Makin Baby - Take Two!!

The holidays are almost over now! You know what that means?? More baby makin! Yeah! 

Theres not a whole lot to report. Jon went to his doctors office on Tuesday for another round of blood work. Apparently he has to have blood work done for every cycle we go through to be tested for STDs. They want to make sure he doesn't have the Syphilis! I have to do it too but I wasn't able to get an appointment till the 10th of January.

We started a new cycle on Wednesday. I started taking my Lupron shots again. Those are the wimpy ones that go in my stomach. I'm too much of a baby to give them to myself this time so I've been making Jon do it for me.

I have to go back to Nashville Fertility Center (blah!) for my monitoring next week. They are going to once again check to see if my endometrial layer is thick. So think thick!! I'm a little nervous about going back there. Hopefully things will go better this time:) I think I might bring the nurse that takes my blood some cookies. Here are some cookies, please don't hurt me!!

So that is about it so far. We don't have to have all the consultations we had last time so this cycle will go a lot faster. So far the transfer date is set for February 6th but that may change depending on how Angies eggs develop. 

Wish us luck!

Life sucks. Guess the embryos knew that.

Bad news. So the pregnancy test came out positive last week but I didn't realize that we weren't in the clear yet. I thought that if it came out positive, that was it and we would have a baby in 9 months. Apparently after I had a positive test I still needed to be monitored to make sure my HCG levels doubled and tripled every couple of days. I had blood drawn every other day last week. On Monday my levels were at 56 which is where they should have been but then Wednesday they were 79 when they should have been 112.  At this point they said they weren't sure what was going to happen but they weren't very optimistic. And then Friday my levels were 46 which means it wasn't a viable pregnancy and we were going to loose it. That was a week ago from yesterday. Yesterday I had my last blood test, hopefully. We haven't received the results from that one yet. My doctors clinic is pretty pokey when it comes to getting test results in. All last week I had to call them about 5 times a day to make sure they got the results in on time. The nurse in Minnesotta wanted me to stay on top of them again yesterday but I'm tired of it. We aren't as anxious to hear these results anyway.

Needless to say it wasn't my best Halloween weekend. I've spent most of the week being depressed. I was convinced it would work the first time. It sucks that after all those shots and all our other efforts it didn't work.

The good news is we may try again starting in January. Hopefully we will have some better luck then. For now I'm going to try to enjoy the holidays.

I'll be back in touch in January.

Bet you wanna know don't ya!!?

We were all kept waiting a little longer than we were supposed to be but the results are in and......its good news. I'm pregnant!! Today we are going to be happy but we have one more hurdle to jump over before we know that everything is good. I had my blood drawn yesterday and this morning they were able to check the Beta HCG levels. The HCG level as of yesterday was 56%. Which is good. They wanted it over 50%. Now I have to go in tomorrow morning for another blood test so they can check my progesterone levels and check the Beta HCG levels again to make sure they have doubled in 48 hours. They want to make sure that the levels go up and not down. If they go down then I could miscarry. This information made me nervous at first because 56% is just barely over 50%. I was afraid that maybe it was higher before and now it was dropping. But then I googled it found this in an article I read:

"At least two (2) quantitative beta hCG blood tests are done (2-4 days apart). The reporting of “beta” pregnancy test results is best deferred until after the 2nd blood test results are in. This is because an initial low (<5iu/ml), successful IVF outcome will (in younger women) at best be 50-55%"

This is good information. It wasn't explained to me before that they always do 2 tests and that the first test would initially come out low (50-55%). Well, I'm 56% so I feel much better. I also came across this chart in my search:

NORMAL TWIN PREGNANCIES

Day after LH or HCG	Average mIU/ml	High mIU/ml	Low mIU/ml	#
14	68	313	56	7

Notice the low is 56! Oh boy!

So I go back to my doctors office tomorrow morning at 9 for my second blood test and we should know by that afternoon the results!

We are very happy and excited! After sitting on pins and needles for a little over a week, it looks like Nevaeh and Alex are going to have a cousin in 9 months!! Thanks for all the prayers and support!

The One with the Embryos

"Hello tiny embryos. I'm Pheobe Buffay. I'm hoping to be your uterus for the next 9 months. You should know we are doing this for Frank and Alice. Who you know, you've been there! You know they want you so much so when you guys get there really grab on! And I promise I will keep you safe and warm until your ready to have them take you home. Oh and the next time you see I'll be screaming but don't worry thats whats supposed to happen. Good luck!"

