Thursday, June 14, 2012

Finally More to Say

It's been a long time since I've had anything to post about this journey. There's been a lot of waiting, but there's finally been progress. After almost being matched with several couples, I found a couple in Europe who is ready to move forward and liked me as much as I liked them!
We emailed and Skyped last week and are starting the process of getting to know one another. There is a bit of a language barrier as sadly, I'm not bilingual in any respect. Their English is actually pretty good, considering it's not their first language, but I have to remember to not speak too quickly (an annoying habit of mine) and to avoid using too many local phrases. They are traveling to the States near the end of August to meet with the doctors at the IVF clinic and we'll be making arrangements to meet in person at that time. I can't wait!

My understanding of the surrogacy timeline is that once they arrive in August, the genetic material from the father has to be cryofrozen (for quarantine) for six months. About 4 1/2 months later, the egg donor and I will start taking meds to sync our cycles and then sometime around the end of February or early March, we should be able to attempt our first transfer. And because I can't resist looking forward even further, if we're successful on the first try, then we're looking at a potential estimated due date of mid November 2013. Phew! What a wait.... but, oh - it will be so worth it to help build a family!!

In the meantime, my husband and I will have to take a trip to the IVF clinic to do our psychological screenings. I should be hearing from the agency soon as to when that appointment will be. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about that appointment as I really don't know what to expect and of course, no one wants to even consider the possibility of somehow "failing." I'm sure it will be fine... but I"ll feel much better once we're on the other side of that task.

I can find at least one reason to be thankful for the extra-long wait in this journey - I can have some extra time to try to drop a few pounds prior to starting meds. I hear that it's not uncommon to put on 10-15 pounds just in cycling with the medications and then of course about 25 with the actual pregnancy. I would be more than thrilled to drop maybe 20 pounds prior to February. We'll see - now that my youngest child is sleeping better at night and naptimes, I'm finding more time for exercise than in the past. It will feel good to slim down the tummy before watching it grow again....

Another thing which comes to mind is how and when to tell my kids what is going on. The two oldest will be 6 and 7 at the end of the summer (when we meet the Intended Fathers) and will definitely need an explanation. Time to go in search of a good book to help!

Can't wait to come back with more updates. Stay tuned...