Two Updates in One Post

Update 1:

Today we received an exciting update. Baby Mama and the Ovens are expecting their periods any day now! Once this occurs another set of drugs are administered to create an abundance of eggs to be harvested, and around day twelve of the cycle they go in and retrieve the eggs. Then we fertilize the eggs in a dish and incubate for 2-3 days before implanting them into our surrogate. After looking at the calendar it hit me how quickly things are about to go down. We are looking at about 12-15 days until harvest and implantation. We should know if we are pregnant right before spring break.

It still amazes me that three women are doing all of these things just so we can have a baby.

Update 2:
Because Douglas is very slow at posting my blog contributions...

Baby mama has officially started her flush and is on a regiment of egg creating drugs. We will be having an ultrasound done on Wednesday to see how many eggs are inside, and will be harvesting/fertilizing those would be babies on March 7th or 8th! Let the healthy lifestyle of the baby daddy begin... no hot baths and no drinking. Here we go!

Feeling: Nervous, Anxious, and Optimistic

Additional Cast Members

Baby Mama: Monoca
Oven: Seema
Relief oven: Kamlesh

Today we received an email from Package. He informed us that Baby Mama will start her egg enhancing injections tomorrow and that egg harvesting will commence between March 10th and 19th. At the same time the swimmers are mixed with the eggs and placed in an incubator for 2-3 days. Then we implant them into one of our surrogates. Dr. Indira has recommended we have two surrogates synced up with our egg donor just in case something doesn't go as planned. I guess that means we're trying to avoid putting all of our eggs in one basket (pun intended).

Exciting and frightening times are around the corner.

Baby Mama Just Missed Her Flush...

...at least that's what Chad says. For those of you who don't speak "Chad," allow me to translate (and I apologize in advance for the graphic nature of this next sentence). Pretty much, what that means is that the egg donor we have selected just had her period at the end of January, and so she won't have a period again until the end of February, which means that we can't start of fertility drugs until then. At which point it will take 20 days or so to be ready to harvest the eggs. So, to make a short story a little bit longer, we have to wait around until the middle of March to fertilize and implant the eggs into our surrogate.

Meanwhile, the daddy (we're not telling who it is, so don't ask), had his swimmers tested and. . . survey says. . . they swim! So, now it really is a waiting game.

Finally, in the world of unmade decisions, we need to make a move on deciding about our living situation next year. We can either stay where we are in a house that we like, or we can move "on campus," which means, onto the actual compound of the school where we work. I am for the move and Chad is against it (sort of). But, we have to tell the business director at school if we want to even have a hope of being able to move on campus. I am reticent to tell him because we're not pregnant yet, and we have no chance of being pregnant until march. So, I feel like telling someone we are definitely having a baby and need to move on campus is tempting fate, especially when there is a fair chance that we won't be successful the first try. But, I think I am going to bite the bullet and tell him that we want to move and about our plan to have a baby, which should blow his mind just a little!

Cast of Characters

I think that at this point in our story, it would help to have some names.

Cast of Characters

Chad - intended daddy #1

Douglas - intended daddy #2

Package - surrogacy businessman (his real name is Pankaj, but when we first met him we thought he said his name was package, so that's what we'll call him here)

Dolly - surrogacy businessman's assistant (I know you're imagining an Indian with a blond wig, cowboy boots, and really big. . . um. . . Her name really is Dolly. I'm not making this up.)

Dr. Shweta - first IVF doctor (who bowed out after 2 meetings)

Dr. Indira - second IVF doctor

Early Spring

There is a lot of new info to share.

Last week's disappointing meeting with Dr. Shweta took me a while to begin to process. For the rest of that day I felt pretty numb to everything around me. And then in the last few days I have begun to think that perhaps it wasn't her institution that wouldn't give approval; I have this gut feeling that it was her who had the problems with helping Chad and me in becoming parents. I have no proof of this -- only my own feeling deep down.

True to their word, the people at Select Surrogacy India found another doctor within 48 hours. This doctor, whom they had worked with on other occasions, is one of the most straight-talking Indians have ever met. You probably need a bit of back story here. We have found over the last two and half years living in India that Indians have a difficult time telling white people no, or even being completely forthright and honest when it comes to details that might not make white people happy. Not so with Dr. Indira. She laid her cards on the table; from how the surrogate might try to get extra money from us to how we should interact with the surrogate during check-ups. Meeting Dr. Indira was both a breath of fresh air, and startling all at the same time!

So, fast forward a few days after our meeting with Dr. Indira, and we receive a list of egg donors. Oh my goodness, I can't explain to you the difference we felt between the profiles we received from Dr. Indira and the profiles that we received from Dr. Shweta. We we're as excited about our new options as we were indifferent about our former options. We felt immediately comfortable with several of the options, and we ended up choosing the one that Dr. Indira recommended.

Now, the next step is to do a semen analysis to make sure that the swimmers are swimming properly. All in all, things are progressing quite well.

Meanwhile, in other news, Puxatony Phil didn't see his shadow today, which means we'lll be having early Spring. Let's hope so!