Merry Christmas (Eve)

This Christmas has been so hectic already. We came home for the holidays and man even though I am so thankful we were able to come home and that we had a safe trip it has been constant GO GO GO! The whole time we have been here. My husband drove 12 hours total the first day and then we drove another 6(I drove 4 and he drove the final 2). I cant remember if I posted before about how I am horrible at long distance driving but 4 hours is about all I can do in a day haha. We have really had a great time though and I'm so not ready to leave. I was nervous about leaving the house but thankfully we have people watching it for us. My only issue with coming home is that like always Brynna is sick. We think she has a viral infection but are still giving her antibiotics just in case it is a bacterial since Christmas is tomorrow and we really don't want to end up BACK in the ER.

The day before we left North Carolina I had an OB appointment to check up on J&J's baby. I was 9 weeks and 4 days and measured 9 weeks. We saw the heart beating away so perfectly and everything looked great :). Sunday while I was out Christmas shopping I took a belly shot at 10 weeks pregnant. Here yall go. I go back the second week in January for my official first OB appointment and its like 2-3 hours long. I am so not looking forward to that but thankfully Kelly will be helping me by keeping Brynna.

Monday morning my mom, grandma, and I went to the next town over to finish up the rest of our Christmas shopping and I waited to long to eat so I got extremely nauseous. Thankfully we were finished and it was time to head home. About 5 minutes before we got home I had to stop to get a shopping bag out of the back just incase. Thankfully I made it home and to the toilet before I vomited. I thought I was in the clear and made it without vomiting but I was wrong. OMG it was miserable and horrible! I'm not going to go all into detail but let me say it was HORRIBLE!! And embarrassing. After I was done I walked out and my mom and Adam both told me I looked like crap. Well DUH! I JUST threw up!! JUST NOW! Little did I know it was worse than that.

Its now Tuesday night and looks just as bad. I have these little blood spots in my eye's, down my neck, and ALL over my face. Around my eyes is the worst though. I'm really hoping its a bit less noticeable tomorrow because as of now make up doesn't really help covering it. BUT once I threw up I felt much better haha. I am going to try and get a recording of the HB tonight or tomorrow morning so I can send it to J&J Christmas morning for their family to listen to it. I know they would be over the moon about it. So pray that I am able to get it on the Doppler. Well I have to get to the kitchen to help decorate(eat) Christmas cookies for Santa. Lets hope I don't eat them before he gets here haha. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas.

I Think My Husband Is Trying To Tell Me I'm FAT!!

So this morning as my husband and I were getting ready he starts to tell me how fat I look! Just kidding he's not that mean of a husband. I'm only 8 weeks pregnant and with Brett it took me forever before I started showing. Brynna I started showing a little bit sooner. This one is a LOT sooner. But apparently the more you have the sooner you show! AWESOME! Well as we were getting ready he says "Babe, don't get your feelings hurt BUT your starting to show.." THANKS BABE! haha not really but he followed with. "You don't look fat because its not saggy and hanging its more poking out so it doesn't look bad or anything." I couldn't help but laugh. Don't worry he didn't hurt my feelings I know I'm not a size 0 anymore and I knew I'd probably start showing sooner than I wanted to. But I am only 8 weeks pregnant ITS TOO SOON!! I mean if I was pregnant with twins I'd be a little more accepting because their would be 2 in there but their is only 1!! BTW there is a color run that is September 2014 my goal is to run the color run whenever it gets here and that will be my first 5k after the delivery. I will deliver in July so it'll give me 2 months to prepare. Well really a little over a month because I have to wait to be cleared after delivery. I'm also going to make Adam and the kids run it with me. I just hope Adam will be able to :)

Well after the name calling episode I dropped Adam off at work and then Brynna and I headed to Cary. I know I told y'all I would be going to get my ultrasound yesterday(Monday) well the RE's office had a little mix up and thought that I had been seeing the monitoring clinic all along when I was really seeing my local OB so that I didn't have to make the 1 1/2 hour drive anymore. Well my local OB didn't want to see me again until next week and my RE wanted me to have an u/s again at 8 weeks(now) so I had to go back to my monitoring clinic. SO me being the genius I am I decided to call the monitoring clinic yesterday before I made the drive to make sure they had the paperwork needed for them to do the u/s. Sure enough they did NOT! So I had to wait another hour before the RE's office opened up before I could call them and ask them to send the paperwork and by that time it would be past the walk in hours. So I ended up having to wait to go today. Thankfully it was just another u/s and nothing that we needed done ASAP! And in the end it worked out for the best because yesterday we had a lot of doctors appointments for Brynna(on her actual birthday). The 1 1/2 hour drive was horrible today! It was almost nap time(for me), very gloomy out, and then we hit the rain. Darn you weather. So what did I do! Turned up the music and sang my heart out. If you ever see me driving in the car and I am just rocking out know that I am extremely exhausted and I mean almost to the delirious stage. And that is how I prevent myself from falling asleep :) this first trimester is kicking my butt!!!

Finally we get to the monitoring clinic and even though I was told by the RE's office that they scheduled me an appointment for 11am the monitoring clinic said no you were supposed to come during walk in hours. So we will have to see when we can squeeze you in. WHY do I constantly feel like I am playing telephone with the RE's office?? Thankfully I didn't have to be back to pick Brett up anytime soon but it was NAP TIME! I could have came during walk in hours and been in and out in less than an hour and been home in time for nap time haha. Finally I was called back and we got to see J&J's baby :) it was so awesome! We have really been looking forward to hearing the heart beat but the monitoring clinics machine only looks at the baby :( so we still didn't get to hear it BUT you could see it!! And the baby was wiggling away! It didn't look so much like a little blob this time it actually looked like a baby. You could see his/her arms and legs and the outline of the head. It was amazing. Last u/s I measured a little behind but this time I measured perfect! I am technically 8 weeks and 1 day even though the RE's office has me at 8 weeks and 3 days. I have no idea how they added those 2 extra days on but due to the monitoring clinic and the IVF calculators I'm 8 weeks and 1 day so that will be what I go with from now on. I have another u/s on the 18th and I'm so excited. REALLY hoping we can hear the heartbeat this time because I know J&J have really been looking forward to hearing it. Here are some pictures for y'all to enjoy until next week :)


Head is at the top right butt is at the bottom left. BTW there is still one.

