So my consult with the new clinic is TOMORROW! Yep, you read that right. 1PM I will be chatting up the RE (reproductive Endocrinologist) and seeing what our next move needs to be. This is a major step forward for us and we are so ready! My goal is to have all my questions ready for the Dr. and ask him what we need to have ready and when in order to be at egg retrieval and transfer by the end of January or middle of February. We have this time frame in mind for several reasons. The main one being I don't want my friend at delivery during the Holidays! As much as a Christmas baby sounds wonderful, I don't want her missing Christmas with her family for us. So as long as we transfer no later than the end of March we are ok. Goes something like this:
End of Jan transfer = Beginning of Sept baby..
Beginning of Feb Transfer= Beginning of Sept due date
End of Feb Transfer = Beginning of Nov due date
End of March Transfer= Beginning of December due date (very latest time we want)

The dates are funny to figure because the woman is technically already 2 weeks pregnant the day of the embryo transfer, cool huh?! So when the bloodtest rolls around and then ultrasound you are already 6wks pregnant by that time.. So, that's the method to our madness. Please say a prayer that things continue to move in our favor!

OK, that's your education for the day. Back to your regularly scheduled programs..

Enjoy your Sunday!

(Post from 11-14-2010)

So, as you know we met our surrogate and matched relatively quickly and with no (major) problems.. Things have been kind of bumpy due to her not having insurance and us trying to find an affordable plan to cover her. In all fairness, all of the bumps are not her fault. Some were (I hope) just working out the kinks, while others are issues.. Anyway, the insurance is one of the biggest problems that we were not able to overcome. Also, our clinic that we had been in talks with and had our consult set with rather offhandedly informed us that we had not been told about an additional $10K fee just for using a surrogate (this is more than the actual IVF cost!) I was devastated. They apologized for not informing us sooner, but that doesn't help us, we still do not have an extra $10,000 sitting around! So, we decided to part ways with this clinic and we have since found a new clinic. Even with travel it is cheaper for us (travel is only an 8hr drive to GA).

OK, back to the surrogate.. The insurance hurdle has been a huge one. I have tried to find her a plan and THOUGHT I had one, until the health care reforms started taking effect. Now the plan I was looking into was not available when I was ready to purchase it! So our surrogate said what if she tried to get on with her work insurance, she said someone told her it wasn't as expensive as she thought. Turns out when she told me it was really expensive, she really meant when she looked online for individual policies it was expensive for her and her husband (not the same thing...) I told her to check into it and get back to me. Well long story short, she didn't for whatever reason. This is not something we could wait on as time is of the essence with these things and you have to be on top of it in order to move forward. So we have decided to part ways. I know all of that is a bummer, but in the midst of all of this something AMAZING happened..

My really dear friend who I donated my eggs to almost 7 yrs ago has been my rock in all of this and my sounding board. All of this time I believed she was gearing up for a sibling project. Turns out she was getting her self ready to offer to be our surrogate! When I told her what was going on and that we were going to have to get back into search mode she made the amazing offer to carry for us! This has been such a blessing in so many ways. The most important is that the trust is already there. I know she is going to do what she says she will and what is needed of her. She is experienced since she already has been down this road for her own journey. The best part is the clinic we chose is in her area so we don't even have to go back to the drawing board in that aspect. Things are just falling into place like this is what was supposed to happen all along.. I actually had a dream that this was what was going to happen and she had offered years ago, but I was not comfortable with moving forward down that road until their family was complete. Now it is and we are really doing this!

I am so overwhelmed, overjoyed and in awe of my friends amazing and generous spirit. She said she feels like this was how it was meant to be from when we first started this journey long ago and I feel the same way.. I am just so thankful that things are still going to move forward and that our dream still has a fighting chance! So now we have LOTS of work to do to get started!  A basic rundown of what needs to happen now:

• Fill out the questionnaire for the lawyer so the contracts can be drafted and send him a check.
• Phone consult with the clinic (and give them c/c payment)
• Give clinic a HUGE check so we can get our rx's for testing
• Have lots of blood and other things drawn, poked or prodded
• Then start meds and get the ball rolling

So that's where we are right now. The contracts have to be finished in order to move to transfer so we are working on that part now. And I am still hocking my wares to help finance this whole baby party!
(Post from 11-08-2010)

My consult with the fertility clinic is scheduled for November 19th! I am really excited to finally be moving forward. All this time waiting to have something going on and it is! The clinic made a lot of sense when I asked when should we even be getting things rolling considered we want to be at transfer in the Spring? I was shocked when they said "NOW". Excuse me? Did you say now?? Ummkay, getting on that! Apparently, you have to have all sorts of tests done and things drawn (like blood folks) and analysis of the hubby's "swimmers" and we don't want to be starting that a few weeks before we want to transfer, ya know? So, now we are going to meet with the clinic talk about our options and game plan and get our next steps to move forward. Today is a very exciting day!

