First post, Second Journey!

Hello! I'm back! Remember me? I gave birth 6 months ago and am gearing up for surrobaby #2! Let me back it up a few months.

I delivered "baby V" on 7/15/15. You can read about my journey here. We had a wild ride... but something in me said I was going to do it again.  I just knew it.  When baby was born, I told the agency I wanted to do another journey.  Nicole obviously thought I was crazy.  But it's true. I was SO ready.  There's a funny meme I found, it totally reminds me of me:

I was ready. Maybe a little crazy. But definitely was ready to do it again.  We had some complications after he was born, and thankfully, things finally ended around 12 weeks postpartum.  Nicole had some IPs who she thought would be perfect for me, so one day she texted me and said "just give me the green light when you're ready!" I texted back immediately "GREEN LIGHT"!   

I filled out a new questionnaire, updated from when I had Baby V... and shortly after, Nicole told me that the couple LOVED my profile and they wanted to proceed!  Before we met on Skype, their RE (reproductive endocrinologist) had to review my medical history and pregnancy history to determine if I was a good candidate.  A couple weeks later, I got word that I was!  So we set up our "first date"!  Adam was in Colorado at the time, so we did a 4 way Skype call with me, Adam, Nicole and the IPs! We chatted for about 90 minutes, couldn't stop talking!  

After the call, Nicole called me and said "just let me know what you think and if you want to proceed", so of course I called Adam to confirm what I could feel burning through my whole being! YES! PROCEED!  I LOVE that I was matched SO quickly again!  I LOVE my new IPs ALL OVER AGAIN.  I am so sad their journey to parenthood has led them to surrogacy, but I am so thankful at the same time.  My IM (who we will call Tami) and I have a connection on some crazy level.  She said she had never heard of surrogacy before, and didn't even know it was an option.  She regrets not pursuing this earlier, but I told her... no, you couldn't have, I wasn't ready to carry for you any earlier than when you did learn about it!  So wonderful seeing little miracles unfold already in this journey! 

The next step was to have my medical evaluation with their RE.  Nicole joined Adam and I to that appointment!  The IPs were in town for some business, so they came and met us there too!  It was SO wonderful to meet Tami and her husband (who we will call Jim) in person! Tami gave  me THE BIGGEST hug when we saw each other.  We hugged for a very long time.  I think she started to well up with tears because Nicole said "don't cry just yet!" Awwww.  

My appointment in early December did not go as wonderfully as I would have liked, but I now know that this RE is just overly thorough--which is great for everyone, just hard to wait!  Because I had a D&C, the doctor wanted to do a sonohysterogram, which is basically a sonogram with water in my uterus.  They do that so they can blow up the uterus a bit and check the lining to see if there was any scar tissue or anything left from the D&C.  He noticed a little wiggly looking thing, (his exact words). That could be scar tissue, or left over lining from my last menstrual cycle.  I had only had a few cycles since having V so it could have worked itself out in the next cycle.  The purpose of IVF is to transfer an embryo with the BEST chances possible, giving the embryo every fighting chance to implant.  So that little wiggly thing would need to be removed if it were still there next month.  

I went back in early January and to my delight, the wiggly thing was gone!  WOO!  So then, I was able to get my labs drawn! They check your blood for EVERYTHING.  I had no problems with my labs when I had V so we all thought it would just be 10 days of waiting then on to legal.  :::Buzzer sound:::: Wrong again!  I tested positive for CMV-IgM which, from what I understand, means I have antibodies for a Human Herpes Virus.  That could be anything like mono, a bad cold, or *ahem* SHINGLES.  Shingles is related to HHV, but it is a Herpes Simple Virus (HSV).  If you don't know me super well, I had a horrible outbreak of shingles after Ellie was born. I mean, we're talking HOLY CRAP how did I survive that?!  Because of Shingles, I have PTN on my back (postherpetic neuralgia) which is essentially permanent nerve damage. It sucks, but it is what it is.  --Off track sorry-- So anyhow, I figure I am carrying antibodies from that... so if my number is the same again at my next blood test (1/29) then we know that is my "resting" antibodies and it won't go down.  The doctor said that after an infection, the number usually is down to undetectable after 3 weeks.  So that's why they wait and test again.  I have spoken with 6 surrogates who all passed the second blood test.  No one that I know of with positive IgM, has not passed. 

So, we wait.  You're caught up!  I have my blood draw next Friday! We will have the results in about 10 days and HOPEFULLY move on to legal after that!!!  

Here is my prayer list: 

Pray for God's guidance!

Pray for patience as we wait 16 days to find out if I'm good to go!

Pray for legal to be fast and low emotions for both parties.  Our IPs and I have chatted about a lot already!

Pray for that one perfect embryo to be thawed nicely and that it would implant first try! We are transferring just one I believe. 

My IPs are christians, so pray for their faith through this process!  

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

<3 Julie