8 weeks 1 day pregnant

It's Still One..

Every time I go to the OB I get so nervous about another baby showing up. I know with surrogacy its not too common because the doctors normally search pretty good if they know you transferred more than one embryo BUT I could be that 1 in a million with the way my luck goes.. So far we are in the clear and their is only one. Tomorrow I will be going to the monitoring clinic and I am so nervous that since I'm seeing a different doctor and it will be a different person giving me an ultrasound using a different machine that they will be the one to find the second embryo hiding out.. Hopefully that doesn't happen but I am so nervous about it..

On an extremely good note though I have less than 2 weeks left of shots! I cannot wait to stop doing these darn shots. They are not getting any easier! I HATE THEM! Yesterday I was 8 weeks and I felt like a little bump popped out but today it seems to be gone. Speaking of yesterday it was Brynnas 4th birthday party! We had such a great time. I really wanted to get a bounce house but due to nasty weather we decided against it. She had a Doc Mcstuffin Party we had some of her friends over, had a piñata, cooked out on the grill, she had a Doc McStuffin cake made, and she just had a great time. Here are a few pictures from her party.

 

 

A few things that have changed due to me being pregnant is I cannot eat onions. I can eat them cooked but not fresh. I also don't like eating breakfast. Normally I eat oatmeal or special k cereal but now I only eat a banana. I can't drink coffee, a lot of yall are probably thinking your not supposed to anyways. Coffee isn't really bad to drink while pregnant. Its bad if you drink an excessive amount and if I drink coffee its normally at most 4 times a week. For it to be harmful to your baby you probably have to drink around 4 cups a day. I can't drink coffee at all. It makes me feel so sick. I LOVE orange juice. And hate wearing jeans. So I pretty much live in leggings and sweats because jeans just make my stomach feel weird. Still no morning sickness and the nausea has let up for the most part. BUT I'm waiting for my energy to come back :)

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of doctors appointments. It will be Brynna's 4 year check up and then my 8 week monitoring appointment(an hour and a half away) so we are calling it an early night. Be on the look out for an update tomorrow and hopefully their will still only be one :)

THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Six weeks have come and gone and today was the day everyone including myself and J&J have been so anxiously waiting for.. I was asked numerous times by many different people if I knew and until now I didn't. BUT NOW I KNOW! So first lets talk about dinner last night!
Sunday afternoon J&J flew in to Fayetteville and Sunday evening we met them for dinner. I decided not to take the kids for our first dinner and first time meeting face to face. I wanted to be able to enjoy that time out as adults and be able to socialize without constant "BRETT dont touch that.." "Brynna dont eat that." "MOMMY I HAVE TO PEE!" or "MOMMY Brynna took my color!" etc etc haha. Don't get my wrong I love taking my kids out and enjoying family time but for this first dinner I wanted it to be the 4 of us. So Sunday evening the kids stayed with my friend Kelly and we headed to dinner. We did dinner at 5:30pm and we didn't leave until about 7:40pm. It was great talking with them and really getting to know each other more personally. It made me like them that much more! We were all so excited for the next morning and just couldn't wait to finally know. BTW it is colder here in NC than it is in NYC!! YES IT'S FREEZING HERE!! So we headed home after dinner.

I woke up around 5:57am and was not able to really go back to sleep after that. I was so ready for 8:30am to hurry up and be here! Time flew quick and we were starting to run late. Since I had to be gone by 7:50am Kelly took the kids to school and I dropped Adam off and headed to the doctors appointment. Due to on post traffic and catching EVERY RED LIGHT I made it RIGHT ON TIME! But thankfully I was able to fill out all my paperwork at home and had it ready so I didn't need to be there early. So it worked out. J&J ended up getting a tad bit lost but made it right before I was called back. I was weighed before I headed back to do the ultrasound and man I weigh less than I expected :) So that made me happy. Instead of gaining weight I'm just super bloated haha. We were put in another waiting room and then called back to see the doctor. The doctor I am seeing is actually working with about 4 other surrogates right now so I'm glad to know that he is familiar with it. FINALLY it was time to go get the ultrasound.. Since its still very early in the pregnancy I had to have a vaginal sonogram so I had to undress from the waist down. So everyone waited outside and once I was ready they all came in. And that's when we finally were told.. Most of yall were WRONG!!! It's one baby! I just knew it'd be twins but turns out I was also wrong. I was so prepared for it to be twins and that I'd be wider than I am taller haha. But nope only one :) either way I was okay with a singleton or twins but with a single pregnancy I know I can handle it. I know I have carried one baby before. I have delivered one baby before. I know what to expect for the most part. With twins it'd be a whole new experience for me. BUT I am glad we finally know :) That little spot that looks like a ring. The part that looks like it could be a diamond is the baby yup its THAT TINY! We could see the heart beating but couldn't hear it. I will have another appointment next week and we may hear it then. Now I have to go get Brynna ready because we are heading to lunch in just a bit :)

Also I again did not proof read this post. I will probably proof read it this evening so don't judge all my misspelled words or bad grammar :)

Since Ya'll Have Been Asking :)

I have been asked a few times when will I have my first ultrasound to see if I am carrying one or two babies. So I decided since I haven't made a blog post in a few days I will update my blog. My ultrasound will be Monday morning at 8:30am and I will be 6 weeks and 2 day pregnant. I am so nervous but also so excited. The main reason I am nervous is because I could be carrying more than 2 babies, and I am nervous to find out how many. But the reason I am excited is because I am just ready to know how many! I'm praying its only 1 but if it is more than 1 I'm hoping its at most 2! I would flip if one split and their was more than 2! Also I'm nervous and excited because J&J will be coming down for the appointment! They will fly in Sunday late afternoon and we will be going to dinner with them. Then Monday morning they will go to the ultrasound. Even though this is not mine and Adams child I kind of wish he could come to the appointment. But he has a very important test a few days later so he can't miss his classes. So be on the look out for my blog posts coming up about the dinner and ultrasound.

Also I know a few of y'all have been trying to keep up with my blog posts there are 2 ways to subscribe to my blogs so you don't have to go searching for them. On the right side of my blog there is a place to subscribe by email and my blog post will go directly to you email anytime I post. Also if you have a blog of your own you can still follow me by email or you can just go right below that and see where it says follow and follow me there. :)

The Baby I will NOT be Giving Away..

