Signed, Sealed and Transferred

First of all thank you all for my birthday wishes, it certainly was a different way to celebrate turning 33!! Mark of course bought me some beautiful roses for my b'day, he's a good boy.

So egg retrieval went well, we got the hospital at 6.30am, it was a sleepless night for me contemplating what will be, but of course for Mark nothing keeps him from his sleep, so I was shown to my room and all the usual question and pre-op stuff done, blood pressure, heart rate all of which were perfect, then came to the gown, it was red checks!! I have included a before and after photo for you all. One thing I found odd is they don't put a hospital name band on you, weird I know.

At around 7am, I was taken to the IVF lab (which is in the basement) then we waited for the anaesthetist and Dr Shivani to get there then i was taken into the OR, connected to the monitors and IV put in, which bloody hurt!! It was a very strange experience with no-one speaking english. Dr Shivani came in and explained the procedure and then I was put into la la land, next thing I knew they were asking me to move onto another gurney.

It took about whole thing 45mins from going to sleep to waking up, in that time Mark was called for his part and by the time I was back in the room they embryologist had begin the task of fertilising my eggs.

So, how many eggs did they retrieve, well even though I had 7 follicles only 3 of them contained eggs. It was very disappointing but not much we could do only hope and pray that they all fertilised. Dr Shivani re-iterated to us again that it is not quantity but quality that counts.

So that was yesterday, now for today's update, woke feeling ok, very sore and the pain killers they gave me I can't take cause they make me sick, they did give some anti-inflammatories which have a muscle relaxant in them and that has been doing the job.

So we waited most of day, checking my emails for news of if the eggs fertilized and did they progress into good quality embryos, well finally around 2pm we received word that 2 out of 3 fertilised and that Dr Shivani would talk to us when we went into the SCI office to sign contracts and meet our surrogate, more waiting!!

Well we have just come back from contract signing and meeting "G" and her husband, they are both very sweet and shy but don't speak a word of english, we had a translator but it was still a short introduction. We then spoke with Dr S and she told us that our 2 embryos were great quality but the other one wasn't mature enough and failed to fertilise and that she had not long transferred them into "G". The embryologist said that they were dividing well and ready to go so why wait. Dr S also said the "G" had asked her a lot of questions about what she should and shouldn't do and is also very excited to be hopefully carrying our baby/ies.

So now we wait, again with the waiting, in the fertility world this period is aptly named the 2 week wait or 2WW for short, so in 2 weeks we will received conformation via a blood test to see if the embryos have implanted and then 4 weeks after that if the blood test is positive "G" will have an u/s to see if both implanted or just one.

We have enjoyed our stay in Delhi and hope the next time we come back it will be to pick up our baby/ies, we leave on Saturday night and get back into Perth on Sunday arvo, we are definitely ready to come home, not looking forward to the heat though.

My birthday flowers



Before surgery



After surgery

Long Update

Sorry for the long delay between updates, blogspot has been down so we haven't been able to post.

So much has happened since our last post, so the lets talk about the injections, here I was thinking one tiny needle daily was bad, well was I wrong. So after a blood test on Sunday, Dr Shivani decided that she needed to ramp up the hormones, so I received an email from Dr S at 1.30am Delhi time (I don't think this woman sleeps) on Monday morning saying not to give my injection and to come into the office to receive it. So off we go to the SCI office and what do you know I have to have not one but two injections (kinda knew the second one was coming) so they out me into the injection room and the nurse prepares both injections, which made me feel sick watching her draw them up, then I ask her where they are going and she informs me one will be intramuscular in my bum and the other under the skin in my thigh, awesome I thought to myself. The so I drop my pants, get on the bed and the nurse tells me not to tense cause it will hurt more!! It was over pretty quickly, with me taking deep breaths and thankfully the nurse is very good at giving injections.

So that has been our life for the last week, going into to get jabbed once a daily and having ultrasounds to see if the injections are working, thankfully after a slow start my ovaries have decided to wake up and produce some follicles approx 7 -8.

So whats next, well tonight (Saturday) Mark and I went Phoenix Hospital for my LAST injection, this one is a trigger injection of HCG to mature the follicles for collection on wait for it, Monday my birthday!! The retrieval will probably be around 7am, apparently it only takes about 1/2 hour but I will be laid up recovering for most of the day. Mark's donation is also done while I am out cold (bet it won't take 1/2 hour though). Luckily it will be a good story to tell our kid/s. Then off to the lab for creating the embryos, we will find out a couple of days later how many fertilised and then they will be transferred into our surrogate for hopefully the next 9 months.

Now onto our surrogate, after choosing S, she went into to have some preliminary scans and we were informed that she wouldn't be a match to my cycle, so we have chosen another one, we will call her G, she is 28, married and has one daughter, we will meet and sign contracts on Tuesday

Mark and I have been very adventurous with trying new foods, most of you probably know, Mark and I aren't fans of Indian food but we came with an open mind to try it and we have been pleasantly surprised. We haven't been game enough to eat Indian out, instead we eaten here at the B&B. I'm not saying we are converted but we have enjoyed the Indian food we have eaten. Like for tonight's dinner we had Curried Tofu, rice with beans, peas and tofu and this soup that we haven't quite worked out what it is, the only down side is they use coriander in everything which we are not fans of but it has been bearable. We have also found a couple of other great places to eat in this massive shopping mall about 20 mins for where we are staying, they also have a Hard Rock Cafe which has yummy food ands awesome cocktails, Mark is trying to take me there on a date for "My" belated Birthday on the 17th, they also happen to have an AC/DC tribute band playing, how lucky am I, NOT!!!!!

