forever learning on our journey to become parents

The waiting continues. Our attorney went on spring break so it took longer for her to draft the agreement and there are still a few blanks to be filled in.

Little did we know we would be faced with questions such as who will get the embryos should my husband and I get a divorce. Not really something we'd given any thought to before now.

In addition to our legal agreement with the donors, we also have a legal agreement with the lab where the embryos will be kept.

Who knew?

Nothing about our journey has been easy, yet I'm still surprised when something takes longer, doesn't happen when I think it should, etc.

One of my friends is really concerned about me being pregnant at my age. I tried to explain that a large part of the risk of being pregnant at my age has to do with the old age of the eggs. I am not getting pregnant with my old eggs, I am getting pregnant with 33-year-old eggs that have already been screened before they were fertilized. Therefore, a lot of the risk has been removed. Yes, there is still some risk when one is of "advanced maternal age," but it is significantly lower when using donor embryo created with the eggs of a 33-year-old woman.

I have been on prenatal vitamins for 11 years now, so I'm well prepared in that respect! And I've been caffeine-free for ages now in preparation for pregnancy.

We have a crib from a family member ready. We will be the third family within our family to use it, and we are very excited about that!

And yes, we do realize how very, very, VERY lucky and blessed we are to have these donors in our lives now and forever. They have already become like family to us. It's so much more than I ever dared dream for. I still pinch myself on a daily basis. I hope my body will come through for all of us and carry a baby (babies?) full term, but, no pressure.

As with the adoption leg of our journey, I am sharing this with you, dear reader, in hopes that you will learn something from our journey. Maybe someone reading this will decide to donate their embryos to another couple unable to have children. Maybe this will simply cause you to walk around with a big fat smile on your face for the rest of the day :) Who knows.

Feeling closer to my child(ren) every day!

update

We are still in the paperwork phase.

We’d really hoped to have our first transfer in April, but it looks like it will be sometime in May as the legal end of things is taking longer than we’d hoped.

That just gives us another month to prepare (or at least that's what I keep telling myself!).

not “going Nadya”

Rest assured we will not be having all 14 embryos transferred at one time.

Why do people ask that? Good NESS!

always with the waiting

Ok, so, it's CD12 today. For FET, I will have to start Lupron on CD21 (April 16).

We are currently waiting for our attorney to draw up the legal agreements to transfer the embryos into our possession. After everyone has signed off, the embryos will have to be shipped to our lab.

It's not looking good for an April transfer, which I'd really, REALLY hoped for.

But, miracles do happen, so I'm not giving up hope yet!

beyond exciting update

Once again, our journey to parenthood has changed it's course, and much to our surprise.

Through a very generous, private donation, we are in the process of receiving frozen embryos. This is a VERY exciting development that is beyond our wildest dreams!

So, what this means is, I have been to our good old RE to be checked out to make sure FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) is a procedure that I can do. And YES I CAN!

Next we have to take legal possession of the embryos. This is the process we are currently in the middle of now: attorneys and paperwork and whatnot.

Once we have legal possession of the embryos, they will be shipped (special delivery of course) to our lab and we can proceed with our first FET cycle.

We are really, reaLLY, REALLY hoping to have our first cycle in April.

The egg donor was 33 years old when the eggs were harvested three years ago. Our RE says this means I have the same chances of getting pregnant as a 33-year-old.

I will be taking Lupron and estrogen to prepare for the FET, when the time comes.

It's a new day, a new journey. I will be a mom!

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N.B. I just noticed the date of this post and NO, this is certainly NOT an April Fool's joke. I would not do that dear reader.