Surprise Souvenirs!

Last week, J&S had their medical screening and every thing went great! You should have seen them on Skype trying to explain about their part of the screening while my 4 year old daughter was sitting there listening. They finally settled on a swimming hand gesture while using the word "tadpoles." :)

I was so bummed that they were going to be in the same IVF clinic that Austin and I had been in less than two weeks before, but we weren't going to get to meet yet. When I said this to J before our medical screening trip, he said, "Yeah, you'll have to write a message on the bathroom wall or something!" We cracked up laughing, but the wheels were secretly turning in my head that I had to do something. So while in the Orlando airport, we picked up some stereotypical Florida souvenirs to surprise them with: chocolate alligators, salt water taffy, and a "Hi from Florida!" Mickey Mouse magnet. We bought a gift bag and a card at the Rite Aid in Grand Central Station (this makes me laugh--I don't know why), and then brought it to the IVF clinic the next morning. They were more than happy to let us leave the gift there to surprise the guys, and I am so thankful to them for that! That's really going above and beyond!

The guys loved their surprise, and said they started eating the candy right away because they had to fast before their blood work and were starving. I'm so glad the surprise worked out. And, even better, I found out that S collects magnets from the cities they visit while traveling. I had no idea! Now they have a Mickey magnet from their surrogate in Florida! :)

Medical Screening Complete!

On our second day in Connecticut, we had an early morning appointment at the IVF clinic for our medical screening. Austin just needed to do the blood test and a urine sample (and yet he still managed to whine about it...thank goodness men don't give birth). I also had the blood test and urine sample done, and the nurse said the blood work would take about a week to get the results back. They're testing for sexually transmitted diseases so I know everything will come back fine. If it doesn't, a certain husband has some 'splainin to do. ;)

We spent some time talking to the clinic's surrogacy coordinator, Shantai, and she was so nice. She's also an egg donor, so it was nice to have someone in the clinic with first-hand knowledge of the medications. We also got to meet Dr. L, the IVF doctor, and he was so great! Everyone was so friendly, and I loved how they knew who my IP's were and knew who they are as people, not just patients. Shantai explained the surrogacy meds I would need (I started prenatal vitamins last night!), and then showed us the needle for the Lupron (which was super tiny like I expected). I haven't been nervous about those shots in a while now (which I'm sure will change when it's time to actually poke the needle into my stomach), but I was still really nervous about the Progesterone In Oil (PIO) shots. Those needles are significantly bigger, and have to be given into the muscle in your butt. So, I should have been jumping for joy when she informed me that their clinic uses Crinone instead...a progesterone suppository that's inserted vaginally.

There was no joyful jumping.

I actually felt sad.

What?! I know, right?!

I just couldn't shake this feeling that I am somehow less of a "real" surrogate because I'm not doing the painful butt injections. I'm sure it sounds silly, but I feel like I'm skipping some sort of surrogate hazing or initiation. Like I'm taking the easy way out. There was actually a moment where I wanted to say no thank you, I'd rather have the shots. I shared my feelings with Shantai, and she looked horrified and said "In absolutely no way are you any less of a surrogate because you're not doing the PIO injections!" I've read a few stories on blogs about surrogates who say they much prefer the injections over the suppositories, so I asked her about that. She said it's about 50/50. Some women prefer the shots because of the mess and irritation that can come with using the suppositories. Also, the suppositories are done two or three times a day, as opposed to just one injection. But of course, there are so many women who complain that the PIO injections leave them bruised, unable to walk or sit from the soreness, they have hard lumps and bumps, and the anxiety is sometimes hard to overcome.

I must have looked lost in thought and torn in my decision, because right then, Austin pipes up with, "Do you have a progesterone needle you can show her?" Shantai hesitated and said, "Yes, but I don't think I want to show you...." Austin said, "No, I want her to see it in person. I want her to remember what it looks like, when she's back in Florida and getting tired of the suppositories and considering switching to injections."

Holy cannoli, that needle was huge.

