BABY MAMA

Ok first things first,

I went in for my last lining check before the transfer, to recap I forgot to ask Friday what my lining was but the nurse said my levels were good!! I went in today and the u/s tech says "I didn't think we would see you back here for another check since your lining was so nice Fri" Well, from my experience most clinics like your lining to be 8-10mm. Mine today, a full 6 days before transfer was 21mm.!! HOLY LINING BATMAN!!!! Those embies are gonna love me!!!

Secondly, you have got to see this movie trailer for BABY MAMA, its a movie about surrogacy and although it makes the surro look like a dumb white trash blonds, nothing like any of the surros I personally know, it looks freakin hilarious!! The area surro's are gonna get together and go see it, we are having proud surro shirts made to wear to it. Fun fun!!!

one week from now...

I will have S&G's embies snuggling into my belly for 9 months!! I am so happy that I have been given the opportunity to help others extend their families.

We have made the trip plans and are eagerly waiting for Fri after Mark gets home from work to get on the road. This week better go by fast, lol

The weather was nice yesterday so the kids played outside with their Easter chalk and rode their bikes. Mark did some maintanance on the truck (changed the oil and stuff for the trip) Today it is just as nice so I will clean and vaccuum the truck for the trip.

Since easyjournal has taken a hiatus...

Well, I am new to blogging and doesn't it figure that as soon as I start a blog and give out the link to it, the system goes down for a week now. UGH!!



So I have waited long enough for it to reappear!! A girls got to blog, right? So, I have temporarily relocated, if easyjournal comes back I may move back or I may just put the link to my previous journal entries here for easy access.



I am 11 days from an embryo transfer as a surrogate! This is my second journey! Hopefully I can link the older entries for you not familiar with my story to get caught up. But for now I will just go on like you already know what is going on, lol



I hope everyone had a great Easter! The bunny arrived and then Dylan left for his dads, they attended church with his dads new fiancee' and then had dinner at Grandmas. We on the other hand watched movies all day and ate leftover pizza for dinner, lol We usually go to Mark's moms for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard, which the kids greatly love!! But Papa Joe's dad is in the hospital so they cancelled Easter for now! So, by the time we heard this on Saturday night, Giant Eagle was about to close due to the holiday and our cupboards were pretty bare. Definately nothing for an Easter dinner was on hand. So luckily we had ordered extra pizza Sat for dinner and we just ate that for Easter dinner, pretty pathetic huh? Oh well!!!



I am trying to make the arrangments for the kids while I am gone for a few days for the transfer. Mark was going to stay home so he would have them for the weekend and we had a friend coming while he works on Mon. Well, he just called me from work and says he really wants to come with me, he has friends stationed at Quantico and has already talked to them via Myspace and can stay with them while I am at Sam and Griffs for bedrest. I think most of the reason for this is to visit his friends, lol Not really because he is concerned with my driving that far!! I am a licencsed truck driver and can drive a big rig if I really wanted to, so I think I can handle a 5 hour car trip by myself, lol Gotta love him, and I do!! I guess we will figure it all out eventually, we have a whole 9 days to decide, plenty of time, right??

nervous...

I can never fully know the feeling of TTC (trying to conceive) and getting BFN(big fat negatives) or failed transfers or miscarriages, or even loosing an infant. I have never dealt with infertility of my own. I got pregnant 2 out of 3 of my own pregnancies while on BC (birth control). I am fertile myrtle. We transferred 2 and had twins the first time for my first surrogacy. My mother had 6 kids of which she did not plan any of us. and my Grandma had 5 and I am pretty sure she never dealt with infertility either. I come from fertile genes what can I say. I am grateful for that! I have always wanted to be a mom!! I do not know what I would have done if I where not able to have my children. That is who I am, who and where would I be if I weren't mom?

My IP's have looked to me to help them expand their family. They have been through all the above mentioned, so they know that we may need to transfer 2 times to be successful. I know that we may need to transfer 2 times to be successful. We have discused this fact and are ok with that. We all know that statistically it should work by the second transfer if need be.

So why am I getting so nervous?

Mark and I will be talking about something happening down the road and he will say "you will be pregnant by then" and I always say "hopefully". Mark says that "it will work the first time becuase you are fertile myrtle" and he is not at all concerned with having to do this twice. When people ask when I will be getting pregnant again I always say "in April" then I find the nearest piece of furniture made of wood and immediately knock on it. I was not like this with the first journey, at all.

