1, 2, 3 Estrace!

So a little over a week ago I started the Estrace pills twice a day. In a previous blog I mentioned that I have been very blessed in the side effect department, but as I started taking the Estrace last week I felt HORRIBLE. Not only was I nauseous but I had really bad headaches the first 3 days, was really tired and generally felt like crap. I kept thinking that I was just going to pass out. I never got any morning sickness with my son, but the way I felt last week, felt like what I would imagine morning sickness is like. BLAH!!!! About mid week I figured out that it was just a stomach bug, THANK GOODNESS!!! No side effects from the Estrace :)


Today, I start taking the Estrace three times a day and that only lasts for a few days. I wish I knew what each med did and why I have to take them in this order and in these amounts, lol....maybe some research will be done! 


Family Vacation!


While I was looking at my cycle calendar last week I realized that in a short 4 weeks we will be doing our transfer! And with all of the busyness of life, we wouldn't be able to take a family vacation for a little bit. Insert Seattle! Coming up to Seattle has calmed my nerves and given me some much needed time to relax, focus and mentally prepare for my upcoming month. Being able to take my son to this wonderful city is such a blessing. We are having so much fun! 


Funny coincidence too, as we were all driving around Sunday afternoon in downtown Seattle, we got to see part of the PRIDE Parade!! The week we got here ended up being PRIDE week! SOOOO cool and unique :) What a blast! And to make it even better, the Saturday after we get home I will be joining my two best surro sisters (who have each helped a set of IF's) at the Antelope Valley's PRIDE Parade! It is going to be so much fun and I cant wait to show my support and have a blast with my girls!!!


Happy reading and I will post again soon!!!

 ~Rachelle 

New Meds and the Dreaded Side Effects

Within the last couple weeks I have been on a new meds list that consisted of the following:


1 Baby Aspirin
1 Prenatal Vitamin, 3 times a day
1 Folate, 3 times a day
1 DHA
1 BCP
1 Lupron Injection at the 10 mark

The day after my last appointment I was taken off the BCP and I started an antibiotic. When I started the antibiotic I felt horrible. The Lurpon already made me sleepy during the day and kept me up at night, while the antibiotic upset my stomach and made me ever more tired. I learned very quickly that if I don't do the injection at just the right angle, IT HURTS!!! Now that I have fixed that issue, I am ok with the shot again. Thank goodness the antibiotic was only for 5 days!!! Now that we have made it to the 17th of June my meds changed again!


Today I started Estrodal and the Lupron injection is lowered to the 5 mark. All I can say about the Estrodal is, BOO!!! I was quizzy this morning and either the Estrodal or the combination of meds is making my boobies hurt! TMI, I know, but they HURT! It feels the same as when I was getting my milk supply in before I had my son. Sore and tender :( I know it won't last forever, I just have to keep pushing through!!!


My comments in my blogs are NEVER meant as complaints, a girl just has to vent sometimes and I want to be as detailed as possible! I love my journey so far and I know it is only going to get better!

 ~Rachelle

Ultrasounds and Blood Work!!!

The first thing I noticed on my cycle calendar was my appointments for blood work and an ultrasound. I don't know why I noticed that first...lol. So we have two ultrasounds and 2 blood panels before our transfer. 


Monday:
I was woken up to my little one very sick. He had a head cold since Saturday that just kept getting worse. As I was keeping my distance and my mom (so generously) was taking care of him for me, I felt so guilty. We wanted me to keep my distance so that I would risk getting sick. I don't want to compromise my immune system before our transfer. Later that say day I called Erik who sounded like he was dieing on the other end of the phone...oh no, he caught the cold :( Later that night after Erik went to bed, around 7:30, I was getting Landen ready for bed so my mom could go rest before taking him for the full day Tuesday. As I came down stairs he kept saying "mommy, baby is sick". Not two minutes later we had projectile vomit everywhere. Boo :( Needless to say, we spent the night on the couch with a bucket. The whole time I was taking care of him and worrying about him, I kept thinking that in just a year or so Roberto and Mauro will be doing the same thing. It brought tears to my eyes thinking about giving them this amazing opportunity to hold barf buckets and clean snot off of their baby's face....lol!!! At the time I found it to be very funny and it truly helped me make it through the night :) Luckily it was a bad food bug, not the flu!!!

