It's a ........

BOY

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I just knew it was a girl, so much for intuition.

Everything looked good, all of the test showed one perfect little boy. We were 17w4d and he measured 18w3d so he is still a little ahead of schedule.

Here are some gorgeous pictures of Ashlea and Bill's little man.

Check out this belly!

Here is a belly shot from 14 weeks, we are now 16w5d so it is probably even bigger by now. I have gained 10 pounds already and I think my belly is hugh to be 4 months. We find out on 11/12 what the sex is so be sure to check back. Ashlea and I have both taken that day off work. We will be doing a little baby shopping.

Today is my Birthday

So, today is my 51st birthday. Who would think about being pregnant at 51!! Actually it hasn't been that bad. I have had lots of things that I never had when I was pregnant at 21. Like heartburn and acid reflux so bad that sometimes I don't even want to eat because I know what is going to happen. My stomach muscles have been very sore, I never had this before but I understand it is from the muscles stretching. Other that fatigue, that is about it. The fatigue is much better than it was, I don't know that it will be back to 100% until the baby is born, after all I am 51, right? The good thing is that I have had NO morning sickness, not even a little, thank god for that. If I had to deal with the morning sickness on top of being extremely tired, I don't know that I would have made it through the day.

13 Weeks

We are 13 weeks today. Officially made it through the first trimester and start the second episode of this journey.

First appointment with OB

Today was our first appointment with our OB. All went well. First we had an appointment with the doctor, that was very routine, internal exam, blood test, just the routine first appointment. After the doctor we had an appointment for our nuchal transluency test.If you don't know this is an ultrasound where they check for Down's Syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. We did not get the final results of that but the doctor said it looked good. We also got to look at the little baby and he/she was dancing around and putting on a show for Mommie and Daddy. We are 11w4d and the baby measured 12w2d. It was a very exciting appointment!!

First OB appointment - kind of

We had our first appointment yesterday at the new OB clinic. There is not much to report on that, we met with the nurse to go over our history and had some blood test and 2 hours later we were on our way. That was about all there was to that. We do meet with the doctor on 10/1 for our first real appointment. I'm not real sure what the appointment will consist of but we do have an appointment after that for the Nuchal Translucency Test. That is an ultrasound to check for downs syndrome and the such. Ashlea and Bill are super excited about the ultrasound and getting to see her little baby again. On the other side of things, being pregnant at 50 really has not been that bad. I have had no morning sickness so that is good. I am now beginning to come out of the tiredness, that was a butt kicker with have to work a full time job and trying to maintain a household. Luckily I have a super understanding husband, we ate out a lot and I spent pretty much my entire weekends on the couch. Hopefully I will have a cute little baby picture to share with you next week.

Ultrasound update

First, let me apologize for posting so late. I have been swamped at work and have been so exhausted I can hardly function. The ultrasound results were great. We had the test on 7w5d and the baby measured 7w6d so that it good. Better to be a little ahead than a little behind. The heartbeat was 160 and that is right where it should be so all in all it was a great appointment. We have now graduated from the fertility clinic and will be going to a High Risk OB, not that it is necessary but at Ashlea's insistence. I'm not sure how that will be any different but I guess we will find out more at our first appointment. More to come!!!

Beta # 2

2642 - Pretty amazing. We have our ultrasound appointment for September 3rd, we will find out if it is one or two but most importantly we will find out if everything looks good.

Beta #1 - results are in

959


We had our first beta test on Monday. I went to the clinic to have the test done and then went to Ashlea's house to wait for the results and to take a pregnancy test. The test we took that morning was a very strong positive, the test line was darker than the control line so we knew we were pregnant. We just had to wait for the number to come in. I'm sure some of you know what a long wait that 5 or 6 hours can be. We literally sit there and watched the clock. Once it was close to time for the call we were ckecking the clock about every 4 minutes.

The call finally comes and they tell Ashlea that our number is 959, WOW!!! That is a good strong number, in fact, the doctor wanted me to increase my Folic Acid because he said it could very well be twins. TWINS, that makes us both very excited and very nervous but we will have to wait for the seven week ultrasound to see if it is one little baby or two. Just to have one would be such a great blessing, two would be unbelieveable.

