Cycle Calendar

The last 2 weeks have been a little crazy. Before we left on vacation, I got my box of meds!

EEEEEK! Luckily, I don't take these all at once. The eight bottles on the right are vitamins. No biggie:o) The bags are full of needles and syringes! The funny thing is that the actual shot part is no biggie to me (though I have heard that the progesterone shots in the booty leave knots and bruises, if you aren't super on top of it). I am a little worried about my poor family who will have to deal with me in these hormonal swings.

I had my first monitoring appointment this morning, which involved a blood draw to check my Estrodiol (E2) level and a vaginal ultrasound to check my uterine lining, ovaries and follicles. The Dr. and staff were pretty nice and I really love that it is so close to my house:D I should hear from the nurse this evening to start Lupron. It is a very small needle, injected sub-cutaneously into the fat of the lower belly. Lupron is used to supress my naturally-ocurring hormones, so they can be controlled through the meds and to prevent ovulation. Hopefully, Lupron will take it easy on me:o) I have my next monitoring appointment next Tuesday, the 7th.

We have a projected egg retrieval date of August 24th, which would give us a 3 day transfer on Aug 27 or 5 day transfer on Aug 29. Of course that date is dependent on how the ED (mostly her) and I respond to meds. I start a week earlier than she does, so I am ready to go whenever she is.

Saturday, we enjoyed a "Skype date" with our IPs. It was awesome to get to talk to them in that casual setting and they got to "meet" our daughter!

I will leave you with a picture of my sweet girl from our vacation to San Diego. I think she loves the beach almost as much as her daddy does:o)

Things are Moving

We got the final draft of the contract tonight, so after we initial the heck out of it and sign it, that is done! The ED is med and legal cleared and our legal clearance should be sent out this week!

This week I had to get a blood test to see if I have enough immunity for Hep B and, of course, my number was 9 when it needs to be greater than 10:( No biggee really, I just had to go get a single dose booster and we are good to go (though for a few hours I thought I was going to have to get the accelerated version with all 3 doses in 21 days):)

Hopefully we will get our cycle calendars very soon, which means shots will be right around the corner. I don't know exactly when, but I expect it will be sometime the last week of July! Surrogates have got to be some of the few people that get excited and want to celebrate the start of daily injections;o)

We will be on vacation that week, but hopefully the Lupron (which I think is the first thing I do) won't make me feel too cruddy. As I start the meds, I will try to get and provide here the purpose of each drug.

We also have a Skype date with R and T after we get back, so that should be fun:o)

Hopefully I will have more news soon!