Thats right!! We did the transfer last Thursday at around 11ish! As you can see above, those are the embryos we transfered. I know before I said that we were only doing one but we made a last minute decision to do 2 instead. The one that looks like its from Russia had 7 cells which makes it a very good quality embryo and is most likely going to be the one that sticks, if both of them don't stick!

I don't have time to write about everything that went on while I was in MN but here are some highlights...

Got to the airport at 11 on Wednesday.

Flight was delayed by three hours.

Was going to eat sushi for dinner but Nate was afraid it would hurt the baby so ate lasagna instead.

Woke up Thursday morning.

Took a shower for the last time for the next 2 days.

Forgot to drink the water I supposed to drink before the appointment.

Took the Valium the doctors gave me 1 hour before the transfer.

Got a little high on the Valium the doctors gave me one hour before the transfer.

Saw roses on the ceiling and was singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" while waiting on the doctors.

Drank water out of the bathroom sink. Like an animal.

Nurse gave me two hospital gowns to put on for the transfer. And a hair net.

Did the transfer. Actually saw the embryos going through the catheter and placed on my uterus through the ultrasound. Pretty cool.

Took a 30 minute nap in the next room under a warming blanket.

Went home and changed in my pj's.

Layed down on the couch.

Watched tv. Slept. Watched Tv. Slept. For 2 days.

Finally took a shower on Saturday at 11!!

Worked on my invite list I'm having for my Scentsy party I'm having in November.

Went to Mall of America with Ang.

Went to H&M and got 2 new dresses!

Ate frozen yogurt.

Went out to dinner at a place called Doolittles.

Had the chicken and biscuits.

Gave Nate a little lesson on how to eat his food.

Woke up Sunday morning.

Drove around with Ang and Nate to find a place to eat breakfast.

Ended up going back to the MOA and ate crepes. Mine had bananas and carmel. Yummm.

Went to H&M again.

Bought a belt.

Off to the airport. Went back home to Nashville.

Cuddled with my little boy for an hour. He missed me:)

So there you are! We take the pregnancy test on Monday the 25th at my doctors office. It will be another blood test. They will fax the results to Dr. Campbell in MN same day. We should know the results by that afternoon! Pretty exciting! We are counting down the days! Meanwhile I am still taking the progesterone and estrace. Trying not to be too active but I do have a 1 year old and a five year old so you know how that is.

Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers!!

"Are you in there little fetus? In nine months will you come greet us? I....will... buy you some Adidas!!"~ Pheobe Buffay.

Think Pregnant Thoughts

So I'm about a half hour away from leaving for Minnesota. I just wanted to write a quick update before I go. Just think, this could be the last time I write to you as a non pregnant person!

I started taking the progesterone on Sunday. Its going pretty well. It only took me about 5 minutes and a few encouraging text messages from Angie to go through with it and it was just fine. Didn't hurt at all! It feels a little weird. It takes a while for the sesame oil in the progesterone to soak in. It kinda feels like I'm getting botox injections in my butt! Hey at least I'm well rounded and more defined!! It feels like the oil is sitting in a big bubble just under my skin like I'm sitting on a water ballon. It doesn't hurt. It just feels weird. I have to continue taking it for at least four weeks I think. Even after the pregnancy is confirmed I have to take it until they tell me to stop.

The transfer is scheduled for tomorrow, October 14th. They have embryos that are almost ready. Don't worry, they aren't going to put all four of those babies in! Just one. They will freeze the other 3 and save them in case the first one doesn't attach we can try again and again and again and again!

Ok, I'm off! Say a little prayer for us and wish us luck! Think pregnant thoughts!!

Nashville Fertility Center Take 2!

Well it took me longer to get to this than I entended so I'm trying to remember where I am.

I stopped taking the lupron shots last week so my first round of injections is over! Yay! Right now I'm only taking Estrace (estrogen) 3 times a day, plus a low dose of aspirin and some vitamins. I'm not very good at taking pills everyday and sometimes I forget to take a dose. When that happens I have to catch myself up and I end up getting really bad headaches but for the most part its fine.

