ok done that..finaly

So yesterday I finally got my bloods done for Genea..I had to take all three kids as I needed to get them done! They were actually pretty good. Ayla sat on my lap watching video of herself on my iphone, Bailey was on my Ipad playing 'Minecraft' (I personally don't get the fun in this game, but then again i am getting old when it comes to technology,lol) Teig got to sit on the big spinning chair..I had bribed him with the making of slime when we got home so he sat as still as a statue!! lol! (..and yes, we made the slime..ugh)

The blood nurse was a little surprised at what had to be drawn and I think she was relieved I was an easy person to get blood from! lol So now we wait...again...

I did speak to P on the way there (bluetooth headphones ;P) and said I wasn't sure if we would get anywhere because of the whole thyroid issue. I had told her previously I was prescribe meds, but I hadn't taken them yet.

She is actually booking me in the see and endricologist, so if it needs to get sorted it will properly..I'm a bit annoyed at myself for my body being a Pain in The Bum, right now...

What NOW

So, my Thyroid is being a pain in the arse. Typical. Now. Right

now. I have had a couple of blood tests and it's an overactive one..my T3 is higher..normally its the T4 in most people..Typical.

So need to book an ultrasound next week on it. I have après ripen for thyroid meds, but need to google the first. It could just be a virus in my system making it play up...or it could be because of ,y age and the stress I've been under causing my Thyriod to go "whoa!".

So otherwise pretty much everything is set ready to roll. It's seems the IVF nurse pretty much thinks we will fly through the hearing committee as she has already sent P documents outlining what when where and cost..lol! Typical. The clinics are the people which roll in all the money that desperate childless couples throw at them. It's ridiculous. Why should you have to be rich to have a child..or even sell everything you own to have a child...crazy.

Yayyyy!!!

Well, the dog part of my life seems to be going down the toilet...but anyhoooo...

Chatted to IM last night, she had some good news at least! The Dr at Genea who has our case has forwarded our file to the committee board on surrogacy for NSW, we just have to forward her the blood tests which we have arranged to get done on Wednesday morning. Well that's exciting!!

My IM cracks me up, she's so funny..I don't think she means to be, but she is! Lol

I had blood tests myself last week for unexplained itching..turns out my thyroid is playing up..nothing too dramatic. Will go back for more bloods and an ultrasound on it next week too..lol, funny my arm will be a pin cushion next week! Luckily needles don't bother me, or it could have been a bit of a problem! Lol

I think surrogacy here in Australia is a massive waiting game, ridiculously loooong waiting game. All the hoops people have to jump through, it's crazy. It really makes me quite frustraighted at times so I can imagine how people who are on the other side of the issue feel, ie those waiting to even FIND a surro. Seriously

You know I've had a lot of hits but not one comment??!

I also find it interesting from the reproductive view of being a dog breeder...not a BYB, a registered ethical breeder that spends more money then she should on dogs, then she would ever make in a trillion years. It was actually funny when the Dr was starting to explain the IVF procedure and I said " Oohhhh so like in canine reproduction..like a chilled semen tranfer" or somthing along those lines..lol.

Defiantly looking positive for an April transfer and hopefully make someone very happy :).

On the another note, my girl is looking quite rotund even at 4 weeks in...I am guessing she shall have at least 5...maybe.

He said WHAT?

These are some great kids books on Surrogacy. I plan to buy a couple down the track a little for my youngest two. (They are 5 and 2.5) I am guessing they will help explain a bit better then mummy will...

This is how I explained to my 10 year old:

" You know P and J?, Well mum is going to have a baby for them. The doctors will use a part of J and a Part of P (even though its a donor egg, I felt that was a wee bit too informed for Mr 10!!) and will make a tiny baby in his office. Then Mum gets to go and have the baby put into her tummy and I will grow it. It wont be your brother or sister, but you can help mum out, helping to grow the baby. When the baby is born it will get to go home with his or her mum and dad which are P and J. "

SO then he explains back to me:

"So a Dr cooks up a baby, puts it in you and you poo it out and someone else takes it home? Oh good, all that crying again would drive me nutso!!"

mmm, from the mouth of babes huh?

So the ultrasound was today..always fun, er, not..

But the good news is all is clear and squeaky clean, lining perfect, no pollops or anything else icky. It was pretty cool seeing an egg sitting there ready to be released. Ayla wasn't happy as she couldn't sit on my lap and watch 'TV' haha!

Then she decides to bend down and see what the 'lady was doing' oh my, a little off putting having my daughter see where she came from..funny!

one more hurdle and then the wait :)

When IM gets back from her work trip to Perth we will get those bloods done :)

Well this last week has been awful. Nothing to do with the surrogacy, so I wont go into it. But its left me drained and doubting myself. I even got to the point of thinking, what if I stuff this up and bring bad luck to the ips?? Lets just say Ive had a rough time this week.