I guess I am concerned that my luck is going to run out! I mean, i have been around the surrogacy community for long enough to see it time and time again. Transfers fail, just the truth here!! Blighted ovums and miscarriages happen. These are just the facts of life here people. I know this! I had the perfect transfer last time, 2 in and 2 out 38 weeks later. How long can my luck with fertility last. Not that my fertility has anything to do with my last pregnancy or the one to come, but still.

I guess that I just want to be the angel that brings another child into my IP's arms. I do not want to be the cause of more pain and heartache if something goes wrong. And God knows that I know how much financially this is costing them. I thank God everyday that I never had to try to find the money to hire a surrogate or just go through all the infertility treatments and meds and IVF procedures to have my own children. I fear we would have no children if that were the case. I know that my IP's have more money than we do! But honestly how much do people have to spend to have children? I wish I could do this for free, because I would. But the truth is, and this is coming from the experience of my last journey, it is hard on a surrogates family to do this. I know that my comp is what I need to be able to do this for someone else. So I do not regret having to charge it. But thinking of all the extras that add up is heartbreaking. If this transfer doesn't work, the cost of all the meds again and the monitering and all that goes with IVF, its just very disheartening. Aside from the emotional pain a failed transfer would cost my IP's, I do not want to cost them more money!

I am putting too uch pressure on myself for this transfer to work the first time. I need ot relax and let be what will be. I am really good at giving advice, not so good at taking my own, LOL NOt to mention the reminder of it all every night when I have to stick myself with hormones! Oh well, I just have to remember that it will happen, and if it takes 2 times, it takes 2 times! In the end I will get to carry a bundle (or two) of joy for Sam and Griff and make Meredith a big sister. That part I am not at all worried about, I know that it will happen!!

I know that the hormones have alot to do with this sob story, lol So, please bear with me, it will be over soon, lol

oh the head hurts!!!

So I got pretty bad headaches every afternoon while doing the mock cycle, estrogen only! Then i went on BCP's and got headaches from those too. When I started the lupron the headaches went away!! Well as soon as I started the estrogen again the headaches returned. Today it didn't even wait til the afternoon, I have it now and its only 9:30. UGH, headaches are the worst, especially with two little ones running around, my headaches dont seem to bother them at all, lol

Oh well, its all for a good cause!

We are planning a local surrogate lunch in April. The cleveland girls are coming to Boardman, near me, this time. yay!!! It is scheduled for April 26. Aimee, a local girl that I happened to go to school with and dated her brother, lol, and I should already be pregnant. Her transfer is the 11th and mine is the 6th. Another former surrogate is trying to conceive for herself after a tubal reversal in Nov. might also be pregnant by then, she is triggering tonight and should ovulate Thursday, yay for them!! Then there is another surro named Amy (from cleveland) that will transfer the week after the lunch, we are all gonna be prego together for the next 9 month, lol yay!!!

Dylan will be selling chocolate bars to help with the cost of summer camp for boyscouts. We pick up the candy tonight and sell it through April 17th ( I think) so if anyone is interested let me know, they are $1 each and there should be plain, almond, and crunch, not sure if there will be a caramel one or not!

Spring

I have been reading a friends blog and she has one day a week she doesn't blog but she posts pictures, she calls it wordless weds or something like that. Well It is warm here today, although we can't go outside to enjoy it due to the thunderstorms, so I thought I would post pics of Spring, pics of what I am dreaming of, lol

21 days to go...

I haven't really had anything of importance or even any relevance to talk about lately. We had three days of decently warmish weather in the 50's, of course it rained nonstop the entire time., go figure! Today it is back to being cold and we are supposed to get some snow tonight, yet again. Really, am I asking so much, to just be able to turn off the heat and watch my flowers bloom, I think it is about time!!

Dylan had his first cub scout camp out this weekend, thank goodness it was in a cabin with a fireplace for last nights temperature drop. He had a good time though. It was his trial run for the week long summer camp that will cost us a hand and elbow for him to attend. If he didn't behave himself this time we would not be forking out the small fortune for the summer camp. It seems that we will indeed be forking out the dough!! Which is a good thing, I guess, lol

I turned in my application to be an assistant den leader for next year, yay me!! That means that next year I will be camping alongside the boys, at least I will know how they are behaving firsthand. The boys have been working on their whittling chip, which means that they will be able to carry a pocket knife. The first meeting they went over all the rules for safety and what not, the second meeting they got to carve a bar of soap with a paring knife. It was fun to watch, Dylan was so engrossed in it that he was even ignoring his friends that were trying to talk during it. Out of all the boys, which is about 12 or 13, we only had to breakout 2 band aids, and neither of them went on my son, yay!! Next time they will be carving an actual piece of wood, God help us!!