We have our second beta test this morning and should have the results by early afternoon. We just need that number to at least double!

Transfer # 2

Since I last posted a lot has happened. Ashlea has had her egg retrieval and that went well. She has 13 eggs retrieved and 8 of those fertilized. We went in on Monday for our transfer and would find out at that point how the embryos were doing. Our appointment was later in the day because they realized on retrieval day that Bill had taken one of his test too early and he had to retake it that day and they wanted to make sure the results were back in time.

Back to the embryos, so on Monday (transfer day) all 8 were still going but it looked like 3 were not going to make it so that left us with 5 - 8 cell embryos on day three. That is just where they should be. So, as I sit there with my full bladder, the test results are not there and because of FDA regulations they can not transfer until they have the test results. We hear them calling and talking to people and calling again. Finally about an hour later the doctor comes back in and says that the results are not going to be there until the next day so they will take the embryos to 5 days and we will transfer on Wednesday. Now we get to wait 2 more days and wonder and worry what the embryos are going to do, will they make it to 5 days, will we have any to transfer?

So fast forward to Wednesday, transfer day again. I meet Ashlea at the clinic and we go back to talk to the doctor and we have 3 - 5 day embryos (I say we like they are mine, I should say they). Two look good and one might not make it so they are going to transfer the best two and let the one grow one more day and see if it will make it to freeze, it does not. The two we transferred look good, one was hatching already as you can see from the picture below.

We do not plan on taking any pregnancy test until the morning of the blood test. Do you remember we said that last time but we did end up taking a test about 3 days before and had a weak positive and we googled ourselves into insanity. Hopefully we will stick with the no test this time but I will not promise that. We have our first blood test on 8/12 and the second one on 8/14. There are no embryos left but that is OK because we are not going to need them. This is going to be the one!

Round two

We are moving on to round two. Ashlea and I will both start our meds on July 8th and should transfer sometime around the end of July. This will be a fresh transfer, the last was frozen. Fingers crossed and say a little prayer that we get a viable pregnancy this time.

Good news quickly turned bad

Well, the good news quickly turned into bad news. As posted earlier, we received out beta on Friday and it was good, it almost tripled and we were so excited. I went to my brothers house on Sunday for a Memorial Day cookout and started bleeding. It wasn't very much at all and it stopped quickly. I was hoping everything would be OK but I called the doctor and they assured me that it could be a number of things and just go in for another beta on Tuesday since Monday was a holiday (why do things always happen on weekends and holidays).

I went in for my beta Tuesday morning, and it came back at 97 and I was told to stop all meds. Needless to say, we were devastated. We really did not expect that. I guess I am somewhat naive and I though once I was pregnant I was pregnant, that's how it always worked before. Ashlea says I don't think like an infertile person, she was excited but very reserved the whole time and I was on cloud 9, thinking that nothing could go wrong, we made it, we were pregnant.

We will both be fine, we will just pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and move on. We will give it one more try but I have to wait about 2 months before we can try again. This waiting is for the birds, it took us months to get to this point just to start over and wait again. Life goes on I guess.

Beta Results

We have now received the results of out beta/hCG test. We had our first test on 5/22 and it was 113 and our second test on 5/24 and it was 309. It more than doubled, which is what it is supposed to do so it is now official....WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!

We have our first ultrasound on 6/10 and get to hear the heartbeat and confirm that there is just one.

POSITIVE - So far

So, Friday I got off work early and ran some errands. I went to get the oil changed in my car and while I was waiting I called Ashlea just to pass the time. In the process of our conversation she tells me that if I want to take a home pregnancy test that it is fine but just not to tell her if it was negative. I told her that I was not going to take one because if she didn't hear anything from me she would know it was negative and that would not be good, she would have a terrible weekend and the days would drag until out blood test.

