2nd day of testing , and time to go home

Took 2 cheapy tests, both neg. Also took a generic stick test, and behold, I see something.. WHAT this early.. No way.. But maybe it is a pos +

It’s time to go back home. We had our last day of yummy hot breakfast and packed up and headed to the airport in our rental car. Wow, we really should have looked at the directions better because we spent about 2-3 hours driving. One of those hours not knowing where we were going or what we were gonna do if we missed the flight. The streets are very confusing. But after I finally figured it out we made it to the airport in time.


I get home, and see my family whom I missed SOOO much. And it is Paul and I’s 3 year anniversary. He got me roses, how sweet.

July 30th.. And the testing begins..

1 pregnancy test was taken, yes this early, and it was neg. Didn’t do much, still in Connecticut. Had breakfast, and hit the local mall. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel, which was not very good. The chicken fried steak was very dry and tough, not the norm for a Cracker Barrel.

New York, NY

Sunday 29th July
NEW YORK, NY
My mom and I hopped on a train from Stratford, CT to New York, NY Grand Central Station. It was about an hour and a half train ride. Not much to see on the way there.

We get to the train station and WOW it is so big, very cool. We walk out to the streets, and up and down each street were huge tall buildings just like the movies, lol.one of the huge churches we saw why on out stroll.

I really wanted to go to FAO Schwartz toys store so we set out that way. We came upon the American Girls store and we had to get Kaley something. That store is so amazing I wish they had something like that when I was little.
After that stop we headed to FAO. It started to rain just as we got to the store and we ducked inside. The whole first floor is stuffed animals, lots of sizes, huge and tiny.


The “basement” floors was baby and preschooler stuff, and grabbed a few things for Val and Ronnie.
We headed to the second floor. Harry Potter had his own little corner of stuff, decorated like Hogwarts style. There was a floor piano, just like in the movie “Big”. There was wall to wall Barbies and all kinds of dolls you can thing of.
The Lego part of the floor, had huge displays of Star Wars and Harry Potter Figures.
(In the pics you can see the cute dolls I got for Valerie and Veronica)


There was also this amazing aisle of little girl dress up clothes. They were very expensive costume quailty outfits. Oh so cute! I’ll call this dress up heaven

After spending a fortune, we headed out into the rain, and caught a horse and carriage ride through a part of central park. It was ok, we were a little hungry afterwards, and got a hotdog from one of the thousands of stands on every corner. It was yummy, I gobbled mine up in less than a minute, and I had a tasty Dr. Pepper to wash it down.
We then caught a cab down a little ways to Times Square. Lights everywhere and huge product display ads on screens.


We hit the M&Ms store(3 floors of m&m stuff), and spent another small fortune. I wanted to go to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not, so we walked many streets until we got there. The whole time walking in NY it was soaking wet, we had on sandals, and our feet were soaked. A bus even drove by us once and slashed a puddle of water on us. I had my umbrella out most of the time and my mom had on her funny NASCAR Pancho.
Ripley’s had some of the coolest stuff.
Life size replica of the worlds tallest man ever.

A very weird looking white Giraffe (this one is for you Ronnie, lol)

Oh and this lady had somthing going on whit her face. Woah!

You can forget the 1,400 pound man that was dangling above our heads on the first floor. We went upstairs to get a better look. Ugh

And if you needed a little luck, you can always rub a little on the million dollar Buddha’s belly. He was made of shredded money.

Also you can’t miss touching the fertility gods if you are in need of some of that. I touched her bood for good measure too, hahaha. Those things are like pancakes.

The “long neck lady” had a missing finger from her statue, thats why mom has her hands over hers, lol.

After that long adventure through there I was starving. We went to Applebees Times Square had a huge sampler appetizer, and that filled me up.
Our last stop was battery Park and to see the Statue of Liberty. We took a cab to the Trade center construction, and saw the blocked off place where the building used to stand, and waled the rest of the way to Battery Park. We didnt get up close, ride a boat or anything. We just saw it from afar from
Battery Park

sleeping pigeon, how funny. He didn’t even move even though I got right up to him.


The Statue


What a long day, oh so tired. Took the 1 ½ hour train ride back.
We had a nice dinner at the plaza diner where I had another patty melt, yum!

Mystic Connecticut

(1 Day after transfer)
Saturday
My mom and I drove and drove to north Connecticut almost in Rhode Island, to Go to the Mystic Aquarium, and see the other sights there.
We arrived at the aquarium around 12 and it was ok, but it can’t compare to Houston aquariums.
We saw Beluga whales, Seals, Penguins, lots of varied sea life, not everything we saw I took a picture of, thank god or else this page would take even longer to load. But the pictures I did get are very neat in my opinion.