Well, on the surrogacy side of things, I had an U/S Friday and am supposed to start my next meds today. Last Sun I received a phone call telling me I had the green light to start the last meds, I was thinking that I would get a phone call today as well but alas it is 2pm and no one has called, so I hope that I am doing the right thing by starting the estrace pills, aspirin, and lowering the lupron tonight. We are 21 days from transfer. It almost doesn't seem possible.

I will also be enjoying some pineapple! For those of you that dont hang out in the surrogacy world, there is a chemical in pineapple that is rumored to help build your uterine lining. All the surros on SMO talk about it and eat/drink lots of it prior to transfer. I wasn't aware of it last journey so didn't do it, and we were successful the first try but what can it hurt right! I love pineapple anyways, so any excuse to eat it is alright by me. And it doesn't hurt that Giant eagle had it on sale last week, lol So I will eat 1/2 a can of pineapple chunks every night til transfer, lol Mark thinks I am insane and you know he very well might be right, but oh well. I will be the insane pineapple eating fool for the next 21 days.

I am also trying to figure out my transfer outfit. The color green is the color of fertility, so I need to wear green for luck!! I did wear green last transfer just not the pineapple. Of course during the actual transfer you dont have much clothing on, socks for sure, and last time I was able to keep my shirt on! So I guess I will look for green socks and a green shirt! I am not usually superstitious, and its not that I really believe that eating pineapple while wearing green is going to make or break our transfer odds but it also can not hurt, can it?

Another step closer

We are another step closer to our goal of a baby here. I just took my last BCP! I have a suppression check on Fri and start my estrace pills on Sun. I have yet to suffer any major side effects of the lupron, yay!! I have been a little more tired though, especially in the afternoons, but God only knows if that is from the meds or just that I need to sleep more, ya know! LOL

Nothing major is happening here! All the kids are back to normal, and I am forced to remember their antibiotics for 4 more days! The boys are back in school, so that is great news!! The snow from last week has had a chance to start melting off again with the temps in the lower 40's the last 2 days. Just heard it will be 50 tomorrow!! I am so ready for Spring to be here. I planted lots of bulbs this fall since it will be our first spring inthe new house I am so excited to see them bloom!!

1 lupron shot down 22 to go

I took my first lupron shot of this cycle last night. It is just a tiny insulin needle in the belly. It was no problem at all.
About an hour after the shot I was sitting on the couch and felt like I had drank 2 glasses of wine or something. Maybe that is the "lupy" feeling everyone talks about. So far I have none of the other symptoms yet! I am sure I will update if I get anything else, I am sure something else is bound to hit at some point.

I had a ex-coworkers baby shower yesterday. I made her a baby afghan and got her some other little things. I also made another ex-coworkers baby an afghan and she was at the shower so I gave hers to her as well. Candy brought baby Abigail with her, she is 7 weeks old and just the cutest little thing. She has thous chubby breastfed cheeks, lol Kristy is pretty big, I haven;t seen her the entire pregnancy, so it was a little surprising. She looks good! I can not wait to have a baby belly again, lol Gives me a reason to be cubby, lol And I can't wait to give Sam and Griff another child and to make Meredith a big sister.

I feel so blessed to be able to help people in the way that I do. I know that the couples that I help would find another surrogate and get the children that they desire even if I were not doing it. But I am glad that I get the experience of helping.

on the mend and snow storm

well, fevers are all gone and the kids are once again driving me insane so they must be feeling better, lol
Its amazing what 24 hours of anitibiotics can do for three little kids.

It started snowing shortly after I returned home form my errands yesterday, we got about 6 inches. Then it rained all night! The roads were a mess this morning. Now it is snowing yet again and we are supposed to get an additional 2-4 inches tonight. Is it Spring yet!!

Speaking of Spring, I am pretty sure we spring ahead tonight, with no spring weather anywhere in sight!! Oh well, I guess it is bound to get here sooner or later, right? I mean it can not possibly stay winter forever, or can it?

