Happy Thanksgiving

Now that about 24 hours have passed since the time that many of us ingested way too much food, drank lots of good wine and enjoyed time with friends and/or family, we wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

We had a really great time at our friend's house yesterday. It's the first time that I wasn't with mom or dad for 33 years. Actually, the year I lived in Italy we didn't do Thanksgiving so this is the second time in 33 years. I thought it would be a sad-ish day but actually, it was awesome. And we had so much to be thankful for.

What stood out this year were the two major announcements that we were part of. First, two of our good friends called as they were headed out of town to tell us....  they are pregnant! We were shocked... and they couldn't keep the secret any longer (and we weren't going to see them for another week or so). Pregnant... within a matter of weeks after stopping birth control. We are so, so excited for them and know they'll be a wonderful mom and dad.

The next surprise came at dinner, when over my homemade apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake, two of our good friends announced that after 10 years together, and now that it is legal where they live, they are getting married. We couldn't be happier. They are awesome and we can't wait for the wedding.

Lots of good news yesterday. And selfishly, maybe that means good news is coming our way.

We hear our transfer should be happening in about a week and a half. Yay. Yay. And yay!

Something New

I wanted to write something new so that the last blog with the bummer news wasn't the first thing that appeared on the page.

So here it is. It's Friday and my mom is coming into town for the weekend. Yippeee! Lots of shopping and wine are overdue. And with 60 degree temps in mid November, we couldn't ask for more.

As for baby making, we're awaiting news on the date of our next transfer. Third time might just be the charm that we need. Wouldn't that be amazing. I want to fast forward through all of this and make it all happen today! Ha. Alas. Mother Nature.

Hope everyone is doing well and you all have a great weekend. Congrats to our blog-friends who have just welcomed their new baby into the world and are in India awaiting the big "escape" back to the U.S.

Blood Test Back

Halloween has turned into an odd day for us.

Last night, just after midnight, we were out with friends costume-party hopping and I got an email from India. I was excited to open it up with hopes that the Beta hcg levels would be through the roof. Unfortunately, the news was just the opposite.

The blood work came back negative (less than 2 miu). I was really bummed out, frustrated, annoyed... and we decided to go home. C on the other hand was pretty level-headed about it. He said for some reason, he felt that it wasn't going to happen this time.

I know that we have more embryos and that's a positive thing. But it's still demoralizing to think that we're back to square one again. Hopefully we'll be able to do the next transfer soon and hopefully we can get some luck sent our way this time.

Two Halloweens ago, our new house got robbed while we were out during the day. Not sure why the day is becoming synonymous with negativity. Ughhhhh.

Oh well. Could be much worse, as C says. It all happens for a reason.

We'll keep you posted on next steps.

Welcome to the new blog!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the new blog. We decided to ditch Wordpress because for what we were using it for, Blogger seemed much more user-friendly.

We tried to copy over all of our posts and comments so that we have the old blog here in its entirety. Hope you enjoy.

We're anxiously awaiting news from India regarding the blood test of our surrogate. Should be happening today, tomorrow or Monday. Fingers, toes, arms, legs, crossed.

Happy Halloween!

Fall is Here

Fall is underway in Chicago. If you haven't been here for fall before, you should come. It's beautiful. The trees are bright red and yellow, the weather has a cool touch to it, and people are generally in a good mood. Funny, because I used to really hate the fall. It meant freezing winter was just around the corner. Sunny days were about to be few and far between. And dark would set in before I even got off work.

This year, I like the fall.

And to add to it all, we FINALLY found out that four embryos were transferred to our new surrogate this past Saturday. Three A quality and one B. In two weeks or so they'll do the blood test to see if she is indeed pregnant or not. The ball is now rolling.

Being on the other side of the world, in a completely opposite (like 12 hour) time zone, we need constant information. The value of that minute is gold for those of us on this side, sitting on pins and needles, waiting for an update.

Here we go...

Having had to travel around the world in 10 days, time has flown by. Now sitting on a plane again (the theme of my life), I thought I’d give a quick update. We got an email saying that the planned date for the transfer would be this Thursday. Tomorrow!

Now that we know what to expect, tomorrow is exciting, but we know that two weeks after that is the first milestone. Then two weeks after that for an ultrasound, then two weeks after that for another. Then two weeks…then two weeks…then two weeks. Annoying, huh?

I have a feeling that between the house in Mexico getting close to being done and the crazy busy holiday season, time is going to fly by. Maybe our New Years celebration with our friends in the new place in Mexico will actually be both a celebration of the new year to come and a celebration of the first trimester ending. I know, don’t jinx it. But, that would be cool.

C is pretty relaxed this go around and I guess for the most part, so am I. What’s been really great is to see that this journey has delivered such an amazing outcome to so many of the couples we’ve been following in the blogosphere. From the couple who just last week welcomed all three (!?) of their new babies, to the couple who after years of trying are just weeks away from their little one making his or her way into the world.

So here we go. The ride starts again tomorrow. Hang on.

We're Back!

Before I write anything else, both C and I want to thank everyone for their amazing support and words of encouragement. You rock. Seriously, it made digesting this info so much easier and gave us perspective that we would not have been able to get anywhere else. Our apologies for not saying it sooner as we took a few weeks off from baby-land, but are back in action.

So it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Not in an overly dramatic kind of way, but more so in the way we tried to make sense of this all. The first few days after we got the news, we were both bummed, upset and not thrilled to start over. We went through the conversation of whether this was a sign, why this wasn't easy to do... all that stuff. Then, being the Gemini that I am, I walked in the door after work that Monday night and said, "You know what? I'm OK with all of this." And C said "Ya, me too. Obviously something wasn't totally right and I'd rather know that now than later."

Exactly.

It's funny how Mother Nature has her way of working. I can't say I always understand why we need to deal with things like wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes... or the difficulties of pregnancy, but I suppose there is a method to her madness. There are so many potentially awful situations that could have happened if both of the twins weren't healthy this early in the game, and knowing that, I'm totally OK with the situation.

So that said, we went out with friends, had a few nice dinners, and picked ourselves right back up to saddle this horse.

We're totally back and we're ready to do this again. So here's the latest...

Our surrogate is getting ready for the transfer. We have a good amount of embryos frozen so we're cool there (and the Dr. confirmed that what happened with the twins was a fluke). And the transfer is scheduled for September 26-28.

We should know more as we get closer. But here we go again.

Two weeks and counting.