Wednesday, February 23, 2011

And the Phone Call Said...

POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Bittersweet Wednesday

Wednesday can't come fast enough, but I don't want it to come too fast. Wednesday will be 14 days since EPU and theoretically, we should hear our good news from the doctors. This may have been our best quality transfer yet, as all three embryos were 8 cell, grade 1/A. But, also, Wednesday is the last day we are living here with my parents and family around. We leave for NC on Thursday morning. So, Wednesday is bittersweet. I want to hear from the doctors, but I want to savor the moments we have left here in NJ. We have spent the last two days packing up our moving pods. We are down to the bare bones of survival needs here. We came up with 6 pods and we are moving down with 8 pods. Can you believe that we accumulated more stuff while we were here? Unbelievable!!

Monday, February 14, 2011

My Feelings on Jet Lag

So, we have been home since early Friday morning. Since then, I have not had a full night's sleep. I am suffering from the worst case of jet lag ever! My husband is fine and dandy. He sleeps through the night without a problem. My usual waking time is 2 am. I have to sleep through the night tonight, even if it means taking a swig of NyQuil. That should do the trick.

Some other, better news: we have transferred three, grade 1, 8 cell embryos into our surrogate. We are beyond excited at this possibility of this pregnancy. We have about a week and a half or so until we get "the call." We are remaining very positive for our pregnancy and for the other couples that we met transferring right around our time also.

There seem to be a lot of babies due within the next 4-6 weeks, so Mumbai should be hopping! Good luck to you all and best wishes for happy, healthy babies!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Goodbye, Mumbai!! We will be back in 9-ish months for baby(ies) pick-up!!! You have not seen the last of the Craters!!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

EPU

On my way to Lilavati, will update this afternoon. Say a little prayer for many, many, many good looking eggs and successful fertilization rates!!

After a long day at Lilavati, I am happy to report a collection of 12 eggs. We are overjoyed and anxious for transfer news.

Also, had a lovely dinner this evening with our friends from Canada (on baby pick-up) and Dr. Sudhir and Dr. Yashodhara. What a perfect way to end our trip. Stephen and I have agreed this time was the most enjoyable yet. Next trip will be enjoyable also... it will be a baby pick up!!! (everything crossed!!!)

More info and pics tomorrow. We are exhausted! Thanks for all the love from our comments and also on FB. Feels so good to have so many people wishing good things for you!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Grow Embies, Grow

Today was a very, very good day. Not only is my husband here, but we had a second scan. Even with my sluggish left ovary, I am currently hosting my highest embryo count since we have started this baby making marathon! They are able to see 16 eggs. I am beyond ecstatic! If my left ovary was a team player, it would've jumped more to the neighborhood of 20 or so. Can you freakin' believe that!! We are super excited for the next few days to come. Tonight is my trigger shot (wooohooo) and Wednesday is EPU.

Tomorrow, is the best day of this entire trip. It is the day that we meet our surrogate. Being that this is our 4th attempt, we wondered if we really wanted to meet our surrogate. It becomes so personal and there is a great emotional attachment. Especially when you hear why they are volunteering their bodies to this. We were really touched by our surrogate this past summer and it was hard to let go of her when we did our FET. We waited and waited for her body to get ready, and it just wasn't. We had to let her go and select a new one. It was almost like a break-up. We wanted so badly to help her family, like she wanted to help ours. That is the beauty of this deal. I know I say it every time we are here, but there is something about helping the people who are helping you. They want this to happen just as badly as we do, but for other reasons.

Switching gears, Stephen and I had a fun time by the pool today. We were only there for an hour or two. He is already winning the tanning contest. I have been laying by the pool for five days now and he beat me in two hours. We have very different skin tones. He is a bit red, but it will tone down tomorrow. He suggested I share a funny story I told him today. The first day I was here, my driver was bringing me to the clinic for my initial scan. While we were driving there, he hit a car and motorcycle. Now, if you have been here, you know how easily this can happen because of the erratic driving and ignorance of those white lines that form lanes. haha! All joking aside, he tapped the car and threw the motorcycle man off balance. He had to jump off to regain his balance. I was getting nervous at this point, but didn't say anything. He kept peeking in the rear view mirror to see if I was reacting to his driving. It was pretty funny.

All in all, we are enjoying our time together. It is always nice to have time to recharge our batteries and reconnect. Life just gets so busy at home and we tend to overlook those moments we should savor.

Thanks for reading and talk soon!


