After legal paperwork was done, the agency provided the legal clearance to the IVF Fertility clinic to go ahead. Then everyone waited for my monthly cycle so I could go to the IVF clinic for a blood test and ultrasound. This was quite weird, this is one of the few occasions when I am happy with the start of the menstrual cycle since this marks the beginning of the medical process of IVF!!!! I called the clinic and informed the IPs too when my menstrual cycle started. I called the clinic the day my cycle started and went in for the initial tests on day 4 of the cycle. After the tests, I started my medicines (depends on the clinic) for a natural cycle of IVF. Just after exactly one week, my uterus lining was 10.09mm!!!! I did not expect that much as the clinic was looking for around 8mm. Since this is my second journey, we (I and my hubby) did a lot of research on improving my uterus lining. For my first journey it was hard to get close to 8mm and it took two weeks to have medicines. For the improving uterus lining I had one cup of beet juice every day, watermelon, and blueberries. No sweets and sugar, no caffeine. Just a suggestion people can try them, there is no harm. Everything is homemade from fresh beets using slow pressed juicer and not the store-bought kind.
The lining was perfect to transfer the embryos. Since they were 5-day embryos I started PIO shots 5 days before transfer. The first shot is always the frightening one!!!! My husband gave me all the shots last time and this time too. For pain reduction, I use hot pad on the area where I get my PIO shot and nothing else. Three days before the transfer I had intralipids and an HCG wash at the clinic.
On the transfer day, I had acupuncture, blood work and then the embryo transfer followed by acupuncture. The IPs were with my husband and me during the transfer. I also filled up my bladder by drinking enough water. The doctor transferred two embryos and prayed for us. It was an awesome feeling to see the joy in the IPs!!!! The embryos were 5-day blastocysts. After the transfer, I laid on the transfer table for 30 minutes before rushing to the washroom!!! The intended mother was always there!!!! There is a myth that the transfer will be successful if the surrogate has McDonald fries after the transfer. I do not know how much truth there is to the myth, but I did it for my first surrogacy journey and this time too.
Then starts the anxious wait for pregnancy tests and their results. Obviously, everyone is praying to see a positive result. It’s very hard to be patient. So, I started testing after 4 days of embryo transfer. I got a faint line on the FRER tests on the night of the 5th day. But I was cautious to share with the IPs. Although I had gone through this wait in my first journey, it seemed so new. That is the wonder of surrogacy. The test lines got clearer on the 6th day, and I shared a photo of the test with the IPs. They were so happy but cautious too. I kept on testing every day and around the 8th day I got what is called BFP (Big Fat Positive) line on the FRER tester. I shared the test pics with my IPs and they are so ecstatic. I had a beta HCG blood work on the 10th day after transfer which was 96!!!! And the second beta test on the 12th day was even better at 315!!!!! They want to see the beta doubling every alternate day to declare a positive pregnancy.