Tonight as I got off the phone with my Granny I realized that I needed to do a blog post about something a lot of y'all may not know.. And I don't blame y'all. I don't think you're stupid or uneducated. Surrogacy isn't publicized like adoption or abortion is. People don't talk about it. For most of y'all I am probably the first person you have ever know to be a surrogate. My Granny asked a few questions that a lot of y'all probably are thinking but don't want to ask. So this post is going to be my post to tell y'all exactly what I'm doing. I am a gestational surrogate NOT a traditional surrogate. The baby I am carrying is NOT my baby. I am not giving away Brett or Brynna's sibling.. The DNA this baby will have will not come from my DNA and it won't have any of my features. J&J looked through profiles and found an ED(egg donor) so it will have her DNA. Whenever the baby is born I will not be giving it away because it is not my baby to give away. It has been and always will be J&J's baby. I am just the incubator for the first 9 months.

Also let me use this post to say during this journey I am pretty much an open book. I want people to ask me questions and become more familiar with surrogacy. Even the "dumb" questions or the awkward questions that you are scared to ask me. ASK! There are very few things I won't answer, one of them is anything about money I prefer to not talk about that. You can google anything about that and get an estimated answer. You can post your questions on my blog, message me on fb, text me, call me, or comment on my fb posts lol.


Kayla

The Results are In..

So before I get to the exciting part let me tell you about how we got there.. The monitoring clinic we use is a 1 1/2 hour drive. They have local monitoring clinics but most monitoring clinics take 24 hours to get results back. Only a few of them take about 4 hours. The closest one to me is the one in Cary. Also for the whole month of November Adam is in a class from 9am-noon. Since we only have one vehicle if I need the car during that time I have to be able to drop him off by 8:45am and pick him up by noon.. Well we had to figure out a way for me to make it to my appointment and him to be in class on time and get picked up on time.. And thanks to my amazing friend Kelly it all worked out.. Have I mentioned how AWESOME Kelly is. If not, she is freaking AWESOME!!! I ended up being able to leave at 7am and she took the boys to school, then took Adam to work, AND watched Brynna for me. Yup Kelly's amazing :)

On my way to the monitoring clinic I get a phone call from Brett's school saying he forgot his folder and glasses. Great! But thankfully Adam was able to drop off Brett's stuff on his way to class. Then I get a text from Adam saying he left his beret in the car. AWESOME! Those of y'all that don't know what a beret is, here's a picture of him wearing it. Anytime he is in his military uniform he has to wear his beret. If he is indoors he takes it off but outside he has to wear it so he has to have it to get to class..


Even IF I turned around to take it to him I would not get home in time to get it to him. Thankfully he was able to find his PC(patrol cap) and wore that. So now he has realized why he needs to buy another beret OR stop leaving his in the car..

Finally I get to the monitoring clinic and the lady has no record of my appointment. I tell her it's a walk in appointment and she said she is still supposed to get some type of paperwork.. That's when I realized CRAP they sent the form to me to bring and I completely forgot to print it out. So I asked her if I could email it to her and she could print it out. Thankfully she let me do that. She finally let me go back and get my blood work done for my beta test.. That lady drove me crazy! Last time I went to my monitoring appointment she was very nice but this time she was so rude and negative. The form I had didn't have a date in the date spot but the date that was on the form was the date of transfer so she thought I was supposed to get my blood work done then. Ummm.. NO! My transfer was done on the listed dated YOU are supposed to fill out the date spot. I'm supposed to get my beta done 10 days AFTER transfer! She kept telling me I'll let you get the blood work but if it's wrong it's on you... Finally got my blood work done and then headed home. I made it back in time to pick Adam up :) this is my nasty bump from the needle.. My vein felt like it had a rock in it. :(




Once I got home it was time for the waiting game.. I tried to take a nap.. That lasted about 45 minutes :( all I wanted were my beta results!!!! Finally 4pm comes around and I can't wait anymore. I should have gotten my results no later than 2pm what is going on. I had a feeling it was the monitoring clinic that screwed something up. So I call my Cali office that did the transfer(they are the ones who were supposed to call me with the results). I asked them about my beta results and they still had no record.. This is 7 hours AFTER my blood work. It should not take this long. At 5:30pm they call me back and told me they didn't receive my results in time and that we'd have to wait until tomorrow... Ummm... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! I knew it wasn't their fault it was the monitoring clinics fault BUT I just drove 3 hours for something I could have done local and the results would be ready by tomorrow morning. So I emailed J&J and I don't know what they did but an hour later I get another phone call from the Cali office and somehow my results were in..... Drum roll please...... 380!!!!!! My baby making parts are such over achievers.. Every doctor has their own rules but I was told anything over 20 is pregnant for them and anything over 100 is great.. If it was under 100 I'd have to go back to Cary in 2 days and get another blood test done but if it was over 100 I was for sure pregnant and can schedule my ultrasounds :) so I am FOR SURE PREGNANT!! Now I have to wait 2 more weeks and I will get an ultrasound to confirm how many babies are cozy in my uterus.. I am so excited for J&J to become parents. I am so excited to give them this gift of a child. And cannot wait to go through all the amazing life changing experiences with them and my family.

I have said before that I was going to tell my kids about what I'm doing and now that we know for sure I'm pregnant Adam and I will be telling them this weekend. So be on the look out for a blog post about that :) btw I did not proof read this. I'm on my iPad and I like to proof read it on the computer so if I have tons of typos I'm sorry. I also really wanted to get this posted tonight for everyone to read :)

Kayla

Who Can Really Wait Two Weeks??

I have no self control right now for some reason!! I got home Tuesday morning and Kelly picked me up from the airport! Thank God for Kelly because I honestly have no idea what I'd do without her!! Well she brought me home and I took a great nap. Whenever Adam got home Brynna and I woke up from our nap and we all went to pick Brett up from school and then went grocery shopping. Seeing how excited Brett was whenever he saw me in the car melted my heart. I broke down and bought a pack of pregnancy test. I knew it'd be to early but just couldn't wait. I got home and took a test. Negative... I wasn't worried yet because their is a IVF rule. Whenever the transfer number and days past transfer number equal 10 you test. I did a 5 day transfer so a lot of people wont get a positive until day 5.. I tested again the next morning at 9am and another negative(it still was too early so I wasn't getting worried yet BUT I really wanted a positive). So I went and bought another test and around 3pm I took another test.. This test for some reason I couldn't look at it. I didn't want to look at it, I was nervous about seeing a positive and nervous about seeing a negative. It was only 4dp5dt(4days past 5 day transfer) so it still wasn't 10 days yet and I had a feeling it'd still be negative.. I finally go back and what do I see?? The picture looks much better on my phone but for some reason its not as noticeable on here.