I'm so glad he did that (I knew I kept him around for something!), and I feel more confident in my decision to choose the suppositories. Either choice is going to be annoying and sucky anyway, so I might as well pick the one that's not painful! I still have this lingering less-of-a-surrogate feeling, but I'm hoping that goes away soon. I was still feeling a little down at the clinic, but fortunately Austin fixed that for me. We were sitting together in the waiting area, and quietly talking about my feeling this way. He was being so nice and supportive, and says to me, "I'd much rather you stick something up your butt than have to get an injection."

Thank god I wasn't drinking water...I would have shot it across the room!

"What in the hell are you talking about?!" I said. "You know," he said. "The suppositories. In your butt." I started hysterically laughing at the confused look on his face and said, "Um, I think you missed a key word in that hour long conversation. You missed it about 27 times. VAGINAL! Vaginal suppositories!" To which he responded, "OOOOhhhhh. Okay."

In his defense, my best friend did the exact same thing when I told her today. :)

So now his misunderstanding has cheered me up, and it was time for the saline ultrasound of my uterus. Also known as my date with the weenie wand. Which did not live up to my expectations.

Oh, weenie wand, I'm so disappointed in you.

You merely looked like a stick. How pathetic.

But once again, my husband saved the day. Because hanging next to this so-called weenie wand was a huge bag of condoms. You would have thought Austin was 16 years old again. He thought it was so funny, and I didn't dare make eye contact with him when the nurse practitioner was putting a condom on the weenie wand. I knew we'd both lose all composure!

The ultrasound was over pretty quickly, and it wasn't TOO bad. Pretty uncomfortable, lots of cramping and pressure, but nothing too horrible. The best part was when the nurse said, "My dear, you have a lovely uterus!" Why, thank you. :) I had some cramping the rest of the day and the flight home, but I never even had to take any Motrin, so that's good! My medical screening was successful and we had an amazing trip!

It's just too bad I didn't get a great weenie wand picture.

But I did get this one.

An Amazing 36 Hours

We got back from our medical screening trip two days ago. I cannot believe from when we left our house on Tuesday morning to when we got home on Wednesday evening was a mere 36 hours. We crammed so much into such a short period of time, and we had so many new experiences! I'm so thankful that although the purpose of this trip was for the surrogacy medical screening, we had a little bit of time to visit a city I've always wanted to see. It's a trip I will never forget!

Right after I posted my last post, we took a taxi (a first for us) to the train station (another first) so we could make the trip down to Manhattan. I'm so glad J&S encouraged us to do this! We spent the evening in midtown Manhattan, walking around the city, going to the top of the Empire State Building, and then heading over to Times Square. The city is indescribable, and the view from the top of the Empire State Building seemed too amazing to be real. Although I love living in a small town, the buzz of energy and excitement in Manhattan was pretty awesome. All of the buildings were so gorgeous, and when we first walked out of Grand Central Station on to the street, I will be the first to admit I got choked up. I couldn't believe that we were actually standing there, and it was even more than I imagined it to be. We spent about 6 hours there before heading back to Connecticut. We were absolutely exhausted and even fell asleep on the train (oops!). I'm having a hard time deciding which pictures to post here, and I took too many to post them all. So here are just a couple, or you can click here, and see all of the pictures along with their descriptions. :)

Me and my hubby in front of the New York Public Library,

Look at their gorgeous flower bed of tulips!

Our view of lower Manhattan from the top of the Empire

State Building. In this shot, you can see the new World

Trade Center building and the Statue of Liberty.

Finally, in Times Square, someone offered to take

our picture so we didn't have to do another selfie!

Times Square as the sun's going down. See

the New Year's Eve ball up there?!

Next stop: the IVF clinic for my medical screening!

We're Here!

We are off the plane, and we just checked in to the hotel! We are going to change into something warmer before we start exploring. We stepped out of the airport and my teeth instantly started chattering! I had to dig my jacket out of the suitcase. Ah, Florida girl problems. :)

I think we are going to hop on a train down to Manhattan and check out the city! So far, we already feel like tourists. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing at the hills, the beautiful spring colors on the trees, and the rocks. Yep, the rocks! They are huge and everywhere! I may or may not have flipped out when I saw a patch of tulips (my favorite flower!) growing wild. I've only seen them in the grocery stores in Florida!

Okay, gotta go. No time to waste! Here's are some pics of our view from the airplane window this morning...