Nausea, Dizzyness, and Constipation

Basically, welcome to having twins!

For a couple of weeks now, Ive been dealing with it all! Dizzyness when sitting or standing up, pure exhaustion as if I just ran a mile, not being able to go for 4-5 days which I believe adds to the all-day-yet-totally-random nausea.

So lets tackle one issue at a time! Constipation. I had been cleared after my ultrasound to start yoga again, so Im truly hoping that will help move my bowels, along with my dr approved Colace twice a day. I drink a smoothie every day that has fruit, spinach and flax seed in it. I also eat a small bowl of papaya, which I heard helps move things along. I just watched a couple youtube videos on massage techniques to help stimulate the intestines. I am also starting a calendar for when I go, so that its easier to monitor.

Whats next? Well I think we should go right into the nausea. It started out one day with smells. ughh it was awful. Than after a couple days, just the thought of certain foods made me feel sick. Indigestion aka burping would rattle my stomach and make me feel queazy too. I was affraid thats what the next few weeks, if not months, were going to look like. However, once I started the Colace and went to the restroom a few times within 24 hours, I felt so much better. So current situation is just random nausea, especially when I burp. The feeling disappears within a minute or two and I would guess it happens maybe once or twice throughout each day.

Dizzyness. Well theres nothing much to do about it other than sit up and stand up sloooooowly. The doctor checked my Iron levels and they are perfectly fine, thanks to the prenatals.

Now what am I doing in regards to having twins? Nothing too much different than I normally would be doing when in early pregnancy. Taking naps when my body wants me too is a big one. The other morning, my husband and I were watching a program and I totally fell asleep right in the middle of it without even realizing it! 😂😂 I take prenatal pills and drink lots of water. Actually I have a sports water bottle from my Baby Sister with THE cutest flamingos on it. I measured how much water it holds and calculated that I need to drink 3 of them each day, so thats my daily goal.
I am not a big meat eater so I have added one Special K protein shake a day which adds 15g of protein. Im thinking to find a cereal that has a good amount of protein and maybe fiber so that I can eat a bowl in the mornings and as a bedtime snack. We also picked up some different trail mixes for me to snack on. The whole "eat a bunch of mini meals each day" definitely seems to be helping to keep my stomach settled.

🎉🎉 CANT WAIT TO SEE MY SURRO GIRLS ON TOMORROW!!! 🎉🎉

1st Ultrasound!

 You are all probably on edge waiting to find out the results! So without further adoo!!

My ultrasound revealed not only one, but 2 beautifully perfect heartbeats!!

Calculating from the transfer date, I was 6 weeks and 4 days, and both babies measured exactly that! They had identical heartbeat rates as well, 131! So beautiful!!

Everything looked great!! No reason for the bleeding the day before. I asked if there were any SCHs (Sub-Chorionic Hemotoma) and nope! I had that with Surro number 3, Baby E. A month after my transfer with her, on my birthday no less, I started bleeding sooo incredibly much. Which later I found out was an SCH. Nothing really to do about it other than dont run around too much or to vigorously. It was explained to me that it happens quite a bit with IVF. the doctor places the embryo and it starts to implant and then basically changes its mind, and moves to another location in the uterus and reimplants there. At the location of the first placement, a type of bruise is created.

 But lucky for me, that wasnt the case this time!! Literally everything looked perfect!

I also asked the technician to double check, please, to be sure that there wasnt another hiding in there. The thought of one of those embryos splitting into identical twins (which in turn would have created triplets) made me crazy nervous. And with my HCG numbers being intensely high, I was nervous of just that. But she said Rest assure....There are only 2! hahahaha hearing that made me laugh a bit 😆ONLY 2 😆

I had another blood test on August 23rd, which was just to keep an eye on the Progesterone and Estrogen levels, and then another ultrasound on August 30th. I will be 8 weeks and 5 days by then, so hopefully everything will look good and thats what they both will measure as.
**By the way, thankfully, I havent had any issues with cramps or more bleeding 😍

Pregnant...??

So where did I leave you hangin....?? ahhhh yesss! POAS! Monday, Day 4 after transfer...aka 4dp5dt, which stands for 4 days past 5 day transfer. I had a couple pregnancy tests from Dollar Tree. The first one I took was sensitive to 20 miu/ml of HCG. and it came out POSITIVE!!!! YES!! There was a very faint line!! Woohooo!!! Thursday I took the other one and it was darker and easily visible.