I yelled WOO HOO!! Went and showed Adam the test to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and even though I knew the line was there he still said no he didn't see anything(even though he really did) so I went and asked Brynna and she said she saw 2 lines. That's when I knew it was positive!! BUT it was only 1 test. I wasn't ready to make it official just yet.. I needed more tests. So the next morning I had Brynna's dermatologist appointment and on my way home I went and bought one more pack of test(2 test in a pack) and took another one as soon as I got home.. ANOTHER POSITIVE! And the line was a little darker. Both test were done around noon so not the first morning pee..

 I have 2 more test, one more first response and one digital test. I will be waiting to use those on day 7(tomorrow) and day 8(Sunday). Then I have my beta test on the 12th. A beta test will measure the numeric amount of hCG in my blood. Anything above 5 is considered pregnant but if it's below 100 I will have to go back 2 days later and have another beta test done. Then sometime around thanksgiving I will have my first ultrasound to see the baby/babies. As of today(11/8/13) I am 3 weeks and 4 days pregnant and am due July 21, 2014.. I already feel like I'm showing but I know I'm not. It's just some major bloating lol. BTW so I have a picture I can compared before and after too.. These are my before transfer picture :) ignore the leggings I was trying on clothes haha.

I have not told J&J yet. I asked them before transfer if they wanted to know if I got a positive pregnancy test and they wanted to wait until beta. So I am respecting their wishes and waiting until beta. I am wanting to send them a little gift right around beta but I have no idea what to send. I know I will send their picture of the embryos. But I honestly have no idea what else to send.. Any ideas??

Here are the 5 day embryos again. Now to just wait and see how many implanted...

FOOD and FUN in Cali

While in Cali all we did was EAT!! I knew I didn't want to eat places I could eat at home. I wanted to eat at different places I've never had before. And we did :) Our first night there we ate at my favorite sushi place and my mom loved it!! It was amazing. The morning of the transfer we had breakfast at Headlines and man that place was SO good!! My only complaint is that I was really wanting some hash browns and I'm not sure if its a Cali/west coast thing or just what they do but the hash browns were liked sliced potatoes but my mom and I got the healthy omelet and it was so good!

 

After breakfast we headed to the transfer and then back to the hotel after that. Since I was on bed rest for 24 hours we took advantage of room service/the hotel restaurant. We stayed at Hotel Angeleno and those beds were AWESOME!! The room service was great! My mom and I ordered the Chicken Cobb Salad and it was so good!! We also got an appetizer but it wasn't that great(I can't remember what it was called though).

After 24 hours was up I still took it easy. My mom and I went to my new favorite coffee place, Peet's, to have some coffee and breakfast. I am seriously obsessed with that place but we don't have one any where that I know of :( So I took advantage of it while in Cali. After Peet's we headed to a nail salon that I happened to look up the night before. I wanted to find one with good reviews BUT was in our price range not in LA price range. Wynn Nail Spa seemed to have a nice atmosphere and be in a decent price range.. Once we got there we realized they didn't open until later than we expected so we did some sightseeing. It was so neat seeing all the different houses and areas. It was crazy seeing how the houses were painted. I would NEVER paint my house the color some of those houses were but on that house, in that area, in Cali it looked good. Finally we got back to the nail salon and I am so glad we went with that place. They were so friendly and did a great job. I don't remember how much everything cost but it was a good price. My mom and I both got a pedicure, eye brows waxed, my mom got her gel nails redone, and we had tons of laughs. During my pedicure I almost kicked the lady in the face!! And this time it was not due to my extremely ticklish feet! During the pedicure they did lots of foot rubs. BUT during one foot rub she put some liquid on my foot and my foot reacted by pulling away extremely fast. It was a little warm. Not too bad but I was expecting cold so the warm scared the crap out of my foot apparently. Thankfully though I didn't kick her and we all laughed about it.

 

 Some other places we ate at were Danny's for lunch. The service was HORRIBLE! But the food was amazing! The bus boy was the one who took care of us most of the time, the server was not good.

My flight home from Cali was supposed to leave at 10:55pm on Monday well my mom and I decided we would go to the airport that morning and see if we could get me on an earlier flight. Well the ONLY flight that left before my flight was 11:10am so we had to head up there early. Before we headed to the airport we went to get breakfast. Traffic was horrible(DUH! It was Monday morning in LA!!) so we decided to go to a place near the airport. I used google and found a place called Good Stuff and that's where we went. My mom had another omelete but I went with french toast. They were both really good. BUT what was amazing was the fresh squeezed orange juice and the salsa!! That salsa was AMAZING!!!!U.S.. Airways wouldn't allow me to get on an earlier flight because of their rule, the only way you can try and fly stand by on an earlier flight is if the flight is no more than 6 hours before your original flight! Well the ONLY flight before my original flight was 11 1/2 hours before it so we did more sight seeing and more eating. So once we left the airport we went to Pete's again so we could get free wifi and kill time.

After a few hours we headed to the beach to see what we could find around there. Cali beaches are SO cold but so peaceful! Once we started walking away from the beach an older man struck up a conversation with us and towards the end we asked if he knew of any food places near that he would recommend. That's how we found a place called The Counter, its a burger place kind of like which wich. They give you a paper and you mark what kind of burger(beef, turkey, chicken, veggie, ect), bun, sauce, veggies, etc. if you don't know what you want you can go off the menu and just mark what each burger on the menu has. Then they come get the menu and paper from you and go make your burger. MAN I was not expecting such a HUGE burger! But it was amazing!!!

After all the food places we headed to the mall so I could get a backpack to carry the rest of my luggage that I got while in Cali and from my mom.. Out of all the food places I'd have to say my FAVORITE place was Danny's, besides the crappy service. So if any of yall are going to Cali(LA) area you might want to stop by at least one of these places :) Also if you like Sushi you HAVE to try B.A.D. Sushi it seriously is delicious sushi! I've only been to Cali twice but have eaten there 4 times now haha. My mom also loved it. Hope y'all enjoyed my reviews :)

My Muscular Butt!!