Engagement party


Engagement party


Local florist


Local General Store


Produce Stand


Man Transporting Stuff


Local Barber


Another Produce Stand


Woman's Clothing Store (where I got my dress)


Fast Food (Indian, of course)


Local Chemist (Pharmacist)


Taxi, anyone?


Road for Hotel

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Off to Market

Not too much exciting news today other than Stephen is arriving tonight!! Yay! I miss my hubby a lot and I can't wait for him to join me. This trip has been so relaxing and peaceful that I can't imagine not sharing it with the love of my life. We don't get to lay by the pool and soak up the sun very often at home without taking turns watching/playing/swimming with Stevie. I love nothing more than to lay in the warmth of the sun and read a book. And, with all that has been going on in our lives lately, Stephen could use a few days to relax.

Once he gets here though, things will start picking up on the medical side. Monday I have another scan. I can tell the eggs are growing because I am having some discomfort. For those of you who have gone through this, you know what I mean. Also, I have been receiving a second shot to help the eggs develop. That shot is intramuscular, so SI sends a nurse here every day to poke me. I am really sore from that shot. They alternate sides and I am dreading the shot this morning. So, I am up to three shots a day, hopefully for another day or two only. After my scan, I have the fitness test with the anesthesiologist. I believe after that, we will be done for the day.

I'm sure we will visit our friends (who are moving to a different location today) and hang out with them a bit more. They invited me along last night to walk around the local streets and markets. We ventured into a woman's clothing shop and we had a great time try on some dressing and such. Funny thing, I had a hard time getting my "big" head in the small neck openings of the dresses. I finally settled on one and they are tailoring it for me. I will be able to pick it up today. I am very excited to wear it later this week. We also went up to some local street vendors. They have American movies on DVD. They put four on a DVD and sell it for 100 rupees (just over $2). What a bargain. We also bought some books of the street. I bought two books for 250 rupees (about $6). They are photocopied and my friend said hopefully the whole book will be included. She has purchased books that have not ended at the ending, but before that. Haha! Such is life in Mumbai. Overall, I had an excellent time with them. I am going to miss their company when they leave today.

Saying that, it is time for breakfast. I have been loading up on breakfast. It is just fabulous here. Most days I skip lunch because I'm still full from breakfast. Then pizza for dinner or one of my meals in the microwave from home. I've still got a lot of snacks and I'm sure Stephen and I will take care of them this upcoming week.

Thanks for reading and to the new followers/commenters: enjoy our story!!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Relaxing Again

Today was a great day, very enjoyable and very relaxing. I had to go to the Lilavati Hospital for a scan around noon. I was supposed to see the anesthesiologist but that was postponed until Monday. It seems that my EPU will be on Wednesday. Good news though, they found more eggs!! Yay!! I am hoping this will be my highest count EPU yet. So they still have some growing to do, but otherwise things are progressing well. The rest of my day was spent by the pool. I stayed in the sun a bit more. It wasn't as hot as yesterday. I found out that yesterday was 97 degrees. Today was much more enjoyable. Tonight I will be hanging with my two friends to watch a movie. Good thing I packed popcorn! ;)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Sun Day, Fun Day

As I predicted yesterday, I sat by the pool today and read a book. I arrived at the pool shortly after 1 pm and stayed there until about 5 pm. It was so hot in the sun, so I ducked under cover and sat in the shade. I will slowly work on my tan over the next few days. The pool area is very relaxing. I was able to read an entire book today. I am running out of books, I have read two since I've been here (thanks, Tiff!). I may have to venture out to a book store tomorrow to buy some more. This is almost starting to feel like a spa vacation: pool, sun, books, etc. The only things missing are my family and some pina coladas.


The room I am staying in is comfortable. It is your standard hotel room, king bed, tv, smaller bathroom. Looking outside the window, directly below is a dirt pit of some sort that some Indians are excavating. They excavate all day, every day. It is loud and bothersome. Not good when I am trying to take an afternoon snooze or think. To the right of the huge dirt pit are some "slums." Makes me really sad to see the people walk in and out of this area all day long. There are adults and kids and random dogs that walk the path from their shack to the road. It is cute to watch the little kids try to climb the huge dirt piles they are making. They have no fear, they will try to climb up the piles as the machines are swinging their huge crane arms around loaded with dirt and rocks. Makes me nervous as a parent, but the kids are often under loose supervision.




For the evening, I will be catching up on the Bachelor, London Calling. That's right, Brad Womack hasn't struck in India yet. I am watching the reruns of Shayne Lamas and Matt, the Limey from London. There sure is some drama on this series!!

