Saturday, April 21, 2012

Big News!

The long awaited news is finally here... We received a call early this morning from our agency coordinator in India: they ran a blood test on our surrogate last night, and we have a confirmed pregnancy!! We are totally over the moon, and could not be more thrilled. As many of you know, this was a big milestone that has been weighing on us for the past few days, so we are beyond excited to get such fantastic news. Obviously we are still very early in the process - she is now just 3 weeks along - but still such a relief to know that at least one of our little embryos is firmly tucked in. The clinic will probably run another blood test some time next week (to make sure that the hormone levels continue to to rise as they should), and the first sonography will be completed in about two weeks. At that point, we should be able to tell how many embryos we are talking about, and with any luck we will see the heartbeat(s) shortly thereafter! What an amazing day so far...we are totally overwhelmed, but in the most amazing way. We are on our way to Costa Rica as we speak, and are looking forward to a wonderful and relaxing trip. We promise to update the blog as soon as we have something new to share. As always, we couldn't be more grateful for all of your amazing support!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Waiting...and More Waiting

Hard to believe that we've been back from India for more than a week.  In some ways, this past week was 'normal' - we got back into our routine, went back to work, etc - but in other ways, it was the longest week ever! 

We had some email exchanges with our doctor in Mumbai - she let us know that she's planning on doing the pregnancy test on Friday or Saturday of this week, meaning that we still have almost another week to wait for some (hopefully good) news.  We're trying not to think about it constantly, but I've found myself looking at fertility blogs and other IVF discussion forums at least 3-4 times in the past week.  Even though there's no way to calculate odds of success (since there are so many different variables at play), I am encouraged when I read about the experiences of other couples who had our same 'embryo scenario' and got pregnant with at least one baby!  However, we also need to be cautious about managing our own expectations appropriately - we'll obviously be disappointed if it doesn't work this time around, but we know it will happen when it is meant to happen.

We're leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday morning, so we're really hoping that we can get the results before we head out of the country (again).  Depending on when we get the results, we will update the blog as soon as we can!  Thank you again for all of your love and supoprt. 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

A & A Back Home, and Transfer Completed!

Good morning from Atlanta!  We arrived home yesterday afternoon at around 2:50pm, after another long couple of flights from Mumbai and Amsterdam.  Once again, Alan slept for the majority of both flights, and I was thrilled to the gills that I managed about three hours of sleep on flight #1.  I'm sorry that we couldn't spend a day or two in Amsterdam on the way home, but since Delta wanted to charge us each $700+ to change our tickets, that most definitely wasn't happening!

We got some very good news from the clinic once we arrived home - all three of our viable embryos have been continuing to experience good cell division (as of last night, two of them had 8 cells and one of them had 6 cells, which is exactly where they should be on 'Day 3' of the process).  The doctor determined that all three are of good quality - again, a very positive sign - and she completed the transfer of all three embryos into the surrogate late last night Atlanta time.  Here is an image of the three embryos pre-transfer - you can definitely identify the two embryos with 8 cells and the one with 6 cells:


Now we begin the dreaded "two week wait" before we can get confirmation about if any of the embryos have taken.  I'm sure that those of you who have kids remember this waiting period well...we're only 12 hours in, and we can already tell it's going to take everything in our power not to fixate on this for the next 14 days! 

I'm not sure if we will be getting any additional reports from the clinic for the next couple of weeks, so the blog may go on a bit of a short-term hiatus.  However, we promise to update all of you as soon as we have something to share.  Alan has just posted some additional photos of our trip on Facebook, so feel free to take a look.  As always, we are so grateful for all of your positive thoughts and best wishes. We had an incredible few days in Mumbai and are very happy with how our trip went - one we'll remember forever!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Thursday Update

We just received a call from the doctor to tell us that at least three of our four eggs were successfully fertilized, which is great!  The jury is still out on egg number 4 - the embryologist couldn't tell yet if fertilization had occurred - but we should know for sure by tomorrow.  In any event, we are VERY relieved that at least three of the embryos seem to be on a good track.  Now they will continue to mature in the lab for the next couple of days, and the embryologist will grade them tomorrow (using an A, B, C scale) based on the amount of cell division present in each one.  Based on the grades, we'll make the determination about which embryos to implant into the surrogate, which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday evening.