A small concern came on the 9th day in the bathroom. Light pink spots were on the toilet paper. Just from implanting, I told myself, as I took my third and final test Sunday morning. It was sensitive to 25 miu/ml and the 2nd line was just as dark as the first line! That gave me enough comfort to hold me over until Tuesday.

Blood test totally confirmed pregnant on July 31st! At first I had thought the 2ww (two week wait) was THE longest everrr!! BOY WAS I WRONG!!  Why would I say that? Well, later that day I received my actual HCG numbers and at first, I thought nothing of it....until after August 2nd when I had my 2nd beta test. After that....all I did was research and talk to others.

Okay, okay, whyyyy? Ill tell you why!!! My first beta, at 12dp5dt, was 2,482! My second beta, at 14dp5dt, was 5,567!! Now, maybe you ask what does that mean?? Let me break it down for you. when an embryo starts to implant into the uterus, it begins to create the HCG hormone. In the very beginning, the HCG amount doubles around every 48 hours. So first thing is first. The reason to have the 2nd blood drawn 2 days later is to be sure the number is doubling, which it did, so GREAT!!

My surprise is actually at how incredibly high the numbers were!! When I started looking online to compare my numbers.....SIDENOTE: You cannot really do this because HCG charts are actually a range and sometimes numbers can be extraordinarily low, while others can be extraordinarily high....Anyways, I honestly couldnt find ANYONE with anything close to my numbers.

So naturally I began looking into HCG numbers for those who had twins. I even spoke to a fellow surrogate who is currently pregnant with Twins! Her beta test was done a day prior to mine, at 11dp5dt and her number was 657.  Everytime, I found someone posting: OMG! My numbers are so high! (and their number would be between 500-700 on the 12th day) and everyone would comment back to them: Ohhhh my goodness! Wow! you MUST be having twins!!!! and Im just sitting back with a 2,400 number....like, hmmmm well then what am I having?!?!

 My ultrasound wasnt set until August 16th. So I waited and waited and waited. I also had bloodwork on August 9th which was 21dp5dt - 67,941. Doubling usually begins to slow down after about 5000, and I read that the heart starts fluttering around the 10,000 mark, usually during week 5. After the 6 week mark, the heart will have a steady beat that the doctors are able to actually see and calculate.

Tuesday, August 14th, I woke up to a pantiliner soaked with a bit of red but mostly brown blood. I immediately let me agency coordinator and my doctors office know. They said not to worry, its probably nothing, and that its quite common. They rescheduled my ultrasound for the 15th, which could not come soon enough!!

And just like I had to wait, so shall you 😉patience is a virtue, they say😉 I will post my Ultrasound results tomorrow🤞

Transfer!!

Honestly I dont know how those Bloggers do it on a consistent basis hahahaha I think I should first apologize for not keeping up to date information....again!! I am beyond sorry!

So I guess let me back up a bit and continue where Ive left off!!

Medication has been going well, my butt cheeks currently resemble that of a pin cushion, but that totally comes with the territory! I think the vaginal suppositories are almost worst than that. Not just the whole situation of inserting them and whatnot, but when I open the package, it smells awful!! Actually, it reminds me of the smell of weed, which totally makes me nauseous.

So after my monitoring appointments which consisted of bloodwork and ultrasound, I finally got that beloved "Triple Stripe" :-) As a reminder, that is when the thickness of the uterine lining is so thick that the two inner areas actually meet each other. A week before my transfer date, my lining was already 10mm!! Perfect!!

My bestie, Donna, flew out here from my hometown: Allentown, Pennsylvania...to help me out in the hotel room! I was so excited to see her again! We have been best friends since I was 7 years old and the last time she flew was actually to California when I first moved out here, 11 years ago!!!

TRANFER DAY!! Thursday, July 19, 2018
My husband was able to come with to the Drs office as well as my AWESOME agency coordinator! Lots of support! This was also the first time I met my doctor!! All of my previous appointments were with the Phlebotomist and Ultrasound Technician. Donna came to the back with me for the actual transfer. My doctor showed me and Donna a photo of the two beautiful embies that they were transferring. They were not hatching yet but both were genetically tested and were of great quality. He said both girl embryos have about a 90% chance of implanting! Perfect!

