Ready...Set...Go!

Hello friends; long time, no blog!  You may be wondering where we've been...and, that would be, in limbo.  At our IVF nurse appointment, George made it very clear that he wanted our baby to be born after his "busy season" (lingo for "tax season") as he intends to take the first few weeks off after our baby's birth.  George doesn't want to miss a beat of our baby's start in life outside of the womb, and, being as though he's a CPA, he wants the baby to arrive after his busy season so he can enjoy those precious first few weeks home with our little coconut.  In fact, he's already talking about handling midnight feedings - am I lucky or what?!

So, what's new?  Well, this week we finally began the medical portion of our journey - we're so excited!  The stage we are at now is informally called "monitoring."  The purpose of monitoring is to see where I am in my cycle as Ashley's cycle will have to be synchronized with mine.  Typically, both the Intended Mother (IM) and the Gestational Surrogate (GS) are put on birth control to simplify synchronization.  However, due to my history of a pulmonary embolism, Dr. Castelbaum feels it is safer if I do not take birth control pills, so, Ashley is going to start taking the pill, and, her cycle is going to be medically adjusted to synchronize with my natural cycle, which will be left alone.

Due to my previous blood clot, I have to take Coumadin while I am on the hormones required to overstimulate my ovaries.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Coumadin is no picnic!  My new, thin blood can be a real pest sometimes (for example, if I nick myself shaving, you'd think my shower looks like a crime scene).  Check out the picture below, which was taken an hour after my blood draw this week.  Ick!

See?  I bleed right through the gauze - this happens with band-aids too!

Anyway, my first monitoring blood test was done this week.  My hormones were nice and low, which indicates my eggs are still quality little suckers at age 35.  Praise Jesus!  My egg quality has made me nervous since George and I came up with this crazy baby-making idea, so, it was a relief to hear that things are still looking good!

This week's blood draw indicated I was at day three of my cycle.  So, I have an appointment to go back in about a week and a half to check my hormone levels again after I have ovulated.  Around that same time, Ashley will begin taking her birth control pills to begin preparing her body for our embryo transfer.

Also, this week, all of our drugs were ordered.  Holy Hannah!  I almost choked when the drug provider told me how much our medication will cost.  It's so outrageous that I don't even feel comfortable posting the drug costs here, but, let's just say we're crossing our fingers and our toes that some of it will be covered by our health insurance provider!  Anyway, our drugs are being delivered tomorrow, and, I will be sure to post a picture of them to give you a better idea of what it takes to make a baby this way!

We also began the process of purchasing Ashley's health insurance for the next few months.  It's actually pretty tricky - the plan we are buying for her provides excellent benefits and it covers gestational surrogacy...with one catch.  Ashley cannot be pregnant before we purchase her health insurance, so, we're now in that "scrambling phase" where we have to get the application process done quickly as her new insurance must be in place before her embryo transfer.  According to my cycle, it looks like the transfer will be in the end of August, and, it takes four to six weeks to activate the health insurance, so, the clock is ticking on us!

So, that is where we stand now.  I'm also going to post a second round of questions and answers as more questions have poured in, which I love!  It thrills Ashley and me when people ask us questions as having an open dialogue with skeptics really helps us change their perspective on the gestational surrogacy process.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog!  We love receiving comments and questions, so, as always, fire away if you have any - they make us smile!

Cheers!