Heartbeats

After the 12 week visit, it would be just about a month until Jenna's next appointment. We were very excited for this one bc we would get to hear the heartbeats! So, on May 2nd, Jenna FaceTimed us from the exam room after the nurse left but before the doctor came into the room. We chatted a bit with Jenna and the doctor and then we heard this...

Heartbeats audio

It was amazing. From the recording you can tell that one was much easier to hear than the other but they were both in there! We had some time to ask some more questions to the doctor, one of which was the debate on whether to fly or drive back with the newborns.   Despite our flight issues, we decided after hearing the doctor's input that after the birth in Wisconsin we would fly back. That will be an adventure! 😳

Jenna has been awesome about sending us photos as well as little texts when the babies are moving. As much as we can, we are trying to experience every little thing possible. One thing that has surprised us throughout this part of the journey is experiencing the immense joy and excitement of the babies' growth at the same time as experiencing the difficulty and longing that comes with being far away from them. Obviously, we'll take it!

We'll let these photos catch you up on the weeks following the heartbeat appointment...

12 Week Visit

Jenna's first OB appointment was scheduled for Monday, April 4 in Wisconsin.  We flew into Minneapolis on Sunday and rented a car to drive the 3 hours to where the OB appointment would be.  On the way, to break up the drive, we happened upon the Leinenkugel Brewery so we took a quick stop there.

Jenna and Joe picked us up at our hotel Sunday evening to go out to dinner. It was great to spend more time with them.  We ate at a really delicious farm-to-table restaurant.  

On Monday, our OB appointment wasn't until early afternoon so we ate an early lunch and then headed over to the appointment.  We were so excited and nervous.  This was Jenna's first time meeting with this OB doctor as well since the practice had switched who could see patients carrying multiples.  We were allowed to go back to the exam room with Jenna and Joe and had time to just sit and talk with the doctor first, which was great.  We could ask lots of questions and he was super easy to speak with.  He and his wife actually have twins through IVF, so that was really comforting.  

Then we got to the part we were all waiting for...the ultrasound!  It was incredible.  As the doctor moved around the ultrasound we could see the babies react by flailing their arms or moving around.  Amazing.  These are our babies...in person (kind of).  So incredible to see them and be mere feet away from them.  This was the first ultrasound we were present for.  It was also incredible to see Jenna and Joe's excitement at our reaction to seeing the twins for the first time. 

This is a brief clip of the ultrasound.  You can't see much but you can see one of the babies move a bit.  Really amazing.

 One of our babies (the other one wasn't positioned well to get a close up).

Both of the babies, side-by-side.

As we left the appointment, both Jon and I teared up at being able to witness our babies in person for the first time.  

We spent the rest of the day with Jenna and Joe's family.  We got to meet Jenna's parents & their two kids.  We ate dinner at their home (and had delicious cupcakes from a local bakery) after having a tour of their hometown.  We headed back to Minneapolis and flew back home the next morning.  On our drive back to Minneapolis, we posted our announcement on Facebook with a link to this blog.  We teared up in the car just reading everyone's responses to our announcement.  We had kept everything so secret for so long because of how emotionally hard this whole process was, it was incredible to finally be able to share it.  

Weekly Ultrasounds

Over the next several weeks following the initial blood work & ultrasound, Jenna would get blood work and ultrasounds done every week.  It was amazing to get such frequent updates!

Monday, March 6th 

Each time they did an ultrasound, they would give the measurement of the babies & their heartbeats.  The babies were 11 mm and 14 mm.  Although the heartbeats couldn't be heard yet, they are able to visually see their heartbeat, which is pretty incredible.  So their heartbeats were 157 and 149.  All was looking really good! 

Monday, March 13th
By this ultrasound, the babies were 19 mm and 20 mm and their heart rates were above 180 which they said was perfect!  

After this March 13th ultrasound, Jenna's care was transferred to her OB and it was time to plan our first trip out to Wisconsin for the first OB appointment at 12 weeks...