I have had an awesome weekend with my mom in Cali.. I don't think we have laughed this much in a long time. We have laughed so much we've peed ourselves(just a little bit though not too much) and also almost vomited because we were laughing, crying, coughing, holding in our pee, etc and it was all just too much for us to handle. So last night it was day 3. Those of y'all that read my blog know what day 3 means.. 2 shots :( my mom has been giving me my shots while here in Cali and she has surprisingly been doing very well. So last night I call her over to do both shots. We get to talking and then get to cracking up, crying, and holding ourselves trying not to pee. Then we both have to go pee. No we need to focus before I'm going to let her put a needle in my butt! Finally I tell her she can give me the shot. Do you know what she does.. Starts COUNTING!! NO I don't think so just DO IT! You can't count.. So then we start to laughing again. And peeing on ourselves. So another 20 minutes go by. And FINALLY its time for us to do the shots again. So she FINALLY pokes me with the needle and I make this noise not a scream or anything just a noise because yes it did hurt and what do I see in the mirror THE NEEDLE!!! SHE PULLED THE NEEDLE OUT!!! Once the needle goes in you do not pull it back out unless you hit a vein or your done!!! So then we start laughing again uncontrollably. Turns out she was playing DARTS WITH MY BUTT!!  She said she went to give me the shot and the needle bounced off my muscular butt! What in the world did she do wrong?? Oh well we tried again and I told her she better not poke me in the same exact spot and she promised she wouldn't because she could see the blood from where she poked me the first time. Awesome mom glad to know.. So finally we were done with both shots. I'm so thankful that was the last time she will be giving me my shot. Because I think I trust Adam more even though my mom and I get some good laughs each night when it becomes shot time haha. I'm sad she is going back to Texas tonight and I'm going back to NC but only a month and a half until Adam, the kids, and I head to Texas for Christmas!! WOW less than 2 months until Christmas! I hope yall are ready or almost ready :) BTW apparently I have to do these shots for another 8 weeks if I'm pregnant!! If not we start all over. So hopefully I'm pregnant and only have 8 weeks left!

BTW this is more of a spur of the moment blog not really thought out. Also if I'm not to tired tomorrow I will be going to buy a pregnancy test so I can test tomorrow night.. I may wait until Wednesday but either way I will update soon. Some people don't get positives until day 6+ so I wont be to worried if I don't get a positive just yet. It's still early.

What to Expect When Your Expecting..

Before I get into detail about today let me tell you about dinner last night and breakfast this morning!
Last night as you read in my previous blog post we got in late due to the shooting at LAX so whenever my mom and I finally met up at enterprise we decided to go straight to dinner. Since I am in L.A. I HAD to get my favorite... SUSHI!!!! I am in love with this place called B.A.D. Sushi. OH MY GOSH! IT IS AMAZING! My mom agrees :)

This was their sweet green tea and it was so good!

My mom got some 911 sushi and I got the dragon roll. 

After dinner we came home and got ready for the next day. BTW my mom had to give me a shot thankfully she did pretty good because after my shots on Halloween night I was terrified(Adam hit a vein on Halloween night but thankfully he didn't inject the shot it was just not fun that he had to pull the shot out and stick me again in a different spot) 

This morning I woke up at 5:45am!! I guess I'm still stuck on NC time. We ended up going to eat breakfast at a place called Headlines right by the fertility clinic. It was a cute diner and the food was very good. The only thing is if you ask for water be specific and ask for bottled water because my mom got carbonated water.

After breakfast we headed to the clinic to get ready for the transfer. They walked me back to the transfer room and it was GO TIME! Well the doctor came in and informed me that he spoke with J&J about the embryo quality and since the embryo quality wasn't that great they decided they wanted to transfer 2 embryo's instead of 1. I had already thought about them wanting to transfer 2 and I'm okay with that. I would never agree to transfer 3+ but 2 okay. I am still hoping only 1 takes but if 2 takes it will be an extra blessing for them. Also J&J did not come to the transfer because they are wanting to come visit us in NC during the pregnancy instead of going to the transfer. The transfer part wasn't too bad just uncomfortable very uncomfortable. The worst part was probably holding my full bladder for so long and trying so hard to not pee on myself while I was laughing at my mom being goofy..

5 day embryo's

After the transfer I had to lay in the bed kind of upside down for an hour and then bed rest for 24-36 hours. So we headed home and ordered room service and watched movies for the rest of the day. Now let me say I am so thankful that I have never been on bed rest and am hoping that I never have to be. This bed rest is for the birds.. We are so bored sitting in this hotel room when we should be out enjoying beautiful Cali. but we have racked up $35 in hotel movies so far and I have learned that I am the worst at eating in bed.. I think I dropped more food on my bed than I actually ate. Now time for the 2WW(two week wait) to see if the transferred embryos implanted.

BTW I keep mentioning my mom and haven't given you a picture. This is my crazy mother. I don't take her out in public often because she doesn't know how to act ;) haha but really we have had a great time while here in California and had tons of laughs :) I'm so glad she was able to come with me.

So take a guess.. Do you think there will be 1 or 2 babies in there? I have a big feeling it will be 2 but I am hoping for only 1..

My Almost 12 Hour Flight...

Days like today is why I prefer to drive instead of fly. I was raised with 4 brothers and every time we traveled another family member went with us so total we had 7 people going on vacation with us. Instead of spending thousands of dollars just on a flight we drove. Well lately I have been doing a lot of flying and each time I HATE IT! Now before I get any future let me correct myself or else whenever my husband reads this he will leave a comment about it haha. I don’t like driving I like riding along and enjoying the drive. I am not a good long distance driver. I can drive about 4-5 hours and I’m done… For the day. :) Driving makes me so tired and pretty much puts me to sleep but if I’m riding I can stay awake the whole time.

