The morning of the transfer, Tori and Mikie came to pick me up. I was trying to get myself ready and do my make up since I knew we would most likely snap some pictures throughout the day, and had to get Hayden off to daycare. Unfortunately, Hayden was not having a very good morning. He was upset that mommy had washed his new shoes. They were all dirty from being at the farm that weekend, but had not finished drying. Nana was going to drop him off at school for me, but he said no, he only wanted mommy to drop him off. I tried to explain to him that mommy really did not want to run late because today was the big day that the babies would be put inside mommy's tummy. He looked at me from the bed as soon as I said this and asked "Why do they need TWO babies?" I told him "They don't NEED two babies, it is just how many we are going to try to put in mommy's belly and hope they stick. It may be two or it may be just one, but either way it will be Tori and Mikie's baby/babies" This answer seemed to satisfy him. I am guessing he got worried for a second that if it were two babies that one would come home with us, haha. Oh, my spoiled little only child. He is so happy with the status quo of our family dynamics. After that convo, we all loaded up in Tori and Mikie's car and drove Hayden to daycare. In the car, Hayden noticed the basket of goodies that Tori had put together for me as my transfer gift. She really hit the nail on the head with her purchases. The basket contained several pregnancy tests, some super cute workout shirts and a blingy water bottle, a dressy top, a polka dot dress, a stuffed kangaroo with a little roo in it's pouch (symbolic of a book about surrogacy), sour patch straws (my favorite kind of candy) and some gum. Tori's mom had also got hayden an alligator t-shirt from Australia. I also presented Tori with her transfer gift, which was a charm that reads "For this Child I have Prayed" along with a tiny pink elephant to represent the girl embryos.
From there, it is was off to Houston, fighting traffic and watching Mikie stress over being late. Bless his heart, he seemed so anxious you would have thought it was about to be him up on that table with people probing his privates lol.We ended up NOT being late. In fact we arrived to our exit half an hour early, so we stopped and grabbed some Chik-fil-A for breakfast. We chatted about how things would happen at the clinic, since this was my first time using their clinic and each clinic has their own protocol. For example, my previous clinic would only allow 1 person to go back with me for the transfer and it was a tiny room, with only the doctor and his assistant and the embryologist through a window. I also was not required to take a Valium, whereas HFI clinic allowed up to 3 people to go back in the room, which was much larger and had several staff members all around (seriously, like 5 other people), and their protocol involved taking a Valium. I initially wanted to opt out of the Valium, but most of the things I had heard about it weren't bad. They said it would help relax me for the procedure, as well as relax my uterine muscles. The procedure is not very painful, but I was worried about how I might act on Valium. I prefer to be consciously aware and remember everything, so that I feel more in control. I also asked Tori how much of me everyone might see. I am not very shy when it comes to clinical procedures, but with Mikie being in the room too, I wanted to be able to mentally prepare myself to be exposed to so many new people all at once. At my previous clinic, I was stripped from the waist down and it was all pretty much out there on display. I remember how cold the room was and how my body was involuntarily shaking. It doesn't take long though to put the embryos in so I wasn't freezing forever. Tori assured me I would be pretty well covered, and she was right!.... I think lol. We finished breakfast and made it to the clinic right on time. Mikie dropped us off at the door and parked in the garage while Tori and I headed upstairs to check in. I had been sipping on my first water bottle the whole ride and was beginning to feel rather full. Tori needed to use the restroom and asked if I wanted to use the restroom too. I initially said no, since I would need a full bladder for the transfer, but then she pointed out that they don't want me too uncomfortably full and that we had a whole hour to refill my bladder with bottle #2, so I went ahead and relieved myself. We sat in the waiting room, took a few selfies, and were expecting to settle in and wait, but then a nurse came and called me back. I thought to myself, holy crap, I'm not even near having a full bladder now! Better start chugging! She took me back to a tiny room first, where we went over paperwork, took my ibuprofen and Valium, and got me dressed in the patient garb, which consisted of a standard hospital gown, booties, and a hair net. Once I was all settled, Tori and Mikie came to the room to get their outfit on, which was a full on jumpsuit, booties, and gown. I was hoping to have a few more minutes in this new patient holding area to fill my bladder, but nope! Dr. Kim arrived, showed us the beautiful embryos that we were going to transfer (Graded 4AA and 5AA!), explained the procedure a little, and asked if I was ready to go. I told him I didn't feel quite full yet, and proceeded to chug the entire second bottle of water in front of all the nurses and staff as they surrounded us and waited to escort us into the room. They looked at me and said "oh, you're going to be feeling that water after the procedure, just wait, it will hit you" Oh great lol. Dr. Kim was really great though and assured me that he would work with whatever I had in my bladder. Whew!