The transfer itself was smooth and easy! I didnt even have to have a full bladder!! What Whaaaatt!! 😁😍 So awesome! Afterwards, they had me rest for 15 mins and gave me an ultrasound photo of the two embryos in my uterus💗

After a couple photos, we said goodbye to my coordinator and my hubby drove us back to the hotel, which we had checked into the night before. That helps to make things easier for after the transfer. My husband had to leave to go to work, and I had to get my rest on!! After a few days of quality time with my bestie, we had to go back to my house and she had to pack to go home to her sweet daughter, A, who was missing her mommy ever so much!!💜💜💜

I started peeing on a stick (poas) on Monday, which was the 4th day after the transfer. And that is where Im going to end this post!! Stay tuned for more tomorrow!😉😉

Taking meds on time

I think this a good point in my blog to bring up the importance of the timing of medication.

Timing is Everything! 

The way I like to view it, is that the medicines are only working in your body for 24 hours. If you procrastinate on the timing, your body could go without the medicine it needs. As a Surrogate, this is one of our major responsibilities. Keeping the proper dosage of medicine flowing thru our body at a constant level, is what helps the little embryo (embie as I like to call it) attach to the Uterus lining and grow into a sweet baby.

 Its so important for you to take it around the same time every day, whether that's in the morning or at night. My doctor has given me a 4 hour window, although every doctor's advice is different. If you are taking IVF medications, you should definitely stick to what your doctor recommends.

Put it in your head that each injection, pill, or other form of daily medication is only active in your body for 24 hours; you will be more inclined to remember to take it. Picture this: You are late one day in taking your medicine and then later the transfer isnt successful. Think of how your going to feel. Guilt will start to move in over the sadness. You will remember that one time you were late and begin thinking its your fault, even if it wasnt. So prevention is better than cure. Take the timing of your medications seriously, not only for the sake of the parents and doctors who are investing time and money into your journey, but for the sake of you own personal emotional health. Taking care of yourself is a big part of growing a healthy baby.

I set 2 alarms on my phone. One around the exact time that I like to take it daily and then another one 20 minutes before my time frame closes. By the time the 2nd alarm goes off, I should already be finished with my injection, but in case I was busy, it reminds me that I still have time. I know at that point, I need to drop whatever it is that Im doing and go do my shot.

Also, when the alarm goes off, I dont not turn it off unless Im literally getting up and walking towards the fridge (I keep my meds on top of it ;-) ). Otherwise, I push snooze.

Lupron and Luncheon

I am so excited to say: I finally started my meds!!

The drs office sent a box of all my medications thru FedEx and I picked them up on Friday!

I came home and checked if everything was inside. There was a master checklist in the box, so that was easy. No problems.
Saturday morning I took my first Lupron shot in the stomach easy peasy. Its a very short and thin needle that just into basically your belly fat. For more injection instructions, feel free to refer back to my post on April 24, 2014: http://theirembiemynest.blogspot.com/2014/04/injections-hcg-and-lupron.html

Another instructional video: http://www.freedommedteach.com/eng/videos.html?play=leuprolide_acetate

I also started the Baby Aspirin. Im not going to lie, Im still feeling a bit nervous about taking that but I have also read about it helping prevent miscarriages. Science never fails to impress me! So, Im jumping on the band wagon and starting the Baby Aspirin regimen of 81mg a day. Now the hard part is making sure I wake up consistantly before 10am to take the Lupron and Aspirin. Im used to taking meds at night. But if thats what it takes, than so be it! Besides, sleeping in sucks.....said no one EVER!!! hahaha

I also had my first Surrogacy group therapy session today at my agency's office. We have these group sessions once a month and I love and truly appreciate them. Driving to Pasadena is simple on Saturday mornings, its the driving home part that sucks. A 40 minute drive there can easily turn into a 2 1/2 hour drive back (or even 3 hours if theres a bad accident). But these ladies always make it so worth it! They even turn it into a luncheon so we can stay and hang out and chitchat with each other afterwards, if we want.

My Personal Bedrest Regimen

Since theres nothing much going on this week, I decided to throw in an extra blog entry today. I thought I would talk a little today about my own personal bedrest routine.

Now most doctors will tell you to stay in bed the rest of the day, after the IVF procedure. Many say you can even return to work the following day, as long as you take it easy. Heres the thing. I personally cannot follow that guideline. The way I look at is this. So much money, time, and effort has gone into preparing for this IVF step. I need to do everything I possibly can to ensure that I tried as much as I could.

For example, if I were to go thru weeks of medications, including sticking myself with needles, along with going to all the doctor appointments and my IPs spent plenty of money for that transfer. Only to

have me go back to work after a day or two of rest. How am I going to feel, what am I going to think if the transfer doesnt result in a pregnancy? BUT if I stay resting for as long as I can (even if its only for 3 or 4 days after transfer) if the transfer doesnt stick, then I dont think I would be so hard on myself. Of course thats just me.

