Contractions

The agency sent me a draft copy of this surrogacy's contract yesterday. I read it on my new phone which was novel, but admittedly a bigger pain in the tuckus than it would have been on the computer. I won't bother with the details; it was basically the same as the last one, except this time we're opting out of legal counsel for the creation of the contract, because it's basically the same as the last one.

Last time we did this I was all a-dither, waiting anxiously for the next step and getting badly impatient with everything I saw as an obstacle. This time, I'm pleased to do it again, but I have a better sense of how things work, I think. I realize that the IVF clinic has many more patients than just me; that the agency is dealing with lots of different people in lots of different situations in lots of different stages of the process; that there are processes involved in each step that must be carefully followed to ensure everyone's protection.

Holy crap, I've grown up!

Ideally I'll be pregnant by May, but I'm not going to get all worked up if I'm not. It'll happen when it happens. Besides, I've got tons of other crap to deal with before then anyway.

I had to send a copy of the contract to my employer's HR department too. Of course, I already know what it's for so I just did the same thing I did last time: redact, redact, redact. They don't really need to know the dollar amounts, and they certainly don't need to know IF's name or address. I got the Big-Boss-Man's blessing a couple weeks ago, so as far as my job is concerned, I'm good to go. Personally I still don't see why they need to know about it at all, but ah well; such is bureaucracy.

So once the contract makes its way back to the agency, I just have to wait to go down to the clinic to get tested. Then back to the dino-shots (leuprolide, which my friend misread as liopleurodon, hence "dino-shots") then on to the embryo transfer. This time I don't have to sync up with a donor; we's usin' babysicles! HA! But seriously, I'm told that I.F. is in discussions with the IVF clinic about the timing of thawing the embryos for transfer.

And I think that's about it for now. I'll post more as things happen. :)

Round 2?

I got an email from the fertility clinic yesterday, informing me that they are going through the embryo thawing process with Wiggle-Worm's father, and that they will be contacting me soon to schedule testing for me and for hubs. We don't have to run the full gamut again; just blood tests and UA's and a quick chat with the social worker. I'm already on the same brand of birth control pills the clinic had me on at the beginning of last cycle, and I have a pelvic exam scheduled with my GYN for next week.

I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad we don't have to sync up with the egg donor again. I have come to the conclusion that those hormones make me flat-out insane. Last summer, after I started taking my dino-shots (leuprolide), hubs was invited by his local best friend (whose name has become "Other Wife" as far as I am concerned, and therefore I shall refer to him here as such) to spend a week down south with a group of friends. He went, with my blessing.

Or so I thought.

While he was gone, I underwent some strange and, I must admit, strenuous mental gymnastics, and somehow blamed Other Wife for taking my husband away from me. I hated him and wished for his death (not really; it just sounds good) for some time thereafter. We have long-since resolved this issue, and have learned that while I am on hormones for getting pregnant, hubs is not allowed to leave the state. For any reason.

All seems to be going well as far as moving along; my employer has dealt with surrogacy now, so there won't be so many hang-ups in communicating what's expected. So that's good.

Ladies & gentlemen, we are back!