1 Day To Go

1. With my last day comes an important question. FIRST, when doing an injection Justin pinches the skin, shoves the needle in, slightly aspirates, the pushes in the meds. The reason for the aspiration is to ensure there is no blood (an indication he hit a blood vessel). The problem is with the amount of bruising I have I think he keeps hitting pockets of blood that results in doing a brand new injection. Tonight, however, when aspirating a bubble of yellow stuff came into the syringe. It looks like pus. And I'm sort of freaking out.

So anyone have any ideas on what this is?

2 Days To Go

1.       I’ve been nauseous the last two mornings.  The good news, it’s only in the morning (PRAISE JESUS) – last time around this time I was nauseous 24 hours a day…it was horrible.  I have no other symptoms of pregnancy.  None of my “usual” indicators are making any appearances.

2.       I’ve also had some light bleeding/spotting.  The Fertility office is not concerned.  I, however, am sort of freaking out.  Last time I had some spotting a couple days after the transfer which, from what I’ve read, can be caused by the actual implanting of the embryo into the uterine lining.  However, this is over a week later so it’s more stressful.

3 Days To Go

1. There are 2 times in life going to the bathroom is insanely stressful. The first is the first time you poop after giving birth - a baby was just shoved out of your lady bits... as you push to poop you can't but wonder what else will come shooting out.

2. The second the first time you pee after getting an IVF transfer. You KNOW the baby isn't going to just pop out, but still as you sit over the toilet you can't help but worry about those beautiful babies in the making landing in the toilet.

3. Also, on a related bathroom note...4 babies later I MUST brace myself before a sneeze or am likely to pee on myself.  True Story.

4 Days To Go

1. Funny story... I got a sunburn today.  Mostly my stomach is burnt and my belly button is not.  I'd show you a picture but that is scandalous, but Heidi can be my proof.

2. Speaking of Heidi, we spent our March date night out with Brad and Heidi trying Thai food for the first time.  The best part was Justin's dish was called The Crying Tiger, and I quote, "The tiger wasn't crying because he was in pain, he was crying because this tastes so beautiful" - Justin Davis (or something like that).  Also our waitress was a ninja, true story.  I also once ran over Brad with my car 5 times.

3. We followed dinner with a game, don't worry Sam, it was Settlers so you have not been betrayed.  Brad won, Justin ruins towers, and Alexis doesn't care.

4. I totally saw Easter bags full of Reese's Pieces today while at Target.  I bought 2 of them.  1 for Sam and 1 for Tiffany.  I almost just got 2 for Tiffany since Sam ate hers last year.  I only bought them at all because they told us a story about how Sam ate all of Tiffany's.  So thanks to Sam's thievery I remembered that story so I felt I owed him 1.  And that is why they will both get one.

4B. It really bothers me that I spelled out some numbers in #4 and wrote the other's out in number four.

5 Days To Go

1.       I am going to be 30 on April 17^th.  I think my birthday means more to me because it was that day (now 11 years ago) that I fell in love with Justin.  If you forget the story go here and read it. 

2.       Along the same line as nachos being amazing…so is KRAFT mac n cheese.  You know, with the fake bright orange cheese.  I do NOT like mac n cheese with real cheese.  It’s disgusting. In fact, as a general rule I don't care for cheese unless it is white in color. 

3.       I HATE being in cold water.  I refuse to swim if the water is not at least like 80 degrees…maybe more.  Elijah is just like me.  I’m sorry I broke him.

4.       I LOVE drinking cold water.  GIANT glasses of ice with water filling in the gaps.  SO much ice I have to refill my drink every few gulps since there is barely any liquid.  I will drink tons of water if it is cold.  If it’s not cold…I will only touch it in severe circumstances.

5.       If there is a zombie apocalypse I will like just sit outside in the open and wait to be eaten.  “Surviving” sounds like WAY to much work…especially when the alternative is being dead and being in heaven.  Seriously, running from zombies and eating out of cans for years OR heaven…this is not a hard choice.

6 Days To Go

1.       Gobstoppers make me smile.  Not because they are a particularly yummy candy.  Purely because going back to our dating years – Justin and I would play this very random, stupid game with them.  Where you close your eyes and the other person puts one in your mouth and you have to guess the color.  Green and Red are easy…all other colors I fail nearly every time.

2.       I am genuinely worried about the avocado on my desk. It wasn’t ripe on Thursday.  It is now ripe and ready to be eaten.  I just keep forgetting to bring in a slice of bread to make delicious avocado toast with.  This makes me sad.  And worried because by the time I remember to bring bread WHAT IF IT IS BAD?!

3.       I gagged while writing number 2 and thinking about an old/moldy avocado.  Mold is disgusting.  The mere mention of it makes me gag.  I seriously gagged like 10 times while writing this.