ME!!

another cool close up of a frog! :P

I think this is a Rock fish?

and there was this huge open top display of Anemones Starfish and such, so awsome!
It glowed in the dark room

We Fished with the Aquarium and drove around and found a visitor center. Gave us a great map with lots to do and see. We saw sea captains houses very beautifully updated from far back as 1820s .
After that we ended up driving to Stonington which is 2 miles from Mystic. We ate lunch there, The water tasted like toilet water, and the tea tasted like crap, the instant stuff eww, and it was made with the toilet tasting water!! I ended up sending my 1st plate back, it was not good, and it looked like a “turd” steak, lol!
Shopping street in Stonington, already closed up at 5pm!

pic of the mom

We shopped a bit, and then headed back to the hotel

Transfer day was TODAY!!

I got up 7:45. had breakfast and out of the hotel by 8:25am
I was supposed to be at Connecticut Fertility Associates at 9, but the drive was shorter than what we expected My mom and I arrived 8:35. They did take me back around 8:45. and I changed into my gown. I still had my t-shirt on, and had to put the gown on over that. I also had to tuck my hair into a blue hair net, and I wore brown ugly hospital socks.


R & L arrived at 9, and I wanted L to watch the transfer so the nurse sent her back. we were in a sort of "holding area" behind a hospital curtain. We hadn't heard the results of the embryo PGD testing (preimplantation genetic diagnosis -biopsy of embryo). they can test and see if the genetic material is normal in the embryo. they biopsied 8, 3 were "no answer" so they have the option to freeze those, and 4 were abnormal in some way, and only 1 tested normal. L was surprised there was only one normal left after testing, and teared up, but then mentioned that it is a GIRL. when testing the dna, you can also tell the gender. and if this cycle works R & L will have there GIRL! how exiting!
Dr Doyle came back, and went over the results of the PGD with us, and I had to sign some papers. Then the nurse Christine came and walked me to the transfer room. there was a little window on the door and a little window next to the door on the wall, for my mom and L to watch the transfer. The embryologist came in and asked my name, and got the embryo. He put it under the microscope in the next room, which you could see on a mounted TV screen, that we could all see in the next room. it was sucked into the transfer tool, and then handed off to Dr D. nurse Christine had the Ultrasound on my abdomen, and we watched Dr D guide and transfer the embryo to my nice fluffy uterus!

Christine, brought a hospitail stretcher into the room, and I had to wiggle into it, and I was wheeled into recovery, and I had to lye on my back for about 20 min. then I was able to leave. We went to the waiting room where R & L were waiting talking over what they were doing with the 3 "no answer" embies that were left. I waited for them to be done, I wanted one last good bye pic.

We talked about whats to come, and the excitment of delivery, and girl names etc. then we hugged and said good bye.
I am hopeing to hold out POAS until tuesday when we leave. I will be 4dp5dt, or I might wait until 5dp5dt.. or even later. hope I can hold out, and see BFP when I do test!

Moved hotels, and visited the Westport beach

breakfast this morning was awful. we didn't even get to eat, and ended up with a headache which was very quickly eliminated.
The Hilton Garden inn was very crappy, and the customer service sent over the edge and we went packing. Edwin who made our travel arrangements made us reservations at the courtyard Marriott which my mom found online, which is cheaper, and free breakfast! We got here and it is great. much nicer, and way better customer service.
WE got unpacked again. We went out for lunch at Ruby Tuesday, it smelled like feet in there but we were starving and stayed. I had a Jones soda, check out the soda cap-

we went back to the hotel, got dressed, packed our swim suits, and headed out to the beach.
L suggested westport beach (Compo Beach) so we went there. It was nice. We rented chairs and an umbrella, and chairs, and changed into our suits in their restrooms.



The water was pretty cold, and not deep at all. I went very far out and it barley went past my knees. It was a very weird feeling. You could see in the water and I could see and feel these little black things at my feet. there were tons of them. I was scared to pick them up, but I did. they ended up being snails, and they came out of their shells and slugged across my hand, ugh gross! There was also really no waves.
The beach was kinda steep, and the sand was hot. There were lots of gulls around (different than what we have in TX)

I had some crackers in my purse and was playing a game with the gulls. I was seeing how close they would come to us to get a piece of cracker. They were so funny. They would come close and seem like they were going to get it, then run away, lol. I then found some shells along the water line that were stuck together. They seemed to be alive. I also found a live whole oyster. I found 2 rocks and broke apart the shells and oyster, and gave the birds the shells to pick clean their gooey insides.
After sitting on the beach for 2 hours. we eft. drove around a bit. Stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and had coffee and a donut and headed back to the hotel. We hung around for a but. went out to eat, then came back and hung around till we got tired and went to sleep.