Last Friday I had my last appointment with the Nashville Fertility Center. For the most part it was a much better experience than last time. When I got there I signed in and they said that I once again needed an order from Dr. Campbell to proceed with my appointment! You don't know how much that annoyed me!! Apparently they need an new order for every appointment. I don't think anyone was aware of that. No one in their office told any of us. We had enough trouble getting an order at the last appointment. She asked me for Dawns phone number so they could call and get the order. So I'm on my phone trying to google the number and I look down and theres my file right in front of the receptionist with Dawns phone number right on the front page. I pointed at it and said the phone number is right there dumb ass! Ok, I didn't say that but I wanted to! I sat in the waiting area for 45 minutes while they got my order. When they  got it the receptionist called me over and said that they received it and that they would call be back in a few minutes. Another 45 minutes goes by and people were coming and going. I went to ask the receptionist what was taking so long and she said that technically my appointment was at 8:30 and since I was "unprepared" and they had to take so much time getting my order I lost my appointment and they would have to squeeze me in whenever they had the chance! Ok I'm mad now! I feel like I have fire rushing to my head! My southern girl anger/attitude is about to burst!! But I just gave a lesson to the young women at my church about getting angry and controlling yourself before saying something you don't mean. Only I would have meant everything I wanted to say but it wouldn't have helped the situation. I just sat back down and I had to wait a little bit longer but it only gave me time to chill before I went back there so I guess that was ok.

The nurse finally calls me back and it was the same nurse I had last time. I was feeling pretty calm at this point and she was being very nice. She saw that I had been waiting a long time and she pushed me ahead of the other clients. She had to draw blood again and I asked her to be easy on me since I'm not good with needles and she was. I didn't feel a thing this time. And then she pushed me ahead of some other patients to use the ultrasound machine so I wouldn't have to wait any longer. I'm feeling a lot of love for her right now!!:)

The ultrasound tech comes in and she does her thing. She says that my lining is thicker than last time but not thick enough. I asked how thick it was and she said 7 1/2 but they like it to be 8. Whatever! Dawn called me a few hours later and said that my lining is beautiful! So to sum up... I have a picture perfect uterus and beautiful lining which means I'm at least beautiful on the inside. Haha!

So now I'm in limbo. We are waiting on Angie to grow some follicles, thats what holds the eggs. Haha! I'm learning so much! Meanwhile I just keep taking the Estrace three times a day. Angie has had appointments just about everyday this week to check on her egg holders and when theres enough she will have her retrieval and I will be flying up there for the transfer. So far she has 9 egg holders, I like that term better, and they think that her retrieval will be on Saturday and the transfer will be on Thursday. Angie has already talked about buying plane tickets for me to fly up there on Wednesday evening and flying back on Sunday. So the big event is coming up pretty quickly! Keep your fingers crossed and pray that everything is successful! I'm in the mood to rent Baby Mama.

Nashville Fertility Center- Eh!

Ok so this morning I went in for my first monitoring appointment. Lets just say it was an interesting morning. Before I start to explain my day I'm going to take you back 2 weeks ago when we were trying to set the appointments. So in order to make appointments they first needed an order from Reproductive Medicine in Minnesota and they needed me to fill out some new patient forms. Angie had spoken to Naomi from Nashville Fertility a couple times and I spoke to her once about the forms I needed to fill in online. She seemed very nice as did everyone else who I spoke to in that office did.

So at 10 this morning I arrived for my appointment. They at least had me down for an appointment but had no idea who I was, why I was there, and had me fill out the new patient forms all over again. They claimed they never got the order from Reproductive Medicine even though they wouldn't let us make the appointment without it. Weird. Needless to say that annoyed me (although that's really not hard to do anyway). I had to call Angie to get Dawns number so they could call her and get another order.  They also gave me a hospital bracelet which I thought was weird but Angie says that some clinics do that so they don't get clients mixed up!! Oh dear!

Once they got everything straightened out the nurse from hell called me back! She is every needle fearers nightmare! She was in a very big hurry it seemed like, even though there were only 2 people in the waiting room. Really wasn't that busy. I haven't seen any Vanderbilt nurses in that much of a hurry and trust me Vandy is much busier! I had to have blood work taken and she was in so much of a hurry that she didn't even pay attention to where she was sticking me and stuck me very hard. I wanted my mommy! I still can't really extend my arm very far without it hurting and it was a little blue this morning but its not that bad anymore. She asked me what Reproductive Medicines number was so they could fax the results and I didn't have it on me which seemed to annoy her and I asked her if they were going to be able to get the results in by 2 cause thats when Dawn needed them by. She said "Oh, thats not going to happen". Crap.

Next, the technician comes and tells me what room to go in. I go in there and get ready for the ultrasound and I can hear another patient and nurse arguing outside my door! Not good for other patients to hear!!