The Pregnancy Test

As you might imagine, it felt like the longest 10 days ever. All we could really do was keep ourselves busy. Fortunately, it was already scheduled to be a busy week. We were out almost every night of that waiting period, which was a helpful distraction. We also had Rachel's mom coming to visit for the weekend to celebrate Rachel's birthday, which was Monday.  We knew that it would either be a tough weekend with disappointing news...or a joyous weekend with amazing news. Either way, it would be good to have Rachel's mom with us!

During this waiting time, we received an email from our case manager, Tina, at The Surrogacy Experience which just helped the anticipation build.  Her subject was: "IS IT FRIDAY YET?!"  So comforting to know we had so many others who were waiting with anticipation as well.  Her email said "just sharing my excitement for the next appointment!"

Then, Friday February 10th arrived. We knew that Jenna's appointment was early in the morning (she graciously got the earliest possible appointment). We figured we should get a call sometime mid-morning. Since each of our experiences were different, we'll tell the story of that day from each of our perspectives.

Jon
I am typically off Fridays, which normally is great because I have long, leisurely quiet mornings. On this particular Friday, I had two errands to run - pick up some dog meds from the vet and then take the dogs to get their haircuts. I pretty much had my phone taped to my face so that I would not miss the call. I knew that Main Line Fertility would call Rachel, who would then call me and add me to the call. 9am, 10am, and 11am all rolled by with no call. Why hadn't they called yet? Of course, I was interpreting the delay as a bad sign. Finally, while I was driving the dogs to the groomer (and our one dog Mordecai was hyperventilating as he does in the car) my phone rang with Rachel on the caller ID.

With giant butterflies in my stomach, she connected me to the nurse from Main Line Fertility who greeted us. At first impression, I judged her tone to be a little too laid back or tentative to be delivering good news. But then she said, "I am pleased to tell you..." Did she just say "pleased"? That's pretty much all I heard. She relayed information like hormone levels and stuff like that, but seriously all I heard was it was a successful transfer.

We've had so many disappointments that it was such a strange feeling to feel pure and absolute joy. And man, was it refreshing. After trying to hold it together at Petco where I handed the dogs off to the staff, I returned to my car and just cried for a bit giving thanks to God.

Rachel
I was at work, trying to keep my mind occupied.  I kept my phone on me anywhere I went in the office.  Jenna and I were texting back and forth.  She had worn her trusty stork leggings and sent me a picture of her in them saying "just sitting around waiting and praying for the results."  As we continued to wait, she texted that she "was disappointed that my 6:30am effort hasn't seemed to pay off for earlier results!!!"  Finally around 11:45am I received the call, when I picked up she started saying "I am pleased.." and I said "WAIT!"  She asked if I knew the results and I said "no" but that I need to connect my husband onto the phone so I called Jon.  With Jon on the line, the nurse continued "I am please to tell you that Jenna had a positive pregnancy test." I feel like crying just typing that.  As Jon said, we had been so used to receiving negative news it was unbelievable to receive such incredible news.  I just put my head down on my desk and cried tears of joy.

After allowing time for the news to settle in a little bit, we began to message our families.  One of my favorite responses was from my cousin, Sara, who texted "AHHHHH!!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS! I'm seriously jumping up and down right now!!!  And now I'm crying.  I'm SO excited for you!!  I will pray regularly for your little ones."  We have been surrounded by so much love and prayer during this time.  My cousin, Laura, texts me regularly that she is praying and celebrating each new marker that we pass.

Our case manager emailed us with her excitement of the news:

Tina: I can’t even express how excited I am for you both. These were great first results!
Now I know we need to take each appointment as it comes but I can’t contain my joy at this point!
What a great way to start the weekend. 

Rachel: Thank you!  I don't think I breathed the whole morning.  It seemed to take FOREVER to get the results but we are ecstatic.  Trying to keep ourselves in check waiting for the blood work on Monday and then the ultrasound but MLF said the HCG levels were very strong which is very encouraging.  What a long process this has been.  My birthday is Monday so this is a fabulous birthday present!  Thank you for walking with us through this process!