Tuesday:
Ready for my appointment!!! Leaving my sick baby killed me. A mommy never wants to leave her sick baby with someone else :( But leaving him with my mom softened the blow. Dr. Boostanfar's office is in Encino about an hour and 45 minutes from my house. Somehow I made record time and got there 40 minutes early! I have no idea how that happened, but I'm not going to complain :) I have to say, I LOVE DR. BOOSTANFAR!!! He is so kind and gentle. You can tell he really loves his job. He truly puts me at ease and makes me feel so confident about our transfer. He did my ultrasound very quickly and told me that both ovaries had shut down and the lining in my uterus is thinning. That means the Lupron is working!!! Woot Woot!!! All of my blood work came back normal too. GREAT appointment! 

I was given an antibiotic because of a positive culture that was taken a few weeks before. Dr. Boostanfar assured me it was normal and everything was going to be okay. Most women have it but regular doctors and OB-GYN's don't test for it. So I have 6 days of an antibiotic along with the other meds and it will be gone!!! Still scary hearing you have a bacteria that needs to be treated. As Dr. Boostanfar finished up my appointment he interlocked his hands with mine and told me everything is going to be okay and we are going to make a baby. It calmed my nerves and really gave me confidence in him as our doctor. I am so great full that Roberto and Mauro choose Dr. Boostanfar as their/our fertility doctor. I don't know how they decided to use him and I will admit that I LOVE The Little Couple and was WAY excited when I found out he was our doctor. He is even perfect in real life, not just on TV. Good pick guys!! Your surrogate is one happy lady :) Liking your doctor is a big step in any baby making process.

Me after our ultrasound! 

So happy that everything is on schedule and we are SO close to our transfer!!! Next step of meds is right around the corner too!

 ~Rachelle 

Side Effects :(

The first night I took the Lupron shot I barely slept. I was so worried about the possible side effects. Nausea, vomiting, headaches, tiredness, insomnia, difficulty breathing, swollen lips, swollen hands, rapid weight gain, OH MY!!! As I tossed and turned all night, I kept thinking I was going to have bad luck and end up with all of the side effects. How horrible would that be?!!? And the funny part is, I NEVER used to worry about side effects, I was/am one of the lucky ones that was blessed with being very adaptable to the meds I take and my environments in general. Why the panic???? 


It is now day 7 of the shot and all I have experienced was some tiredness and mild insomnia. But I am not 100% positive it is because of the Lupron. We will see right!!!! Maybe the panic came from the hormonal changes and the "shut down" of certain body functions. Hmmmm....

 ~Rachelle

Intorducing my IF's

After all of our contract stuff was complete I was contacted directly by my IF's! I was so excited to get that email!!! As I responded back to them I told them about my blog and that I would absolutely love for them to follow it and share it with friends and family so that they could all follow us on this amazing journey from my view point :) I was nervous that they wouldn't want me to be posting what I am doing, I don't know why I was nervous, I just want everything to be perfect. As I nervously waited for their next email, I was relieved to read that they are on board with the blog and are okay now with me "naming" them in my blogs. No more "IF's"!!!! 


I am so excited to introduce Roberto and Mauro, my wonderful IF's :) They are so sweet in their emails to me and I can't wait to make them a baby!!! We are going to have an amazing journey :) :) :) :)

 ~Rachelle

Lupron!!!

A week ago or so I posted that I was getting ready to start some different meds one of which is the Lupron shot. As I received everything in the mail that morning I proceeded to make my daily check lists so that I don't forget to take anything. From June 7th through June 13th I will be on the following:


Morning:
1 Prenatal Vitamin
1 Folate
1 DHA
1 Active Birth Control
1 Baby Aspirin
Afternoon:
1 Prenatal Vitamin
1 Folate
Evening:
1 Prenatal Vitamin
1 Folate
1 Lupron Shot at the 10 Mark


What a schedule!!! Every morning I get so excited to start that day of meds....I think it makes me feel like I have total and complete purpose each day. Even if I wake up in a bad mood or my day just isn't going the way it should, I still have purpose and meaning! I know that sounds weird but I love getting up each day to take the meds so that we can hopefully make a baby!!!


