Her Eggs My Basket

29 weeks! Where has the time gone? Well these days Nugget is rockin and rolling in there.  I swear this peanut is every bit if not more active than my two kiddos. I can actually see it wiggling around in there as we speak.  And speaking of seeing it, we had our 4D ultrasound last week. Little stinker was cozied up to her placenta and was playing Tarzan with her cord, so we didn't get the greatest views. But the ones we got were adorable. He or she had the sweetest little cheeks and nose. And he crinkled his little face up when I popped some Altoids. They must've been curiously strong.  I also had my gestational diabeetus test, which I totally passed like a boss. I'm such a weirdo. I don't typically have a sweet tooth but when I'm pregnant I actually like to drink that sickening sweet sugar drink. I pounded that beast.  In other news our holiday travels are upon us. I have roughly 46 hours of driving ahead of me in the coming  weeks for my baby brother's wedding....

Time for a quick update! I'm about 24 and a half ish weeks now, which means two things. One: I'm still convincing myself that I'm in the honeymoon phase of pregnancy. I feel pretty good and I'm going to stick to feeling that way until at least 30 weeks. Got it?? And Two: Little Nugget is officially viable. Well I mean it's been viable-ish all along, but the cool thing about this week of pregnancy is that there are children walking around today who were born at 24 weeks and survived. So Nugget is starting to gain his independence from me, and that just puts him that much closer to his Mama and Daddy! Ok so I am still feeling good, but truth be told my hips are starting to get a little creaky, and I started having a bit of trouble breathing after I eat a huge meal. So basically it just means I've gone back on a bit of a health kick. I got back to the gym and started yoga, and I can't hork down Arby's anymore either. Get your judgment out of here. I only ...

Just wanted to first give a big shout to anyone joining from my BabyCenter post ! I am still picking myself up off the floor that they asked me to write a guest blog post for them about surrogacy. Again I've gotten 99% love and 1% weird advice/backlash. Apparently there's a lovely woman who goes around Baby Center blogs sharing her "wisdom." She's 100% certain she'd never turn to surrogacy or any other means of "artificial reproduction" to have children. I'm just sad she won't ever have to make that choice. I know that decision is a super fun and easy road for everyone who travels it. One of my favorite bits of advice she had was making sure I keep in touch with the baby because it will want to know who its "birth mother" is.  Well the baby's one and only mother will be the one taking her home with her father. She'll be up all night snuggling and feeding and changing her. She'll be the one to kiss boo boos and hold h...

Now that my belly has officially popped, and I'm noticeably pregnant-and-not-just-fat, people are starting to ask the question "Do you know what you're having?!" We went to Italy a few weeks ago (it was absolutely amazing but the experience is still surreal.) and a wonderfully animated Italian woman couldn't stop hugging me and rubbing the bump saying Lord knows what in Italian. The only thing I could make out was "Girl or boy?" Everyone is just dying to know what's in my belly.  Sometimes I tell them it's a kitten, but most of the time I tell them I think it's a human baby.   I know they're just making conversation, and truth be told when I was pregs with my own children I couldn't wait to find out. But Baby Daddy has talked Baby Mama into waiting for the "surprise" on delivery day. I offered to just throw up some confetti when their first born child came shooting from my loins, but I think they want something a little more...

*YAAAAAAWWWWWNNNNNNN* Oh excuse me I just woke up from my first trimester nap! I realize it's been a while since I updated, but I've just been hibernating waiting for the worst part of pregnancy to pass. I've never been one of those third trimester "get this baby outta me" people. I'm the person who HATES the first trimester with a passion. It's not so much the morning (read: all day) sickness. It's not the extreme exhaustion. It's not even the fact that this is the portion of the pregnancy where I feel the most "pregnant" symptoms but just look generally jiggly and bloated. It's the mental anguish. The first trimester is like a breath holding contest. It's just waiting for that dreaded appointment where you find out everything's not as ok as it seems. Luckily we had SEVERAL wonderful appointments where everything was in fact ok. But the first trimester is just the absolute worst. So I just put my head down and tried t...

