So, remember how I promised my big amazing news today? My big news is on hold for a bit while some official things are worked out offline. Sorry to tease you with a cliffhanger like that. But don’t worry. You won’t miss it. I’ll be firing off all the bells and whistles when I can finally spill all of my beans.
Mission TZ3 is moving right along.
Our egg donor is here! She got here yesterday. It was a packed house for a few hours but now it’s nice and chill. We had a double date with Wanda this morning at my clinic. I’m so excited that she’s here. My friend Natalie is super excited too: she got our donor and I these gorgeous bouquets of roses!
Trying to remain calm about my uterine lining shrinking randomly. I had an ultrasound yesterday that showed my super plush lining went from 11mm to 5.7mm. The tech was so concerned that my RE actually pulled my images and remeasured my lining for himself. He came up with 8mm. So… not sure what the hell is going on and where my endometrium would disappear to since I’m not bleeding at all. Still on 6mg estrogen daily plus my estrogen patch. I did notice that I had a different u/s tech yesterday, so perhaps that could have made a difference. Also? Left my lucky socks AND my lucky bracelets at home.
I asked to get another u/s this morning and it was with my regular tech this time. Could only manage to find one Hello Kitty sock in the laundry but whatever, I’ll take it. My lining measured today at 8.3mm, so I’m guessing either the 11mm or 5.7mm lining checks were out of whack. Also, apparently having sex the night before an ultrasound could have affected yesterday’s lining check. Who knew?
Larry had to give our donor her shots last night. Watching my husband give shots was… weird. He was trying to be gentle on the first shot and didn’t actually get the needle in – he just kind of poked her with it. It was pretty funny. Also, when he opened the needle cap and bent down to give her the shot? I instinctively backed away. We all had a good laugh about that too.
According to our friend, he did a good job. I might just have to suck it up and learn to give them to myself; not sure if I can handle Larry giving them to me having now seen him do it…
Anyone have tips for thickening uterine lining? I’m on the lookout for red raspberry leaf tea if I can find it (suggestions on where I can get it are needed). Any other supplements I could try? I want to make sure our baby’s first apartment is tricked out. Even though my lining looked better, every little bit helps.
As for remaining flexible… So our donor needs a little more oomph to her follicles. They’re upping her medication from Gonal-F 300 units once daily to 300 units twice daily. Which also means she might run out of medication past Friday morning. Thankfully, she has another follicle check and bloodwork Friday morning, so we’ll know by Friday afternoon if we need to order more. (I’ll be able to pick them up from the pharmacy locally so she’ll have them in time for her evening shots.)
Right now, everything is just a waiting game until Friday. She might be told to trigger, she might be told to continue the Gonal-F through the weekend. I am trying to remain as calm as possible. And of course, since she’s traveled and rearranged her life to live with us through this weekend, going beyond Sunday would be a huge inconvenience for her on a WHOLE huge set of levels. And of course, buying more medications than our original order, even with my 50% co-insurance per medication – that’s it’s own special version of stress.
Just trying to breathe through this and remain calm.
Want to help? I’m trying to sell 500 copies of my new eBook, THE YOU PROJECT, in the next 9 days. 95 copies will pay for one 900 unit pen of Gonal-F. 50 copies of my eBook will cover the cost of one 450 unit Gonal-F pen and 30 copies bought will pay for one 300 unit pen. Every dollar purchased towards these books goes right into our cycle, as you can clearly see. And best of all, you get one kickass empowerment toolkit when you download THE YOU PROJECT.
Spread the word. Tell your friends and purchase your copy today!
And in the meantime, I’m going to do everything I can to do the following:
I found RRL tea at my local grocery store in the natural foods section. Once I was pregnant I was told to avoid it until the third trimester because of my history with miscarriage, but no one ever gave me advice about using it in preparation for pregnancy. I wish they had!
Look into pineapple core! 1 pineapple cut into 5 portions. Consume 1 portion each day for 5 days beginning the day of transfer. It doesn’t hurt to eat the delicious part of the pineapple but the core has all the good stuff!
I always drank “Traditional Medicine’s” RRL tea and I’ve found it at any grocery store locally. I also drank pure pomegranate juice, which I always felt helped quite a bit. Plus it’s tasty and fights free radicals with it’s load of antioxidants! Continued good thoughts coming your way!
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea…I found it at my local grocery store with all the other teas. I also downed LOTS of gatorade after our transfer (something I read about the electrolytes and just basic hydration being good). I was never told an actual measurement on my lining. I’m sure it will be just fine though…fluff lining fluff and good luck to you 🙂
I conceived Kaelyn on a lining of 5.5. Just sayin’.
That said, on one of my GS cycles, my lining wasn’t thickening as quickly as it usually did. One thing that helped me was to drink soy milk. A lot of surrogates who’d had similar issues suggested it, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
I think the biggest thing that helped, though, was taking my estrace vaginally instead of orally. Many surrogates were instructed to take all of their estrace vaginally right from the very start. I asked my doc about it before making the switch just to be on the safe side.
Don’t sweat over your lining. Mine was 8 mm the day of our donor’s egg retrieval, and that was sufficient to allow not one, but two, blastocysts to successfully implant. (Our twin boys are 8 months old today.) Our clinic only required a lining of 7 mm or greater for transfer, so 8.3 mm is fine!
Keiko – the Whole Foods in Swampscott has RRL tea. NOT in the regular tea section though. It’s in the medicine/supplements aisle with all the speciality herbal teas.
🙂 Plugging a local business here; you can get red raspberry leaf at Artemesia Botanicals. They sell it loose by the ounce. You can just make the tea in a french press style pot or any teapot with a strainer. Also, see if you can get your hands on a copy of Susun Wee’d’s “Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year”
Also, I am so happy you liked the flowers. <3 <3 <3
You can get red raspberry leaf tea at Whole Foods or at any other natural foods grocery or food coop. It is quite tasty! I like it iced. Good luck!
Evening primrose oil is supposed to help lining. You can get caplets at Whole Foods.