The tech comes back in and does her thing. I ask her about the test results getting to Dawn in time and she said "Look we do this all the time you don't need to tell us what to do". I'm a little caught off guard at this point and I said "I'm not telling you what to do. I'm asking you a question!" She handed me some forms and left the office. I few minutes later she opened the door (while I was trying to get dressed) and said they would have the results in  at afternoonish. And that was that. No goodbye, have a nice weekened, nothing.

So at this point I'm a little shocked and caught off guard to everybody's weird behavior. And I'm afraid that they really aren't going to get my test results in on time.

I'm checking out and I asked the receptionist if I could verify my next appointment. This is how our conversation goes....

Tiffany- Can I verify my next appointment?
Receptionist- Sure. Your next appointment is on October 1st.
Tiffany- That's a Friday right?
Receptionist- Hold on I have to go to another window.
Do do do dodo do do do. Do do do do DO dododododo.
Receptionist- Yes that is on a Friday.
Tiffany- And what time is it? I know its in the morning.
Receptionist- Uh, hold on I have to go to another window.
Do do do dodo do do do. Do do do do DO dododododo.
Receptionist- Its at 8:30am.
Tiffany- Do you have a reminder card I can put on my refigerator.
Receptionist- Nope.
Tiffany- Well alrighty.

I know, thats great huh?

But we have a happy ending. The results got in 20 minutes early!! And everything is just as it should be.

Tomorrow I lower my Lupron dosage to 5U. I start taking Estrace every morning. And I also have to start taking 81mg of asprin and 1000U of vitamin D.

We will see how my next appointment goes. Cross your fingers that I don't get crazy nurse again!!

Loopy Lupron... I've come to grips with it. You do too!!

So I started my first round of hormones this week!! I think it was last week when Dawn and I talked and we got my meds ordered over the phone and delivered the very next day. Dawn also sent me a calender that pretty much spells out for me what I'm supposed to take, when I'm supposed to take it and how much. So on Wednesday the 8th I started taking 20U of the Lupron injections.  I take that every morning till the 18th and then my dosage goes down to 5U.

The Lupron needle is very small. Its the same kind of needle they use for diabetics. But even though it is so small I was still so nervous the first day I had to give it to myself! I made my mom come over and keep the kids entertained while I tried to give it to myself cause I really didn't want to be interrupted. What could have taken less than a minute ended up taking more about 30 minutes! I pricked myself about 4 or 5 times trying to get it in but then chickened out at the last minute. I finally did it though! It didn't hurt at all and I was very proud of myself. I was so proud of myself that I went and bought myself a cute skirt at Target and club supreme at Jersey Mikes! Since then I haven't had any problems giving it to myself.

I have had a few side effects from it. I thought it was funny cause Dawn said that there would be no side effects but the psychiatrist  in Minnesotta said that it sometimes messes with people nerves which made me a little nervous since in the past I have already had anxiety problems. Since I've started taking it I have felt 2 side effects, fatigue and mood swings. Heres the interesting part. I have to take the Lupron at the same time every morning. By noon is when I start feeling fatigued and have to take a nap. Luckily Alex has been taking only one nap everyday that last for about 3-4 hours after lunch so when he goes down for his nap I turn on a movie for Nevaeh and I go take a nap myself. She is pretty good about letting me take naps.

About 4pm is when I start feeling a little moody. I'm either sad or really mad and it last for about 20 minutes. So stay clear of me between 4 and 4:30!

By 5 I get a burst of energy! I feel like I could pick up the house and throw it. Kinda like a female Hercules!! And then at 8:30 I'm having another mood swing. I feel better once I lay down and chill.

How about that for side effects?? I've been a little sensitive and cried at least once or twice a day. Jon has had to apologize for something silly everyday since I started this stuff. I have 6 more days taking 20U so I'm thinking when I go down to 5U I'll be back to normal! Hopefully! I make no promises. I do have 2 more hormones to get through that I haven't even started yet! So I've discovered that this will not only be an interesting journey for me but for everyone else around me too!

This is what we have to look forward to the next couple of weeks....

September 17th- I have an appointment with the Nashville Fertility Clinic. They are going to check to see if my endometrial layer is thick. Think thick!!
September 18th- Change Lupron dosage from 20U to 5U, start taking 2mg of Estrace every morning.
September 23rd- Start taking Estrace twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night.
September 27th- Start taking Estrace 3 times a day. Once in the morning, once at noon and once at night.
September 29th- Stop taking the Lupron.
October 1st- I have another appointment with the Nashville Fertility Clinic to check on my endometrial layer.

As of now our transfer date is October 15th. Angie will have her eggs retrieved 5 days before the transfer and that is when I start taking the progesterone injections. That date isn't certain yet but that is what it looks like so far.