As I walk into the room, with my backside towards the door they tell me to drop the blanket that was wrapped around my waist and hop up on the table. I obliged, but they hadn't shut the door yet since more staff members were entering and so I am pretty sure a lot of other people out in the hallway caught a glimpse of my incredibly tiny toosh. whoops! I climb up on the table and they start to get me ready by placing my legs in the stirrups, wrapping my legs in warm blankets, raising my gown to what I think was my stomach area? (I couldn't see much while lying down) and then laid more warm blankets across my arms, detached the bottom portion of the bed where Dr. Kim would sit to do the procedure, and angled the bed with my head lowered. I am not too certain, but I think a lot more of me was visible than I anticipated, based on what Tori had told me, but it would be silly of me to think I could make it through the whole procedure without being somewhat exposed. Since I couldn't tell if I was exposed or not, I didn't feel too uncomfortable, but I hope Tori and Mikie weren't uncomfortable, if so. You always wonder where to direct your gaze... kind of like Medusa, you can't stare at it, but you can't NOT stare at it lol. They put the ultrasound gel on my tummy, looked around for a little while to get an optimal view, and then it was go time. The catheters were inserted and we could see on the ultrasound monitor the white dot where the baby fisher embryos would come out of the tube and enter my uterus/their hopefully new home. I looked over at Tori and Mikie to make sure they were doing ok. They were holding hands and Tori just smiled at me. It reminded me so much of when I was in labor with my first surrobaby, Jaden, and his mom was up by my shoulder too, anxiously awaiting to meet her son. Parallel moments forever engrained into my memory. Once they were in, I was cleaned up, transferred to a rolling bed, and wheeled into a recovery room, where doctor Kim told me to lay for about 20 minutes. This is when my bladder finally started to feel full, and when the Valium seemed to kick in.
I'm not sure if we were actually back there for 20 minutes or if the Valium made it feel shorter, but time flew! Dr, Kim popped back in to check on us, told me I was clear to get up and go potty if I needed to, and wished us good luck. We discussed doing blood work at day 9 and I mentioned how my HCG levels were usually pretty high, especially since my last IVF was initially twins. He told me that asians actually tend to have higher HCG levels in general, which I thought was some pretty darn neat information. Then I told him "Thanks for knocking me up!" and we all giggled. Another nurse came by and told us we were free to leave so Mikie and Tori exited the room/curtain to let me dress in private. Standing up vertically really made me need to pee, so I ducked around the curtain and asked the first staff member where the restroom was. It was this sweet adult male nurse, and he linked arms with me and began to walk me towards the restroom. I must have looked at him with a puzzled expression, because he explained to me how he was holding on to me so I wouldn't fall since the Valium had be a little drunk. I hadn't felt loopy until he mentioned it, and then it somehow suddenly became aware to me that I was feeling a bit loopy. I came out of the bathroom and they had a wheelchair waiting for me to sit in and take me to the car. Once we left, I reminded Mikie and tori of yet another superstition to eat some McDonalds french friends after the transfer. I told Mikie to just order a small because I didn't really feel too hungry, but he went ahead and got a large and a scarfed them down! Valium munchies? Is that a thing? lol