So today I got up at 6am with Adam because he had to leave for work and I wanted to see him before I left. Once he left I got back in bed for about 20 minutes and then started getting ready.. At 7am Brett’s alarm when off and I put him in the shower and then I woke Brynna up about 15 minutes later. Kelly (my friend) picked us up and we dropped the boys off with a friend of ours and headed to the airport. Thankfully the travel agent was able to find me a flight in budget that was out of the Fayetteville Airport that was only 30 minutes away. I got to the airport and for some reason everyone I dealt with was super cranky and just in a foul mood but I didn’t let that get me down. I was on my way to L.A.! Who can have a bad day when going to CALI? Well once we got on our plane they informed us that we were going to be delayed a bit due to weather in Charlotte. We ended up delayed about 30 minutes and then even more. My flight ended up landing in Charlotte at 11:15ish and my second flight was supposed to take off at 11:22. So I got my luggage and RAN to the next flight. Praying that for some random reason the flight was still there. Even though deep down inside I knew it was already gone or the door would be shut. I had to run, in flip flops, from Terminal E all the way to Terminal B and THEN to the end of Terminal B. Once I FINALLY got to my gate I was so excited because I saw people at the desk and the door was open. I was like YES!! I MADE IT! Then realized NOOO!!! It is departing to Atlanta NOT Los Angeles! I MISSED IT :( Instead of walking off and going to the starbucks that was calling my name, I ran up and asked if this was the plane to LAX and she said yes! OH MY GOSH I could have kissed her I was so happy. She said they actually shut the door 10 minutes ago but had to reopen due to all the delayed flights. I was the 2^nd to the last person to get on the flight and they shut the doors right behind us.

About 2-3 hours into the flight rumors started going around about someone getting shot or a shooting happened.. Finally we were told that a TSA agent was shot at the LAX airport!!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD?? I was terrified. I had no idea where my mom was. I had no idea what was happening. I didn’t know how bad LAX was. Was it a crazy person? A terrorist? Was this just the beginning of something worse? No one really knew. So the pilot came on and told us what he could and what was going to happen. Our flight was rerouted to Phoenix, AZ because the LAX airport had been completely shut down. No flights in or out! We ended up landing at the Phoenix airport and thankfully they let us off the plane until they got word that the airport opened back up. I called my mom immediately and turned out she didn’t even leave Dallas yet. The shooting happened before her flight left so they canceled her flight completely. I waited a bit just to see if we were going to leave soon and the flight attendant ended up saying that there was a chance we would not be leaving at all until the morning time!! Well my transfer is scheduled for 9am and I had to be there TONIGHT! So I called the travel agent that booked my flight and talked with her. Right when she was booking a new flight for my mom and me to land in Orange County my mom informed me that they were letting them board her flight in DFW. The travel agent ended up leaving our flight the same and I played the waiting game.
At 1:45pm we were told we would board at 3pm. 2:45pm came and it moved to 4pm. 4pm came and nothing BUT they started boarding other flights to LAX so I waited and waited and WAITED! Finally all flights to LAX were called to board their planes. Instead of going right then I waited 10-15 minutes, I could see my gate from where I was sitting and I waited until the line died down a LOT.

This is not the best picture but behind the people walking towards me, behind them is all the people waiting to get on their planes gate A30-A18 were all flights to LAX and they were boarding all the planes at one time.

We were finally all on the plane and the door was shut. Well then we find out we are stuck waiting for another hour. An hour turns into an hour and a half and then an hour and 45 minutes! I was thankful though that we could still use our electronic devices. So while I waited I started typing up a blog post and texted Adam for a bit. I am bummed that today didn’t turn out quite like I wanted it too but I am extremely thankful that my mom and I were not at the LAX airport whenever the shooting happened. Even though my whole day was spent flying and my plans were ruined I met and talked with some great people today that I will probably never see again. I got some AWESOME coffee and everything worked out :) I have a heavy heart for the family members of the TSA agent who was killed today at the LAX airport and I will be praying for them. I am also praying for the people who were injured. I am also thankful that they only had 1 casualty and that things didn’t end up worse. I still haven’t seen the news but it seems like they acted quickly and were able to save a lot of lives and capture the shooter.
My mom landed in LAX before I took off in the plane but we took off about 10 minutes after she landed. They were not letting vehicles in the airport so we had to take a bus to the rental car place. She ended up going right away to get the car and I was to meet her there. When I finally landed at LAX I went to baggage claim and didn't even wait to see if my suitcase was there. I just had this feeling it didn't make it. Heck I barely made it I double they had enough time to get my suitcase and move it to my plane. Turns out I was correct and my suitcase was on the next plane coming from Charlotte that also happened to land in Phoenix so I waited. AND WAITED(this day has been full of waiting cant you tell haha).

Turns out the plane was at LAX but was waiting on the tarmac and they had no idea when it'd get to a gate. So I told them I was starving and I'd come pick it up tomorrow. Thankfully I was smart and also took a carry on bag also and in my carry on I had transfer day clothes, a pair of pj's, my toothbrush, my laptop, the medications I have to take, and a dinner outfit for dinner last night(we didn't end up changing we just went straight to dinner because we were starving). So I was fine. The other things I knew my mom would have so I was finally done with flying and airports haha. FREEDOM!! Or so I thought. I still had to wait for the shuttle to go to enterprise to rent our car because due to the shooting they were not allowing vehicles into the airport but thankfully that part didn't take too long. Tomorrow I will update about the transfer. Wish me luck :)

OUCH!!! I Think My Husband Is Switching My Shots With Tranquilizers!!

So my shots were starting to get a little easier and I have learned a few things over time to make it less painful. I quit using the band aids the pharmacy sent me because those things hurt worse taking off than the shot actually hurt. I also warm up the liquid in the vial before I get the shot. I keep it in my bra for about 30 minutes to warm it up so it wont be as thick when injected. We have always massaged it afterwards to help the liquid move around and not make my butt "lumpy" haha.