4.       Easter and Halloween excite me because my kids are still too young to realize we are eating like half of their candy.  Saving them from cavities and obesity?

5.       I floss my teeth twice a year…maybe.  I’m sure my kids don’t even know what floss is for that very reason. 

6.       I make my girls put on deodorant in the morning. They are 6 and 8.  Maybe it’s too young, but I’ve walked into enough 4^th-5^th grade classrooms during my “classroom observation days” and nearly fainted from the smell to be paranoid.  Very paranoid.  I don’t want stinking kids.  Mostly because of #3.  I’d gag.  A lot.

7 Days To Go

1.       I do NOT take a home pregnancy test.  I’m way too nervous to find out before the IP.  I’d rather hear from the Doctor. Most surrogates home test.  They are brave, brave people.

2.       A week ago a lady at church came up to me and told me congratulations… When I told her I wasn’t pregnant yet she said, “Oh, must be the shirt”.  That’s right ladies and gentlemen.  I just got called “fat”

3.       I was a little excited the above interaction took place…for the first time in my life I don’t look like I’m about to collapse any moment from starvation. 

4.       I REALLY like food.  I eat much.  Apparently being 30 and having 4 babies is finally making my body realize it should chunk up.  I may actually need to start working out and eating healthy and that is terrifying.

5.       Nachos are amazing, but only when topped with the fake gooey cheese and jalapeños.  Please keep real cheese and any additional toppings to yourself.  If I see a snack bar…my first reaction is always MUST HAVE NACHOS!

6.       I’m a gamer.  I love board games, computer games, and console games.  I love games that you can play for 30 minutes or games you can play for 6 hours.  I love dice and cards.  I love little figures and pixels.  However, when I have a choice… I will always choose blue...I will always choose 5...I will always play a healer…I will always play a human…and she will always wear the prettiest clothes (or at least non-ugly ones).

7.       Parents should NEVER do homework with their own kids.  I will do homework with YOUR kid, and you do it with mine.  There is something about homework that makes even the sanest of parents snap and become this horrible beast of a human that should never be near children.  I KNOW it is not just me.  Homework’s slogan, “Homework, ruining one parent/child relationship at a time. “

8 Days To Go

1.       I am always cold.  If it’s not 80 degrees in my location you will probably find me with a blanket.

2.       Because of that I have a blanket and heating pad at work.  So yesterday as my coworker was explaining to me that their new puppy needed a blanket and heating pad to keep it warm he told me that his dog reminded him of me…thanks?

3.       I do not wake up in the middle of the night to pee…even when pregnant!  However, for about a week now I have woken up at 4:30 AM (give or take 10 minutes) about to pee my pants.  I’m not sure why I’m suddenly broken.

4.       2 weekends ago we had a pool party and beach trip back to back.  I shaved my legs for those events for the first time in probably 2 months.

5.       I thoroughly enjoy my OUR (Justin and me) best friend / best friend-in-law.  It is a rule that when a there is a marital impasse they are our tie-breakers.  You know, for important things like whether it is ok to tell food you love and miss it OR whether it is normal to take all your clothes off to poop (FYI the answer to both of those is NO)

6.       Elijah currently has the ridiculous dance.  He randomly starts doing it through the house.  I nearly die laughing every time.  It never gets old.  He’s going to be a “funny guy” like his daddy

7.       One of my favorite jokes was first heard at Discovery Science Center by a talking chicken “Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud, and cross the road again?”…”He was a dirty double crosser”

8.       It is March 24^th, and about 10 seconds ago I took down my Christmas cards

9 Days To Go

In case you were wondering WHY I am doing this 10 random facts countdown I figure I'd tell you.  Because when I did this the first time I was impatient.  I could hardly contain myself as I waited until the pregnancy test day.  I did the countdown to distract myself (and my readers).

This time I'm doing it because I feel like its tradition.

1. I'm WAY to busy to be blogging...like eat my food at my desk every day for a week...headset in listening to Celtic music busy.  But traditions are forcing me to spend 5 minutes away from my zen like focus.

2. Lots of stupid things bother me...one of those is people walking down the street with a grocery cart and 2 bags of groceries in it.  Just carry the bags and stop stealing grocery carts... or get a little fold stroller to carry your bags.

3. I'm also annoyed by the guy in the electric scooter that rides around my neighborhood with no regard to others.  He will just cross the street all willy nilly (when the light is green for oncoming traffic) and then proceed to flip you off if you honk at him or get "too close".  I've had to slam on my breaks a few times to keep from hitting him.

4. Teenage girls terrify me.  Now that I have grown to love our Shoreline Youth girls so much I am only mostly terrified of them.  They all know this..I tell them.