Well, she gave me permission and I couldn't resist. I stopped and picked up a test on the way home and would take it first thing when I got up Saturday morning. I took the test and could not believe when I saw the faintest of a second line.Since I am such an early bird, I had several hours to decide what and when to tell Ashlea. My initial thought was to just stick with our original plan and let her come over on Wednesday morning and we would take a test together. I just wanted her to be involved in the knowing and I didn't want to just call her and tell her. Then I decided that it was better for her to know and not have to worry for four more days even if she did just hear it on the phone. So I called her ans we talked for a couple minutes and I told her that I had taken the test and that it was positive. She was convinced that I was lying to her and just playing a joke. Come on now, do you really think I would do that. So once I convinced her that it was not a joke and I was not lying she said Oh, OK. Just OH, OK. It took a few minutes for it to sink in that I was pregnant and she was going to be a Mommy.

I say positive so far because we have not had our blood test yet so we don't know our numbers. We will both feel more confident once we have the final numbers and they are doubling as they should but we have taken a test the last three days and all have been positive so I am going with definitely pregnant.

8DP3DT

We are now on day 8 past our 3 day transfer. This is driving me crazy. I never knew how long this 2ww could be. I think Ashlea is doing fine, she says she is not as stressed with this transfer as she has been with the others. Only 5 days until Beta!

Transfer went great!

It has been such a busy weekend. I had the transfer done on Thursday and spent the day at Ashlea's house, we had graduation on Friday, a wedding on Saturday and everyone came over Sunday for Mothers Day. I am usually a couch potato so I am not used to all of this activity.

The important stuff: The transfer went great. As I mentioned before, Ashlea had 4 frozen embryos and they were going to thaw all four and transfer the best two. Ashlea agreed to this because she has always had about a 50% thaw rate so we thought we would only have two anyway. Well, all 4 survived the thaw. She started with two 7 cell and two 6 cell, after the thaw she has three 7 cell and one 6 cell and they chose the best two to transfer. Now we play the waiting game.

We will not be taking any home pregnancy test before the beta test. Ashlea is coming over the morning of the 22nd, I will have the blood test and we are going to do a HPT that morning.

So far in this journey, everything has gone better that we thought it would. We joke every time we have something done that once again, it has exceeded our expectations. Now we just need the most important part to exceed our expectations so it will all be worth while. Fingers are crossed, prayers are floating around everywhere, we just need that little bambino (or two) to stick.

Mom and Ashlea before the transfer

Ashlea - transfer day

Mom - transfer day

So close

Well, we had our appointment to check my uterine lining and my hormones. My hormones were good, right where they wanted them to be. I don't remember the number but they were very pleased and that was all I needed to know. My lining was 13.5mm and they said that was great. Ashlea's lining has never been above 9mm so we were both very pleased with the 13.5mm, that should be a nice, thick lining for implantation.

We have our transfer next Thursday, 5/9. Ashlea and Bill decided to thaw all four of the embryos and have the best two transferred. Ashlea has always had about a 50% thaw rate so we had thought all along that they probably wouldn't have any left anyway.

Keep your fingers crossed and say a little pray that all goes well with the transfer and we end up with a big fat positive!!

No more hot flashes

Well, I started my meds  last Thursday so I have been on them for a week now. I started with the estrogen patches and last night was the first night that I have not woke up with hot flashes. I was waking up about 5 times a night and over the last week that has gradually been cutting back. Last night was the first night that I have not had any hot flashes in a long time. This is some good stuff. Who would think your natural hormones would make your life so much better.

I have my ultrasound next Thursday to check my lining, I am going to be positive and know that it will be fine. Shortly after the ultrasound I will start on the progesterone shots. I am a bit nervous about that but I assume everyone is when they first start. I just keep looking at it like, if all these other women can do it and it's not a big deal I can do it too.

It has been a crazy few weeks, my brother was in the hospital and that gave me such a scare. He went to the doctor one morning because he wasn't feeling well and they called an ambulance to take him to the hospital because they thought it might be his heart. Luckily his heart was fine, I am not so sure about mine because it almost gave me a heart attack. And then, my brother in laws mother passed away last night. She was such a sweet lady and is truly going to be missed.

The light at the end of the tunnel

I feel like we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even though we have only been working toward this for 4 months, it seem like a long time. We decided on January 1st that we were going to try this. Actually, Ashlea was given a cut off date and that was January 1st and she held out until the final hours to make a decision. I know this is really hard for her and it is drastic measures we are taking here.