We had plans to actually get a sitter and go out tonight for a friend of mines 30th Brithday. Mark is on his way to pick up my sister, Danielle, as I type this. I happened to check my myspace messages right before starting this, and guess what...she has cancelled the outing due to the inclement weather. Now I dont blame her at all, and I am actually glad in one way that we do not have to drive tonight in this crap, but my sister is already on her way and now we dont get to go out. We never go out, so I was looking forward to some adult conversation and a couple of drinks before I get pregnant and can't drink for the next 9 months, lol Oh well!! Maybe next weekend! Unless, of course, we are still digging out of this snow next weekend!! LOL No, that couldn't possibly happen, not in Northeastern Ohio!

sickness and Dr's apt's

So Gage got a fever last Sat and his cheeks looked like he had been outside inthe blistering cold wind for hours, but he had not stepped outside in at least 2 days. So I gave him tylenol and checked WebMD about the rash, upon closer inspection he also had the rash on his belly, chest, and back. WebMD says 5th disease, and to treat the fever but the rash is viral and nothing you can really do for it. Before rash starts you are contagious but after rash appears your not and you can even go to school. But the fever lasted and lasted, even with alternating motrin and tylenol every 4 hours!! I finally brokedown Thurs and called the Ped. they had me bring him in to make sure it was 5th disease and not something else.

Even though he never once complained of a sore throat it appears he has strep throat which has turned to scarlet fever!! Sissy has it too! And Dylan got off the bus complaining of a sore throat!! Yes, all three of my kids have strep, what are the chances of me and Mark not getting it? Probably not too good!!

I had my baseline U/S this morning and of course I am spotting, ugh!! I sure do hate BCP's I always have breakthrough bleeding and its sucks to have to go in and have something done while your having spotting. Anyways, got that done so I can start to get LUPY on Sun. Its a med called Lupron and many people get airheaded and moody, etc. so the surrogates fondly refer to it as getting lupy on lupron. I have no personal experience with it but have heard all the horror stories of it. Its just a little insulin type subQ needle, meaning it goes in the fat of my belly, and there is plenty of fat on my belly so it should be ok. I am not worried about this shot once a day at all. I have started warning my family and friends that anything I do or say in the next 3 weeks is out of my control and to not take any of it personally. LOL

As I sit here typing, Mark is behind me calling me a computer DORK!!! He doesn't get hte whole idea of reading let alone writing for the pure joy of doing so. Come to think of it I do not even know if my husband knows how to read!! LOL He has never picked up a book in the 8 years I have known him, he doesn't even read directions when need be, he prefers to "wing it" LOL Well, I am pretty sure he can read, he just refusses to. So who is the true dork here, lol

It has begun to snow pretty hard, good thing my running around was all done early this morning. I hear we are supposed to get 8-9 inches between now and Sun morning! And the kids are sick, so they will be asking, no probably begging to go outside and sled ride, but I will have to be the meany and say no!! sometimes, I hate being the mom!!!

Journey #2 background

Since nothing major is going on today, I thought it time to tell you a little about my current surrogacy journey since that will likely be what most of the entries for the next, oh, say year of my life will be about.

At one point during my first surrogay, I said out loud even, that I would not be doing another surrogacy unless it was for a family member that needed my help! Of course that was during the puking every 1/2 hour phase of it all. and once that was done and I was feeling better and the babies were kicking and all the fun stuff, I took that statement back.

I delivered the twins May 31, 2007 and started looking at adds on SMO like a week later, lol Seeing the expression on my IF's face was what truely sealed it for me. He was to thankful of me for giving him his children, I just had to share that with someone again. I, of course waited for my 6 week post pardem check up to ask my OB when she would release me to get knocked up again, fully expecting her to say wait a year, you have had 4 preveous c-sections. I went in there and didn't even have to ask, she says to me, so are you going to do this again? and when I said yes, she says well just wait at least 6 month pp!! I almost hugged her, I was so excited that I wouldn't have to wait a whole long year!!

I sat down the next day, yes I waited a whole day, and typed up an add to place on SMO, fully intending to go at this independantly since I already knew what I was getting in to and I did have a few problems with getting my comp checks out of the last agency I went through so I did not want to do that again. Well, the email replys started rolling in! I let everyone know that I couldn't get started til Nov. That didn't seem to be a problem for most! But after reading and even emailing back and forth with a few couples I was finding it a bit daunting. I started to worry about scammers and such. When I got a response from a lady on SMO who co-owns an agency. She saw I was looking and knew I had delivered twins fullterm and had a couple looking for someone who had done just that. So< she asked if I minded looking at their profile. I jumped on it, since Dana had screened the couple already so I wasn't having to trust my gut as much! They could not start til Jan due to sperm quaratine of 6 months, but that was ok by me if it was a good match, it just gave my poor uterus more time to fully heal.