I completely understand that many surrogates are not able to just stay in bed for 2 weeks. I would never suggest you sacrifice caring for your own family members. However, I would highly suggest that its in your contract for someone to accompany you for the day of the transfer and 2 day after. Use this time away from work and the littles to 100% stay laying down in bed. Just rest and thing sticky thoughts.

Actually everytime any sort of worry or negative vibe comes my way, I try to focus on this:

A shriveled up balloon (the uterus), with peanut butter smeared all over the insides (the uterine lining), and then a small pea (the embryo). It helps when I have a visual ;-)


So IF you are able to stay in bed, try to do it for as long as you are capable of.

My personal regime is this: Day 1 is Transfer Day.
Shower right before the transfer time on Day 1. Day 1-3 complete bedrest, except to use the restroom.
Day 3-shower at night.
Day 4-7 bedrest, laying down but can use the bathroom and shower slowly and carefully, no sudden movements.
Day 8-10 (or until 2nd Beta bloodwork results)  Rest in bed, but can be propped up. Leaning back on the sofa with feet up is okay during the day.

Medication Calendar

Friday, I received my Medication Calendar from the Doctor's office. I was so excited when I received the email! Then the week went by like a rollercoaster, up, down, up.

The moment I seen that email in my Inbox, I became anxious to check when their projected transfer date would be. The plan is to have one of my sisters fly out here to be with me and help, since my husband doesnt have any days off from work right now. Even though I had just seen two of them a month ago, it feels like forever ago. Well when I opened the attachment and briefly looked over it, my heart sank. The anticipated date is towards the end of July. That just seems so far away, especially since my past journeys, I had only taken 2-3 weeks worth of medication. I had expected the date to have been the end of June.

Over the weekend, I took time to actually review the regimen and became a bit confused and concerned. For one, it says I am to start taking baby aspirin. Ive never taken that before and of course the first thing that comes to mind is to prevent a heart attack. I became worried that maybe they saw something in my bloodwork that caused them alarm. The second issue is that they would like me to take a hormone called Lupron for an extended time frame. Well to my recollection, I hadnt taken this type of medication regimen before.

Monday, I spoke with my agency coordinator and she suggested I email the nurses about my concerns and also mention past medications working perfectly for my body. And so I did. The nurse was nice and explained that the baby aspirin is given to all the patients of this physician. It is used as an anticoagulant and helps prevent miscarriages. I had never heard of this before, so of course I Googled
it and yeah, it seems like many doctors use this in aiding the IVF process. We also spoke about the extended Lupron schedule. She explained to me that this was simply the protocol that my doctor uses for most of his surrogates. And so it shall be.

I decided to go through alllll my emails and hunt down each of my medication schedules, which in the end proved to be such a hard task. It took quite a few hours, but in the end I finally found one where I was on an extended Lupron regimen. Its not exact but it is similar and it was one that resulted in a healthy baby (my 2nd surro).

So I am back to feeling optimistic; if it worked once before, itll work again. My husband reminds me that the doctors actually know what they are doing. I guess sometimes I forget that even though Ive done this a few times, the doctor has actually done this many, many times. And maybe, just maybe he actually knows a bit more about it than I do. [Insert face palm here].  I am also hopeful that my sister's request off from work will be approved, which is another difficult hurdle to overcome, since the transfer date is just an anticipated one.

I am to start Lupron injections June 16th and the nurse said they will mail the medications to me.

Paperwork

Yesterday I had also received a few emails. 

1. The nurse from the doctor's office asked if Im on BCP (Birth Control Pills) and when am I due to start my next period. I replied back with: Im on birth control and I start my inactive pills (aka get my period) this coming Sunday, May 27. To which her reply was to email her when I do get it and on day three (Tuesday) start a new pack of active birth control pills.  Sounds easy enough!! 

2. My agency coordinator sent me an email asking me to print, sign, scan and email back a paper for the psychology group therapy that my agency does. Nice and simple!! 

3. I received another email from the nurse also asking me to print, sign, scan and email back a few papers. These were Informed Consent for Surrogacy paperwork. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey!