Everything is moving right along. Before you know all the medications will be over and I could be pregnant with Angie's baby. That is so weird to say!!

'Who has to die for me to get her'

Its been about 3-4 weeks since I've updated this thing! What have we been doing you ask? Well, we have been preparing our legal contract. So far, out of everything else we've done, this process has taken the longest. Angie hired an adoption lawyer in Nashville for me. Her name is Lisa. Angie has her own in Minnesota, Suzanne. Suzanne drew up the paper work. Lisa and I went over it and changed what we needed to change. And then everyone went on vacation! Except me. I think it was about a week later when Angie and Nate signed the contract and sent it back to Lisa. But then Lisa went on a second vacation so Jon and I weren't able to sign the contract till about a week after that. Anyway, so as of Friday everything is signed and ready to go! I was also able to have a living will written up.  Here's who gets our prized possessions if Jon and I die....

House- Mom and Dad
Kids- Mom and Dad
Penny- Nic Williams. If Nic dies then Tonia Garner gets her. If Tonia dies well sorry Penny its the pound for you.
The donut that I left on the top of the refrigerator- Reilly Harris
My tie die blanket with all the giant holes- Kelly Hefner
My 20 year old New Kids on the Block sleeping bag- Christy Williams
The bowling pin I found on the side of the road in school- Sheila Kane
My rainbow stripped socks- Megan Oliver
My toy horses I played with as a kid- To be split between Erica Eisenmenger, Meghann Tracy, and Jordon Furnell
My Lynyrd Skynyrd tee-shirt- Nathan Furnell
Liz Sanford- Heres $20 go buy yourself something pretty.
The bunny in the backyard- Nichole Mckinny (To replace the one we lost that we won at the fair)  
                                              That is if Penny doesn't eat it first.

Well that's it! Those are the lucky ducks who get all my junk!! Congrats all!

So our next step is to have Suzanne send our IVF doctor a note saying that the paper work has been written and signed. Then Angie will have all the hormones ordered and the injections will begin! My favorite part. Stay tuned for that. It might get interesting:)

Picture Perfect Uterus

Wow! What a week! I don't even know where to begin. Lets start with how airports stress me out! When we left Nashville everything was fine. The plane was on time and everything was honky dory. Unfortunately there are no direct flights from Nashville to Minneapolis so we had a layover in Chicago. When we got to Chicago we found out that our plane was going to be 2 hours late!! Grrr! And then it wasn't going to be late. And then it was going to be late. And then it wasn't going to be late. You get the idea. It seemed like every 5 seconds they were changing their minds! Finally I get a text from Southwest saying that we had a gate change and they were using another plane for our flight to Minneapolis and we left on time!! Why the fiasco? I don't know. I told Jon it was probably because the other plane was missing the left philangie!! Hehe! So in the end of the day we got to Minneapolis on time. Angie and Nate picked us up at the airport and we went home and ate lasagna! Yummm!

On Monday we had an early morning. Jon and I had an MMPI test to take at 8:30 in the morning. The MMPI is a 570 question, true or false, personality test. They let Jon and I take it in the same room together. It took us an hour and a half to take it and we were laughing almost the whole time! It kept asking us a lot of the same questions over and over again like "Do you want to kill your mother"? and "Would you like to become a race car driver"? "Are you possessed by the devil"? "Do you like cupcakes"?

After, Jon and I had an appointment with they psychologist, which got a little personal but it was ok. Then Nate, Angie, Jon and I had an appointment together. We pretty much talked about our plans throughout the entire process. She wanted to make sure that we would be on the same page about everything. She gave us some scenarios I didn't even think of, things that probably won't ever happen, just to make sure we would be in agreement on how to handle them.

We got out of our appointment at about 1pm. We went home and Jon and I took a nap! We haven't done that in a very long time! In fact we took a nap everyday we were there! It was heavenly.

Tuesday was Mall of America Day!! Woo hoo! The theme park inside was really cute! It was Nickelodeon themed. Nevaeh would have loved it. We ended up not riding any of the rides like I thought we would because it was more for kids than we thought. I have plans to hopefully take Nevaeh with me next time though and take her to do all that stuff. Mostly we just walked around the mall. I shopped at H&M, my favorite store! We don't have one in Nashville. We ate at Chipotle for lunch, which they also don't have in Nashville. And we shopped a little at the Disney Store, apparently Nashville doesn't have anymore either! Come on Nashville! We have some catching up to do!

Tada!