I read the profile and immediately told Dana that I would love to talk to them. They had been through a lot trying to conceive. % IVF cycles for themselves with no pregnancy, finally got pregnant via IVF only to miscarry and then a twin pregnancy. After finally getting pregnant with the twins, everything that could possilby go wrong did go wrong. The IM went in for her level II U/S at 18 weeks and discovered she was fully dialated!!! They put in an emergency cerclage and was on strict hospital bedrest til her water broke at 24 weeks and the babies had to be delivered. ONe of the girls died after 9 days and the other spent 6 months in the hospital, had 3 surgeries and was very sick for a long time. I am happy to tell you that she just celebrated her 2nd birthday!!!


Meredith is the smaller one!!

Upon speaking to Sam (the IM) I knew that I had to help make Meredith a big siser. I wanted to say to her on the phone that first time, please let me help you!! But I kept my cool and waited to talk to Dana the next day, and they actually wanted to ask me on the phone that day if I would help them but they too waited. lol yay!!!
Sam and I are alot alike, although she is very out going and bubbly, where I am on the shyer side. We both like to scrapbook and be crafty though. lol We started emailing back and fourth and she decided she wanted to drive up here and visit in person. So, she did, we went to a scrapbook store in New castle and had lunch at Applebees and I took her over to see where the hospital and my OB's office were at. We had a great visit and I just knew that I had made the right decision in working with her.

I called around and found a local clinic to have my testing done at and got started on that. Sent all my records to their clinic in VA. Mark had his blood tests all done. Then we drove to VA to have a session with the psychologist that they had been seeing through their infertility and the loss of their daughter. Mark and I both went and had a lovely time meeting with both Sam and Griff. I was under the false presumption that Griff would be the opposite of his wife, but I was pleasantly surprised. We liked them very much!! They put us up in a very nice hotel and we had breakfast there in their cafe. and after the appointment we went over to see where the clinic was and then we drove to aunt Juju's house to stay the night and visit. So, it was a great little vacation, lol
Griff, Sam and Meredith

Well, I had to do a mock cycle this time around which means i had to take the meds that I will take for the transfer for 2 weeks and have 2 u/s to check how things where going. So Dec. rolls around and we are ready to do the mock, and my period shows up, I call the clinic to start the meds and they figureout that I would have needed one of the u/s on christmas day and you have to have it done at a certain time, so we scrapped it for that month and waited til my cycle in Jan, well it was a week late, so I call and get put on provera which will help it along, so took that for 10 days before the witch decided to show up, putting us even more off schedule. Did the mock cycle, everything went well, waited for the call from the clinic that we could get started on the real deal.

So, that pretty much brings us to the now. I have a baseline u/s tomorrow morning and will start the first of my meds on Sun 3/9. We will transfer around April 6th. 4 months later than we could have, and a whole 10 months from my last surrogacy delivery. All things happen for a reason, my uterus has had extra time to heal and be ready to carry again, Sam and I have had more time to get to know one another. Its all good, it just seems like it took forever to get here, but it is upon us now, lol

OH FEDEX man, where are you??

8am~~~I am sitting here, waiting for the big old box of meds to arrive! Only a surrogate would ever look forward to a big box of needles and odd, mood changing, weight gain causing, bottles of hormones to arrive. I can not wait to see what all is in store for me in the next couple of weeks and if the transfer is successful and I end up pregnant it will continue for the first 8-12 weeks of the pregnancy.

Update
11am~~~oh FEDEX man...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

where oh where is my fedex man, oh where oh where can he be...

Does he not realize I am dying to open that great big box of meds today!

I have been up listening to every car, truck, and postal vehical that has come anywhere near my street since 7 am. It is now 11, aaaahhhhhhhh!!

Ok, I am alright, just had to get that out!!

Now back to the window I go to watch the street,in hopes he will be pulling in any minute now!!