Thank you to all my lovely friends and my kids and of course dear husband, for pulling me out of my black hole and shaking me hard.

I chatted to IM on Monday, I was quite distracted, but I vaguely remember I promising I would call her again. I have the Ultrasound now on Monday...due to lovely female reasons ;)

Interview

Blah...it was such a juggle, trying to hear using earphones and share with DH so he could answer too, battle Miss 2 who wanted to talk too and Master 5 who wanted to fight with Miss 2 (he has Wednesdays off from Prep for first term)

It went for approx 40 mins, during which she had a practise fire drill on her end! lol!


I still have a knit in my stomach of hopping I answered questions ok and she gives us the big green tick to move forward.

It was pretty similar to the Psychological we had already done.

Next....

What Bitches!

On a side note, all the girls are running together again...thank goodness makes it a tad easier!!

Councelling - am I crazy?

I hope not..well maybe I am slightly, I do have many a dog and 3 children...

Counselling was just that...our first session was 3 hours..yes, really. 1 hour together with hubby, 1 hour him, while I did a 50 million page questing (which asked very subtly and not so subtly if I had any plans to kill myself...lol) and then we swapped.

Pretty straight forward. Poor DH had just been working many hours straight and had had about an hours sleep, so he was NOT very patient with the questionnaire... that came back at us..

P and J had thier councelling another day, smae routine. Then another day i bought my eldest son in for half an hour to chat with her.

Again we had to comply by the rules of NSW surrogacy, which does differ from the Victorian ones.

The we had a group session to go over results..LOL!! OMG, J (IF) and my DH where so funny. I could see her getting a bit frustraighted (she looked fresh out of UNI actually~!) and the results..really...DH came back "unreadable" we were laughing, then got worried as she kept asking him if he didnt want me to do it etc..I could tell he was getting annoyed with her and he told me later that he was ready to get up and say "look lady, I had 1 hour sleep and your paperwork kept asking if I wanted to hunt out the steak knifes and kill myself in more then 10 ways! If I didnt want to bloody be here I wouldnt!!"

Turns out later I found out from chatting with P that with J paperwork he too took the piss (joked) about and it came back with slight concerns about him being a "drug user" OMFG!! Seriously, he was meaning yes he used panadol and Nurofen!! We think she had a big of a god complex here....but anyhoo, it was all good and it all got done and,

Councelling ...check

Paperwork anyone?

ok the legal stuff...

P and I both have our own separate lawyers. Gee, it was hard to find ones that actually KNEW the law involved with surrogacy..and the different laws between Victoria and NSW..Seriously its some crazy sh..stuff.


The first appointment with me and my husband was nice. Lawyer was a nice guy. He went over the ins and outs of the Vic and NSW law, where we stood, what we knew, our rights, rights of the IP's and what our contract would involve and what I wanted to include. It was pretty straight forward as I had done a fair bit of reading and of course chatting to P. He also made up wills for us and a power of attorney (medical) should stuff go wrong and my DH isn't available.

P and I pretty much had decided already what the contract would include so it was just making it legal.

When bubs is born it is my name and her husbands name on the birth certificate, so a 'parenting order' needs to be made. I am hazy on this as its pretty darn complicated. P knows everything backwards, forwards and a whole darn lot of other ways!! Shed be a great detective I reckon!

Legals...check

Interview, Blood Tests and Ultrasound - Oh my!

Ok so have my Interview with the Genea Counceller tomorrow (via phone as its in NSW)..apprently she has to chat to my DH as well, so I will drive down to his work and hang out for a bit.
Booked my Ultrasound (checking Im all good to go and my uterus is in working order) for Thursday and will get my final blood tests on Friday...

Another day I will explain about my other stuff that Ive already done (legals, councilling etc) but its late and I want to go to bed now....

Corbin - Gave up for Adoption in 1999

ok so thought Id write a bit about my first trip to providing a gorgeous family with a wee bundle of love..my DH is watching Top Gear in India as I type this so every now and then his laughing will probably distract me from making sense!

So I was 21, yes not a teen so I know many people will ask "why didn't you keep him?" (he is now 11 so its beside the point that I feel terribly old right now!) Well, I as soon as I knew I was pregnant I knew I was in not position for a baby...here is where I wont go into too much detail as it would take the whole blog! I was raised in a secure two parented family, I wanted that for my baby too.

Pregnancy was uneventful and easy and I ended up being induced at 41 weeks. Crap. It was crap and horrible. My mum and best friend were there. Even though all went smoothly with the birth (bar a retained placenta) I was there for 4 days in a private room. I saw councillors through the hospital before and after the birth and had a very supportive family. Baby Corbin spent most of his time in with me, but at night was taken to the nursery, which I visited when I couldn't sleep and shed many a tear watching him and cuddling him.