I don't remember much of the car ride home. I don't think I fell asleep, but my memory is just a little spotty. We arrived to Tori and Mikie's house to drop Mikie off and I went inside to use the restroom again. Tori claims I was walking a bit wobbly, but I don't remember it that way lol. I thought I was doing I mighty fine job of walking straight, but I'll trust her memory over mine in this case. Tori and I loaded back up in the car and headed home to spend the day in bed, relaxing. I was slightly dreading best rest for 3 days, since my last clinic did not require any bed rest whatsoever, just 'light duty'. I hate being cooped up in bed all day but orders are orders, and I at least had Tori to keep me company the first day. I wanted to take a nap but couldn't really fall asleep so I watched 7 episodes of Orange is the New Black on Netflix until I finally started to doze off. Ryan and Hayden returned home and it woke me up. Tori told Hayden the babies had been transferred into my belly now, and so he came over to my side of the bed to lift my shirt and look and gently love on my belly. He is just too darn sweet sometimes. Other times I swear he is the spawn of Satan, but usually when it involves babies in mommy's belly, he is a total sweetheart. Friday I was on my own for bed rest. Kristina stopped by the house and brought me a breakfast taco, and then I was back to being alone in my bed. That night as I was laying in bed with Ryan watching basketball, Ryan randomly hops up and starts to throw his clothes on. "I'll be right back, don't worry about where I am going" he says. Umm ok? As his wife, I have learned to just roll with things and let Ryan be weird. He shows up 15 minutes later with a big ass ice cream cake from marble slab, It had "Get Preggo" written on it and was just the cutest, sweetest thing he's done for me in while. He can come off as a big jerk, but he is truly an awesome guy who knows how to treat his wife right. I love it. Hayden and I each had a big slice before bed. It sort of a pregnancy tradition for me to eat copious amounts of marble slab ice cream. When I was pregnant with Hayden, I would eat roughly 3 pints of marble slab ice cream per week, finishing each pint off in a single night. I am not sure how I did not explode into a ball of fat! Good genes, I guess. Thanks mom!
Today, Tori came into town again and we went to Kristina's house to hang out and I got to love on Hutch while they went shopping at target. Tori came back with yet another back of awesome workout clothes for me. Either I am too predictable, or she is just really good at gift giving! I was feeling pretty tired again, and decided I'd like to return to my bed, as much as I hate being alone, to rest. I am not sure if I am feeling anything pregnancy wise yet. Sometimes I think I feel spasms or twinges in my stomach, but it could just be gas pains lol. Or I think the tiredness could be a sign too, but I am a nap-taker anyways so that won't work as a tell take sign either. I had some slight nausea this morning too, but again, it could just be a side effect of the medications I am on since I was experiencing nausea 2 days prior to the transfer as well. I will continue to pay close attention to my body, and begin peeing on sticks, while we anxiously await for blood draw to get beta numbers. I won't be confirming or denying a pregnancy until Tori and Mikie announce anything, so y'all will just have to wait and see!! please continue to send all your sticky vibes and baby dust, and think positive!!
Also, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has offered items and services for the benefit we are planning. The date has had a few changes, to allow us more time to prepare, and so make sure it doesn't coincide with other cookoffs in the area at the same time since we want the benefit to be as successful as possible! Here is one of the items from The Chunky Funky/ Kristy Hebert. Super cute Team Baby Fisher Koozies! They are for sale for $8 and 50% of the profit will go to the Team Baby Fisher fund to help pay for all the medical expenses; past, present, and future. They are seriously so cute, but hopefully I won't be able to use them for another 9+ months unless it is to keep my root beer cold!
Also, if you would like to donate money to the GofundMe page the link is http://www.gofundme.com/teambabyfisher
Thank you all again for your outpouring of love and support!
No comments:
Post a Comment