So...in a nutshell, we are feeling good - one big hurdle behind us, but a few more to go.  Thanks for all of the good wishes you've been sending our way - please keep them coming!

Since the egg retrieval went off as scheduled yesterday, we've decided to come back to Atlanta a couple of days early - there's nothing else for us to do here on this trip as far as the surrogacy goes, and we feel that we've had a chance to see most of Mumbai's big tourist draws.  Also, since my parents and Alan's brother & family are in Atlanta, we don't want to miss out an opportunity to spend some more time with them.  We'll be leaving Mumbai early tomorrow morning (1:00am local time!), flying back through Amsterdam, and will be back in Atlanta by Friday mid-afternoon.  With a little bit of luck, we're only saying goodbye to Mumbai for nine months or so!  I promise to update the blog as soon as we have any news to share.  Thanks for all of your love and support!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Wednesday Update

Tuesday - Touring Mumbai

Yesterday (Tuesday) was an 'off' day for us, since we didn't need to be at the clinic for any purpose.  Our agency coordinator organized a day of touring around Mumbai, and we had some incredible opportunities to experience the 'real' India - including some things that we probably never would have had the chance to do if we'd been here on our own.  Here is a quick summary and some of our photos:

1)  Visit to SiddhiVinayak Temple:  This is one of the holiest Hindu temples in India, and was built in tribute to the Lord Ganesh.  Thousands of people visit the temple each day...and Alan and I were two of those people!  It took us more than an hour to get into the temple...we were lined up in a crush of worshippers, all of whom were extremely eager to get in and make their offerings.  Needless to say, all preconceptions about personal space were very quickly put to rest! It was a fascinating experience all around.

2)  Visit to a new mall in an up-and-coming section of Mumbai.  This mall rivals any mall in the US in terms of store types and overall modernity.  This visit really drove home the huge gap that exists in India between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' - not uncommon in most cultures around the world, but particularly noticeable here.

3)  Walk around South Mumbai, the oldest and most historic section of the city:  This is the location of the famous Taj Hotel, as well as the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate King George V and Queen Mary's visit to the city in 1911).  Here is a photo of the Taj, as well as one of us in front of the Gateway:



4)  Visit to Marine Drive, which is Mumbai's beachfront promenade. Tons of people around in the evening and it has a very laid back vibde:


That was about it for yesterday, since it seems to take at least 1 - 1.5 hours to drive to and from any location in Mumbai...so after a quick dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and were in bed by around 11pm.  For your viewing pleasure, here's another video of a lazy drive through the relaxed streets of Mumbai:


Wednesday - Egg Retrieval and Fertilization

Today (Wednesday) was the 'main event' - egg retrieval day at the clinic.  Our egg donor arrived at the clinic at around 10am, and the actual procedure began a little after noon.  When all was said and done, the embryologist was able to retrieve six healthy eggs (oocytes) from her.  This is along the lines of what we expected, based on the presence of 9-10 ovarian follicles (there is a maximum of one egg per follicle, but not every follicle is guaranteed to contain an egg)...but we were obviously hoping for a few more.  Our mantra has been (and continues to be) that we only need one  :)

We arrived at the clinic at around 2pm, and I gave a fresh sample...the embryologist began the fertilization process shortly thereafter using a process called ICSI, which is a fairly common technique in surrogacy situations.  We should know how many eggs were successfully fertilized by around 2pm tomorrow, as well as the 'grades' of each (based on the amount of cell division in the embyro 24 hours post-fertilization).  The doctor called us at around 7:00pm tonight to let us know that 4 of the 6 retrieved eggs were mature, and 2 were immature, meaning that they will have some more growing to do in the petrie dishes before we can determine if they'd be viable.

So...how are we feeling?  We are feeling OK - hopeful/optimistic that we'll have a high fertilization rate tomorrow (hopefully 6/6!), which means that we'll have more embryos to work with for purposes of implantation into the surrogate.  We are obviously feeling anxious that we only have six eggs (four if you only count mature ones) - so definitely a mix of conflicting emotions.  We're doing everything we can to not think about it, which means it's all we're thinking about! But we're trying to remain upbeat, and your positive thoughts and words of encouragement have been very helpful to this point - so since the next 72 hours are particularly important, we appreciate you sending good thoughts in the direction of the fertility center:

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Good morning from Mumbai!