We had our nursing class yesterday so I could learn how to give myself shots, we also received our prescriptions so I can get the meds. I also had to have an ultrasound to make sure that I was not going to ovulate, since I have only had one period in the last nine months they felt fairly certain that we would be safe there, but to be positive we did the ultrasound before starting meds.

Ashlea received a call from the doctors office yesterday before we went for our appointment and they had everything all lined up. It was nice to know going in that they were not going to send me for one more test and that we had finally started the race and are so close to the finish line. Because her doctor especially wanted to do the transfer, they arranged everything so he would be able to do that. That was more than fine with us because we wanted him to do it. For this plan to work, I had to start on the estrogen patches yesterday so the clinic let me borrow two until I can get mine in the mail.

I will go back in on May 2nd for an ultrasound to check my uterus lining. We will transfer on May 9 and that will be 2 frozen embryos. We should have our pregnancy test on or about May 23rd. I am so excited and can't wait to find out that I am pregnant and that Ashlea and Bill are going to be a Mommy and Daddy!!!

I'm not crazy

And I have confirmation of that!

We had our Psych exams on Monday. It was about a 4 hour appointment and all 4 of us had to attend (me, my husband, Ashlea and Bill). As you may have assumed from the title, all went well.

I met with her first and talked to her for about an hour and a half. We talked about everything, my childhood, my brothers and sisters, my first and current marriage and of course how we came to and how I feel about carrying a baby for Ashlea. After that, she talked to my husband for about 20 minutes and then to Ashlea and Bill for about 45 minutes. After all of our meetings were over, the 4 of us went in together and that was only for about 5 minutes and she told us that she did not see any reason why we shouldn't proceed.

In trying to make good use of time off work, I had also made an appointment for that same day to get a saline sonogram that was required. First, let me say that there were no problems with my uterus, no fibroids or anything that could keep me from proceeding. So that was really good news. Second, anyone who tells you that this is not painful might be crazy! It took me way back to 1984 and labor pains. That is exactly what it felt like. Luckily there were only about 3 really strong cramps and the whole procedure was about 5 minutes so that makes it very tolerable.

We are now waiting for the results to come back from the colonoscopy  that I have a couple weeks ago. Once we get those back I can schedule my nursing class, to learn how to give myself shots and I will get my meds at that appointment and we will start the process. It looks like I will only have to take the meds for about 3 weeks as they are fairly sure I will not be ovulating so that cuts out one step. In my calculations, we should be ready to start the medications about the 15th of April. I can't believe it has finally arrived and we all just need to keep our fingers crossed and say a little payer that this will result in a pregnancy.

Not much to report

We don't have much to report right now, just kind of waiting for our next appointment to roll around. This process could actually go fairly quickly if you could get appointments and not have to wait a month between each one.
I was required by the clinic to have a colonoscopy since I am 50, I had that done last Thursday, lots of fun there let me tell you. I don't think I will eat Jello again for 5 years. And we have our Psych exams coming up on Monday, April 1st. That is for me, my husband, Ashlea and Bill, it will end up being a 4 to 5 hour appointment. At my age, I have had a little concern with each of the appointments and hoping that everything would be good, the Psych appointment is not one that I am concerned about at all. Just wait, I will probably find out I am crazy.
After this appointment, we will be so close to having all the preliminary test done. I have to have a saline sonogram and I have scheduled that for the same day as the Psych visit. After that all we have left is to take the nursing class so they can teach me how to give the shots to myself. Then it is will finally be time to start the meds. :)

Color Run

The group before the run started - myself, Reg, my 2 sisters, 5 nieces and 2 great nieces

We had a great day Saturday at the 5K Color Run. For me, it was mostly a color walk but we still had a great time. There were several of us that decided to participate, Reg being the only actual runner in the group and he finished the race in about 20 minutes. I won't comment on how long it took the rest of us to finish. I will say that every muscle in my body was very sore the next day.