Well we met with the midwife and things went fabulous! I think Baby Mama and Baby Daddy felt better after seeing that the practice is down the hall from the OB and across the parking lot from the hospital.  Also it wasn't in a grass hut.  They did all the medical history song and dance, and the midwife asked about our story. Baby Mama is a horrible witch and started saying all sorts of ridiculously nice things about me. And I was sitting right there!! Pregnancy hormones and all.  She's lucky I was able to choke back the tears with some wise cracks. Otherwise it could've gotten ugly.  At the end the midwife noted that since we'd had an ultrasound at the RE we didn't necessarily need one. But she could do one just to be sure of dating etc.  Baby Daddy said he was good and that seeing the heartbeat last week would suffice. But I knew Baby Mama wouldn't be seeing her peanut again until 20 weeks. And although I'm a little wary of ultrasounds there's a lot to ...

Welp we are officially graduates of Reproductive Endocrinology. We had our final appointment with Dr. B today and it was beautiful. We saw little Gummy Bear, and she was wiggling about like a little dancing queen. Baby Mama saw her heart just fluttering away. I'm not sure what they clocked it at, but I thought it was somewhere around 160? Maybe it was higher. Either way, Dr. B was super happy with it. Babe was measuring 8w6d, which is actually about right. I think we're truly a Friday week change, but they put us as a Wednesday week change. When little Gummy got still and we could make out her sweet face a little bit I said "Say hi to your Mommy!" and she totally wiggled a paddle! I almost fell off the table, and we all squealed. It was such a great visit, and they officially dismissed me to midwife care. I brought up the midwife with Dr. B again, so Baby Mama and Baby Daddy could get her opinion on the practice. Dr. B had great things to say about midwives, w...

Hey kids! Sorry about the delayed update, but I've been in a war against my eyelids and they are winning. This kid is an extreme hcg producer. Like gifted for sure. I was never this sick with my own little keepers. This sickness and exhaustion is unrivaled, so kudos little hippie baby! You're advanced. We had our 8 week ultrasound just one day shy of 8 weeks on Tuesday, and everything looks absolutely fabulous. There was a bit of a mix up with our appointment...I.e. they didn't have us on the schedule and the doctor wasn't even in the same city. But I did a little...ehem...gentle nudging and got them to schedule us with another doctor. I might have sweetly explained that they probably shouldn't stress my IPs out with this repeat ultrasound, since the last time we went in for a repeat ultrasound they got the harrowing news that their dreams of parenthood were dashed to bits. Ya know...no pressure or whatever. But maybe give me the wand and I'll take a gander m...

Our first ultrasound was scheduled for today, and it was shaping up to be the ultrasound that almost wasn't. They kept calling to push it back and reschedule and at one point they asked to bump it to Saturday. I already had Saturday plans in the works, so that wasn't happening. I told them I'd mosey over to the other office if we could do Friday. So today was the day. I had to take the minions with me since my mom had to grab a last minute doctor visit. That was exciting since Sweet Pea has taken to screaming like menopausal Medusa when things don't go her way. But Baby Mama and Baby Daddy were very sweet with them, and I had a fully charged Kindle in my arsenal. Dr. B came in looking radiant as usual, and the hunt was on. I was holding my breath hoping to just see one big beautiful sac and my heart almost fell out of my butt when I saw two black areas. I seriously almost fainted. But Dr. B moved the wand and assured me that there was just one sweet little bean. S...

Holy guacamole am I ever pregnant! Oh dear lord. The thought of guacamole... BARRFFFF So at this stage of the game last round I felt totally normal. I had one wave of nausea one day that I wanted to be morning sickness but holy balls. This. This right here is all day sickness.  I'm so nauseated I have trouble sleeping. And if I can manage to settle my gut for a second I'm immediately awakened by my bladder. I have to pee twice as often as my potty training toddler.  I'm also insanely tired. Not just like oh man whew I need a second! I'm talking driving down the road and I have to pull over because my eyes can't physically stay open.  Either I have pregnancy amnesia and just totally forgot what it's like to be pregnant... Or... Ugh I made the rookie mistake of asking Google why I was so sick and tired. Google is such a dramatic bitch. She suggested what I was already thinking.  What if it's twins.  The last time I remember (key word remember) being this bogge...

