SO! I decided to become a Gestational Surrogate mom. I have had nothing but support from everyone I've told. All my friends and family have been absolutely wonderful!
So My Surrogacy journey started in October 2009. I was poking around on Kijiji when I came across a few messages of couples looking for a surrogate mom. I emailed one of the couples. I told them I was interested but I had no idea how to go about doing that. They emailed me back with Leia Picard's email address. She's a Fertility consultant. I actually got a response very quickly. She answered a couple questions but agreed that it would be much easier over the phone. After talking to Leia I decided this is exactly what I wanted to do.
First step was to fill out a "Surrogate information card" this is kept on file and used to help Intended Parents (IP's) find surrogates with similar ideas of how their journey will go.
Then we started to tell family and friends. First my mom. I called her and asked her if she was in a positive happy mood. Then I sprang the new on here. "mom I'm going to be a surrogate mom" She was very happy for me. She of coarse had her questions but I've been thinking of this for along time. 6 years in fact when a friend of mine had gone through 2 miss carriages.
Then my friends. Because I'm so courageous I did it all via email. I was scared they wouldn't be supportive (stupid me. I have the best friends in the world!!!!) NOT ONE person had one negative thing to say to me. I have had nothing but support and concern every step of the way.
By the end of October I was matched with a wonderful couple! They've been trying for 5 years to have a baby and went through many rounds of IVF. This was their last means to have a baby of their own. We sent emails back in forth for awhile. Then they convinced me to use Skype. Something I was not familiar with. After some technical issues we got it all figured out. Some of our conversations were quite funny we also shared recipes, talked about our home lives and we also talked about their struggle to have a family. Something they thought would come as easily as it did for so many of their friends. I knew in my heart this was going to work! It had to work! Nobody should have to struggle to have a family! I would make it possible for my new friends to have a family!!!!
The Dr's appointments started. First was a screening appt that both my husband and myself had to go to. It involved a meeting with a counselor. We talked to her for about an hour. She made sure we had thought about all the aspects involved in being a surrogate. Work, the effects on our family, how to tell our two children (which we had already done)
After the counselor appt was blood work, ultrasound and a Dr visit. 9 vials of blood, an ultrasound, and two trans vaginal ultrasounds later we got to talk to Dr. Clifford Librach. He was full of information. Told us exactly how everything would go from start to finish. I was sent home with a bag full of all the medication I would need until a confirmed pregnancy. Birth control pills, estrace (estrogen tablets) and Progesterone in oil with syringes, needles and alcohol wipes. It was a little overwhelming. Good thing I had already heard about it all from Leia and other surrogates she had introduced me to.
Next appt happened to fall on December 27th my mom's birthday. Blood work, ultrasound, Dr visit. It all went very quick. I was told to start taking birth control pills for 14 days and to come back on day two of my cycle.
The next appt was a lining check. To make sure my uterus was ready for those precious embryos that they would transfer in to me to care for and grow in to big beautiful babies! I was determined to give this couple twins!! I had seen it from the moment we started "talking" I even had friends who had dreams that I was going to carry twins! It just had to happen!
Dr L said everything looked great! I was all ready!
We went and met up with our friends for lunch (started out to be a breakfast but the clinic was pretty busy that morning) We spent the afternoon together. Talked about life in general and about the surrogacy.
My intended mom's (IM) appointment came. This is where she finds out how many eggs she had produced. They told her she had between 10-15 eggs. I told her to rub her belly and tell them to grab a partner and hang on tight.
The day of the egg retrieval came there were 12 beautiful eggs for them. Now we wait to see how many would fertilize. My IM was very scared that this wasn't going to work. I can understand her fears. They've had many disappointments over the last 5 years.
They got a call the day after her retrieval. It was sad news for my IP's only had two embryo's. They were devastated. The Dr transfers two to me and the idea is to have extra left to freeze in case the first round didn't work. This mean none to freeze and that this is our ONLY chance for this to work. With travel expenses so high, they would not be able to afford to come back again to do more egg stimulation and retrieval. Another hard hit for them.
I told them all we need is one of those to take. There is still a chance we can make this work!