Monday it was time to begin my second shot! I was so not excited about this but it has to be done. I got everything out and prepared it while Adam put the kids to bed. BUT what made this day even worse was that I was not only starting my second shot but it was also day 3 which means I will be doing the 1st shot(my 1st shot I started I only do it every 3 days). NOOO!!! So I had to do 2 shots on Monday. We decided to do them both in the same butt check instead of one in each cheek. I psyched myself out and kept freaking out like always BUT surprisingly whenever I let him give me the shot neither hurt that bad and it was quick and much easier than expected. I was so proud of myself. That night I started talking with another surrogate who is doing the same medication cycle that I'm doing and we were questioning things and comes to find out I read the instructions WRONG!!! For my delestrogen shot(every 3 days) I only take .2cc which is very little. For my progesterone shot I only did .1cc which is TINY!! But then was informed I read the calendar wrong instead of .1cc it was supposed to be 1 WHOLE cc!!!! I was freaking out! 1cc no way that can't be right! But turns out it was. Now let me tell you 1cc is MUCH more painful than .1cc. My butt cheek is STILL in pain and sitting on the toilet is almost impossible. I honestly have no idea how to make the progesterone shots better. But look on the bright side at least I don't have to do these things the WHOLE pregnancy :)  My biggest fear about the shots is him hitting a vein and having to redo the shot(before you inject the liquid you check for blood in the needle and if blood comes in the needle you know you have hit a vein and have to redo the shot)

We now have all mine and my moms travel stuff booked for the transfer! She will land in L.A. are few minutes before me and she will leave L.A. at 7pm and I will leave at 11pm(the joys of living on the east coast). But I am extremely thankful that this time that travel was able to book me a flight flying out of Fayetteville airport instead of Raleigh. I can't believe I will be leaving in 2 days! Adam starts a class that he cannot miss on the 1st so he won't be able to take me to the airport but I have an awesome friend here who will be taking me and picking me up once I get back. That's all for now about the surrogacy I will have LOTS more this weekend while I'm on bed rest :)

So now I have a question for yall. Are any of yall dressing up with your kids this year? If so what? And what are your kids dressing up as? The kids, Adam, and I went to a Halloween party this past weekend and had a blast. I think our costumes turned out great. I wished we could have done a family theme but we let the kids pick their costumes and my plan was Adam and I would match costumes but in the end Adam matched Brynna and I matched Brett. Here's a few pictures from the party

Brett wanted to be a blue Power Ranger so I was the pink Power Ranger. I added the tutu because the costume was pretty much a body suit and I just felt naked wearing it the way it was so I made a tutu.

Brynna wanted to be little red riding hood and I made her tutu dress but not the hood part. Daddy was the lumberjack who saves little red riding hood and her grandma from the wolf. Brynna has this wolf stuffed animal she carries every where with her and it was the big bad wolf.

Here is the back of Brynna's costume. BTW she has her arm around my friends son. It was the cutest thing ever.

Here is our family picture of our costumes :)

 Also if you have missed any of my blog post or if this is your first time read about it you can click here and get updated :) Hope you enjoy.

Kayla

One Week From Now..

Today I had my one and only monitoring appointment. The agency likes to use monitoring clinics that can get the results back to them ASAP because they need the results ASAP. Well the closest monitoring clinic that qualifies is an hour and a half away. So this morning I woke up got ready, then dropped Brynna off with a friend and took Brett and my friends son to school, and headed to the monitoring appointment. I got there about 15 minutes earlier than I planned but it was a walk in appointment so it worked out. I walked in got my blood work done and then waited in the waiting room for my ultrasound. EVERY TIME I got in for an ultrasound I PRAY that I'm not pregnant. No matter what precautions I take I still fear that I'll end up pregnant. Thankfully though this time I wasn't.

The blood work was super easy. I have had lots of blood work and that lady was by far the BEST! She did it so quick and it didn't hurt a bit. Taking the band-aid off hurt worse than getting blood drawn haha. I have a little bruise from being poked but that's all. The redness to the left of my bruise is from the band aid and I took it off 10 minutes after she put it on and that was 10+ hours ago. The ultrasound was the painful part. They don't do the normal sonograms they do an inner vaginal sonogram and I hate those things their so uncomfortable but it went quick. Before the nurse left though I asked her what my lining was and it was a 9!! Which was great!

After the monitoring appointment I headed back home and played the waiting game with Brynna. Thankfully I had other things to do today that kept my mind off the WAITING! haha. So 4:30pm came around and I realized CRAP! I haven't heard from my JC(journey coordinator) so I sent her a quick email before they closed. Turns out she was also in the process of emailing me. Well WE HAVE A DATE! And guess what??? I WILL BE HOME FOR HALLOWEEN!! The transfer is planned for the 2nd which means I will fly out one week from now, the 1st of November. There is a chance we will transfer the 3rd but we are planning for the 2nd. Then I will be back home the evening of the 4th. So thankfully Adam will be with the kids most of the time :)

After the emails I got a phone call from the fertility clinic that will be doing the transfer and they were also updating me about the transfer and what will be going on. She started telling me about the ivf medications. I will start daily shots on Monday and on top of that I will still be doing my shots I've been doing every 3 days. So every 3 days I will be doing 2 shots a day :( Then the day of transfer I will start something that we like to call vagina mints! Well, I will end on that and let you have fun imagining what that means.Plus tonight is day 3 again which means SHOT NIGHT! BOO!!

My First Time..

Yesterday was my birthday and guess what I got to enjoy on my birthday? A shot! Yup you read that right a SHOT, IN MY BUTT! That was probably the least fun thing I have ever done on my birthday BUT we got a big laugh out of it. Plus I'll always remember that my shots began on my birthday. 

I knew before signing my contract that I would have to give myself shots and take pills but may I didn't think it would be that bad. Well I was WRONG! It was horrible! I knew Monday morning whenever I woke up that I would be getting my first shot that evening so I thought about it ALL DAY! That evening we got home and I knew it would have to be done soon. So I got the kids ready for bed and started to get prepared. I got everything out that I needed and laid it on the table. I honestly wanted to take as LONG as possible.

Then it was go time. Now for my first shot I was NOT doing it myself. I was a chicken and made my husband do it. He was a little to excited about giving me a shot but promised he would be gentle. Now before I let him give me a shot we did lots of googling and watched youtube videos to make sure he was injecting the shot in the right area. Google needs to realize whenever I search for glute injection area I am NOT wanting to see women taking "sexy" picture in the bathroom. So now it was time to drop my pants and do the shot. Adam cleaned the area and then I stood there FREAKING OUT for 15 minutes! With my pants still down! I didn't want to pull them back up because then we'd have to use another wipe to clean the area again. It was the most awkward thing ever but he didn't complain he just laughed at me while I was in tears, freaking out, and sweating haha. All I could think about was someone peaking through my window and cracking up at us. Finally I put my big girl panties on and took it like a man(figure of speech I couldn't really put my big girl panties on because the shot was IN MY BUTT!!).