LUPRON!!!! So as I got everything ready for my first Lupron shot, I started getting nervous. I went upstairs by myself because I knew that I wouldn't be able to do anything with people watching me. As I prepared the for the injection I was shaking so bad. It probably took me 10 minutes to actually give myself the shot because I had to stop shaking before I could do anything. After the shot was complete I couldn't even get the bio box open to drop the needle in. After it was all done, it really wasn't the bad! I was able to complete everything and I was so proud of myself for truly facing a fear and giving myself a shot!!! All I kept repeating to myself was "You have to do this for your IF's. We are going to make a baby for them so they can have the wonderful experiences with their baby, that you have with Landen. You have to do this...you are going to be okay!" 


Lupron....scary but TOTALLY worth it!!! 

 ~Rachelle

Perfect Timing with an Added Bonus!

So as I published my last post, I went to check my email and boy oh boy was that perfect timing! I got my CYCLE CALENDAR!!!! This is the calendar that tells me what meds to take and for how long. It also shows the proposed dates of my transfer!!! As I was reading through this email I was then notified of a new email....can you guess who it was from? Yeppers, my IF's!!! What an awesome day!


As everything came together so quickly I find myself a little overwhelmed. It's in a good way but honestly, I was just absorbing the excitement and nervousness (good again) of signing our contract. The first thing I noticed in our cycle calendar was that I start my meds TOMORROW!!! Holy Cow!!! I am so excited to get pregnant and continue our amazing journey even though everything was put on fast forward, at least in comparison to how things had been moving.

The above pictures are my cycle calendar! I know they are hard to read but they are really just for show, not for actually reading them and understanding them.


I can't believe that I start my Lupron tomorrow :) I listed below what Lupron is:

Lupron acts by suppressing the pituitary gland (the gland which is normally responsible for triggering ovulation). However, before suppression occurs, Lupron will briefly stimulate the pituitary causing an increase in the pituitary hormones LH (luteinizing hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). This is called the agonist or flare phase.. If the Lupron is continued, it will eventually stop the pituitary from producing LH and FSH. This is known as the suppression phase.

Since it requires an extended period time to reach the suppression phase, Lupron is usually started a few weeks before starting the other medications needed for a particular treatment. This allows the patient to “get past” the stimulation phase and into the suppression or desensitization phase.

During the suppression phase, spontaneous ovulation will not occur. You may hear the staff refer to the patient during this phase as being “down-regulated” or "suppressed". This suppression effect will even persist for a few weeks after the Lupron is stopped.

Today, Lupron suppression is used primarily for frozen embryo transfer cycles and egg donation cycles. Some programs may still use Lupron for fresh IVF cycles.

As of now our potential transfer dates are July 17th, 18th or 19th! We will doing a fresh embryo transfer. The egg donor will go in for the egg retrieval 5 days before I go in for our transfer. Once the eggs are retrieved from her, Dr. Boostanfar will take one of our IF's sperm to fertilize one of the eggs to make our embryo. Some people transfer more then one embryo to increase the chances of a positive transfer but we have decided to only transfer one because we would prefer to only end up with one baby. The chance of a single embryo transfer splitting into identical twins is 2% and I hope we don't fall into the percentile!


Our next step is receiving my meds and starting them tomorrow evening :) I will post our video and give you an update when we are done with the first injection!
  
 ~Rachelle

Contract Time!

So in my last post I said that our next step was drafting and signing our contract. And I come to you with good news!


While me family and I were in Durango, Colorado for my little brothers high school graduation we received our contract draft to review. After reviewing it and making our necessary adjustments we sent it back and were able to sign it on Monday June 4th! Once the drafting of the contract was started everything fell into place. What a wonderful thing to add to an already wonderful week :) It means so much to me that I will forever remember that week as my little brother's first HUGE milestone in his life as well as our continued journey with our IF's!


Next step is getting our cycle calendar!!!

~Rachelle