Monday, October 25, 2010

Yes... Yes It Has

I know it has been awhile since I've updated everyone!! Keeping that in mind, I decided it was time. lol

We are moving ahead and finally have a plan.  November is looking good haha.  My IF has taken leave from work [most of you are now finding your jaw on your lap, I know I had to] so that we could try.  Of course, at this point, I'm not sure what my IPs are going through considering all of the sacrifices they have already made to try to make this work.  

Most of my readers understand that cycles are unpredictable.  There is no way to tell you all today when I will ovulation of course.  However, until AF comes, I can tell you all that IF will be coming around the 17th, as ovulation will be around the 19th if AF comes when she should.  

We're waiting to see if I have other news, but for the time being, I don't... want some more filling?

A woman went to the doctor's office. She was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about four minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall. An older doctor stopped and asked her what the problem was, and she explained. He had her sit down and relax in another room.

The older doctor marched back to the first and demanded, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was PREGNANT?"

The new doctor smiled smugly as he continued to write on his clipboard.

"Cured her hiccups though, didn't it?"




A lady from a foreign country who could not understand much English wasn't feeling well and went to see her doctor. After examining her he said, "You are pregnant. Please understand that you have an insufficient passage and if you have a baby it will be a miracle."

The lady rushed home crying and told her husband, "The doctor says I'm pregnant and I have a fish in the passage and if I have a baby it will be a mackerel!"




A man took his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth. The doctor told them that they'd developed a new machine and asked if the couple would like to try it out. The machine could take some of the pain of childbirth from the mother and give it to the father to ease the mother's burden.

Well, they thought that was a good idea, and decided to give it a try. The doctor initially set the machine on 10 percent, telling the man that even 10 percent was probably more pain than he'd ever experienced. But the husband was surprised at how little pain he was feeling, and asked the doctor to raise the level.

The doctor increased it to 20 percent, and when the man still felt fine, he raised it to 50 and finally 100 percent.

After it was all over, the man stood up, and stretched a little. Both he and his wife felt fine, and they shortly left the hospital to take the baby home.

It was then that they found the mailman dead on their doorstep.




A woman goes to her doctor who verifies that she is pregnant. This is her first pregnancy. The doctor asks her if she has any questions. She replies, "Well, I'm a little worried about the pain. How much will childbirth hurt?"

The doctor answered, "Well, that varies from woman to woman and pregnancy to pregnancy and besides, it's difficult to describe pain."
"I know, but can't you give me some idea?" she asks.

"Grab your upper lip and pull it out a little..."
"Like this?"
"A little more..."
"Like this?"
"No. A little more..."
"Like this?"
"Yes. Does that hurt?
"A little bit."
"Now stretch it over your head!"


Hope you all enjoyed!!!


Cathleen

Friday, October 15, 2010

To Answer Some Questoins... And Unfortunately... Confuse You A Bit More

Hello Everyone;

So everyone wants to know.. What's next?

Unfortunately, I do not have those answers yet, although [trust me] I wish I did.  We're all hoping to have it arranged soon, although, IF's job isn't very easy to work around for the time being.  There are a few ideas up in the air but YES we ARE trying again without a shadow of a doubt. 

None of us are giving up, I don't think it is in our nature. 

Of course, there are things I have to speak to Josh about first, it is fine for them to come to us again, but the main problem is that I am hoping to try clomid this time, and the only way for me to get it is to go there to start the treatments. 

This is of course still a bit fresh to us all, and I know myself, am still shocked that it did not take. 

God works in mysterious ways ... as most of you know.  There is a reason for everything, that is the only sure thing.... no one knows WHY things happen... they just do.    It's hard to tell yourself that as a surrogate... it is hard to convince yourself that it was out of your hands. 

If you have any questions, post them as comments, and I will make a new blog... I can't comment on my own posts for some reason... so this is really the only way to get back to everythone.

Thank you for commenting, I LOVE to read your thoughts and feelings, and thank you for joining me and following me on this journey. 

Cathleen

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Small Update

Well...

AF started today... actually... technically yesterday [October 12th] at 2:45pm. 

I cried instantly when I seen the blood and I thought it was a cruel joke... how could this have possibly happened to us?  Why wouldn't it have worked?  How could it not work?  I got pregnant so easily with our own children... why is this any different.  Unfortunately, it was NOT a cruel joke, and it WAS for real.

I know that God works in mysterious ways.... I have to be grateful that AF didn't start on Thanksgiving Day....  This seems just so cruel.  Keeping in mind that it takes perfectly healthy couples more than one shot in most cases, I have tried to settle my feelings with the following reasons why surrogacy is SO different from conceiving on your own, with your own partner.
  1. There are stresses involved with surrogacy that you would never face while conceiving at home [ie: knowing that your IPs have spent so much money on treatment/travel, you have one shot...you can not just roll over and say "Honey... let's have some fun!!", you are not the only ones hoping it takes, there are two families waiting on results etc]
  2. You have money riding on the results as well.
  3. As a surrogate, you come to love your Intended Parents, and feel their want and need for it to take just as much as yours.
  4. We are all taking extra reprocautions that we would not usually take when trying for our own child [ie:prenatal vitamins, buying special foods] because this is not our child, and want to have the healthiest child possible to pass over to their parents [this is what Intended Parents trust us to do].
  5. As a surrogate, we are out to please our Intended Parents, that would mean getting pregnant...NOW!
There are so many things that could happen.  You fall in love with these people and their whole family, you want nothing but the best, but this can also alter your sense of being. 