On the agenda for tomorrow is a trip to the hospital. I need to be approved by the anesthesiologist for my egg retrieval and have an egg check up/scan. Dr. Yash found 10 eggs hiding out yesterday in my ovaries. I hope that a few more pop out like the did in the summer. I'll keep ya posted.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Right Time, Right Place

This morning, I was walking to the elevator to head downstairs to begin my day. I was going to have breakfast in the hotel dining area. There were so many thoughts going through my head about what my day was going to be like and what I would get done. I was thinking how I had gotten more sleep in the last 24 hours than I had in a very, very long time. I was refreshed and ready to go.

As I stepped off the elevator, there was a couple a few feet ahead of me. I instantly recognized them as friends from our last trip here in the summer. They stayed at the same hotel (Novotel) as us in June. Talk about right time, right place. I called over to them and they turned around to greet me. She had sent me an email a few days ago asking when I would be back in Mumbai and where I was staying. Due to the craziness of Monday, I did not get a chance to see her response. She knew we were staying at the same hotel. It was such a lovely surprise to see them both today. They are here on baby pick up. Their SM is in the last stretch of the pregnancy and I wish them nothing but the best of luck for the upcoming weeks. I secretly hope that I am still here when their SM gives birth. I just love seeing babies here, it really brings the trip full circle while here.

So, we sat for breakfast and we caught up. We talked about last time, this time, the in between time, moving, India, work, and then being first time parents. They will be great parents. They are so kind-hearted and patient. They seem nervous, as any first parent would be. It is funny how your instincts kick in when a little baby is in your arms.

They really understand the culture here and I feel like you almost have to embrace some of it eventually. This is my third time to Mumbai and I feel like I understand it more and more each trip. I am familiar with the customs, the head bobble, and I'm really good at converting the money from Rupees into USD. Haha.

Later, in the afternoon, I had a meeting with the doctors. I have been to their clinic/office now three times and each time it has been decorated differently. It is very evident that their business is expanding. They have many people on staff and many clients to keep happy. It was a pleasure to see them today. We had some small talk and then then a quick exam. My blood was drawn very quickly and my ultrasound results look very promising. My largest egg was 11 mm, so it has a while to go. I go back to meet them on Friday for a second check.

After returning to the hotel, I walked around a bit. The pool was closed today due to some maintenance, but will be open tomorrow. That is where I may spend a good amount of time on this trip. The temperature is hovering around 90 degrees each day and it feels great. I love to feel the warm sun on my very pale skin. I may just be the whitest person the Indians have seen lately. ;)

Dinner was my usual cuisine here in Mumbai. If you have followed my previous trip(s), you know what we eat. There is a Domino's right next to the hotel, literally. Way to go, Amit!! We also requested a microwave in our room and brought lots of snacks along for the trip.

Overall, I had a great first day. Tomorrow I am going to have breakfast with my friends and lay out by the pool. I miss home terribly and it is twice as hard to be here without my hubby. I can't wait for him to arrive here and finish the trip up with me.

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Last Minute Switcheroo

Well... I am already in Mumbai. It all happened so fast, I can't believe it myself. I was checking my flight Monday afternoon and it said it had been canceled for Tuesday night. Stephen helped me and immediately got on the phone with Continental. They said due to the storm, the flight had been canceled. They were not able to rebook me until later in the week. Or, I could fly another airline Tuesday night, but she couldn't guarantee that it would still go. So, we did the next best thing and booked me for the Monday night flight. Talk about craziness!! I had about a half hour to get my stuff together, and get on my way to the airport. It was such a whirlwind of events, I can barely remember it. I do remember being upset because most likely, I will be away from my little man another day. It is so tough on him at this age. If he only knew what we are going to accomplish here!

So, here I am at the beautiful Courtyard Marriott. Much thanks to Amit and his colleague, Gangadharan. They were able to arrange a room for me a day early and provide a personalized pick up at the airport. Once I was settled, I was able to speak to Stephen (back at home) with the help of Amit, to let him know I had arrived safely. I will never be able to speak enough about Amit and his colleagues and how easy they make this travel for us. He is truly a fantastic person to work with!

Anyway, back to the hotel. The lobby is gorgeous! I feel like I am back at the Intercontinental. I believe that they are on the same road near the airport. My room is just lovely and I can't wait to see the view tomorrow when the sun is out. I will take some pics and post them for all to see in case other IP's are considering staying here.

I received a beautiful floral arrangement from the docs. I am assuming that I will be contacted by them tomorrow in the morning to set up some schedules and such. It feels nice to be back in Mumbai and I am looking forward to a very, very successful trip this time!!

Thanks for reading and talk soon!