this month)-
January will definitely be a productive month. (predicted in early January)
It is strange to think I have not met these lovely people in real life yet and probably won't until March for the big baby making day! But that's ok! I feel like we are getting to know each other and I feel absolutely confident that we are a great match and team.
It will be extremely powerful when we do meet.
And now the fun stuff:
I went to San Diego over the weekend for my medical screening with the clinic we will be using. (New clinic for me and my IPs and no matter how many times you do this, most clinics like to do a medical screening of their own to make sure you are indeed medically fit to be a surrogate. This usually involves an ultrasound of the uterus and blood work, mainly checking for STD's and anything else that might hinder the journey)
We decided that it would be an overnight visit, because flying in and out same day and making it on time to the clinic in CALIFORNIA traffic was too stressful. For personal reasons and so that the clinic could also do blood work on John, my husband came with me.
San Diego, here we come.
I got some reading in. Of course it's about surrogacy!! Great story, written by a surrogate and her IM. I am not finished, but I could totally relate to how Heidi came about being interested in surrogacy and her IM's story is similar to my current IM's story. I was getting all emotional on the plane.
When we first got to San Diego, it was really cool. We lived there when John was in the Navy. He spent 8 of his 10 years in San Diego. It had been about 6 years since we had been back. The airport had changed a good amount since then. My husband isn't a huge fan of California or San Diego itself, but he was taking it all in, and seemed excited to be back.
He doesn't look his happiest- but he was in awe.
At the car rental, we both had the same "what if" thought of him doing a few more years in the Navy and living there again.
And then we got on the freeway. ( I should have video'd that)
Our first stop, we both agreed, was to Brown Bag Deli in Point Loma.
They have the BEST sandwiches and we had both been craving them since we knew we were going to be in San Diego. We chatted with the owner and she was touched that we would drive from the airport to there first thing.
So, we grabbed our sandwiches to go and asked Siri to help us get to the hotel. I'm helping navigate and we're approaching our destination in about 400 feet.
OOPS, I blinked and there it was. But by the time I saw it, we were forced on the freeway. The fun thing about the freeway in San Diego is that at some points it is not a simple get off the next exit and turn around. Sometimes you have to take a few freeways to get back to the one you were on going the other way. We were told to take a certain street, but that couldn't be right- it was a military base. There's no way and our hotel was on the other side of the road. So round and round we go. (And we are reminded what we didn't like about living in SD, and had I been alone, this would have caused MAJOR ANXIETY)
About an hour later, we get to our hotel. Yay! Let's check in. There's a friendly guy at the front desk, only he says, "Sorry, we don't do check ins until 3:00 and it's 2:30. We don't have a clean room available yet. (But you don't know what we just went through to get here!)
Okay, well, we'll sit in the California sun on the beautiful patio and eat our delicious sandwiches. (which was nice and yummy) And then we checked in.
We decided to take a little nap before picking up pizza and taking it to meet a Navy Wife friend. She married John's Navy buddy who was our roommate at one point. He was married to someone else when we knew him and we have come to know (and LOVE) the new wife on Facebook. I was so excited to meet her in person and give her hugs, especially because her husband is on deployment right now. She was awesome!! I love it when people are even cooler in real life, and she was.
Sunday morning, I wanted to get some pics by the palm tree on the patio at the hotel.
I had to specify I wanted the WHOLE PALM TREE in the picture. Thanks, John! LOL
Then we headed out to a little Surrogate Luncheon. I got to meet a surrogate I knew online and 2 surrogates I had met before when I lived in San Diego. (My first surrogacy was when I lived there in 2005-2006 and one of the friends I got to see again had come to see me and the surrobaby in the hospital and she even got to hold her before I did)
Sunday evening we went to eat Mexican food in Old Town, which is where our hotel was anyway. Great food, and great atmosphere.
Virgin Mango Rita (Get it? Rita?)
Monday, January 27th was the medical screening appointment. (we flew back home later that afternoon)
Because Lovely Rita wasn't able to be there, she asked me to take pictures of everything! Easy for me to do.
:-)
Outside the clinic with my book
Before the ultrasound- P.S. (TMI) They ended up needing to inflate a balloon to help see everything and to keep the liquid (saline solution) from pooling out, which I guess can happen after having a few kids. That was an experience I don't remember having before. But everything looked great. I was told I have an awesome and smooth uterus!! (No polyps and quiet ovaries like they should be/active birth control is doing it's job)
I left a copy of my book for the clinic. They were excited to add it to their library.
The beginning of many needles & blood draws.
Hubby's get screened too!
The lady (I know her name, just not telling you) at the front desk liked my surrogacy shirt.
Monday, after the appointment, I wanted to go somewhere to do a video update while I was still in San Diego. Balboa Park is a favorite spot of ours, so we went there.
VLOG TIME
I'm aware that sometimes I am a little shy in my videos and quiet. Working on it. If you notice I was louder in the car and the bells ringing at Balboa Park made me talk louder and then I stayed louder. I kind of have a little social anxiety and don't want people to hear me (while I'm filming), and yet I have a blog and do videos. Ha ha!
I seem to miss so many details when I Vlog, even when I take notes. Hmmm.
So, here's a few add ons-
Lady Madonna found my blog and that's how this team even got started in the first place. How cool is that?
I have been on active birth control for a month and the clinic wants me to start taking Prenatal Vitamins.
We needed to get something to eat before heading to the airport. My absolute favorite place to go in San Diego is Benihana, but we were running out of time. This was called Fuji I believe, and was just as good. I just forgot to take a picture of the rest of my food which is similar to what I would have gotten at Benihana. (steak & shrimp & veggies cooked in garlic butter, Hibachi style)
Back at the airport. John has always liked this statue.
I think things will be pretty quick from here on out. So exciting!! I found out that Lovely Rita should be making their final changes to the contract today before passing it on to me. I will hopefully receive it Friday (tomorrow) or Monday.
I went to take the (I'm not pscyho exam) yesterday, January 29th.
(surrogates have to pass medical & psychological screenings) The actual visit is a LONG blog post in itself, with a few miscommunication errors, but I'm pretty sure I passed, because after a few questions, the lady went from frowning (I felt like I was on trial at first) to smiling like she was confident I knew what I was doing.
WOW, holy long blog post! Thanks for stopping by and a big thank you if you made it all the way through.
