Transfer

Last Saturday, the day before we left to go to Pasadena for the transfer, I decided I needed one last day of thrilling excitement so we took the kids to Six Flags Marine world! We had a blast! We didn't see any of the animal shows though because we were riding rides all day long! By far Super Man was the scariest! Everyone loved it! Even Noah made it through the day without melting down even having no nap! We left Vallejo when the park closed at 9, putting us home around 11 pm. Which wouldn't be too bad except that we had to leave by 7:30 Sunday morning to catch our plane to LA! George had to pack and give me a shot, I still had to make sure that everything was in order for Dallys, who was staying with Noah and the dogs while we were gone! It was a late night!
   Once we got to Pasadena we went straight to the hotel. We stayed at the Westin, it was nice, and the bed was really comfortable! Then we walked around Pasadena, there are some beautiful buildings there! One church looked like a castle, it was beautiful! We ate lost of good food too!!
   Monday morning I woke up at 4:30 because I had a terrible nightmare that the shuttle driver got lost and we missed our appointment! Totally irrational since many of the surrogates stay there and we were less than a mile from the clinic! I eventually got back to sleep. When we woke up I was super excited and nervous! What if it didn't work? What if it did? My biggest fear though was really peeing on the table! I was told to bring 1 liter of water and drink it between signing in and the transfer. Then after the transfer I would have to lay on the table for about an hour! That is a lot of water and a long wait for someone with a squirrel bladder!
   We made it to HRC without a problem and I signed in and started on the giant water bottle! Within 10 minutes, if that, we were taken back into the transfer room and I was told to undress and get on the table and that the doctor would be in to talk to us soon. The room was freezing, but I at least had a blanket to cover up with instead of the tiny paper covers mast doctors used. I had barely finished my water when the doctor came in did a quick ultrasound and said he could see everything well enough to do the transfer with out my bladder being painfully full. Then he inserted the catheter into my uterus and called for the embryo to be brought in. Here is me waiting on the table!

 Then another guy brought the embryo in to the room in a little syringe. Dr Kolb inserted the syringe into the end of the catheter and pushed the little embryo in to my uterus. It was pretty cool to watch, it was just a tiny white speck that we saw come out of the end of the tube and stop at the top of my uterus. Then the other doctor took the tube back to the lab to make sure that the embryo was really out. After the call that the transfer was successful the doctor left. This is the embryo

The whole procedure probably took less than 3 minutes. Then I laid on the table for about 15 minutes when a nurse came in and went over all of my medication instructions and new restrictions. Then I was allowed to go to the bathroom and then lay back down for another 30 minutes. After that we were all done. Time to call the hotel shuttle and let my bed rest begin! This is me waiting for the shuttle! Do I look pregnant? Yeah, you all better say no!

   I have to admit that I was excited about mandatory bed rest. As a mom, no one ever says "lay in bed all day except to pee and shower". So I watched some TV and studied for a test while George walked to Rubios to get us lunch. ( it's a super yummy Mexican food place) Then I did a little more homework and watched some more TV. By 2:00 I was bored out of my mind! It was the longest day ever! I watched so much TV that we were seeing repeat episodes. George did a great job of making sure that I stayed in bed and had everything that I needed or wanted.

    I was so happy when Tuesday came and I could get out of bed! Our IPs were coming to see us in the afternoon so we decided to take a walk. There was the cutest little shopping center and I even found a place to get one of the best pedicures that I have ever gotten! Then we had lunch at Rubios again and went back to the hotel for a nap! Our IPs got there around 4 in the afternoon and we had a great time walking around the town chatting and taking in the sites. After they left we went back to the hotel for a bit then went out for ice cream!! We ate so much on this trip that I was really surprised that I did not gain any weight!

   George had woken up Tuesday not feeling well, so Wednesday I let him sleep while I packed up and got ready to leave. After he got up and got ready we left our hotel to go to our IPS hotel in West Hollywood to have lunch with them. That is where the highlight of George's trip happened. He saw Mike Tyson at the hotel. He was like a kid in a candy shop, I seriously thought George might jump up and follow him, but he didn't, he just told me who it was practically jumping up and down! We met up with our IPs and walked to this great little bookstore. It was so cute, just a tiny little shop with floor to ceiling books! I could have spent hours in there! After that we went to this cute little diner for lunch and then it was off to the airport.

   The travel was definitely the worst part of the trip. I really hate cabs! By some miracle I could smell on this trip, cabs just smell dirty! Then their driving is atrocious! I finally had to just close my eyes and pray we made it there safe. I am so not made for big cities!! Then there is the whole flying part. While I have gotten over the panic of actually flying, and I am getting less scared of being over the water for brief amounts of time, I am still extremely anxious about the descents. Not because I think we will crash but because about every other flight when we start to descend my messed up sinuses decide not to regulate with the change in pressure causing me to experience the most excruciating pain ever! I can't even describe the what it feels like. This time was not exception, I went from peacefully reading my book to doubled over feeling like my head would literally explode. The pain really only lasts 5-10 minutes but it seems like forever. When I had sinus surgery in 2011, the doctor thought that I would not have this issue any more, he was wrong! I don't have it when we drive home from the mountains, but flying still gets me. I was hopeful that both flights would be pain free since I could smell and felt pretty uncongested. I am just grateful that I was only on one flight and not both!

   Overall we had a great trip and I am hopeful that we will have a positive pregnancy test on August 5th! So I'm sure you are wondering if I have taken any home pregnancy tests.... yes I have. BUT I am not going to share the results yet! That will be the next update, probably after I get the BETA (pregnancy test) results!