Stressing over all of those things can alter ovulation.. which is certainly NOT something we all want.  This is why a lot of TS's feel the need to be on fertility medications... to have reassurance.  As a GS *in most cases* two embryos are sent in... this is not always just because their IPs want twins, but also because it is reassurance that at least one will take. 

This is something I have tried to do myself, however, I can not have these sent to me from online because Canada Post will not allow it.  It is the same in the UK and in France.  I did not know this.  So, for all of the potential TS's from Canada, please bear in mind that you would need someone to physically bring you these medications from the US or another country. 

I'm sorry I'm a bit gloomy today. 

With this surrogacy I've learned a lot about myself, as I'm sure many first time surrogates do. 

I've learned that I may get attached to people too easily.  I'm not talking about the fetus I will be carrying, but my Intended Parents.  I realized that this may have actually stunted us, as I cared too much about how much money and how this is effecting them too much... this added to the other stresses of surrogacy.  There is soo much you learn about getting attached in this business, but that is one I had not expected.

I've learned that I have to stand up for what I believe in.  At the beginning of this journey, I may have thought that as long as my IP's were happy, it is all that truly mattered... now I know that that is not correct, and we ALL have to live outside this surrogacy.  You can't cut off your other relationships in this journey, and you find that it is very hard to remember that when surrogacy is all consuming.  Everything you do, everywhere you go... it is always there, and you are always thinking about making healthy decisions for their baby.

These are things that you don't know about until you are there.  They are not BAD things... but are things that are quickly discovered.  It is important to find yourself when you go through this, especially a first surrogacy where you are simply gaining the experience and trying to enjoy it all and take every bit of it in.

Some people will never know the things about themselves that I will by the end of my first surrogacy, and as I do this onward, I hope to keep learning about my self and other cultures and life styles....  I'm so grateful to have learned everything I have so far.

I truly hope that no one picks out all my grammatical errors and my run ons (it really was the biggest point destroyer in English during high school).  I'm sorry this is so long as well, but I haven't had a good honest post in awhile, and I definitely thought I owed it to everyone who is still following us on our journey. I also apogolize if I have repeated myself... it is really late here and I've been told I have a way with words - and a way of repeating them. haha

With that, I sign off with a smile on my face... and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!


Cathleen

Friday, October 8, 2010

Getting Close...Losing Patience

We are 8 or 9 dpo depending on when ovulation happened, since it happened over night. 

We test in 3 days from now and it certainly does seem like a far way to go at this point.  I was the lady with 14 pregnancy tests yesterday at the mall.  The clerk looked at me like I was CRAZY.  I told her I wanted to be sure, and she asked if 1-3 would have been enough, and of course, I said... I would have been as certain as if I had 14!

I can't wait to test! I am starting to get nervous though.  We've had a few symptoms already, so we're all just praying for a great test result, if not I'm going to get a blood test to be certain.  It's a little nerve wracking haha.  I feeeel pregnant already, and I don't now why I'm stressing about this. I'm already thinking about little girl characteristics!  haha

I'll post some belly pictures soon, I went to the mall today and I got a few comments about it. lol 

Okay... not sure what else to blog about hahahaha

See you all later
God Bless

Cathleen

Sunday, October 3, 2010

....8.....

Days left until we test.  It's really closer to 7.5.

I just got home from Montreal, and had a great time for the 9 or so hours I was actually there and have a few pics!





Ignore the dates... my camera SUCKS haha


So, I did almost 30 hours of travelling for 9 hours in Montreal hahaha.  It was soo fun and I'm so grateful that I got to go!! 

So the count down is ON!  On the morning of the 11th, we will be testing :)  That will make us 10 days past ovulation.  It can take up to 14 days past ovulation, so hopefully it'll be good nd it'll turn up when we want it to!

Not sure what else to update on!  Our last insemination was October 2nd at 4pm.  That was just in case :)  But I'm positive that the sperm and egg met late the night before :)

Okay, so... ask any questions!

Cathleen

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Excitement...It's Too Much!

I have some great news for everyone!! Here.. I'll show you instead!
This was taken last night

This was taken only 3 hours later


And here is the one from today
These are ovulation tests... not pregnancy tests.

We arent telling anyone until 8 weeks either way.  The reason for his is because we want t be sure it has worked and we will be looking forward to January either way, whether it be for inseminations or 2nd trimester visit.

Please don't bother asking about pregnancy test results because I will just say that we are excited for January.

Sooo...time to jump around!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv-3yIPSWc

Enjoy!

Cathleen

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

LET THE FUN BEGIN!!

Okay...time for some fun!

My Intended Father arrived early yesterday morning and spend the day with the chldren and I.  We went for a walk with a friend of mine and her son and had supper and kept occupied :)

By the time hubby got home..it was late and I had send IF home hoping for him to get some rest. 

Today is I Day...that is.. Insemination day lol  I found this wicked chart online..hold on and I'll show you guys actually...

Hold on... I have to resave as I now have a different computer and for some reason I forgot that I need to re-save it now hahahahahaha ..should have had a V8 right?


sorry they're so big... but it was this or you couldn't see the words lol
Here is the chart I like to look at actually....not that I don't like to look at hte other...but this one is more encouraging I guess.

The second chart is for a girl..which is what we're aiming for!
Soo...now it is time to get super excited!!

That's the update for now...will come back tomorrow for a new one though!!

Cathleen