After the Color Run - Reg, myself, my great niece Hannah and my 2 nieces Riley and Macey

One Step Closer

We have had a lot going on the last few day and are a little closes to the big day. We are all so excited! First, we had our appointment with the High risk OB. He had to give us the go ahead before we could proceed and that went better than we had both anticipated. We met with him on Friday and he went over the normal questions, about my medical history and my previous pregnancies. He gave me a big A+ as far as health and my ability to safely carry a baby. He also said that he felt it might be OK to carry twins. All along we have been told that they would transfer two embryos but if they both take we would need to reduce. According to Dr. Brown, if both did take they would counsel us on the risk of carrying twins but it is not out of the question. Yeah! I would love to have twins. I think that would be totally awesome and you can't beat two for the price of one, right?

We left that appointment feeling great and as usual, we went to lunch so we could talk about all the the things he said. We decided to have lunch at the mall and celebrate with a little shopping. I don't know if I have mentioned that we live about an hour and a half apart, that is not that far but when we get together for these appointments we like to spend a little extra time together.

The second part of the good news. I had gone to my family doctor a few weeks ago to get a physical and all of the required blood test as well as the required EKG. I had to go back in yesterday to get the test results and all of those came back good. You will be pleased to know that I don't have AIDS or Hepatitis. The EKG came back normal so that was good. One of the main concerns with being pregnant at 50 is your heart. Evidently, being pregnant is very stressful on your heart (something you never think about at 25), but mine is good.

So far, everything is falling into place and going better than we ever thought it would. We have not met one obstacle so far. All we have left now if our Psych exams for the four of us and a saline ultrasound. We will have all of this done on April 1st. Almost there!!!!!

Words that hurt

That's not fair

When Ashlea was a little girl, I think this was her favorite line. Nothing was fair if it didn't fit into what Ashlea wanted. We still joke about it today and when something happens one of us will say "that's not fair" in that long, drawn out whiny voice, just the way Ashlea used to do.

I'm sure she has said that line a million times when it comes to infertility and she might say it again when she sees this post but being a mother, I just couldn't have a blog and not dedicate at least one post to what Ashlea always thought was my favorite child.

My son is a wonderful person and he has been so supportive through this process. He totally understands me and why I am doing this. God has really blessed me with two wonderful children and a wonderful son-in-law and I know that soon I will have the most amazing grandchild on the earth, but back to my son. He has spent the last 4 month in Brazil with his girlfriend (her home) and he just returned to the US 2 days ago. It was so nice to see him and have him around again. Skype is nice but it's nothing like actually being together. Now that he is home, maybe I can talk him into shaving that beard off!

Reg and Ingrid in Brazil

The Beginning

Welcome to our blog and my first day of blogging. We decided to start a blog for two reasons, maybe our journey can help someone else in the same situation and also to help us keep track and remember all the things we have gone through together.

A little background about us. I am a mother to two wonderful children. I have a son and a daughter. I am 50 years old and my daughter, Ashlea is 28. Ashlea has spent several years trying to conceive a child and after 3 IVF cycles and 3 frozen cycles with no results she decided to move to the next phase of this journey and I offered to carry a baby for her.

Here is a link to Ashlea's blog and you can get a little background on her and her situation there. I won't go into all of that but the basics is that she was born with a unicornuate uterus (1/2 a uterus) and only one fallopian tube which was blocked and had to be removed so her chances of a natural pregnancy are a big fat zero.

 http://lopsidedlady.blogspot.com/

Ashlea and Bill on their wedding day in San Francisco

Another Ashlea and Bill

So our journey has started. There is so much to do when you want to carry a baby for someone else. I am in the process of having all kinds of test done. So far I have had all of my blood test and other than my cholesterol being a little high, it is all come back good. I have had an EKG and am waiting for the results of that and we have met with the RE and he is comfortable with this. Our next appointment is coming up soon and that is with a high risk OB. I will let you know how that works out.

Luckily Ashlea has four frozen embryos so we will not have to go through all of that process again. The RE has agreed to transfer two. I am really excited about this journey and will post again soon.

Just so you can put faces with the story, here is a picture of me and my Husband

Lori and Tommy