On Monday the 13th, Jenna went for blood work to tell us what the hormone levels were. These levels tell us the probability of there still being two embryos and they looked high which normally would indicate twins.  Then we needed to wait until Thursday the 16th for Jenna's ultrasound appointment.  Jenna texted that she planned to wear her stork leggings again.  In Jenna's last surrogacy experience, she was allowed to take pictures and video of the ultrasounds but the technician did not want her to this time.  Jenna was able to convince the ultrasound tech to allow her to take one picture of the ultrasound but was very upset that she would not tell her if there was more than one baby.  This is the picture she sent:

This time we received a call from Dr. Glasner directly stating that there were two embryos!  He expressed how happy he was for us and he knows what a long difficult process this has been.

That evening Rachel received a package in the mail from Wisconsin...a pair of her own stork leggings!  Jenna had bought her a pair and mailed them to her.  What a special gift.  

The Transfer

So, Jenna and her friend did make it out to Philly late Sunday night on the original flight - just several hours later than expected. What's more - in a rare display of grace and mercy, American Airlines (with whom we had booked the backup emergency flight) issued us vouchers for the tickets we purchased but now had no use for. We picked them up from the airport, got them to the hotel, and the transfer could go forward as planned. Phew!!

If you've been following along, you know that we had never been to this point with any of our previous carriers so this was completely unchartered territory. It was definitely a milestone day full of emotions. After enjoying breakfast in Bryn Mawr we headed to Main Line Fertility for the appointment. Everyone at Main Line Fertility with whom we'd been journeying for so long was so hopeful and extended us best wishes on a successful transfer.

Jon, Rachel, Jenna, and then Regina and Terri from Main Line Fertility

If you look closely at the photos with Jenna, you can see the amazing stork leggings that she has worn to every appointment. We loved them! And here, for the first time, we'd like to introduce baby A and baby B. Well, embryos are not the most attractive thing in the world but it is pretty amazing how this all works, right??

Everything went smoothly with the transfer and Jenna was on bedrest for the rest of the day. After dropping them off at the hotel (and grabbing a quick photo) we had a few hours to just rest, relax, and let our heart rates return to normal. We had a nice evening of dinner and a movie at our home. The next day, after driving around a bit in the city, we dropped them back off at the airport to head back to Wisconsin. And now the wait....It would be 10 days until Jenna would go for a pregnancy test.

 Jon, Rachel, and Jenna at the Wayne Hotel

Looking good...maybe

Two weeks after Jenna's visit, we heard back from Main Line Fertility that all of her labs looked good and we were ok'd to proceed with her.  We had been told of the scheduled closure of the lab that Main Line uses for about 3 weeks in December so Jenna was scheduled to start her medications in the beginning of January.  We were seeing more glimmers of hope.

Christmas day, we received a text from Melanie, out of the blue, saying "Merry Christmas!  I think of you guys often and have been wondering how things have been going for both of you?  Hoping and praying that you have good news!"  Once again it was so reassuring to know that she was thinking of us and praying for us. We told her about Jenna and she was so excited.

Jenna continued to go in for weekly blood work and lab studies out in Wisconsin to see if she was responding to the medications and each time things looked exactly as Main Line had hoped.  The fertility clinic in Wisconsin was given instructions by Main Line Fertility here.  Towards the end of January we heard from Main Line that they were scheduling the embryo transfer day for January 30!!  Jenna would be flying out with a friend of hers on Sunday, January 29th.  This also happened to be the same day Jon would be flying back from a conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, so we were slightly concerned due to our previously discussed flight issues.

