I am going to try to keep this mostly about my current journey, but I should share at least a little bit about my last one and how I ended up here.
The first time I ever heard about surrogacy, I knew that it was something I wanted to do. I can't really explain why I was drawn to it, but I was. I honestly don't "love" being pregnant, like I've heard many surrogates say, but I don't hate it either and the outcome is worth every moment of misery I might encounter along the way.
My first journey started almost three years ago when I applied through an agency to be a surrogate. After all of the initial testing and screenings, I was matched fairly quickly with a single intended mother (IM). Without getting into the details .. after almost a full year of problems and indecision , we parted ways and I was rematched with an amazing couple. I loved them from the first phone call and I knew that we had found a perfect match. My new IM was unable to carry a baby, but she still had viable eggs and we were able to establish a pregnancy on the first try. Their beautiful baby boy was born in April of this year. Having his parents in the delivery room and seeing their tears of joy when he was born was the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of. Holding the son they had waited a decade for was an incredible gift for all of us.
The number one question I've been asked is "Wasn't it hard to give up the baby?" No. It was one of the easiest things I've ever done. He was never MY baby. He was always his parents child, he just grew in my body. As Phoebe said .... "I'm just the oven, it's totally their bun!"
Now .. on to journey number two! I am SO excited that I was able to start this again so quickly. I love my new intended parents (IPs)! They do have a six year old son, but my IM is unable to carry any more children. They're both amazing people and I can't wait to help add to their family.
So here's where we're at right now ... All the legal stuff is done. We've been through all of the physical testing, psychological testing and screenings. I just finished with the Lupron, which was the first part of my med cycle. Lupron is used to suppress natural hormones and get your body in a sort of neutral place to get ready to accept the embroy. I've been taking pre-natal vitamins as well as an estrogen pill to help get my body ready as along with baby aspirin, which is also supposed to help get your body ready. IMs egg retrieval was Thursday. They got 15 eggs and 8 of them fertilized! The night before her retrieval I started Progesterone in oil shots (PIO). These come in the form of a big nasty shot in the butt once a day. This is probably the worst part of the whole process since in order to maintain a pregnancy, I'll have to stay on these for the next two months. I forgot how much they hurt, though I feel like that just goes to illustrate my earlier point that every second of misery is well worth the outcome!
So now that we have little embryos growing, what's next? Hopefully they are super healthy and we will make it to a five day transfer. (If not, it's tomorrow and I should get some sleep!) Embryos can be implanted at three days or at five days. Three day transfers are used with less healthy embryos to give them a better chance to make it. My last transfer was four embryos implanted at three days. This one we're hoping to do two embryos at five days. Two healthy, five day embryos means that the chance of a twin pregnancy is much higher. I've had a gut feeling from even before I met my current IPs, that my next journey would be with twins. I guess we shall see!
So now I wait. Just a few more days until the transfer and we are all very excited! In only about two short weeks, we'll know if I'm pregnant. I believe that it will happen. I know that this journey is just beginning and I look forward to every moment!
No comments:
Post a Comment