5. IF I have twins I will be able to say "I've had 6 babies, only half are mine".  That's not nearly as impressive as some of the 3- 5 time surrogates I know, but it still sounds pretty cool.

6. One of my long time gaming buddies made a funny joke the other day.  He said I can tell people I'm having an alien baby... since they are technically "foreigners".  If you didn't chuckle at that shame on you

7. My rump is now constantly sore and not just a few hours after injection.  Its all day sore.  The sore you get after 10 days of 500 squats.  I don't know what the squats are like, I just assume it's similar.

8. Some of my coworkers are preparing to run some long race.  They are running almost every day...miles a day.  That sounds awful.  I'd rather keep doing injections then run..ever.

9. 9 is my husband's favorite number.  I'm sure I've told you that before. 5 is my favorite number, which I know I've told you before. When dating we joked about getting married on a date with a 5 and a 9.  That didn't happen.

10 Days To Go

With 45 minutes left of day 10 I will manage to hold up my end of the bargain by doing a 10 day random fact count countdown.  So you won't get anything special...its nearly midnight.

1. My rear end is a splattering of purples and reds...I'd show you, but that is just not appropriate.

2. Along the lines of the purple and red rear, Justin said something I found quite hilarious about the number of holes I current have residing in my poor tush, "It must be easier to get swiss cheese pregnant"

3. I'm beginning to ache from head to toe.  Usually that means I'm getting sick. I rather it be from the massive amount of pills and hormones I'm sticking in my body

4. I really like Funyuns...like obsessively

5. I also really like Dr. Pepper and I almost always forget that fact until I drink some and remember how amazing it is.  It is such a great surprise every time.

6. If you've been reading my blogs long enough you know my feet are severely claustrophobic...my husband enjoys randomly wrapping blankets tightly around my feet just to watch me freak out...what a jerk

7. I spelled claustrophobic correctly the first time in #6...and I had to use spell check to spell it right for #7

8. I can only spell the word difficulty while singing the song from the lame movie "Matilda"...Misses D, Misses, I, Misses F F I, Misses C, Misses U, Misses L T Y (I hope somebody else aside from me knows that)

9. I used to be terrified of teenage girls...now I'm just mostly terrified of them, but I do love those Shoreline youth girls

10. This blog took me 5 minutes to write...I did not proof read...I did not spell check...I'm going to bed and I'll only realize my errors once you all start to point them out to me.

Until tomorrow...

2 Days and 2 Babies

I realize that as far as MOST of you know, my transfer was last Thursday.  That is actually not what happened.

There were circumstances that pushed the transfer back a week.  To this week.  To this Friday.  And with an email today, I know this Friday at noon.

So how is everything?!

Physically:

The 2 daily progesterone injections are slightly overwhelming (add that to other injections and some days I have 4).  I know it is only one more a day than last time, but 1 more a day…every day…and if you don’t know I have a really small rump…not much surface area to stab.  Needless to say, I’m sore.  At least I’m not as bruised as last time, so the actual needle insertion is tolerable most days, but the pushing of 1CC of medication into a butt muscle repeatedly is not a fun experience.  Not HORRIBLE, but not fun.  Justin is a rock star though and does an amazing job.

I’m tired, but that has nothing to do with this process and everything to do with staying up way to late.  I’m starving ALL THE TIME… l blame the hormones without any sound evidence that hormones increase appetite.  I’m too lazy to google it.

I had some crazy hormone emotions the first week of meds that made me cry over a pizza…a PIZZA! I’m glad that only lasted a few days.

Emotionally:

I’m good.  I’m excited that this is all happening, but I am noticing a difference in my relationship with my IP (Intended Parents).  They are BUSY people so I have not had any interaction with them directly since I met them.  I have had a phone call and email from the translator, but that is it.

I’m ok with that, it just makes things different. It makes this seem more “transactional” on the surface which makes me a little uncomfortable.  As I’ve said before, I’m not doing this for the money.  I’m doing it to serve a family in a unique way.  No direct contact with them makes that a little more difficult as you can image.  So I’ll continue to pray for them and email them and try my hardest to show them the love of Christ through this.  I remind myself WHY they are doing this…I heard their story and saw their hurt.  They love each other, they love the children then do have, and they just have a deep desire for more and can’t do it themselves.  That makes ALL OF THIS worth it.  And for that reason, I’m excited.

AND for those of you keeping track, here is my updated schedule

March 20th: Transfer

March 22nd: Start 10 Random Facts for 10 day Count Down

April 1st: Pregnancy Test

Prayer Requests:

·         That the 2 babies being transferred live the lives God  has for them whether it be days long if they don’t stick or for years to come

·         That my bed rest doesn’t drive me completely crazy and I get the rest I am probably overdue

·         That my kids behave themselves as Justin handles EVERYTHING in our home for those 2 days

·         That my IP have a peace as they wait…what a stressful wait that must be!

