Signing and Notarizing

Today is a big day. First of all, it's Friday! Woo-hoo! And it's hot as hell here. It's supposed to be 99 degrees today. Yuck.

It's a big day because Husband and I are signing and notarizing the surrogacy contracts today. Then we will mail them to our GS for her and her husband to sign and notarize, and then we will be official! It's been around 9 months (isn't that auspicious) since we met her and definitely 9 months since we seriously started considering surrogacy, and it's great finally to be at this point. Now our next big hurdle will be making sure her uterus is as perfect as it was declared to be last year before she became pg with surro baby #1.

I finally got the results of my CD3 labs. Turns out I could have called the patient system for it. Too bad I didn't know that since I wasn't given a card with instructions! Oh well. Anyway, the results were pretty good. E2 was 19 and FSH was 7.3. My FSH is a bit higher than I would like, but I bet that the endo-covered right ovary has something to do with that since I've read that cutting away some of the ovary can reduce that ovary's functionality. But now I'm wondering what those 7 other cysts are. They clearly aren't estrogen-producing. Are they brand new endo cysts? Are they cysts that are in the process of resolving? Guess I shouldn't worry about it too much.

My friend K with the newborn returns to work on June 16 after only a 6-week maternity leave. She works for a small company and is ineligible for FMLA. She has 3 weeks of paid leave via sick/vacation days and 3 weeks of unpaid leave. I feel bad for her. I had diligently saved my sick leave in order to have my 12 weeks of FMLA paid, but that was before I knew about our IF. I suspect that surrogacy will be treated like adoption here, so I'm eligible for 6 weeks of paid leave via my sick leave and the other 6 weeks will be either unpaid or paid via vacation days. It sucks because here I am with all this sick leave I won't be able to use for my own maternity leave, and many of my friends barely get any maternity leave and have to return to work after so little time. I hate how maternity leave is handled in this country.

I'm starting to worry about jinxing myself. Ladies, I'm a worrier, and I often worry about silly things. I'm so excited that we are making progress finally, and I've updated friends and family who are in the know about the latest developments. Now, however, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm waiting for her uterus to be declared unsuitable. I'm waiting for the cycle not to work or for me to have a horrible cycle and not produce decent (or any) embryos. I'm trying to tell myself that 1) it's ok to have hope (really? me? hope?) and 2) it will be a relief just to be actively doing something because even if surrogacy doesn't work, we are journeying down our path.

Jubilation

After almost pulling my hair out in frustration, the lawyer sent us the draft of OUR contract yesterday at 6pm!!! I brought it to work with me today so I can get started on corrections/edits. Hopefully this part will proceed quickly.

FINALLY!!!!!!! I feel like we have taken a tiny step forward.

I planted flowers over the weekend, and my flower bed looks so nice! I'll post pictures as soon as they grow a bit. My next task is to change out the flowers in my containers on my porch. My mother loved her flowers and card, so the guilt has ebbed for now.

Rough Week/Weekend/Month

It's been a rough several days. We brought our kitty home from the vet on Tuesday and things seemed to be going well, but then on Friday she stopped eating and started throwing up again. By Saturday afternoon she was throwing up every hour. Since there was nothing in her stomach, it was clear. Husband rushed her to the emergency vet, and I met him there after a very helpful therapy session. We waited and waited and waited, and my poor little girl was shivering in my arms. Finally a doctor was able to see her, gave her fluids and an anti-nausea/vomiting shot and said we could take her home. We had been told the next step would be an endoscopy, so we were happy when the doctor agreed to send us home with lots of medicine.

So far, she's doing well. She's eating and hasn't thrown up. She HATES the medicine, though, and we have to give her three types several times a day, so that's fun. But so far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed that things continue to go well.

But yeah, it's been rough. Last week was a horribly stressful week at work with several deadlines and I had a major school presentation with worry about my kitty underlying everything. Husband and I wanted nothing more than relaxing weekend and instead I feel like I barely got any rest. We didn't even have the energy to watch the premiere of Battlestar Galactica. I'm just so tired. It's more than a physical fatigue...it's like an emotional fatigue.

Unfortunately, we've gotten almost nothing done contract-wise. Hopefully we can tonight. My best friend's baby shower is this Saturday, so I'm preparing myself for that. We never got around to ordering her gift, so one of us is going to have to make the journey to Babies R Us to pick it up since shipping would cost about $50 at this poing.

There's been a lot of good news lately for those I know in real life as well as in the blogosphere. I'm happy for them, but...well, I'm just ready for some good news to come my way. Let me clarify that because good things have been happening in other areas. I'm ready for some good family news to come my way.