Your Backyard Friends The Backyardigans

Food Court

Legoland

The Spongebob Statue

Good times. Next time I will bring Nivy with me and it will be even more fun!

Back to business. Wednesday morning I had a meeting with Dr. Campbell, the IVF doctor. It wasn't very long. He just went through the procedure with us. We met with Dawn, his nurse, next. That was a much longer meeting. She once again started going through the process with us and then she asked "Ok, are you ready for your injection training"? I thought we were going to practice on a pin cushion. Then she said "Nope. your going to do it to yourself"! My palms instantly began to sweat! She gave me the needle and showed me how to do it. It took me a good 10-20 minutes to actually go through with it. Every time I was about to do it I would chicken out! But I finally did it. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it was going to be and I think I will be able to handle it when it comes time to start the shots.

Jon did his injection training next. Jon had to have injection training because he has to give me the progesterone shots in my rear end! The good news is before they were going to give me a 2 inch needle but when they saw how small I am they decided they would give me the 1 inch needle instead.  The bad news is the needle is really big around since the progesterone is in sesame oil. Dawn said the worst part won't be the needle going in, it will be the oil distributing once its injected. She said I will probably be sore for a while. She gave Jon a pin cushion to practice on. He was practically stabbing the thing! It made a popping noise every time he did it. I did not like the sound of that! I'm like "Are you sure he's doing that right"? She said yes and that if he does it correctly, I would not feel a thing. We'll see! 

Next was the saline infused sonogram and the trial transfer. It was not painful at all. It only took about 5-10 minutes. Very easy. It was pretty much a vaginal sonogram. Dr. Campbell said the actual transfer would be even quicker and easier than that. He also said that my uterus was picture perfect and he doesn't expect any problems to come at all! He seemed very excited about it. He used the term "Picture Perfect Uterus" a couple of times! He said it will probably be very easy to get an embryo to attach

That evening Nate and Angie took us out for sushi and it was delicious! I love sushi and once I'm pregnant I'm not going to get to eat as much of it so I filled up!. 

Thursday we headed back home and the return of my airport anxiety returned! This time our flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was late! I think the pilot was just a slow poke! We took off about 45 minutes late. By the time we landed in Chicago we had 10 minutes to get to our next gate. They were boarding our line when we got there. The security guard pissed me off because she stopped us before we boarded and wanted to see our i.d.'s and boarding passes. She said "Next time don't be late and I won't have to do this'! I said "I can't help it if my last plane was 45 minutes late"! Whatever, we made it!

So our next step is to get everything finalized with the legal contract. I have an appointment with my lawyer next week. Once we get that taken care of, we have to get a copy of it to Dr. Campbell and I think that is when we order the hormones and start the injections. Good times!!

Guess what! Angie and Nate got married! And... They are going to have a baby! And And... they want me to grow it for them in my uterus. Hehe!

Ok, so I have been accepted as a surrogate by Dr. Campbell! I told you I would be! I definantly think my angry phone voice helped!:) Its not completely official yet. It won't be completely official till its time to put in the embryos. But we are cleared to move on to the next step! Which is going to Minnesota for some exams. I have been talking to Dawn, Dr. Campbells nurse, about what our schedule is going to be. She emailed me the complete schedule today. Here it is FYI:

July 18th- Fly to MN

July 19th-

8:30 am- MMPI testing for Tiffany and Jonathan. MMPI is a personality test. I think she said its about 150 questions long and takes about an hour and a half. That should be interesting. 

9:00 am- Angie and Nate meet with the psychologist

10:00 am- Tiffany and Jonathan meet with the psychologist

11:30 am- All four of us meet together with the psychologist

July 20th- The Mall of America all day long!!! I have downloaded the MOA app on my Iphone and I am ready to go!

July 21st- 

9:30 am Conference with Dr. Campbell

10:00 am- Nurse consultation with Dawn

11:00 Labs work for Jon

11:15 Saline infusion sonogram, trial transfer and labs for Tiffany. I didn't see this until Dawn emailed me the complete schedule. What I would like to know is exactly how the saline is going to be infused! I don't do well with needles! I'm not sure what a trial transfer is either. These are answers I will have by the next time I post.  And then labs are of course blood work and urine. 