I am sure that there are a million things I could be doing right now, but I just can not pull myself away form the front window!! My neighbors probably think I am a crackhead or something,

If you want to send me some be patient vibes I would gladly except them, lol


Update part2
11:30am~~~Ok so I hear the truck puling up and the dog starts his, someone is here I am so freaking happy, dance!! So I move to the window....







UPS????






I get the package which mind you is absolutley enormous!!!!!






Surround sound equipement my DH ordered!!! UGH!!! oh and another small soft package that is the curtains I bought for my bedroom. So as I am opening the curtains, because I had forgotten about them, I ordered them 3 weeks ago and they were on backorder til April23, well they came early, lol
so, as I am opening them the dog starts the dance again, he is a jack russell so by dance I totally mean, jumping as high as my shoulders and barking his head off!!! I look out my bedroom window and its him, the Fedex truck is pulling in!!!

yay, they are here!!! I got the little sharps container and all!!

woofreakinwho!!!! what a great day for deliveries!!!


Curtains are up, meds looked at and put away from little 3 and 5 year old hands and a call in to the clinic because they forgot my prenatals and I had to give them the fax number to my local clinic so they can fax the orders for my monitering U/s and B/W!!!

Now I get to not so patiently await 10pm on Sunday night to start the lupron!!

thanks for tuning in, and back to your regularly scheduled lives!!

Journey #1 recap

Thought I would take today to talk about my first surrogacy journey since nothing exciting is happening today with my new journey and nothing exciting usually happens in my regular life, lol

I always thought that if I knew someone who could not conceive that I would help them to have a baby, I love being pregnant that much, lol I had no idea that you could be a surrogate for people that you originally did not know. Until, one day I was reading this little free paper that comes to our house once a week and there was an add for surrogate mothers. I called the number for more information. Here it was placed by an atorney that acts as an agency for matching surrogate and IP's (intended parents). I requested an information packet and set out to feelMark out to see what he thought of the idea. Well, he was pretty much all for it, as long as I DID NOT have to bring a baby home, lol

So, the packet arrived, I filled out the application all but one question. When was the first day of your last menstral cycle? Well, it was due in a couple of days so I decided to wait and have the most accurate date for the application. Well, I waited and I waited, and I finally took a HPT (home pregnancy test) and low-n-behold, I was pregnant with our little girl! So, I did not send in that application, lol We had Mackenzie and I put ht esurrogacy on hold til she was 18 months, then the urge to be prego again started to hit, so I decided to give that aganey a call and request a new application. I sent it in May of 2006, got a call 3 days later for an over the phone interview, got my first profile sent to me 3 days after that, and spoke to the PIP's 3 days after that. We hit it off right off the bat! Two weeks later Mark, the kids, and I were driving to NYC. Well, not quite but we did visit there.

We met the IP's in person on that trip. I had all my testing done in one shot, turned in all my medical records, and went home to await the call from the RE (reproductive endocronologist) saying that I was accepted and what the next step was. That was July 7,2006. The office was closing for the month of August for a remodel of their surgical suite so we had to wait til Sept to start the protocal.

Oh, I should tell you a little about the IP's...
The mother had 3 kids of her own from a previous marriage, they were 17 b, and 9 yr old b/g twins. their father left for work on morning and has never returned. He worked in the twin towers! The father had no children of his own. He was married before and lost his wife to cystic fibrosis. The night of his wifes funeral his friends took him for some drinks and there was a woman there with her friends as well. They migrated to one another due to their losses, they became friends in grief and later fell in love! The IM (intended mother) was not able to carry on her own and her eggs were already getting "old" so we used an ED (egg donor) and the IF's (intended father) sperm.

Ok so, I am part of an online community of surrogates called www.surrromomsonline.com and we have names for all the different transfer months. I should have tranferred on Sept 29th so we were the Sept. Sunflowers, which I thought was perfect because I love sunflowers. Well, the ED needed a coule of more days to stimulate so we ended up transferring on Oct 3, 2006, 2 perfect embryos. I started testing on HPT's on 3dp4dt (which translates to 3 days past a 4 day transfer) and on 5.5dp4dt I got my first BFP (big fat positive) and at my first BETA (blood test for HCG) at 14dp4dt it was 1320 and we immediately knew it was twins!! That of course wasn't confirmed for a couple of weeks but we knew, lol

