A First Father's Day

Today, I got to wish my intended fathers a "Happy Father's Day" for the very first time! I know their little one isn't here yet, but yet, he "is" so there is definitely cause for celebration! Time for a photo - I'm 23 weeks. (almost 5 1/2 months pregnant).

I've complained in the past about worrying about weight gain. I won't go on and on about it, but I'm very proud to report that so far, I've only gained about 13 1/2 pounds. I have about 17 (probably a little less) weeks to go and my goal is to keep the gain to about 10-12 more pounds. I'm right on target! Go, me....

Next week, I get to see the doctor again and "enjoy" their nasty orange concoction known as Glucola. For those not familiar with it, it tastes like an over-sugared, flat, orange soda. I get to avoid food for a couple of hours, drink this nastiness and then get my blood drawn an hour later to check for gestational diabetes. As long as I pass this test, it's a one-time deal, so I won't complain too much. Failing the test means repeating a similar version and then possibly having to alter the diet and track blood sugar values for the rest of the pregnancy, so as always, keeping my fingers crossed for good results!

Halfway There!

This past weekend, I reached the end of the 20th week of pregnancy. Surro-baby is halfway baked. It is an exciting milestone, commonly marked with the excitement of an anatomy scan. Today, I got to spend a good hour peering a baby's heart, head, limbs and belly. To be honest, baby kidneys and bladders aren't the most thrilling thing ever, but the rest of it was just fabulous!

My intended parents have a seriously active little baby in there. Sprout wouldn't hold still for long - the ultrasound technician had to go chasing after baby to get all the pictures she needed. I was thankful to see that Sprout's growth was right on track - about 50th percentile for all the measurements. Glad to see I don't need to worry about having to give birth to a baby much larger than the ones I've already grown. Ha-Ha!

Of course, the BONUS information that comes along with the anatomy scan is the ability to decipher the sex of the baby, assuming that baby cooperates and shows off a little. The ultrasound technician was easily able to determine whether Sprout was a boy or a girl and marked it on a paper for us. I then took the paper to the store and had a color-corresponding balloon placed inside a box so that the intended parents and I could learn the sex of the baby together. They are the parents - they should be the first to know!

So, after of couple of rocky starts to a Skype video call, we managed to get all updated on what's going on and then it was time to get down to the exciting business at hand.....

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE.......................

IT'S









A

BOY!!!















HOORAY!!! Congratulations to my IP's on their SON-to-be!   

3 months and gaining

I reached 14 weeks into this pregnancy this past weekend and so by everyone's standards, the first trimester is over! That means that pretty much all of Sprout's systems are "created" and now need to focus on final details and growth, growth, growth! 

Speaking of growing, I've been doing my fair share. Ideally, I would have made it this far with only having gained maybe 2-3 pounds. However, when my first trimester is particularly full of nausea and indigestion, I tend to gain more and so unfortunately, 10 pounds was my actual tally this time around. Eeek! Thankfully the second trimester tends to be kinder to me and hopefully I'll have some spare energy to spend on getting more exercise and the overall weight gain will slow down for a little while. 

I was fortunate enough to be discharged from the reproductive endocrinologist's office at 11 weeks. While they were great people and very caring, I was thankful to have a break from weekly visits to the office and all the injections. Since then, I've seen my OB/GYN for my regular appointment at 12 weeks and am looking forward to returning at 16 weeks. 

My IP's are crazy-excited about discovering the sex of the baby. My OB typically schedules the anatomy scan around 20 weeks gestation, but once I did have it done around 19 weeks, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that the IP's get to find out sooner rather than later!

Finally, I'm just waiting around impatiently to start feeling Sprout wiggling around in there. Every ultrasound I've had has shown him/her shadowboxing and dancing so (s)he seems like a very active baby. I did, however, find out that I have an anterior (towards the front) placenta, which means that it acts like pillow between Sprout and I - cushioning any kicks or rolls I might otherwise feel early on. 

I did have anterior placentas with my first two children. I didn't starting feeling any movement from them until around 18-20 weeks. And it wasn't very consistent for another couple of weeks after that.  That was a great difference from my third and fourth babies, who both had posterior (in the back) placentas. I felt their movements as early as 13-14 weeks. Thankfully, I have enough experience to know not to panic because I don't feel baby in there yet. It will be hard to wait another month or so to feel him or her, but it never hurts to learn another lesson in patience!

