Post bed rest, post transfer, post beta

I've been meaning to update but have been so busy after returning from CA. Bed rest was very boring, as expected, with nothing very exciting to report about it. I totally forgot to mention the fact that, when we arrived in CA and went grocery shopping we came across some giant frosted coconut cupcakes from Sam's club. They were so delicious, we had TWELVE over the next week! Ahhhhhh! We definitely took it as an opportunity to watch movies and eat a lot of food (some of which was new to us and very good!) that would later stick to our waistlines. Terry doesn't seem to care about that part as much as I do. I seriously can't wait until I can head back to the gym!

I had been feeling some cramping since the first day of the transfer, which surprised me as that didn't happen the last time, but I knew it was normal and to be expected, and also sometimes a good sign.
 Good news, the boobs came back! I wonder if I can figure out a way to get progesterone via the black market and if that would be cheaper than a boob lift. Because if it is......I'm totally interested! Hey, I'll take what I can get! I also started taking tests at home and received a positive test just 5dp5dt (5 days post 5 day transfer). Although very exciting, I also had the same thing happen last time and my first beta was 58. I felt positive about this time, but was trying to prepare myself as well. I swear I'm not a negative Nancy, I've just learned to be very cautiously optimistic, not only with surrogacy, but pretty much for most things in life.

I've been going to a different place to have my blood work and ultrasounds this time around. They are both very quick to get results and have always been pretty on top of it with our surrogates and egg donors through the agency because they are a lab and that's "what they do". I was really excited about this because last time the clinic we were using was pretty uneducated about how to get the beta results to my coordinator and the clinic and refused to follow orders from another physician. It was probably one of the most frustrating experiences yet. I wanted to rip my hair out the last time. So imagine my relief to know that this "new" place would do a much better job at getting my results to the appropriate people in a reasonable amount of time. Well, again, very frustrating. After waiting 6 hours without receiving any results (they usually take 3 hours), we began to get a little worried and started calling. I should mention that T&Y had called me numerous times, beginning just an hour or two after I had my blood drawn. Talk about pressure. We were all anxious for the same reasons. My orders were STAT, meaning they needed to receive and send results ASAP (same day, within hours). The lab told my coordinator that my progesterone and estradiol levels were ready, but that because my beta was "not STAT", they would have them "next day". Ummm...nope. That wasn't gonna work for me. Not again. I wasn't about to wait another minute, and our orders WERE STAT. I seriously began to think this was just some very bad luck. Maybe this was a sign? 

I went back to my desk to try to get some things done and keep occupied. Soon after, my coordinator came marching in my room with a couple of numbers written on a sticky note and with quite the mischievous look on her face. She showed me the note and I scanned it until I reached the bottom and read the number next to "beta HCG". All this time I had been saying I'd feel confident and satisfied with a "healthy number" like 150 or 190. The number that was written down, was much much higher than that. THE number was 1,179. My coordinator and co-workers say they wish they could have captured my reaction. It was a very blank and confused stare before I turned bright red, my body temp. went up about 100 degrees, and then I felt like I was about to wind up on the floor. I said "no way!". "That is NOT the number. Seriously, what is it? Are you sure it isn't from my 3rd beta results the last time? It can't be! That's super high!" I specifically told her that she was not allowed to mess with me that day when the results came in. Normally we'd kid around with each other and would never waste an opportunity like this to scare the crap out of each other. Well she wasn't messing around with me. I made her confirm before I would agree to sit down to video Skype T&Y to tell them because I was so shocked. When T&Y answered their Skype, they were smiling sweetly and I could tell they had been sitting there all day, just waiting. Y said, "well, you're smiling!" So right away they knew it was, at the very least, good news. I reminded them of our first number the last time and then I revealed the number we have this time. They were floored, excited, ecstatic, smiling, laughing, hugging, it was so amazing! It took all I had to keep from crying (happy tears). I'm so glad we were able to have that moment together. We didn't have that the last time. I think I just might have received a very small glimpse of what it will be like the moment they become parents.

After all of the excitement and shock, I am still trying to wrap my head around this number. It is a little scary. I'm happy for T&Y and I feel a sense of relief and satisfaction with the belief that this might be it. I have a repeat beta on Monday (which is standard for La Jolla IVF), and hope to learn that my number has multiplied appropriately. Lets just hope it doesn't take all damn day to get these results this time, because if that's the case, I'll be showing up at the crack of dawn to have my blood drawn. Seriously.

After Monday's results, as long as everything looks good, I'll either have another repeat beta, or possibly be instructed to move ahead to scheduling our first heartbeat ultrasound! I'm also looking forward to having my delestrogen dose decreased, hopefully sooner than later.