July 22nd- Fly back to Nashville

Now there is one thing that terrified me to my very soul that is not on the schedule but ohhh will it be happening!  When I spoke to Dawn on the phone today she asked me "Do you have any experience with injections!" Like I said before I don't do well with needles! I said "No! Why??" She said that after these appointments and all the results come in is when I will be officially accepted. When that happens I will have to start taking some hormones by injection. There are 2 that I have to take. I don't know the exact names of the hormones I have to take but one is a very small needle that I put just under the skin and is not a big deal at all. I have to take that one everyday for 3 weeks. I'm not afraid of that one. The next one is an inch long needle that has to be stuck in a muscle in my hip everyday for 2 weeks! While we are in Minnesota Jon will be going through some injection training because he is going to have to give it to me! Let me tell ya, this is the worst part of the whole process for me! I'm not afraid of giving birth. I'm not afraid of the labor pains. Well maybe I am a little bit but most of all I am terrified of my husband giving me a shot every morning! What if he hurts me?! It would be one thing if a nurse who does that everyday were doing it but my husband!!??  It's freaking me out! I imagine it happening and it makes me quiver! Needless to say I can't wait till that 5 weeks is over! I think I'm going to need something pretty after that!

You probably won't hear from me for a couple weeks. My next post will be after I go to Minnesota which is about a month from now. Until then I have plenty to keep me busy. I'm going to Missouri this weekend to visit The Grandmas and will be there till next Wednesday. And I am going to try hard not to think about needles!

Well, its alright to be little bitty!

Boy has it been a busy weekend! Thursday I had an appointment with my OBGYN and it went great! She approved me as a good candidate to be Angies surrogate, filled out the paper work I needed and sent it back to Angies doctor in Minnesota. The only thing she was a little worried about was my size since they are putting in 2 embryos and it is very possible that I could get pregnant with twins! She said that people my size have twins all the time so she thought everything would be fine. As long as there aren't more than 2 in there! I mean am I having babies or a litter of kittens under the stairs!! Hehe... Christy!

So everyone who has known me forever knows that I have always been tiny. Half the time when I am seeing a new doctor they don't think anything of it. But every once in a while I get a doctor who thinks I'm sick and needs help. Well it didn't get that bad this time but it did become a little bit of an issue later in the day. I got a call from Dr. Campbells nurse, Dawn, in Minnesota. She said that the doctor reviewed the paperwork I sent back to him a week ago and wanted to know what size my babies were. I told her that my daughter was 6 lbs 2 oz and my son was 6 lbs 9 oz. She seemed a little worried. She said "Oh so they were a little on the small side huh"? I didn't think that was that small but whatever! She said that Dr. Campbell was a little worried about my size and if I could handle carrying twins. There is a 20% more chance that you could get pregnant with twins when you go through IVF. When she said that, my southern girl attitude came out and I got a little sassy with her! I was like "Oh no you are not going to deny me because I'm small"! I probably argued with her for about 2 or 3 minutes and I think she was a little taken back by the way I reacted. Oops! By the end of the conversation she said that she wasn't worried and that a large part of the decision would be made by what my doctor thinks. I was like "Well I know she fine with it"! Honestly, I think it will be fine. Just a little bump in the road.

That evening I attended the first night of the CMA music festival! Jon and I go every year and it never gets old! That night Alan Jackson sang a song that I thought was very appropriate for the day. He sang "Little Bitty"!

"Well, its alright to little bitty
Little hometown or a big ole city
Might as well share, might as well smile
Life goes on for a little bitty while"!

The rest of the weekend I took a break from the baby making business and enjoyed Nashvilles biggest event of the year, listened to great music, bonded with friends, got some great pics, and met some great new people!

Carrie Underwoods Grand Ole Opry team at City of Hopes Celebrity Softball Challenge. Carrie is the first one in line.

Jon, my brother Nathan and I went to the celebrity softball game. Nathan got us free tickets from the Salvation Army, where he is doing his internship!

This would make my 8th year going to the CMT Awards! Thanks to my dad who never fails to get me tickets! Of course I had to bring my pregnant friend Christy with me!

I obsess over all the free stuff you get at the CMA Fest! These bags are my favorite. Aaaand I made Jon take it long ways so I can show off my boots!! Love em!

This isn't the best pic of me but I had to show off my 4 day pass! The sun was in my eyes a little bit!!This was right before they opened the gate to let us in.

This was on our last night, which happened to be my favorite!! Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins played "Hillbilly Bone"! And they ended the fest with Brad Paisley and fireworks. See ya next year CMA!

"Good ole boy and two pretty little girls
Start all over in this little bitty world
A little bitty plan and a little bitty dream
It's all part of our little bitty scheme"!

I may have changed that up a little bit! So, next we need to wait for Dr. Campbell to get the paperwork from my doctor, Dr. Felix. And when they officially accept me as a surrogate ( and they will!) the next step will be to go to Minnesota!