Greetings from India!  We're now beginning our second full day here in Mumbai - our trip so far has been nothing short of fascinating.  We arrived here from Amsterdam late on Sunday night local time.  Both of our flights (Atlanta-Amsterdam, and Amsterdam-Mumbai) were on time and otherwise uneventful.  As expected, Alan was able to sleep for a good portion of both flights, while I only managed to sleep a couple of hours on each.  I spent the rest of the time reading and - you guessed it - watching the moving map.  For those of you who have a reason to fly Delta on long-haul flights, I highly recommend Economy Comfort seats - that little bit of extra legroom goes a long way.

Upon arrival, we passed through passport control very quickly, waited about 20 minutes for our bags, and cleared customs with no problem.  We got our first taste of India when we walked out to the arrivals courtyard.  It was at least 80 degrees and humid - keep in mind this was at 11:45pm - but the thing that struck us the most was the sheer number of people waiting to pick up passengers.  We were surrounded on three sides by hundreds of greeters, hotel shuttle drivers, etc, each holding a placard with someone's name on it.  We didn't take a photo of this, but I did manage to find one on the Virtual Tourist website.  Just multiply this photo by about 50, and you'll have a sense for how many people were there!


By some stroke of luck, we were able to find our hotel shuttle driver pretty quickly, and he whisked us off to the Courtyard Marriott Mumbai International Airport.  The hotel is about 15 minutes from the airport, and is extremely nice - in fact, I think it is nicer than most Courtyards in the US (probably more on-par with a full-service Marriott).  Without exception, the staff has been unbelievably gracious and attentive.  This kind hospitality has been a common theme throughout our stay in India so far - more on that later.  The rooms are clean and comfortable, and we feel very much at home.  Here is a photo that Alan took of the room, with yours truly on the iPad (probably playing Scramble, since we have wireless here!):


After an excellent night's sleep, we got up yesterday morning and got our first glimpse of India in the daytime out of our hotel window.  As you can see, every inch of available space is occupied, and there is a ton of urban development underway.  That is the other thing we've noticed in our short time here - everywhere you look, there is a building under construction, a metro line being built, or older buildings being demolished to make room for new ones.  It seems that India really does epitomize the term "developing country!"



 Our agency coordinator (Vibha) has come to Mumbai from Hyderabad just to meet us, and she came to pick us up in a taxi at around 2:00pm so that we could head to the fertility center for our first meeting.  I don't think that anything can prepare you for the experience of driving in Mumbai, which is simultaneously invigorating and utterly petrifying.  The chaotic mix of cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, animals, and people is unbelievable - but somehow, it all seems to work - we didn't see (or thankfully, experience) a single accident.  Here are a couple of videos that we took from the back of the cab - it doesn't do justice to the experience, but is a good representation nonetheless:




It took about 45 minutes to get to the clinic, which is located in a more residential area of Mumbai (if there is such a thing!).  From the outside, the clinic looks a little bit sketchy and run-down - but once inside, we were pleasantly surprised by how modern and clean everything was.  We were shown into an exam room and a PA had us sign a few documents, I was left alone to give a new 'sample' for analysis and freezing, and then I had some blood taken. 

After that, we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Tandon herself.  She is unassuming and approachable, and we felt very comfortable in her presence.  She spent some time updating us on the status of the donor:  she is doing well, and the egg retrieval itself is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon local time.  We will go back to the clinic at around 1:00 or 2:00pm, I will give another fresh sample, and the embryologist will begin the fertilization shortly thereafter.  The clinic is able to record the fertilization itself and burn it onto a DVD, which means we should be able to upload a copy to this blog!  The fertilized embryos will stay in the petrie dishes for 48+ hours, after which point up to three of the embryos with successful cell division will be implanted into the surrogate.  With any luck, we'll get a pregnancy confirmation by April 18 or so.

Once we'd finished meeting with Dr. Tandon and asked all of our questions, we met back up with our driver and headed back to the hotel.  Alan and I had dinner at one of the restaurants downstairs, and got to bed at around 10:30pm.  We have a full day planned for today - Vibha was gracious enough to volunteer to take us around Mumbai, so she is coming by in a little while to take us out for the afternoon and evening.  We should have plenty of new photos to upload for tomorrow's blog entry (before we head back to the clinic for the 'main event'), so be sure to check back soon for updates!