Dinner at Sakuras with IPs and thier boys

WE were invited to dinner tonight by my IPs. we were supposed to be there at 7, but of course it is so difficult to get around up here, we ended up lost and went to far. I called R and he gave me great directions on how to get to the restaurant.
It is Japanese food, and has different rooms to sit in, and different styles of dining in each room. we were in the hibachis grill room. they prepared or food right in front of us, and wow the chef put on a show. R, L and their 3 boys were great fun, and a very sweet family.

The meal was great and we got a taste of everybodys meal, and it was all yum!
We chatted for a bit, and then we were ran out. this restaurant is very popular even on the weekdays! we parted and we our separate ways. but not before our first pic.. which turned out to be a little blurry. but anyway

Met my IPS in person today!

I met my IPs R & L today.
it was my mom and I with them, and we went to Starbucks and chatted for about 2 1/2 hours! It was great and even better than I thought. My IM and IF are such a cute irish couple. She is short, and he is so tall. and There eye glasses kinda match, hers are pink, and his grey and black. We are going out to dinner tonight and meeting their 3 boys.
They picked a japanese resturant named Sakura, and will sit and have our meas prepared before our eyes. how cool! Ive alays wanted to go to a place like that.
I also got the transfer time at CFA bridgeport (July 27th just like I guessed!)- 9:30, but I need to be there at 9:00am.
IM hard from the emryoloigist, and says they have 8 or 10 I cant remember, emryos. and didnt know if PGD would be recomended. The Embryologist said they were growing fast, an great sign!
speaking of signs, we have been surrounded with them, too many to list but they are great signs!
no pics of my IPs yet, ike a silly head, I forgot to take out my camera, I was talking too much.
.
efore we met up, my mom and I went to the Beardsley Zoo, which was a poor excuse for a zoo, I felt bad for the majority of the animals they had there in teeny cages. and some of the room, smelt AWFUL.
there are some pics from there. it was a very tiny zoo.
And what is the deal with the DUNCAN DONUTS??!! they are everywhere!!
also pics of he beach park we went to- bridgeport seaside park
( and Bridgepor is kinda ghetto, just like everyone was saying)
link to pics I took so far-
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaNHLlu4ZtGL8I
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here is the front of the bilding where CFA and my transfer is going to be

Flying away tomorrow

My IM L emailed me saying they "extracted" (as she says, I say retrieved)14 follicles. I don't know if she means eggs of what. I'll figure it out when I get there.
Transfer will most likely be friday, mabey thursday.

This was my last day of work before the transfer. I didnt get much done, but thats how it goes this time of year. But I did go out with a bang, thanks Ronnie!
and for everyone else reading-
Ronnie is a good friend of mine. She is also a co-worker. we gab all day inbetween working. I have told her all about the surrogacy and my IPs and everything else. I am leaving tomorrow for my transfer. She had to get supplies for work, and while she was out got me this and had it waiting for me in the breakroom. I won't get to see her till I get back next thursday the 1st, will miss her :P
she got me a powerpuff girl baloon, she knows I love PPG, I have them tattooed on my right upper arm. it said happy birthday, but she wrote adventure over birthday in permanant marker, so it says "Happy Adventure" they dont make happy surrogacy baloons!
she keeps telling me I am going to come back preggo for sure, lol.:prego: (SMO policy "~think positive~")
she also got a pink stuffed bear, my fav color. hand sanitizer cause I am flying, don't want the germs! and a lint roller, so I can look presenatble, no lint or fuzz!


will keep updates as I can. and pics too

Being silly with my super close up camera pic

OK, so I want to make sure I have a clear pic to show when I start testing after the transfer. soo, I too a pee stick test, and this is what I got.. I think this is close enough for when I need it.
this is only a test, no transfer yet-
oh and I was being silly with the eye pic just to see how close and clear it would get.

another U/S lining check

went in for Ulatrasound lining check #2, to make sure the meds are doing what they are supposed to.

Drove to the same clinic off beltway 8 and I-10, but found a better way to get there.

had blood drawn, TWICE since the nurse only took 1 vial the 1st time, and then needed more before I left.

The U/S sound showed my lining at a 7 which is great, and no cysts on my ovaries. (it did take the nurse a min to find my left ovary because it was hiding under my uterus at this U/S!) Sharon at CFA called and said to keep with what my meds are at.

Got my flight plans!!

I got an email from Circle today with my flight plans! yay

My mom and I leave Tuesday July 24th 10:41am from George Bush airport here in Houston, to New Your LGA airport. duration 3 hours 49 min.

I will then rent a car and drive into Bridgeport Connecticut. we will be there until July 31st when we are scheduled to fly back.

I do not know the hotel we will be in yet, but those reservations are coming soon. yay can't wait