I'm just the Oven... Totally their Bun!!

There has been a little confusion as to who this baby will belong to genetically. Some people thought that Jon and I were having a baby and giving it to Angie and Nate and some thought that we were going to make a baby that was half mine and half Nates! EWE! No no no no!

I am going to be what's called a gestational carrier. Which means they are going to take some eggs from Angies ovaries and they are going to take Nates sperm and make embryos in a petri dish. Then they are going to take something that looks like turkey baster and squirt em on up there and hopefully one of them will attach!

So as weird as it may sound, this baby will completely be my cousin. It will not have any of my genes at all and I will not have any parental rights.

So far...So good!

I said before that this process began in March and this is what we've done so far. Angie started seeing an infertility doctor in Minneapolis a while ago and in March I had to send him my medical records. I sent a request to Vanderbilt, where I had my 2 children, to have them fax her doctor my records. At first the Vanderbilt Medical Records office only sent my hospital stay records. It may have been my fault. I might have missed the little box I was supposed to check to have them send my clinic records too but since Vanderbilts administrative staff pretty much sucks I'm going to blame it on them! 

On my second attempt to have my medical records sent I went down to the office in person with my mom to make sure they were all sent correctly this time. I'm about to tell you why I think Vanderbilts administrative staff sucks. My mom and I were waiting at the front desk for some help and there were two women sitting having a personal conversation about how one of them had a hysterectomy. They must of been in this conversation for about 10 minutes knowing we were there waiting on them. When they finally finished the conversation, the lady who was sitting closest to me looked at me and then walked away and didn't come back!! I was like "What the hell"! Another staff worker saw what happened and came up to me and said "I knew that was going to happen"! He proceeded to help me and faxed my medical records back to Angies doctor and this time they all made it there. 

Unfortunately, the next week Angie got a call from the doctors nurse saying that there was something in my medical records that disqualified me as a potential surrogate. I didn't find out till a couple of days later when my grandma called my mom and told her what happened and then my mom called me. Immediately I called them to see what it was that disqualified me and the nurse said that it was because of an anxiety attack I had 2 years ago that I was written down as treated for. Well, that is true. I had an anxiety attack 2 years ago and it was bad and would not want to go through it again and the doctor gave me a prescription for it but I never took it. I do not like to have to depend on prescriptions everyday. So I dealt with it the best way I could until it naturally went away on its own. Since then I have been as healthy as a horse! 

Still the doctor did not want to accept that. He refused to get to know the situation and said that what he saw on paper was enough to decline me. 

About a week later Angie found another doctor at a different infertility clinic and told him our situation and explained why I was denied by the other doctor. He said that he and that other doctor have a completely different view  on things and he said that as long as I am not being treated anymore then we will be ok. So once again I have sent my medical records to the new doctor. I got a call from his nurse about 2 weeks ago saying that she was going to mail me some paper work for both Jon, my husband, and I to fill out and send back. She also sent some paper work for my O.B. to fill out and send back to them. So my next step is to make an appointment with my doctor for an exam and she will fill out the paper work and send it back to them.

My appointment is on Thursday, June 10th  next week. Stay tuned!!

 

Introduction

Hello all! My name is Tiffany and I am about to experience something very unique and special. I have recently decided to become a surrogate for my aunt. I've decided to write this blog hoping it would be useful to someone else who is trying to make the decision on wether or not to be a surrogate. When I first started thinking about it, I looked and looked for a blog or something that would give me some information on someone's personal experience as a carrier. What did I find? NOTHING! I hope this will be as helpful to someone as is it fulfilling for me and beneficial for my aunt.

Now a little about me....

I'm 27. I've been married for 7 years and have 2 small kids. My daughter Nevaeh is 4 and my son Alex is 11 months. My family and I live in Nashville. My husband is a web programmer and I stay at home with my kids.

When I first started telling people I was going to be a carrier for my aunt they asked me how old she was thinking she was around the same age as my mom. Well, no, she is not in her 50's! Angie is 35. She lives in Minnesota with her husband Nate. She works at home as a nutritionist.

She needs me as her surrogate because in her early 20's she had cancer. I was young when she was sick so I don't know all the details but it ultimately resulted in her not being able to carry her own children.

We found this out about a year ago which is when I started thinking about doing this for her. It took me about 2 or 3 months to do my research and think about it before I offered to carry for her.  I volunteered to be her surrogate in the fall of last year and we started the process a couple of months ago in March.