Well, it's been a while since I have had an update! Nothing major going on right now, this is the hurry up and wait portion of the show.. We did have a nice BBQ with Casey and her family. We grilled and ate and sat around and talked, it was really nice! We ate ourselves full and just really got to know each other a little bit better. IVF and infertility in general will REALLY test your patience, so it is a relief to just have a normal day of fun and relaxing in this crazy rollercoaster of a journey we are on!
(Post from 9-20-2010)

So today has been pretty sweet so far. This morning I met up with Casey at her house and we went shopping, my FAVORITE past time! Her daughters birthday party is this weekend so she had to get some stuff for that and we also checked out a few thrift stores (I am SO addicted to thrift stores!). It was really nice and gave us a chance to just relax and talk and get to know each other a little better. We had fun asking each other what kinds of things we liked or didn't and it was funny to see each others reactions! We both don't like watermelon but she likes watermelon candy (YUCK!) she doesn't like CHOCOLATE! WHAT!?!?! Who doesn't like chocolate right?? I know, I know.. I was in shock.. We both LOVE salty foods (chips are AWESOME!).. And she doesn't like cherry flavored candy, reminds her of medicine (dude, seriously!?!) I told her I didn't think we could be friends anymore, HA! Cherry is my favorite flavor for ANYTHING sweet, right after chocolate.. Juice, cherry coke, you name it, it tastes better with cherry! But the craziest thing she said? She hates BACON..WHAT!! Everything tastes better with bacon y'all! So, yeah that was how our day went and it was just really nice and fun. Hope we have lots more days like this.. Next weekend they come to our house to meet the boys and we are grilling for them. So that's my update for now.. Oh and I made some more sales so a few more pennies in the baby fund "jar".. That's always a nice update.. =)

OK, so remember a few posts back I was asking if I could REALLY make this happen with eBay?  Heheh, well I started a new account on eBay specifically for our IVF/Surrogacy fund and lemme tell ya folks, in FIFTY (50) days, I have made 809 BUCKS! Now I know that's pennies in the grand scheme of things, but HOLY eBAY Batman! We Juuuust might be able to pull this thing off AND get tah keep our house! (I kid, I kid we are TOTALLY keeping our house... Anyway I will squat in this beyotch if I have too) But for serious y'all if I can keep this up through the New Year, that will put a MAJOR dent in what we need to have on hand!

On other fronts, nothing much new to report. Had a meeting with a lawyer and decided we are going to go with our first choice anyway so this one won't be getting the 2nd interview call. We didn't agree on a few things and in the end I want someone I feel is going to FIGHT for what I believe in and not just there to collect a check, ya know? So I have the retainer paperwork from our "chosen" one and now we have to send her a nice big ole check for $2500 bucks and she will email us the contract draft. Then the fun begins.. We go over it, change what we don't like and send it back. Get it back and then once it's all good we send it to Casey for her lawyer to look over. Since we already know what we do and don't want, we don't anticipate any of the back and forth that can go on. We were smart enough to hash out as many "what if" scenarios as possible face to face and surprisingly we all (hubbys included) agreed on everything!

The lawyer estimates we should start contracts in October or November since we aren't looking to start before the New Year (Well, we would if we could afford to but since we can't...) so That's where we are. Some time in the near future I will start a "we did that when? and it cost what?" outline so y'all can see how much it costs step by step and what we have to go through (each IVF step) in order to bring home "baby". That should be an interesting set of entries, ya think? After contracts the next step is testing and we estimate to start that in December and it's just blood work for us and a "swimmer sample" for J and then Casey's testing is more intrusive since she's the oven (look at her tubes and uterus and blood work as well) and blood work for her hubby too. After we are all cleared we get our schedule to start BCP (birth control pills) then I start the IVF stim medication. SO, that's the next step in the process for us. That will be after the holidays...

In the meantime, we are taking this time to get to know Casey, her hubby and their daughter. We want things to proceed nice and slow so everyone is comfortable and fully aware of the process. If you know me, you know PATIENCE is NOT my thing, so this is a big step for me... But I'm not complaining, 'cause it's giving me time to get as prepared as possible and it's giving me more time to work on this: Babydreams IVF FUND 
every little bit helps!
(Post from 9-4-2010)

Hello world! I decided to start a blog over here since lots of my favorite people can't access my other blog during the day. I will back track for a bit and put my old posts over here so it can be current. I lost my original blog for the time being (perhaps forever ..) since the site has been down for months now.. So without further ado, here it is..