One sad thing we have noticed on our travels around Delhi is the poor people, not that we haven't seen that sort of thing in the other places we have travelled but geez it's heartbreaking to see, don't think i could ever get used to it.

Also Happy Birthday to Ross/Dad, hope you have had a great day!!

Well that's about it for now, we will update on Monday arvo and let you all know how everything went.

Taj Mahal

Well the last few days have been pretty uneventful except for our trip to see another wonder of the world, Taj Mahal.

It was an early-ish start, our driver picked us up at 7.30am and we arrived in Agra around 12.30pm, the roads weren't too bad just lots of traffic and like our driver said, there are no road rules and Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days to see Taj.

We decided to get a guide as well to give a bit of history of Agra and the Taj, he was very knowledgeable and had the hairiest ears we have ever seen, it was wrong town. The size of the Taj Mahal is mind blowing and for those perfectionists it is symmetrically perfect. Before entering onto the marble you either have to take your shoes off (which they say you may not see your shoes again) or put on shoe covers, we opted for the latter. Inside is very small compared to the outside and only Muslims are allowed to take photos inside apparently.

Although it is a sacred place, pick pockets are rife inside, our drivers last clients had their passports, visas and all their money stolen while walking through inside, we were warned before hand only to take the necessities with us and leave everything else in the car. Mark felt a few fingernails trying to get into his pockets but we came out with everything we went in with.

For those who don't know the story behind the Taj, do yourself a favour and google it, it is a very interesting and sad love story.

After our guided tour around the Taj Mahal we then we back to a Handicrafts store, the shop had big windows and saw us coming!! Before we knew we had bought a Persian carpet, pashminas, marble jewellery box and a marble Ganesha, the credit card took a hammering needless to say, but we were supporting local craftsmen so the salesman kept on telling us.

The trip home was just as long, we got back to our B&B at 9.30pm and thankfully I bought 2 minute noodles from home so that was dinner.

Now for the daily injections, I am a pro now, first day on my own I thought I just need to do and don't think about it, the worst part of needles for me is looking at it going in and I would normally look away but it is a bit hard to inject yourself in the belly not looking!! So with my assistant Mark watching me I went for it and bugger me I hardly felt it. Had to do one on the road to Taj but luckily we stopped mid morning and it happened to be at the time I was due for it, for those who haven't been to India, the roads are bumpy and there was no way i was sticking a needle in me whilst moving.

The next few days we have a few appointments with Dr Shivani and hopefully on Tuesday we will meet our surrogate, her husband and the lawyers to sign the contracts.





Taj Mahal



1st Injection Day

So maybe I freaked myself out a bit over these injections. Mark and I made the trek to Phoenix Hospital, which is bout a 15 min walk from our B&B, the thing with traffic in Delhi is there a very few road rules and pedestrians do not have right of way, the worst part of it is the constant sounding of horns!!! Just about drove me mad by the end of it I had a headache, so we arrived at the hospital to meet with our nurse Lovely (yes, that is really her name) and we went into an exam room, she showed me how to prime syringe and then it was done. I even pressed the plunger myself, so deserved a lollipop!

Many have asked if Mark will be giving me injections and my response to that is there is NO FREAKING WAY I would let him near me with a needle, so I am on my own. Worst case scenario if I chicken out, we will make the trek again to see Lovely.

We also received 4 surrogate profiles today, now how does one choose the person to carry their baby/ies. We were thinking maybe the most robust one, for those who don't know, Mark was 11lbs 12oz, but not to be, all of them are 5'3" and slim build so we have decided to go with our gut feeling as it is usually right.

So we have chosen a young lady we will call her S (gotta protect her identity), she is 26, married and has 2 boys of her own, she is hoping to use the money to build a home for her family. She has a very kind appearance and we will get to meet her and her husband next week.

Next on the agenda for us is some sight seeing, we are hoping to go to see the Taj Mahal on Saturday. Agra is only about 250km from Delhi but it takes 5 hours to get there so most our day will be spent in the car. 

We will update again soon xx

And so the journey begins

After a slow start, we finally arrived in Delhi. We were delayed leaving due our plane being hit by lightning on arrival into Perth. After a 2 1/2 hour check over by the engineers we were cleared for take off. The rest of the trip was uneventful from Perth to Singapore then onto Delhi.

We arrived in Delhi around 8.30pm Delhi time and were through immigration and customs without incident. The trip to our B&B was fairly quick, the owner of the B&B personally came to pick us up and knew all the short cuts home. The staff here are very friendly and polite. We had our first Indian dinner last night (Wednesday) which was very tasty, we had pre-warned them not too spicy and Mark was also pleased that they had cold beer!!

We met with Dr Shivani on Tuesday, she is the Doctor who makes this process possible, her and the staff at Surrogacy Centre India are fantastic. After a blood test and a couple of ultrasounds we are on our way, I start the stimulation medication tomorrow, the photo below is of the first 5 days of INJECTIONS!!!! then on the 6th day lucky me gets to add another INJECTION into the mix and as most of you know i am not good with needles especially when i have to give them to myself, of course I know it will be worth it in the long run but it still freaks me out, just looking at them made me break into a sweat.

We get profiles of potential surrogates tomorrow for us to go over and once we have made our choice we will meet her and her husband next Monday or Tuesday to sign contracts.

So that about wraps up day 1, 2 and 3, I'll be sure to post tomorrow on the details of my first injection.