Short version of the pregnancy is...I felt tired but great up til 9 weeks when the puking began, at least 5 times a day for the next 9 weeks! I had never experienced M/S (morning sickness) before in any of my own 3 pregnancies, and let me tell you IT SUCKED!!!! Ok, so that finally went away and I was feeling very tired, even though the 2nd trimester is supposed to be the time your energy comes back, well mine never did, and I was extremely thirsty all the time. Well, I failed my 1 hour glucose test by 4 points, so my OB sent me for the 3 hor test and I failed 2 of the 3 blood draws so I was diagnosed with GD (Gestational Diabetes). I ajusted my diet and checked my numbers 4 times a day, never had to go on meds so that was good. I got RLS (restless leg syndrome) and pregnancy induced carpal tunnel, which was the worst part I think. Other than thoughs things the pregnancy went pretty well for a twin pregnancy. I did develop High blood pressure the last month before delivery, spent 3 days int he hospital on bedrest and to monitor for protein in the urine which would have indicated PreEclampsia, which I did not have, It was just PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) As long as I laid on my left side most of the day my BP was pretty good. I was sent home on modified bedrest (laying on left side as much as possible, but I was allowed up to pee and shower and to eat. I made it to my schedule 38 week c-section with no more problems.
2 hours before section


Katie and Michael where born on May 31, 2007 and weighed in at K-6lb11oz and M-7lb9oz!! Yeah, BIG for twins!!




I do get occasional updates, of course I have to be the one that emails the parents first but they do respond and send pics.

1 week old


1 month old


not sure how old here



or here


family christmas card 2007 babies were about 6 months old here


and that is the last that I have gotten, I am due to send them off an email request for updates, they are now over 9 months old!

Thats, of course the cliff notes version of that journey! I will do better with this one, I promise! lol

Personal background

This is the first time I am attempting to keep a journal. I have never been good at keeping up with diarys or anything like that but I will make an effort, lol
My name is Kari, I am 32 years old. April 19, 2003 I married my soul mate, Mark! Next month will be our 5th anniversary, already!! WOW, time flies!! I am the mama of 3 great kids. Dylan is from a previous (if you can call it that even) relationship. He just turned 9 years old, and that makes me OLD!! He is very smart, sometimes too smart and in the 3rd grade. He battles ADHD but he is doing much better with some med adjustments. He is a great kid, he just has a hard time listening sometimes. He has a big heart! Mark and I have a son together, Gage is 5 1/2 now, he is definately a mama's boy! He goes to kindergarten 1/2 days and loves school. He took after his mother and is a thumb sucker but he also took after his father and is a blanky boy so he has the best of both of us, lol He is very sensitive sometimes, but he can hold his own against his brother for the most part. And then there is Sissy (Mackenzie) she is 3 3/4, I used to consider her a daddies girl but recently she has changed to a mama's girl, haha daddy, I got her back! She is the toughest of them all. I thought I was getting a sweet little princess but instead I got a rough and tough tomboy! Which is perfectly alright by me, but she is the most rambunctious of them all. Also the most strong willed, ok she is down right BAD most of the time. LOL But I love her to death and just take her attitude with a grain of salt. Oh and she is a thumb sucker as well as having a hunny bunny that she drags everywhere.Notice bunny in the picture, lol

So, thats my family, now a little about me personally. I like to crochet, cross stitch, read, scrapbook, gardening and making homemade cards, along with some other crafty things. Of course when I say crafty I mean if it is shown to me or in a book or magazine I can follow along and the results are normally pretty good, but I can' not for the life of me come up with ideas on my own. So I rely on my SIL Leslie and a mutual friend Jen Kohn, aka stampin Jen or just the Kohnster, for insiration, lol I love being pregnant but we are done with our own family, 3 is quite enough for us, thank you very much!! So I have taken up having babies for others, I am a Gestational surrogate, aka Just the stork, or as some put it the incubator. This story I will make its own entry!I love spring and summer and fall is ok, but its just a reminder that the dreaded OHIO winter is quickly approaching. I try to be as optimistic as I can be but there is an inner pessimist lurking around every corner, lol Things are pretty good for us, we have been through some struggles and we continue to struggle everyday but we have eachother and we have love so thats all we need to get by.
We just got our first home. We moved in June 1, 2007 We have recently started with updates and such to it. We have lots of plans for this year with remodling and stuff. I am sure I will have lots to write about all that. Two weeks ago with retextured and added color to our livingroom.
Ok gonna end this now, can't tell you everything in one entry, then there would be nothing to talk about in the future, lol