Beta number two this morning! Friday's numbers came in at 433, and in a typical healthy pregnancy that number will double every 2 days at this stage of the game. So to be on the safe side we were looking for something in the 1,200 range. My morning sickness subsided so I got a little nervous and took another test this morning before I left. I say a little nervous because I honestly didn't expect to be sick this soon anyway. Plus I am peeing every 5 seconds so there are good signs. Let's be honest. I just love pee sticks. Anyway, the clinic called me back lickety split this morning and said my levels were FABULOUS! 1,802! Progesterone and thyroid look swell too. Baby Mama was definitely excited for those numbers as was I. We'd talked about delaying our ultrasound until 8 weeks just because everything is so darn fragile in there. But the clinic has their reasons. So our first ultrasound is next Friday! I'll be 6 weeks, and I'm mostly excited with a smidge o...

Well friends I had my blood draw today at the clinic and guess what? My waffle is pasta sauced. Wait. I mean MY EGGO IS PREGO!!!!!! I've been waiting to post these all week!! I'm fairly certain I have a full blown addiction. But wow the pee sticks were good to me this round. I of course got positives right out of the gate because of the trigger shot. But they continued to consistently get lighter as the trigger shot faded from my system. Then they got super light as of Wednesday. Thursday seemed to be the same or a smidge darker. Then Friday was definitely darker. Then I started getting those sexy First Response Early Response positives 5 days past transfer.  This is from this morning in Target after my blood draw.  My fellow surro sisters knew my beta was today, so they started taking bets on what my levels would be. I guessed 102. To recap, my first beta last time we transferred was 37. Here's a fun chart to guide you on what's consider...

In the surro world, Hump Day is Bump Day, and my news feed is filled with beautiful pregger bellies. I figured I'd go ahead and participate with an embryo bump. It's in there for cryin' out loud. I'm going to celebrate with a Bump Day pic! In other news my hcg is almost tested out. The line was pretty faint this morning. I shouldn't be seeing any positives from the transfer until about Friday, so I don't mind sharing this last little stick update. The top is the morning of the transfer. Then down to most recent. Dpt= days past transfer I also had my blood draw this morning to check my progesterone. I'm taking the little hoohah tubes twice a day, and BOY are they less drama than the freaking PIO shot. Anyone who thinks the shot is easier is a hard core B. I'll take the crinone any day over a perpetually sore rumpus. The clinic emailed this afternoon and said they were very pleased to see my progesterone levels at 38! They only need to be above 20. ...

Keep your pants on boys. This filly can't be bred.  Thaaatttsss right. As we speak there's a little bundle of life settling in at Chez Uterus. I reserved the deluxe penthouse suite with 100% organic locally grown lining linens. Only the best for this guest.  The transfer was bumped up from Tuesday to Monday. The embryologist called this weekend mid thaw and thought noon would be a good time to knock me up.  So I got to sleep in, then get up and nosh on the breakfast of champions Brisket taco with guac. Ya know...for the iron. Tacos and burritos are kind of my thing with Baby Mama.  Then Hubs and I dropped the kids off with my mom. They brought her a hand picked bouquet from our yard since today is her bday. Happy Bday Ma!  Then we headed to the clinic. We stopped on the way for a lucky transfer smoothie (with pineapple of course).  I had my lucky green shirt and flip flops and my turtle earrings for good fertile turtle vibes.  The smoothie also helped ...

Twas the night before transfer And all through the house. The surro was typing And clicking her mouse. The husband was nestled with toddler feet on his head. The dog was passed out At the foot of the bed. But the surro was writing For it's all she could do. Tomorrow's it embie. It's all up to you. It's been more than a year since she first met these peeps And on the night before transfer She just couldn't sleep. The excitement and hugeness Of what tomorrow might bring Was too much too handle It's such a big thing. For tomorrow she'll head To the clinic once more. She'll be racked with excitement As she walks through the door. But she's also quite nervous just a wee tick. She's just hoping and praying This baby will stick. This wee little life Will be placed in her womb. As she lays there sans pants With a fully packed room. Dr. B and the Hubs And a rogue nurse or two Baby Mama and Daddy An embryologist t...

My ovaries channeled Snoop last night and they dropped that egg as if it were quite warm. OVULATION COMPLETE! Had my ultrasound this morning, and my lining is still looking "beautiful." My follicle is now considered a corpus luteum and it is quite deflated indicating that I did in fact drop that egg like a bad habit. And I had some fluid floating around my uterus, which is another good ovulatory signal. I got my HCG trigger shot yesterday around 3:15. So basically I got a positive OPK (ovulation predictor kit) on Tuesday evening indicating an LH surge, which just means I would ovulate in 24-48 hours. The HCG shot also stimulates ovulation, so yesterday about an hour after I got the shot I felt some light cramping that lasted until about 10 p.m. So I can assume ovulation occurred yesterday evening. I'm so jazzed the natural cycle worked! OMG...my uterus is so crunchy. I think I'll go buy it some patchouli incense and spring for a pair of Birkenstocks f...