This was after the shot. I told yall he was a little too excited about giving me a shot in my butt. Thankfully the shot didn't hurt too bad. It wasn't as horrible as I mentioned in the beginning of this post it was a tiny poke and didn't last long. What was horrible was me over thinking how painful it'd be. I'm just glad its over with. I have another one tomorrow and then after that its every 3 days. On the 25th I will have a sonogram to check my lining and then begin another shot. So I'll be doing 2 different shots but I'm planning to do some of the shots myself so if my husband isn't around I can just do the shot myself.

After the shots I took my prenatal vitamin instead of taking the whole thing I decided to cut it in half. I thought cutting it in half would make it much easier. So I took half of the pills while sitting in my living room and washed it down with water. I almost threw up on my rug in my living room while watching greys anatomy! The stupid half of a pill got stuck in my throat and caused me to gag and almost vomit. So after that I was scared to take the other half of the prenatal pill. But this time I decided I'd eat something small before I tried to swallow it. 10 minutes later I walk over to the kitchen sink and take the other half of the pill and it went down much easier thankfully.  Hopefully today's pill and tomorrow's shot wont be as bad and wont take me 10-15 minutes to prepare for :)

Kayla

It's Almost Show Time!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were busy days of talking with the agency, the clinic, and waiting. Lots of waiting. Wednesday I got an estimated schedule BUT I was told that J&J were trying to move the date by a few days. Which would actually work out better for me. So we had to wait until Thursday to know for sure. I waited for the email to get the new dates and they decided to keep them the same. So for now as long as nothing changes the transfer will be sometime between November 1st-3rd. I will fly to Los Angeles the day before transfer and then fly home probably 2-3 days later. So I could be in LA a total of 4-5 days. I am hoping that the transfer is either on the 2nd or 3rd because if it is on the 1st I will miss Halloween. I know Halloween may not be a big deal to most people but this year I made my daughters Halloween costume. This year is also the first year my husband is going to be able to go trick or treating with us. Every year he has been working or gone and next year he may not be here for Halloween either so I have really been excited for this Halloween. BUT if I have to miss Halloween I am just thankful that Adam will be able to be with the kids and enjoy Halloween with them.

Well Thursday we got the estimated dates and Thursday I was told that I would receive a package on Friday with all of my meds I will have to take, and they emailed me a cycle schedule. I start my first shot(delestrogen) Sunday or Monday depending on when AF(Aunt Flow) comes. Also if AF doesn't come by Sunday morning I have to go get blood work done at my local monitoring clinic, which is not local at all. It is 1 1/2 hours away. The joys of not living in or near a big city. Even though in my opinion Fayetteville is a big city. Friday I stayed home most of the day waiting and waiting for that package. By 2pm nothing. So I walked down the street to a friends house. We only live like 7 houses down but you can see my house from her house and the FedEx truck passes her house to get to mine. So I knew I'd see it heading to my house. At 3pm I received a phone call from the pharmacy that was mailing the package asking if they could mail it to me Monday.. Umm.. WHAT? I have been waiting for a package that was not even mailed haha. But I explained to them that I needed the meds ASAP because I would have to start them by Sunday or Monday. Thankfully they overnight them and they mailed them that day instead of waiting so I would receive them by Saturday. Well we have been planning to go to a place called Hubb's Corn Maze with a some friends and their kids and guess which day we were going. Saturday. I decided we would still go to the corn maze but PRAY that it came before we left. We weren't planning on leaving until around 12:30 so it should come before then. Plus it didn't need a signature like I thought it did so they would leave the package.
It's funny how things work out... Whenever we were getting in the car to leave the FedEx truck turned down our street and thankfully had the package I needed. So my nerves were put to rest.. Those of y'all that live in NC I really recommend Hubb's Corn Maze my kids(5 and 3 1/2) had a blast and my husband and I also liked it.

This is the jump pillow and they loved it. Brynna face planted but thankfully it didn't hurt.

Both kids loved the slides(daddy did too haha)

Then was time for the corn maze. I have never been to a corn maze before it was really neat. I'm not good at reading maps, I like technology and just listening to my GPS give me directions but it was fun reading the map and finding all the checkpoints.

After the corn maze we let the kids play for a bit and then headed home. We did dinner at a friends house and the kids were going to spend the night afterwards. Well since they only live a few houses down we went home first bathed the kids and then headed over. Adam went first because I still had to get Brynna dressed and he was going to grill his burgers. We were about 5 minutes behind him and whenever I walked in the door everyone yelled SURPRISE! I was not expecting a surprise party. They played it off good. Brynna was even surprised. Kelly made me a cake and it was GOOD!! This is my first birthday away from home and things like that make being away from home a little bit easier.

 

Since AF still had not come we had to be up early to head to the monitoring clinic an hour and a half away. I had to be there at 8:30am but since it was on a Sunday the fertility clinic called me on Friday and told me to call the clinic on Sunday before I drove there to make sure they were open(I'm not sure why they didn't check before they put it on my schedule but o well). So Sunday morning I woke up and AF still had not made her appearance!! So I called the monitoring clinic and no answer plus it said they were closed on Saturday and Sunday on their message. Which meant that I would now have to go Monday morning unless AF decided to finally show. Thankfully a few hours later she finally did and now I wont have to make the drive until the end of next week. I will have blood work and a sonogram to check my lining to make sure it is good to go for transfer. 

Sunday I also went through and made sure everything I needed was in the package and ready to go on Monday. Plus I also wanted to see what I was going to be getting stuck with. I'm going to make Adam give me my shots and I'll probably cry hahaha. I haven't had a shot in 2 1/2 years and that shot was PAINFUL!! I still remember how bad that thing hurt. So lets hope this one isn't as bad because I will be doing it every 3 DAYS!!

Look at how huge the needles on the right are they are 18 1/2 gauge needles. Thankfully those are not the needles I will be injecting myself with. Those are just the ones that I will be using to put the medicine in the syringe. The green needles on the left are the ones I will be injecting myself with(23 1/2 gauge needles)

 

 

Look at these horse pills! Goodness I wonder if I am allowed to cut them in half? I have been swallowing pills for years and have never had an issue with swallowing pills but big pills like this I am not a fan with. I always cut my prenatal pills in half whenever I was pregnant with my kids so hopefully I can do the same with these. 

I guess tomorrow I will update with how painful or painless the shots were and how long it took me to get the balls to let Adam give me a shot haha.