·         That the light of Christ shines through EVERYTHING I say and everything I do when interacting with my IP

DISCLAIMER aka THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Click here for my Surrogacy FAQ.  As always PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact Justin or I if you have questions or concerns.  We are open and willing to share everything.

I Used To Want To Be A Teacher

Typically as I blog I imagine myself curled up with a blanket hunched (yes hunched, I have HORRIBLE posture) over a laptop with nothing but the sound of the keys as my fingers flail about haphazardly.    Maybe it’s a combination of watching Doogie Howzer and Sex in the City when I was home sick in High School.

I find myself at moments during the day mentally laying out what my next blog might contain.  Most of those never actually make it here because between church, friends, family and work this is not my top priority.

But today one of those thoughts came to mind as I left a conversation at work.  A conversation that just 6 months ago would have consisted of words that sound familiar but don’t actually mean anything to me.  A conversation that a year ago would have sounded like a completely foreign language.  I found myself thinking – HOW do I know THAT?  How am I at a mere (nearly) 30 years old, having no technical training or education, having conversations with developers and system gurus and understanding what they are saying?  HOW, with a Liberal Studies degree and a goal of teaching, did I end up here?  I image my life in parallel as a teacher (my goal) and a product analyst (my actual job) and I do NOT see a connection.

It is a series of non-eventful events that got me here.  This is not where I would have ever imagined ending up.  But man oh man do I love it.  My work here energizes me (most of the time).  It is difficult and forces me to dig deep and learn things I probably have no interest in learning.  It is long hours of research and fixing problems.  It is a perfect fit for me.

So even though I don’t know how I ended up here I am so very glad I did.  I get to use passions and skills I didn’t even know I had and now couldn’t imagine a job that didn’t let me do that.

And with that, I end this very boring blog that was written purely because I just really like my job and felt like expressing that sentiment.

Toast Of The Wellingtons

So on Wednesday my dear husband turns 32.  If I don’t think too hard about it…I feel like I’ve known him for such a small amount of time of those 32 years.  If I think about it a little harder, I realize I’ve known him for 10 years.  If I think even harder I realize that we have friends that were not even teenagers yet when I met Justin (THANKS FOR MAKING ME FEEL OLD TOMMY!)

All that is not really relevant though.  Really all I wanted to tell you about was our night out celebrating the studly man I’m married to.  I told Justin we should go out with the Welbaums for his birthday.  And he’d never say no to time spent with his favorite person in life (it’s not me in case you were wondering –I’ve grown to accept that).  His one request for the night, he wanted to eat Beef Wellington.

When I told his favorite person this (if you don’t know, that is Sam), the comment was “I’ve never heard of anyone ‘really wanting to try beef wellington’ before”.  True Sam, so very true.  But we watch Hell’s Kitchen – because it’s fun to watch somebody yell at a bunch of idiots and throw things around a kitchen.  And in Hell’s Kitchen they make beef wellington.  And Justin always looks at the wellington and says “that looks good”. 

So the hunt began.  I found it surprisingly difficult to find a place that makes it.  I found it impossible to actually find a place that had it on the menu.  But alas, I discovered that if you are looking for a beef wellington, you are looking for a British Pub.  So a British Pub I found.  When we arrived the location was questionable at best.  You know the fancy “blue tarp” on the roof and curtains inside so dusty that when Tiffany touched them it rained dead skin and pollen (I think that’s what dust is made of).

But on the menu – beef wellington.

There were “safe” things on the menu, but since I was at a British Pub for the first time I figured why not go all out!  The boys ordered the wellingtons and Tiff and I ordered some other meat dishes with pastry.

The food arrived.  There was so…much...gravy on everything.  My food was delicious until about half way through when I stopped tasting the food and just tasted gravy.  Tiffany was a champ that managed to eat her food after carefully scraping the dragon gravy from hers (it was made with Whiskey that I am pretty sure was not cooked out at all and burned your insides something fierce).

The boys seemed to enjoy theirs and even started off the meal with a “toast of the wellingtons” (I stole this picture from Tiffany)

After dinner we needed something deliciously sweet and Tiffany began the hunt.  Her only job was to find a place with brownies and she knew where we would go.  We headed to Seal Beach to this bakery that has SO MANY BROWNIES.  Justin ended up with 2 brownies and a chocolate chip cookie stuffed with peanut butter fudge and topped with chocolate fudge. 

We walked to the pier, enjoyed our goodies, and had a merry ol’ time. 

I’m awfully found of my husband’s best friend and best friend-in-law.  Thanks for a fun night guys!