Reflections...Transferring Olivia!
It was going to be an incredible day, I knew it when I woke up in the morning. It was odd for me leading up to Olivia’s transfer because I really didn’t have anything to do…physically anyway. I didn’t need to take shots or pills, I didn’t need to have an egg retrieval and Darin didn’t need to do anything physical either. We’d had both already done our parts a few years back and the precious outcome of our work was sitting in a freezer at our clinic just waiting for us. Not having my shots to focus on sure did make me feel that much worse for Kristy (our wonderful surrogate that carried and delivered Olivia). She still had to take daily injections to prepare her body to receive our embryos and then continue to take injections so her body wouldn't reject our embryos.
This transfer was also very different because Darin and I had moved across the Country since our last transfer with Hannah. We were now living in Wisconsin so getting to our clinic wasn’t just an hour drive. Kristy was also living far away in Ohio…we wanted our surrogate to live close to us so she had a long way to travel also. Darin and I had decided since it was going to be such a short trip (just a few days) that it would be best to keep Hannah at home with him and for me to travel to CA by myself. So we made all the travel arrangements for Kristy and myself and crossed our fingers that we guessed right and our transfer would happen on one of the days we were scheduled to be in town. We both arrived in San Francisco on November 16, 2006. Thankfully Kristy’s body cooperated and we had our transfer the following day on November 17, 2006. We stayed at my parents house in Pleasanton while we were in CA so we still had about an hour drive to the clinic. We woke up early on the 17th and my mom drove us to the clinic. On the drive we had wishful conversations. I was hopeful but really scared that it wouldn’t work but Kristy never faltered…she knew it would work. Her confidence shined through that morning. We arrived at the clinic with time to spare, our transfer was scheduled for 9:30a.m. We announced ourselves and were ushered back to the pre-op waiting area. Kristy and I were called back to the procedure room and Dr. Ryan came in to discuss my embryo's quality and how they thawed. I shocked to hear that they thawed 3 embryos and all 3 survived. I don’t know why but I was totally expecting to hear that they had to thaw all 8 and that we only had 2 or 3 to transfer. I was immediately filled with mixed emotions about our successful thaw rate. I was happy that we had 3 to transfer and happy that if this transfer didn’t work then we would still have a few embryos to try again later. But I was also sad because I felt no hope in the 5 remaining embryos if these first 3 didn’t work. And if we did get pregnant on the first try than what would we do with the remaining 5 embryos. I hope I’m making since…it makes since to me but I’ve thought about all this stuff endlessly. Boy if I knew then what I know now…it makes me laugh!
Dr. Ryan told us that the 3 embryos we were about to transfer all looked great! Kristy and I shared some moments of laughter and talked nervously while we waited. Dr. Ryan came in with the embryologist, I had to give them all the appropriate information to confirm that these embryos were in fact mine. We were given a picture of my embryos that we were transferring. It was so overwhelming to look at that photo…3 perfect little embryos. It was time to watch those perfect embryos on the ultrasound machine. Dr. Ryan put the catheter containing my embryos in Kristy’s uterus and released my little babies. It really is a weird feeling to watch your babies going in another woman’s body. I feel so thankful for technology and for Kristy…I wouldn’t be Olivia’s mom if it weren’t for her. Afterwards, we were able to sit and chat and just rest for a while. We stopped off at McDonald's and the grocery store on the way home. McDonald's for some french fries (all you surrogate's and IP's know about this superstition) and went to the grocery store for some pineapple (again...a surrogate/IP's superstition...fries and pineapple help the embryos hang around...they are a must for every surrogate just after transfer). We then headed back to my mom and dad’s house and took it easy for a few days. We headed home on November 19th full of hope. Kristy took several HPT’s but sadly they were all negative so we weren’t very hopeful the day of her Beta test (blood test – pregnancy test). All I remember is Kristy calling me…I remember seeing her name on the caller ID and dread sinking in…I just didn’t want to hear bad news. I answered the phone and Kristy was yelling with excitement…”The number is 18, it worked…I’m pregnant!” I was in disbelief, the number was low but still a positive. I hung up from Kristy and called my clinic, they too said it was positive but wanted to wait for our next Beta test two days later to be sure. They said to be cautiously optimistic. Two days later Kristy’s beta number was 65.7, it had more than doubled…YAY! I was getting more excited by the minute. We had a third beta test on December 2nd and the number was 268, Kristy was definitely pregnant with one of my babies! We had a wonderful journey together and the end result was perfect…One sweet little Olivia! She was born on July 23, 2007! Thank you Kristy for helping Olivia into this world, my world wouldn’t be the same without her! You are truly one of the most kind, thoughtful and honest people I know…I’m proud to call you my friend!
My three little embryos just before they were transferred into Kristy's uterus!
Olivia at 9 weeks gestation! She looks like a cute little teddy bear!
Olivia at 12 weeks gestation!
Olivia at 20 weeks gestation. I think she's actually sucking her thumb in this photo!
Kristy-just before she delivered our sweet Olivia!
A very happy family!
A brand new baby!
Here's a photo of Olivia today, she's 19 months old!
Here's Hannah touching her sisters!
Here's a 3D photo of Ella's face! She is our big baby right now weighing in at 2lbs 5oz. Her heart rate was 130 BPM! She is measuring exactly right at 26 weeks 6 days!
Baby Ella's foot!
Baby Ella's profile!
Here is Baby Emma's face! We didn't get very good shots of her today, I have a few others but you really can't see anything. She's measuring a little small but nothing to worry about, 26 weeks even. She weighs 1lb 15oz! Her heart rate was 144 BPM!