And since I feel I'm the least photogenic person ever, I will post this photo of my 12 week belly shot, but only begrudgingly and while mostly covering my eyes and barely peeking through my fingers... 

P.S. The bloated tummy is RIDICULOUS!

Moving Right Along - Month Number Two!

It's been a few weeks since that first test showed the good news. Since then, I've had the pleasure of having two ultrasounds. With the second, I even got to hear the heart beat. Very exciting! 

I'll be 7 weeks pregnant on Sunday and I've got at least one more ultrasound next week and about 2-3 weeks before I get released to my own OB office. At this point, I am looking forward to finishing up with injections and patches in the next 3 weeks. The nausea and the fatigue has kicked in to overdrive. Right now, I'm just rolling with it and hanging on for the ride. 

Who's Happy?

The title of this post poses a question.... the answer:  EVERYONE!!! 

One week ago, we transferred a single 8-cell embryo from the petrie dish to my uterus. Then we all crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Today, the best has definitely happened! I got this answer when I asked another question: "Am I pregnant?"

I got to share the exciting news with the dads-to-be in the afternoon and they were overjoyed! I am so excited for them to finally get to be parents. They shared the news with some relatives, who were also very excited... And I shared the news with just a few close friends. And now the world.... well, the couple of people who follow this blog, anyway.

So even though it's been a long road already, it really is "the beginning" now... next up is the HcG blood test this weekend. Time to follow a new motto!

A New Waiting Game

Here I am, 3 days post 3 day transfer (3dp3dt), which is approximately the equivalent of being 6 days post-ovulation, which is the date that a woman not undergoing IVF would typically release an egg for fertilization. For those who are in the (sometimes) dreaded two-week wait, days post-ovulation is the typical measurement for trying to figure out if what they are experiencing could be pregnancy-symptom related or whether a home pregnancy test (HPT) might test positive.

The two-week wait (TWW) gets it's name from the two week period of time from ovulation until the next cycle begins. For many women, it can take all 14 days to pass before a HPT will turn positive. I happen to know that in my case, I've tested earlier and had results as early as nine days past ovulation. But that was with my own baby and definitely not through IVF, so it's a whole new game this time around!

I found this nice little chart which outlines a "typical" timeline for a 3 day IVF transfer. 

http://www.nyufertilitycenter.org/ivf/embryo_transfer

As you can see, three days post-transfer, I can expect that the embryo-turned-blastocyst is now beginning to hatch. Implantation has not yet occurred. Sometimes this chart can be off by as much as a day or two... but realistically, that still makes it virtually impossible to be experiencing some pregnancy symptoms yet. So every time my mind starts wandering, I can refer to this to remind myself that it's too early... don't test yet! I know better.... but believe me, there are many, many women who just for the sake of needing to do something, will go ahead and test anyway. Not me! Not today, anyhow... my resolve is quickly weakening though. 

My goal is to make it until Thursday of next week. That will be 8dp3dt, the equivalent of 11 DPO. Technically it could still be too early and a false negative could ensue. But this girl is only thinking happy thoughts, so no worrying about that just yet!

So in the meantime, I will be tracking every little twitch or twinge I have for analyzing. I will be sure to keep you posted....

Transfer Day

Today was the best day yet of this whole journey! Yesterday, we received notification that our embryo transfer was most likely going to take place on Day 3, as opposed to Day 5. I'm not privy to all the details about why they chose to do the transfer earlier rather than later, but when we got there, we found out that the embryo being transferred was about as close to perfect as it gets. It had eight, symmetrical, nicely-formed cells and was looking big and beautiful on the printed picture they provided.

The transfer was easy-peasy and took all of maybe 5 minutes. Then I had to lie there on the table for about 10 minutes before getting up and getting dressed. After the transfer, we had a very nice lunch with the Intended Fathers and their interpreter and our contact at the surrogacy agency.

The only sad note in this bright day is that we won't get to see everyone again until they come to meet their baby.

The rest of the day for me was to be "couch-potato" activity. I did meet a friend for dinner and we had a lovely time sitting and not moving, but sharing lots of laughs. It definitely qualified as "relaxation" therapy!