Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Home and the 2 Week Wait..
Well, I think I'm finally coming around after arriving home on the 18th. The jet lag has been wicked and can't imagine what the travel will be like with one or two wee ones to cart through airports and hold on knees during multiple 8 or 9 - hour flights. I slept a lot on the planes and have slept a lot since coming home.
Mumbai was incredible. The smog was a bit overwhelming since neither of us has ever experienced it before, but the people we met were really great. The Doc's and staff at Surrogacy India are very warm and welcoming. Everyone at the Courtyard Marriott was so friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed our stay there. Surrogacy India had a car for us every day and they called in the morning and either informed us of what we were to do that day, if we had tests, meetings or the transfer, or they asked what we would like to do and then took us around.
We went site seeing one day. First, we went to Mahatma Gandhi's House. I was a little overcome with the awesomeness of being in the same place as that great man, who wrote one of my favorite sayings, " An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind". We later went to the Gateway to India where we actually got asked to be in a Bollywood/Canada co-production that was taking place over the next three days. We were a little disappointed that we didn't have time for it...well, I think Alcy was more than a little disappointed - he was picturing himself as a big Bollywood star.
It is a beautiful city in many ways, beautiful architecture and people, colourful saris. The traffic was crazy, but slow enough that fatal crashes were probably rare. The weather was nice. The hottest day was our last day, but the rest of the days were quite comfortable. When we return we will be able to visit more places and I'm really looking forward to that.
As for our 2WW, we did the Egg pick up on the 14th and the transfer on the 17th. We didn't get as many embryo's as we would have liked but we did get two Grade 1 8-cell embies to transfer and are feeling pretty good about that. We also got two to freeze and we feel good about all the embies.
Our SM is beautiful and seems very capable and mature and we are sure that we will have a positive pregnancy. The wait is agonizing, however. I have spent a good part of the day researching the meaning of the Embryo Grade and cell number. Although there is no uniform Grade system within the IVF community, most seem to use a system between 1 - 4 with 1 being the highest quality and 4 the least, though some embryologists use letters A - D and some rate 4 as the highest quality and 1 as the least. It can be confusing, but I believe in our case Grade 1 is the highest quality - hurray! Also, with a transfer on day 3, 8 cell's are what you hope for - so it looks like we transferred two perfect embies.
Then I found a website that did calculations based on the Egg pick up date and from that I found every milestone date of the journey, but I'm not ready to record anything yet. We will hopefully get a great First Beta Test on the 29th or 30th. and a great Second a few days later.
Mumbai was incredible. The smog was a bit overwhelming since neither of us has ever experienced it before, but the people we met were really great. The Doc's and staff at Surrogacy India are very warm and welcoming. Everyone at the Courtyard Marriott was so friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed our stay there. Surrogacy India had a car for us every day and they called in the morning and either informed us of what we were to do that day, if we had tests, meetings or the transfer, or they asked what we would like to do and then took us around.
We went site seeing one day. First, we went to Mahatma Gandhi's House. I was a little overcome with the awesomeness of being in the same place as that great man, who wrote one of my favorite sayings, " An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind". We later went to the Gateway to India where we actually got asked to be in a Bollywood/Canada co-production that was taking place over the next three days. We were a little disappointed that we didn't have time for it...well, I think Alcy was more than a little disappointed - he was picturing himself as a big Bollywood star.
It is a beautiful city in many ways, beautiful architecture and people, colourful saris. The traffic was crazy, but slow enough that fatal crashes were probably rare. The weather was nice. The hottest day was our last day, but the rest of the days were quite comfortable. When we return we will be able to visit more places and I'm really looking forward to that.
As for our 2WW, we did the Egg pick up on the 14th and the transfer on the 17th. We didn't get as many embryo's as we would have liked but we did get two Grade 1 8-cell embies to transfer and are feeling pretty good about that. We also got two to freeze and we feel good about all the embies.
Our SM is beautiful and seems very capable and mature and we are sure that we will have a positive pregnancy. The wait is agonizing, however. I have spent a good part of the day researching the meaning of the Embryo Grade and cell number. Although there is no uniform Grade system within the IVF community, most seem to use a system between 1 - 4 with 1 being the highest quality and 4 the least, though some embryologists use letters A - D and some rate 4 as the highest quality and 1 as the least. It can be confusing, but I believe in our case Grade 1 is the highest quality - hurray! Also, with a transfer on day 3, 8 cell's are what you hope for - so it looks like we transferred two perfect embies.
Then I found a website that did calculations based on the Egg pick up date and from that I found every milestone date of the journey, but I'm not ready to record anything yet. We will hopefully get a great First Beta Test on the 29th or 30th. and a great Second a few days later.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Bombay bound...
Today's the day. I haven't been able to sleep. Alcy woke me up at 6:00 am and then went back to sleep while I tossed and turned until finally deciding to get up and this has gone on for the past few nights. So typical! I'm so jealous of Alcy's ability to sleep, but I have a surprise for him - he will be the one to get up in the middle of the night for feedings and changings.
