oh, and I'm pregnant.

Sometimes when you're a surrogate you get to send emails that make dreams come true.

I had the joy of sending the above photo to Jill last week, and hearing her voice on the other end of the phone after she opened the email was priceless. 

For those of you who speak IVF: We transferred two 5day B blasts on 2/19. Lining was 12.8, triple striped, and perfect. My beta hcg at 10dp5dt was 292, and at 13dp5dt (today) was 1436 with a doubling time of 31.33 hours. Wow and awesome. 

For the rest of the world who speaks English: On the 19th Jill and I enjoyed a day full of appointments. We had a 9:30 acupuncture appointment before the transfer. My acupuncturist (Candace) very was nice and things were pretty similar to the acupuncture that I'd been having for the past month. Except that this time I got to experience electrostimulation. Sounds scary right? It was only slightly scary, and only for a second. Candace placed the needles and then hooked up these tiny wires to the ones in my belly. The wires were connected to a control box and once everything was hooked up Candace turned on the the electricity. It was weird, but not painful. It felt like tapping and then after five minutes did not feel like anything at all. I laid there for twenty minutes and then we were off to the next appointment. 

We made it to the RE's office with plenty of time to spare, which was not like us at all (more on that later). We were called back and got changed into the fashionable sterile garb. Booties, hats, the whole nine yards. Then we waited in a chilly little room until we headed back to the transfer room. I'll spare you the details of the actual procedure, but it's a lot like your yearly pap. Not painful, but the necessary full bladder makes it a little more uncomfortable than usual. It's quick though. Which is almost funny - all of the prep work, the months of pills, and shots, and looking back we waited for medical exams, psych clearance, and the legal legwork. Lots of steps that take lots of time working up to a procedure that takes about 3.3 minutes. After that the (amazing!) nurses wheeled me back to the chilly little room and Jill and I sat there for about an hour (Jill sat, I laid still). 

After the transfer we headed back to the acupuncturist. It is said to be beneficial to have a session both before and after. The after appointment was so relaxing I fell asleep on the table with all of the needles in my skin. No electricity this time, just the normal 20+ needles placed all over. So relaxing (seriously). 

After all of our appointments Jill and I spent the next couple of days being the most boring people in the world. I say that with a smile because it's something that we joked about as we sat on the couch watching cooking shows for three days. While it was tough being away from my guys for almost a week, it was a wonderful time with Jill and great downtime for the embryo(s) to settle in. 

So here we are, definitely pregnant. 4 weeks and 4 days to be exact. Not that anyone is counting. Except everyone is counting. On Friday, I had my first official blood test to confirm the good news. The RE wants the pregnancy hormone reading above 12, and my reading was 292. I went back today for another test. The RE wants to see that the original number doubled within 48-72 hours. My number today was 1436, which gave us a doubling time of 31 hours. Even better. 

Things look to be going very well. I am ecstatic, and Jack and Jill are completely over the moon. We have an ultrasound scheduled in a few weeks to make sure everything looks good and to check out just how many babies are in there. We transferred two so there is a possibility that both decided to hang around. It's also possible that just one decided to settle in. According to the betabase my numbers are on the high side for a singleton, and in the middle for twins... And after obsessing for the past four days I have come to the conclusion that no amount of obsessing is going to tell me how many are in my uterus right now. Only the ultrasound will, and until then I must stop looking at the betabase (the sole fact that this thing exists proves that I am not the only woman out there who has ever obsessed over these numbers).

How do I feel? Elated and nauseous and exhausted. Which is perfect for the time being. 

Until next time,
Carmen