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...

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!!

Legal Clearance

It's becoming so real now. Its so close yet so far away! I am so excited yet so nervous. Which is apparently very normal. I have been doing a lot of praying about all of this lately. I have also thought a lot about it and talked a lot about it to Adam and my mom. J&J have finally been legally cleared.. I'm not exactly sure what all goes in to them being legally cleared but it seemed like the legal clearance took the longest out of everything haha. So both me, the egg donor, and J&J have been medically and legally cleared. And that is pretty much the last and final step before we start the IVF meds. YAY(not really I am ready to start them but not excited about giving myself shots). I should be getting my calendar in the next week that will have many dates on it but the most important one... The TRANSFER DATE! Even though I will get a date it could change. The cycle could be canceled. Anything could happen. But I have faith everything will work out in the end. For now that's really all I have to update about the surrogacy news. But hopefully within the next week or two I will have a transfer date!! :)

Well now on to other things. Life has been really busy lately but not too busy thankfully. Brett has homework daily but it only takes us about 30 minutes. He is learning how to read which is amazing and such a joy to listen to. It's so amazing watching your children grow and learn new things daily. I mean they go from not even speaking to talking to reading in just a few short years. I just want to carry him like a baby sometimes but he is way too heavy for that now haha. Brynna is doing great. If you follow me on facebook you have probably read my rants about tricare and how frustrating they have been lately but we FINALLY have a referral for her to see a dermatologist for her leg and hopefully will have answers on Monday. Please pray that we get answers. Her leg issues have been going on for about 5 months now with the nasty infection part showing up about 2 months ago. Other than that she is doing great. Mommy's little side kick during the day while Brett is at school. Adam and I are now on a coed softball team and those of yall that know me personally know I am not big into playing sports. I'm more into cheering on the team. But I'm really enjoying it. I consider it part of my weekly work out :) 

Question before I go. With Halloween coming up its only right to ask. What do you or your kids want to be for Halloween? 

Kayla