Squeeee!!!!! My uterus pulled through!! Lining check this morning revealed this big juicy follicle That's the big boy making the magic happen.  There's the triple stripe and the lining came in at....a whopping 9 mm!! We were hoping for an 8, so way to overachieve ol girl!  Dr. B was very happy. She said they'll run my bloodwork today and get back with me later today with a timeline. I'll probably drop that follicle today or tomorrow. So It'll be next week sometime I'm sure.  Squuuueeeee!!! I'm so pumped!! Thanks for all the fluffy vibes! I'm positive they helped.  Here's to hippie crunchy embryo settling into a very naturally luxuriant lining! 

Well this just happened That's a positive ovulation test folks. That means I'll ovulate in the next 24-48 hours.  Here's hoping tomorrow's ultrasound looks nice and fluffy! 

So I started testing with ovulation kits on Thursday and BOOM. two lines. I was so bummed. My period just stopped the night before so I knew there was no way my lining would be fluffy enough for transfer.  I emailed our coordinator to let her know it was positive and she said they'd just wait to see what Monday looked like. But most likely this cycle is a bust.  Urrrgghhh. I was frustrated so I posted the pic in my surro Facebook group for confirmation of my pity party. But lo and behold no one showed up. Instead they told me to check the box because unlike a pregnancy test, all lines on an OPK are not created equal! Apparently the test line has to be as dark or darker than the control line in order to signify ovulation!  I tested all weekend and didn't get a positive. So I let myself feel a hint of optimism this morning as I lay there watching the swirly ultrasound screen.  Dr. B was still thinking I ovulated since that's what she last heard. But I told her nope. I...

Well Aunt Flo rolled into town Friday night about the same time as my in-laws. What a joyful night indeed. I'm assuming she hitched a ride in my mother-in-law's handbag. I immediately emailed our clinic coordinator to let her know, because despite the fact that we are attempting a "natural" cycle this time, I thought I remembered them talking about a very low dose of medication. I didn't hear back all weekend, so Monday afternoon I called just to double check. Well frikkin' frick. They said I was supposed to start a low dose med on day 3 of my cycle, and I was technically on day 4 already. It was just really strange that I started so soon. I'd just finished my Provera on Thursday night, and usually it takes 3-10 days before you're riding the crimson wave. Anyway they immediately scheduled me for an ultrasound in the morning along with some blood work. Then they could determine how to proceed with my meds. On the ultrasound they were looking for ...

Well frikkin' frick. The appointment today did not go super great. Today was my lining check to see if that extra estrogen pill in the glory hole would fluff up my uterine lining a bit more. But all I saw on the monitor was a big middle finger from my pretentious uterus. Actually what we saw was that my lining was in fact a little bit thinner. Dr. B, being the fabulously intelligent guru she is, deducted that my body is just very sensitive to these silly synthetic hormones. The more estrogen we added the more offended my uterus became. I've always considered myself a bit of a crunchy gal. I'm not quite full blown hippie, but I do have crunchy granola type tendencies. I cloth diapered, was borderline vegan because of my kid's dairy problems, I nursed for 36 years and I treat recycling like a religion. So apparently my uterus would like to be a bit more natural as well. Dr. B wants to try dropping this fake ass excuse for a lining I have and start fresh next month w...

I double checked and today isn't Friday. But boy Wednesday the 13th seems just as unlucky.  I had my final lining check scheduled this morning to make sure the ol uterus was good and fluffy.  So I woke up at 5, not for the appointment, but because of my Mother's Day gift. My dear Sweet Pea bestowed the generous gift of a stomach virus on me Sunday, and although I seemed in the clear yesterday, it came back with a vengeance this morning.  I pulled myself together and got ready. I even put in my lucky turtle earrings for good measure.  I hopped in the car to head to the clinic, but I stopped at the end of the driveway to check my tires. Last night I got a memo on my dash that my left front tire was low. It was dark so I didn't use the gauge but I walked around and checked all 4 visually. I pushed on them and they seemed fine.  So this morning as I'm hurrying to get to my appointment I got the gauge out to check the left front tire just as my dash said.  Nope....