Tonight I will get to sleep in a plane with a tiny little pillow wrapped around my neck...but it is all so exciting because we will be in Bombay at the end of the flight! It will likely be 1:30 or 2:00 am when we get to our hotel, so hopefully we will get some sleep then.
Right now I can't stop fretting about whether everything is packed that needs to be packed....better go check.
Tonight I will get to sleep in a plane with a tiny little pillow wrapped around my neck...but it is all so exciting because we will be in Bombay at the end of the flight! It will likely be 1:30 or 2:00 am when we get to our hotel, so hopefully we will get some sleep then.
Right now I can't stop fretting about whether everything is packed that needs to be packed....better go check.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Three more sleeps...
Well, we hope we're ready. Suitcases are open on the bedroom floor - mostly packed. We're both very excited and very nervous. I spoke to Amit from Explore India and arranged our hotel. We will be staying at the Courtyard Marriott. I thought it was a bit over our budget, but Amit managed to get us a good rate. I'm trying to keep the travel expenses down to under $5000.00 - so far, so good.
I'm definitely not looking forward to the actual travel. We leave at 6:15 pm on the 11th and arrive at 12:30 am on the 13th. It is almost exactly 12 hours between leaving Montreal and arriving in London. I'm not sure how much of that is travel time and how much is time difference. It is even longer between London and Mumbai. The main concern will be comfort!
I wish we had more time to see some sites while in India, but I don't think we'll have much time to do anything apart from a little shopping and maybe check out Juhu Beach. Perhaps an extra day to see the Gateway to India and the Taj Mahal Hotel. If everything works out we will be back for a longer stay and will try to see the actual Taj Mahal and Goa.
I'm just soooo excited to start this incredible journey!
I'm definitely not looking forward to the actual travel. We leave at 6:15 pm on the 11th and arrive at 12:30 am on the 13th. It is almost exactly 12 hours between leaving Montreal and arriving in London. I'm not sure how much of that is travel time and how much is time difference. It is even longer between London and Mumbai. The main concern will be comfort!
I wish we had more time to see some sites while in India, but I don't think we'll have much time to do anything apart from a little shopping and maybe check out Juhu Beach. Perhaps an extra day to see the Gateway to India and the Taj Mahal Hotel. If everything works out we will be back for a longer stay and will try to see the actual Taj Mahal and Goa.
I'm just soooo excited to start this incredible journey!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Just about on our way...
I haven't kept up with this very well, but things have been moving fast and the holidays are just over. I'm enjoying my last day off work, but only have a week of work and then we'll be off to Mumbai!
We had to change our ED again, which is disappointing, but hopefully this one will have very good eggs! We got an email from the clinic ( the day we were leaving for Christmas with my sister's family ) asking us if we could come to India for January 11 or 12 as they want to do the Egg retrieval on Jan 15th! I booked the flights and we leave on the 11th and return the 18th!
With the time differences and the holidays it has been difficult to arrange the hotel with Amit and I'm worried that we're running out of time as they're getting booked. There was a suggestion of some $200.00 +/ night hotels, but that is a little out of our range. Hopefully, we find something clean, comfortable and safe.
Also, my son, Justin, and his wife, Kristina, have agreed to stand in should, God forbid, anything happen to us, but Kristina has been away and we haven't been able to get her info. to send to the clinic. I tried sending Justin a message and calling last night but no answer. I think he is on a short holiday now, after working all Christmas.
I'm sure everything will get sorted out.
Really, I can't believe we are almost on our way and hopefully, PRAY, we will soon be pregnant.
I have to go through my clothes for the trip and wash and iron anything that needs it and get together all papers we will need. It is such a short time in India, only four days, so we don't need much. What a whirlwind trip!
We had to change our ED again, which is disappointing, but hopefully this one will have very good eggs! We got an email from the clinic ( the day we were leaving for Christmas with my sister's family ) asking us if we could come to India for January 11 or 12 as they want to do the Egg retrieval on Jan 15th! I booked the flights and we leave on the 11th and return the 18th!
With the time differences and the holidays it has been difficult to arrange the hotel with Amit and I'm worried that we're running out of time as they're getting booked. There was a suggestion of some $200.00 +/ night hotels, but that is a little out of our range. Hopefully, we find something clean, comfortable and safe.
Also, my son, Justin, and his wife, Kristina, have agreed to stand in should, God forbid, anything happen to us, but Kristina has been away and we haven't been able to get her info. to send to the clinic. I tried sending Justin a message and calling last night but no answer. I think he is on a short holiday now, after working all Christmas.
I'm sure everything will get sorted out.
Really, I can't believe we are almost on our way and hopefully, PRAY, we will soon be pregnant.
I have to go through my clothes for the trip and wash and iron anything that needs it and get together all papers we will need. It is such a short time in India, only four days, so we don't need much. What a whirlwind trip!
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