Well thanks to my printer for hanging in there!! It said I was low on Black, Blue and Yellow all the way back when I printed out my contract.....the first time! hahahaha Every single time Im near Staples or go to Walmart, I seem to totally forget to pick up ink. It never fails lol 

So with the help of my Handy Dandy printer ;-) I was able to accomplish these tasks this morning. It would have been yesterday but the nurse's papers needed my husband's John Hancock. 

Next step: waiting to start my Inactive birth control pills on Sunday....and restart active ones on Tuesday! :-) 

The Legal Waiting Game, Part 2

So, lets pick up right where we left off. April 11, 2018, the perfect contract, awaiting approval from my IF. Well that didn’t happen. Things were excruciatingly quiet until April 24th. I received an email from my attorney with my IFs rebuttal. She had also requested that I call her that afternoon to discuss things. There were a couple things that were clarified and again it went back to the IF to wait for approval. 

That day came, the late afternoon of May 3rd. I received an email from attorney stating: here's the final draft of the contract. There were instructions on printing and signing with a notary. I was a bit confused but I just assumed that all my requests were approved. This was a Thursday. Under normal circumstances, we would have went right away to the notary, however my husband works 2nd shift and was already at work.

I was also flying out that night to Tennessee to be with my little sister on her wedding day. When I returned from my trip on May 8th, I printed the contract to review it one final time.

Good thing I did, because I had noticed a couple discrepancies! Now this is not a normal thing, even my lawyer later told me that hes never seen this happen in all the years that hes been an attorney. However, it happened with me. After emailing my attorney, on the 8th, a phone consultation was set the following day with another attorney of the group, due to my personal one being away at a conference in Tennessee!! Hahaha I thought that was a bit ironic and funny. Anyways, I explained to him what I had found and he promised to get to the bottom of things right away.  

May 10th I received an apology with the forreal final draft attached. Apparently my IF's attorney accidentally sent the wrong copy to my attorney as the final draft. After of course printing this copy out, I compared it to my redlined draft of changes that I had originally approved back on April 11th. Things looked A-OK so my husband and I went to the notary to sign it. I scanned the signature page and emailed it to my lawyer. The response told me they will send me a SASE for me to mail the full contract back to them and they will also 

forward the signature pages, that I had emailed them,  to the IFs lawyer so that he can set an appointment to get his side signed and notarized.  

The Hurry up and Wait thing gets old....quick! But theres nothing else to do. So we wait....and wait...and wait.... 

May 21st I received an email from my lawyer stating that they received my physical contract that I had sent, in the mail. I was happy and thankful that it hadnt gotten lost in the mail but, at the same time,  I was starting to get antsy. I had decided to send a message to my agency coordinator. She is CCd on all of the emails that go back and forth between everyone. She said my attorney just sent an email over to his attorney to find out the status of things.  

This afternoon, May 23rd, my super awesome and crazy amazing coordinator messaged me to say........that I have been officially legally cleared!!

 Wooohoooo!!! This has been a very long awaited day!!  Im beyond excited!   This gif is EXACTLY how I feel!!

The Legal Waiting Game, Part 1

Time to enter the beginning of the Legal Waiting Game!

I had to sign a legal retainer for my attorney on March 8th, but other than that, the whole month of March passed with nothing much new.  My coordinator had assured me on the 27th that the IF was going back and forth with the first draft of the contract with his attorney, so for me it was The Waiting Game again. 

Finally on April 4th, I received a call from my attorney saying that the first draft will be coming my way and a phone consultation will need to be scheduled to review it together. We set the appointment for April 11th at 1130am. During those 7 days, I read through the contract, little at a time, comparing it to my Surrogate Benefit Package (SBP) and my previous Contract from my 3rd journey. The SBP was set up and created with the agency when I first signed back up with them in July 2017. It has all of the financial information. It is one of the things used by the agency to create a perfect match between Potential Parents and Surrogates. 

               

I flagged any irregularities or things that I didn’t quite understand. Anyone going through this phase, I
suggest you do the same. Read through it page by page and mark anything you dont understand or disagree with, with a postit. Write notes as well. I always have a notebook dedicated to my surrogacy journey. 

My phone call lasted 2 ½ hours. We hung up at 2 and before 3, I had received an email from my attorney with the changes highlighted in Red. I was asked to review them to ensure it covered everything that needed to be adjusted or added. I returned her email letting her know that the contract looked perfect, to which she responded that she will let my IFs attorney know and contact me when she hears back from him.  

The best thing in all of this is that it was the same attorney, so she totally remembered me…or maybe I have a file with her office hahahaha 

So now, again with The Waiting Game :-)