11/28/11 - Third Beta: 32,914!

11/17/11: 2nd Beta--1,202!! (TRIPLED!!)

11/15/11 - First Beta blood test: POSITIVE! (367)

11/11/11 - Lucky Day for 1st Home Pregnancy Test

Three out of three say we're pregnant!!

 Two very happy daddies-to-be getting the news via skype!!

11/5/11 - Goodbye until next time!

11/3/11 - TRANSFER DAY

Last day of 'no belly'!

9 Beautiful Embryos!

11/2/11 - To LA for Transfer

Venice Beach

10/31/11 - Egg Retrieval

9/30/11 - Start medications

8/24/11 - All legal contracts finalized

7/17/11 - Brunch meeting in Atlanta

7/10/11 - To LA for (attempted) match meeting...

6/10/11 - To LA for Screening

My name is Natalie and this is my blog about my first time as a gestational surrogate.  It may end up being not much more than a list of dates, facts, and pictures/videos to share with my friends, family members, and the parents of the baby I'm growing--or the bun in my oven, or "die brotchen in meinem ofen".  :)

My journey to surrogacy has thus far been filled with:

• Hours and hours of discussion with my DH about how this might affect our family, our relationship, my health, and even some friendships
• Lots of time spent just thinking about my true motivations, my desires, my fears, my needs, and my hopes
• Lots of online time searching different agencies and surrogate blogs, websites and forums
• Long online applications
• Multiple telephone interviews with agencies
• Stacks and stacks (and stacks) of paper application materials
• Trip to LA to be interviewed by the agency I decided to work with (Growing Generations)
• Doctor appointments for medical clearance
• Psychological testing for mental clearance

Being a surrogate is something that I've thought about doing for the past few years.  However, since every pregnancy can affect your reproductive health, I didn't want to pursue it until DH and I were finished creating our own family.  After the birth of my daughter, we have decided (at least for now, haha) that we are blessed and happy and DONE.  So several months ago, I began the research process for how to get started.  I've witnessed several friends have struggles with fertility and go through heart-wrenching processes and procedures in hopes of having a family of their own.  I've always felt so horrible to not be able to help them or give them what they so desperately wanted.  Though this journey will not directly touch the lives of any of my friends by adding to their families, it is a tribute of sorts and I take every step with them all in my heart.

With all of that in mind....this step, on 6/10/11--DH and I are headed to LA for our medical and psychological screenings by Growing Generations and HRC Fertility.

We met with all of the above, were interviewed, poked and prodded and I even had to complete a 500+ question psychological test on a computer.  Crossing fingers that I passed, haha.