Good News and Interesting Prospects

What a marvelous afternoon I had! I cut out of work at quarter-of-noon and headed to the Queen City for my first prenatal ultrasound, and yet more blood work. Mum and Dad met me outside the office and we chatted for a few minutes after checking in. As ever, Mum and Dad were charming, funny and thoughtful.  I got to see Dr. Badass while we waited (she was on her way out to grab lunch), and as she’s moved to an OB unit that rarely sees the likes of me, we don’t connect much these days, but she was friendly as ever and congratulated Mum and Dad on the pregnancy.

The ultrasound went as expected: We looked at the yolk sac and measured the embryo to determine its gestational age. Going chronologically, it was expected that the embryo would be at 5 weeks, 3 days’ gestation. The doctor informed us that its measurements were in line with those dates. So our expected due date is September 29 (not too far off my initial calculation, which was October 5.)

(This isn't my ultrasound; it's a stock photo. The yolk sac is the little white circle.)

Mum asked whether the hospital would schedule induction to make sure that they would be there for everything. She actually wants to be there through labor! Crazy woman. Honestly, I’m not psyched about the idea of inducing again, but we’ll talk about it as we go along. If this baby goes early like Tempest did, whatever plans we make will go out the window anyway. But Mum is very accommodating, and I’m confident we’ll find an acceptable compromise, regardless.

Blood work went quickly, and one of the phlebotomists I’ve seen several times recognized me on the way out, and asked if I was indeed pregnant. I hadn’t seen her since she did my initial beta hCG draw. She was very excited, and came out with me as I left, to congratulate Mum and Dad. The staff at The Big Hospital is pretty much always friendly, but today it felt like they all came out especially to see and greet us, today. I hope that Mum and Dad felt special, too.

After our appointment, we decided to go to a little farm-to-table restaurant in The Queen City for a late lunch. Mum and Dad are food enthusiasts, and fell absolutely in love with the place from the moment they checked out the menu online (while I was getting my blood drawn. I had given them a list of places I thought they might like just before I went into the lab.) Between the food, the friendly people, and learning about Vermont’s “localvore” movement, we might just wind up with three new citizens, come the end of September! Haha! Oh, and Mum made me a gallon-sized freezer bag of her incredible samoa-esque cookies!

To be fair, the food WAS delicious – I cheated and had tomato soup with tarragon cream, a grilled cheese sandwich and side salad. Mum and Dad tried cheddar ale soup for the first time and LOVED it. Maybe it’s a Vermont thing, but I was surprised they hadn’t had it before. The only thing that might have made it better, at least to my palate, would have been a little bit of pureed apple for sweetness. But that’s me.

Back when I was first pregnant with Tempest, the head of endo-and-fertility at The Big Hospital did a secondary confirmation-of-heartbeat ultrasound. During the procedure, we discussed my being a surrogate, and he asked me to “stay on (his) radar.” Well, what with life and work and new IVF cycles happening, I kind of forgot about it until the other day when my friend (to whom I shall refer as Desert Rose) and I were talking about it. She suggested that I make contact, and see what comes of it. Desert Rose is a highly complementary individual, and went on to assure me that I would be a fabulous candidate to help create governance for surrogacy in Vermont (as there are no laws governing it specifically, now), and maybe to set up the state’s first agency. This of course, she said, could also be a vehicle to either going back to school, or pursuing a different passion: gestational carrier arrangements.

Under such flattery, I decided to go ahead and email the doctor. He responded within half an hour and asked when I would next be at The Big Hospital. I told him I had an ultrasound the following day (meaning today) but that I would be happy to keep him posted regarding my upcoming confirmation-of-heartbeat ultrasound.

Well after the sonographer finished our scan, she said (Such-And-So Doctor) would be in shortly to discuss our results. Instead of Doctor Such-And-So, however, the aforementioned Doctor-Head-Honcho sauntered into the room with my chart in hand. He went over the results with Mum and Dad, then proceeded to tell them what he had said to me, and asked if I would email him again; saying that he wanted to pick my brain. After Dr. Head-Honcho left, Mum and Dad said things along the same lines that Desert Rose had, being highly complementary themselves.

I’m not holding my breath, because “picking my brain” could mean anything from asking me to consult through the entire process of setting up legislation and paid surrogacy in Vermont, to having a chat and dismissing me, to asking me to sign on exclusively with The Big Hospital as a gestational carrier. But we’ll see where this goes. Honestly, it would be incredible to be an active part of the process and the final organization, but I’d be happy to be able to say I helped a little, too.