Sunday the 29th arrived and Jon made it back from Grand Rapids with no issues.  So with that out of the way we headed home to wait for Jenna's arrival.  We had planned to eat dessert with Jon's parents after Jenna and her friend arrived so they could meet.  Jenna had a layover in Detroit and was scheduled to land in Philly at 7:45pm.  All went well with the first flight so we waited for her to board the 2nd flight.  Jenna texted us that they were boarded and she would see us soon.  We kept an eye on the flight updates and kept noticing that the expected time of arrival continued to be pushed back later.  Then we received another text from Jenna that Delta's computers had crashed nationwide and all flights were being grounded.  Are you kidding me?!$% This had happened about a month before and it took several days for flights to take off again.  This was very upsetting news.

Because of our absolute lack of trust in the airline industry, we went ahead and booked Jenna and her friend on a different airline for first thing the next morning. We reached out to Main Line to see if we could move the clinic day to Tuesday since we weren't sure Jenna was going to make it in time for the transfer the next morning.  They responded that unfortunately, if she didn't make it in time, she would have to restart a new month's worth of medications.  While we waited to see if she would make it out or not, we went ahead to Jon's parents house to be with them.  We ate the dessert with them and played a game while we waited.

While we waited, Rachel received a text from Melanie, who had no idea that the clinic day had been scheduled, she was just checking in.  This is the conversation:

Melanie: Hey! I've been fervently praying that you will have a successful transfer!  Haven't heard if and when it is, but I"m hoping you already had it or it's coming soon!"

Rachel: Hello! Your timing is always amazing.  God must give you extra prodding when we really need your prayers.

We proceeded to tell her about the situation and she offered her continued prayers and hopes that everything would work out.

Rachel: Thank you so much and you have no idea how wonderful your texts have been.  You are still so much in our hearts.

And this was her response, which still brings tears to our eyes:

"As you are in ours!  I am still disappointed it didn't work out with us but I think I came in the picture to be a prayer warrior for you and Jon through you surrogacy journey."

And we completely agree.

Renewed Hope

After re-signing with the surrogacy agency, we expected a several month wait at least but in a little over a month, on the day of our 10th wedding anniversary, we received an email from Tina about a new potential carrier:

"Good morning to you both,
I am very excited to present this carrier to you! 

Jenna is an experienced carrier with us.  I really wanted to try finding you someone that has done a surrogacy before so we know she responds to medications and has a proven track record.  She delivered twins for her last parents and the babies were born after 37 weeks.  And for an extra bonus………… she lives in Wisconsin. So, I drive right through her town when I go visit my sister.  I already sent her records over to Main Line and they stated she looks like a good candidate to proceed with. She and her family are very humble, kind and giving.  I think they could be the one.   Let me know your thoughts. Tina"

Needless to say, we felt a glimmer of hope.   This was the first time we were matched with someone who had carried before.  Two weeks later we spoke with Jenna and her husband on the phone and by the end of that week, we all agreed to continue as a match.  We began making plans for the clinic day at Main Line Fertility.  We have to say at this point too, how amazing Main Line Fertility has been.  They were so sad for us at each failed match and would aways offer us encouragement.  They had been super accessible during the process to answer questions via phone or email. 

Jenna and Rachel started emailing back and forth to get to know one another and felt a connection similar to that with Melanie.  She was easy to talk to and it was great to speak with someone that had carried before because she knew more or less what to expect going forward.  We planned our time together for their visit and wanted to spend as much time together as possible and show them some Philly sites.  Jon was also very excited to expose them to a taste of a Philly  cheesesteak.  

Jenna and Joe flew in the morning of November 3rd, 2016 and we picked them up at the Philadelphia airport.  We headed directly to Main Line Fertility for Jenna's appointments.  After the appointments we dropped them off at their hotel for a bit and picked them up later for dinner & bowling.  The next morning we met with the psychologist (which is required by Main Line Fertility and with whom we had met for our previous carriers).  Afterwards we headed into Philly to see the city a bit and to give them a taste of a Philly cheesesteak.  During our time together, Jon was also pleased to discover that Wisconsinites actually do love cheese!  So we shared a mutual love of cheese. 

We really enjoyed our time with them. We definitely felt an easy connection with them and were feeling very positive about things for the first time in a long time...

Our anniversary dessert

We celebrated our anniversary 80s style