Negative scan...

There you go, I didn't know they existed but now I know...negative scan. No sac was visible for surro 1 and pregnancy didn't get that far for surro 2 No frozen. Dragged poor m to India ...

Thud!!....

That was me coming down to earth. We got the email early this morning telling us that our second surrogate mums' hormone levels had dropped away to nothing, meaning she had a chemical pregnancy. All of the problems that most normal people wouldn't have a clue about started coming back to me from our ivf treatments. I.e. the problems with DH sperm. What if this pregnancy does not continue either, what if they are not healthy, we don't have any frozen embryos so oh god we have to start again, maybe it will never work, aaarrrggghh! I've started with the prays again (he knows me quite well)...please please please be ok. We have scans on the 29th so will hold my breath til then.

Regular mums to be don't get any of this...!

We got the good news early on Wednesday morning, so Wednesday night we had a little mini celebration....as attached! Now I know a lot of you may be saying..don't get too excited yet, cause you have a long road ahead of you, and we do know that...it's just on our journey to have a family, we have never even been on the road before! In fact after 12 ivf's and a few with the added drama of egg donors, we have never even had a positive blood test before! So that in itself for us is worth a celebration.

We are trying to bring it down to earth now, but it's really hard. I asked M when I was 'allowed' to start buying baby things today when I got home from doing the groceries this morning. When I was there, trawling down the shopping isles, I even allowed myself to go down the baby isle, the isle in the past few years I have refused to walk down. Look at all these things I will have to buy in the very near future!!! Bit pathetic eh?..anyway He replied, we have a long way to go (blah blah he is the more practiccal of the two of us) then said pull out the 'baby stash', with a big grin on his face...as you can see we are having trouble gaining control of ourselves...so I pulled down the shopping bag from the top of the cupboard, the few little bits and pieces of baby clothes etc that I have bought over the years, when I thought 'it has to be this time...' Oh gosh, we are saying looking at each other...are we really going to have a little human that's going to be so small as to fit into these gorgeous little things! We love him/her already...

Reading all the blogs over the last couple of months, I cannot believe how long some of you have kept it from everyone. I am absolutely bursting! Anyway,stop it! Get control, I am going to wear myself out if I keep this excitement level up for the next 8 months!

Aside from this, we are also waiting anxiously to hear how our second suurogate is going.  She had a low positive reading, so second blood test was, we hoped, scheduled for Thursday or Friday, but opening my email account 3am Thursday morning and 3 am Friday morning to no avail... we would have to wait until after the weekend to see if we had a second pregnancy.

For the family following, here is the schedule for the next 8 months;

FIRST TRIMESTER

Positive pregnancy result – 4 weeks

Once your surrogate mother tests positive for pregnancy she is moved to our surrogate housing. At this stage the gestational age of your pregnancy is four weeks, dated from the first day of the surrogate’s “presumed” last menstrual period. 

5 weeks

Scan to determine number of gestational sacs.

6 weeks

Scan to detect fetal pole (your growing embryo) and heartbeat.

8 weeks

Routine scan

10 weeks

Routine scan

12 weeks

Blood test – complete blood count (CBC) and urine test. Nuchal translucency scans (measurement of the fluid behind the baby’s neck). Sonologist looks for a nasal bone and measures Biparietal Diameter (BPD), across the top of the head at its widest point. Sonologist looks for gross congenital anomalies (GCA)

TRIMESTER TWO

Second trimester starts week 13. Please note in second and third trimesters scans are not always done on exactly the date you turn a particular week. If you wish to know you scan date please contact your client manager.

16 weeks

routine scan and triple marker test, complete blood count and urine analysis – triple test not done for twin pregnanciesas results are not accurate. Triple test results take up to two weeks to be sent to our clinic.

20-22 weeks

Level II scan, blood and urine tests. Baby is measured from crown to rump, around the middle and around the head. The four chambers of the heart will be viewed, as well as the kidneys, bladder, stomach, brain, spine, and sex organs (gender will not be revealed). A survey of the organs, including umbilical cord, ensures that they are developing normally.  Sonographer looks at amniotic fluid levels, location of the placenta, and fetal heart rate. Level 2 scan results can take up to a week to be returned to the office.

We do a 3D scan at this stage.

24-26 weeks

routine scan and blood count and urine analysis. Injection: tetanus toxoid first dose

TRIMESTER THREE

Third trimester starts week 28.

2-30 weeks

routine scan. Fasting and post prandial blood sugar tests, CBC, urine analysis. Injection: tetanus toxoid second dose

32-34 weeks

routine scan, blood test (CBC) urine analysis

36-38 weeks

Colour Doppler study, to check heart and flow in major blood vessels blood test CBC, urine analysis

38-40 weeks

delivery of baby

Anyways, I hope to have more news for you soon.  In the meantime here is a photo that pretty much sums up how we are feeling at the moment.  The dark cloud that we have had hanging over our heads is clearing, and it feels like the dawn of a new time for us (bit dramatic?).. :)

Ssssshhhhhh!...