Sure I did waver once or twice, (damn hormones) but I knew he had a better family out there waiting for him, that could give him all and more that I wanted a child.  I still remember driving away with my dad crying as he drove - THAT broke my already fragile heart.

Ok the law in Victoria is OPEN ADOPTION. In 1999, there where approx 30 babies withing the WHOLE of Australia up for adoption, crap eh? I bet that number is almost 0 now. It was law for Corbin to spend 6 weeks in the care of a foster mother, as a cooling off period. Here enters Di Harrison. What a woman! You know I dropped in on her a few weeks ago to catch up, shes still fostering kids! Di was my sounding board, my sympathetic ear and my joke machine to make me laugh. She got Corbin in a fantastic routine and taught me how to feed, bath and put him to bed. I visited pretty much every day he was there, apart from when I got crippling migraines from the stress.

No I never nearly changed my mind, I just enjoyed him :) I used to get angry that he couldn't be in the arms of his new parents right this second!

So, the day came and I signed my documents in a court chamber in front of a judge. Yes I cried.

I had to pick a family from three profiles. Gosh that was hard, awful. I kept saying I wish I had of had triplets and could help them all....I remember picking K and K because "they had a dog and loved animals" and their happy, chilled out relaxed photo.

The day I met them in the counselling room. OMG, I cannot begin to explain how emotionally charged that room was, to have someone race over and hug you with tears of gratitude, give you goose flesh. That amazing feeling can never be replaced and I hope to feel that again at the end of my surrogacy.

so there you go...have scanned and added some photos, I have ten zillion or so..

So when people ask me, "can you give up a baby?" Well, yes...yes I can..

so, its taken me the good part of an hour to sort this shiz out!

I am sooo not a blogger...maybe I will learn to be good at it..or not. Who knows. All I can hope is its legible and there are not too many grammer and spelling mistakes to drive more intellegent people nuts..yes I know you are out there...

I tend to just type..I may or may not recheck it, but hey Im not an auther and its my blog so...whatevs...

Resheduled my appoinment to Wednesday.

will probably be the next time I write...erm, sorry?

Above is the girl I have just picked up today from being mated.

Ok, so here it is, a blog. Whoo, exciting..bear with me until I get the hang of it!

Some back ground info on me and my decision to become a surrogate here in Australia. Firstly, I am on the iPad..so beware of auto correct!!

When I was 21 I gave up for adoption a baby boy. No regrets here, and meeting his new parents for the first time just blew me away. The overwhelming love and gratitude these strangers felt blew me away. In fact it was then and there I decided if Surrogacy ever become legal in Victoria (at the time Canberra was the only state it was legal) I would be a big part of it.

Fast forward 10 and a bit years, a wonderful marriage and three children and here I am!

My husband knew this day was coming as it was one of the things we talked about when we first met. He has always been a factor of strength and support in anything I set my mind too and this has been no exception.

DD was about a year old when we decided this was it. Our last baby! I then spent the next month googling, reading and reaserching on everything surrogacy, Aus surrogacy, IVF and where the victorian law stood. I decided yes, I was really ready to do this!

My first journey stalled here in Victoria. My wonderful IM, I believe, got the short shift. Lots of red tape that was Not getting any closer to being cut through. After travelling along with her for about 6 months we decided we both needed to move on. It was here I learned that Victoria is indeed a very tough state to use surrgacy to achieve a dream of having a child.

I met my next IM through a friend I met through a surrgacy group. First time I rang P, we clicked. I can't believe we spent so long chatting on the phone, it was like we had known eachother for years and years! Yes, I do believe in things happening for a reason. We met in person and her lovely husband J.

We have had many a dinner and hang out, all four of us and somtimes the kids too. Infact J babysat the kids while P and I went and saw her Gynacologist! They love him!

Legal paperwork was sorted through and lawyer met on both sides, a different laywer for each of us. Power of attorney and wills t's crossed and i's dotted.

Counselling was interesting! My poor hubby had been working around the clock and found it hard to fill out the questainair! My eldest DS was required for a half hour session as well.

Yes I do explain to the kids, DS, 10, understands. DS, 5 kind of understands and DD, 2 has no clue!

The latest meeting was with the IVF doctor. About 35 minuets, via Skype. The clinic is based in Sydney, as my IP's were based there and will return there later. They are in Victoria for work for a length of time.

I have an appointment with the clinic councillor on Wednesday. So technically we are in the home stretch now.

I started this blog to keep track for myself and other aussies interested in the process and perhaps entertaining the idea of becoming a surro themselves.

All Australian surrogacy is "Aulteristic" meaning compensation is not received. Everything to do with the surrogacy is paid for by the IPs but I do draw the line at P trying to pay me petrol money!! She's so cute!