I'm awake at 345am and I'm wondering if there is a good or bad email waiting for me...(or any at all for that matter) ..well doesn't matter I'm not going to look until the morning as I won't get back to sleep whether it's positive or negative so ...don't look... M and I both have a bad case of the flu, so we should really be getting as much sleep as possible to try and kick it.... Bugger, I'm going to check as now I'm lying awake anyway wondering if if the email is there or not.... And the winner is....US! Ms India 1 has hcg of 160 Ms India 2 has hcg of 36 so will be getting another test tomorrow.... Is it too early to start worrying about the school fees? No, I'm not sure how I'm feeling yet, I know we have a long journey ahead of us, thanks to all you fantastic contributors in blog land..so I'm containing myself... Maybe getting a little bit excited now....:)))) Thanks for your thoughts everyone, they really worked!!

Today's the day....

We have our pregnancy tests today...I'm so nervous, scared,...bracing myself.. I opened my hotmail this morning to see that there were already two emails waiting for me in my inbox. Oh my god I'm thinking, they haven't done them early have they..? I'm not ready to hear the news yet, I haven't braced myself for the dreaded, umpteenth negative... No, thankfully neither were from SCI,I'm glad! Isn't that bizarre, not wanting to know after the lengths we've been through.. I reminded Marc this morning that today was the day, and he responded that he didn't want to know either. We think not knowing is better than the heart breaking news that it's still just the two of us. But as our wise client manager meg said to me, preparing for a negative doesn't make it any easier, so just expect a positive! Well, here's hoping.....please please please pray pray pray

2 week wait..what 2 week wait?

This '2 week wait' I seem to be handling so much better than all the IVF waits.  You see, if I dont open my emails on the early morning of the 23rd of May, the date I keep checking on my calendar, then I won't find out if we have not been successful so then there will be no emotional agony!  Simple...

In the meantime while I am kidding myself over here, what about a story of our first hour ever in Delhi on our trip to try and become a family...

Arrived in Delhi about 2.15 in the morning and was expecting a driver to pick us up with our names on the boards etc, I even confirmed it the day before!!  But welcome to India,...no one to meet us, so I called the number they gave me (after I had to work out how to call his mobile number from my australian mobile phone...)  no answer....ok we will just get a cab on our own

Big line of official looking cabs right in front of us, so how hard can this be,,, spoke to a man yes yes yes madam no problem no problem we can get you there no problem, this way please  (another two guys appeared from no where and grabbed our bags much to M's fretting), we followed them past the official looking nice clean cabs, but they keep going,... to the next line of not so clean but still new cabs and still official looking, ..but still,...they all keep walking past this line,... til get to a line of beat up &*%$$ boxes...ok lets go with it,..its 3am in the morning,..i dont care how we get to the hotel just get us there..,"how much we ask?", no one answers but our bags are in the car and our driver is going for it..so lets go! caution to the wind...

Two guys in the car with us take off, then a decent way away from the airport they tell us how much this trip at 3am is going to cost us...which equates to about $100 AUD  (the driver I had booked was going to cost $10 AUD) BUT ANYWAY its late we have been flying for 17hours just, ok, lets go.

One guy gets out, the other takes off at rapid knots, M looks over at me, what the?? the car is so badly stalling and the driver says mmm ...its a long way to your hotel..I reply only half an hour...o-oh little tingling feeling coming over me...here we go!

We are 'driving' for about 10 mins, when the car stalls for good and the guys pulls down this dirty really quiet deserted lane way.  FREAKING OUT NOW, i thought they had set us up to mug us, M was thinking that they were just going to leave us in the middle of nowhere...Anyway heart is really pumping M and I looking at each other, M saying to driver... go, car ok car ok lets go with this, driver keeps saying no, no I will get you another cab (from FREAKING WHERE?? iM THINKING) He grabs a tuk tuk which is basically a motor bike with a carriage on the back, I say to our old driver you pay him (as we had already paid the other guy) there is small argument, then he pays the tuk tuk driver about 25 ruppees (or $1AUD) to take us the remainder of the way (dont forget we just paid his partner in crime $100 AUD,)

Our new driver is not sure where our hotel is, he passes the sheraton and pulls over tells us to get out, no we are not staying here keep going fella! I wouldnt budge out of the back seat, M is trying to get the sheraton staff to tell our driver where our hotel is, some hindi is spoken then we are on the road again looking for our hotel.  I see a sign that tells me we are in the district that we are looking for, and finally the hilton appears, thank god, i knew we were close because our hotel was next door to the hilton.

We find our hotel, my heart has settled a little, M and I looked at each other...We both say along the lines of.. "hope the rest of the trip isnt like that!  We wont make it!  But it was r rated"
 
Anyway we made it through our Delhi experience and we are waiting on word on two surrogates with 4 embryos in each, and no frozen....

Still cannot imagine us with kids

Meet & Greet - Samoza!

As an introduction to us, here are photos of our fur kids.  They are also the inspiration for the blog title. ..The black one is called Sammy (11yo) and the brown one (naughty one, he is 2 yo) is called Oz...Samoza..?? They love the water, and I have no doubt they are going to be severly put out if any human kids do come along!

We have been on the IVF trail for the last 4 years, with I think 12 cycles, a couple of cycles with an egg donor, then we discovered Surrogacy through India.  When I first spoke about this option with my hubby M, there was a blank stare back at me and complete silence!  He has gotten used to the idea (I think) since January, (probably thinking bloody woman!), and we were on our to Delhi for our first cycle in May 2012.