An update, finally! (And it's worth the wait, I promise. :-)

Hi all! I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting updates, especially now that May 28th has come and gone! (In case you missed it, May 28th was the date set for our marathon counseling session with PS#3, as well as her SIS and trial transfer.) I first want to say THANK YOU for the texts, emails and other well wishes leading up to and after this important date. It's so awesome to know we have people on this journey with us every step of the way!

What I'm about to say next may shock you......the appointment didn't happen. We canceled everything and decided not to move forward with PS#3.

I can almost hear your reaction. WHAT?! WHY??!! WHAT HAPPENED?? This essentially has been the reaction of those we've told in person.

The answer to those questions is about the best one I could have dreamed of: our prayers (and the prayers of many of you out there!!) have been answered. I'm pregnant. Yes, ME. I AM PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!

Again, I can hear your reaction. WHAT?! HOW?! OMG!! Am I right??? :-)

Yes, by some miracle, I'm 12 weeks pregnant with a perfectly healthy baby. No drugs, no medical interventions, no complications. Unbelievable. Needless to say, the shock hasn't fully worn off, even after 12 weeks and 4 ultrasounds! I have been positively bursting to tell you all this wonderful news!!!!!

Let me start from the beginning. Note: if you don't like hearing about mentstrual cycles (i.e. you're a dude), you may not want to continue reading. :-) No offense to dudes - even though I'm pretty sure 100% of my blog readers are NOT dudes. Anyway, continuing on.........

Let's take a step back in time to November. I was back home for the weekend as my cousin and his family from New Jersey were home visiting. I had been telling my mom earlier that day that I had been having what felt like cramps over the past month, but nothing ever came of it. (At this point, I hadn't had a period in about a year and a half, so cramps were actually welcome and exciting. Ha!) We went to my aunt & uncle's house to catch up on life, including mine & Chris's surrogacy journey. Good times.

During a bathroom break, I was shocked to discover that I had apparently gotten my period. I'm not kidding, I think I stared at the toilet paper for 1 full minute, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me. I couldn't believe it!! I walked out of the bathroom, evidently looking like I had seen a ghost, because my sister and cousin immediately asked me what was wrong. I replied "Um, I think I just got my period", and started to cry. (Was this a flashback to being 14 years old?? Maybe, but this time it was tears of happiness and excitement, not fear!!) Everyone literally started whooping and yelling and hugging me like I had just won the lottery. It was hilarious, actually. And to my dude cousin's credit, he didn't bolt for the other room the second we started talking about periods - he actually was really happy and excited too. (OK, so he may have looked at us girls like we were nuts, but still, he handled it like a champ - thanks, B!)

The next Monday I called Dr. Campbell to let him know I had gotten what I thought might be a period. I say "might be" because it was just that one night - nothing more. He had me come in for testing, to which they told me that I had NOT ovulated and that it was probably just a fluke. He advised that I not get my hopes up and to continue with the surrogacy process. I didn't like that answer but accepted it.

BUT. I kept spotting every month after that. It was always very light and for only one day, but it was something. It was also happening very inconsistently. Sometimes it would be 30 days apart, sometimes 42, and anywhere in between. Regardless, we kept moving forward and I just kept track of what days I spotted on my calendar in hopes that it might start resembling a normal cycle.

Which now brings us to March. PS #3 has been approved, everything was moving along. In late February my friend told me about an app she was using to track her cycles called "MyCycles". She said she loved it, so I kept that in mind. (Probably better to track on an iPhone app than my Outlook calendar at work, ya think??) Anyway, the first weekend in March Chris and I went away for a little getaway to Duluth. Once again I got my "period", and it was during that Duluth trip that I finally said to him "ya know what? Let's just pretend I'm normal. I'll plug all my dates into this app and we'll do what it says, and see what happens." So, a few weeks later, when it said I was supposedly "fertile", we, um, acted accordingly. I didn't give it too much thought after that - I certainly wasn't obsessing over it. We had been through so many disappointments already, I just wanted to keep living life. I celebrated my birthday at the end of March and felt confident that my 35th year would be a great one!!

The day rolled around that I would supposedly get my "period", based on the dates I had tracked. (The app told me I had, on average, a 38-day "cycle", which although long, was still in the normal range. I say "cycle" and "period" in quotes, because I had been told I wasn't truly ovulating. Guess I proved them wrong, huh? But I'm fast-forwarding!) So, the day came and went, and nothing happened. Before bed that night, I decided to take a pregnancy test, just for fun. JUST FOR FUN? Yeah right, how about "just to torture myself"? Either way, I felt a compelling need to take one, and to not wait until morning like the directions recommended. So I peed on the little stick, and put it face down on the counter. Anyone who knows me well knows I have a 7-minute bedtime routine, which I went about doing as I do every single night with no anxiety or worries. I truly didn't think in a million years it would turn up anything but negative. I truly was at peace with that. Routine complete, I turned over the stick, ready to toss it the minute I saw the one line.

But, wait. There were two lines. Um, what?? There were TWO LINES. Pause for almost fainting here. There.were.two.lines. Which, according to the very self-explanatory picture on the stick and the box, meant I was pregnant. No way.
At this point, I had a very distinct vision of a Chicken McNugget wearing a sweater vest. When I say distinct, I mean the sweater vest was white with blue and red trim, a la Caddyshack or a 1982 senior portrait. Which made me immediately think I was pregnant with a boy. (Or maybe just really wanted Chicken McNuggets??) Then again girls can wear sweater vests too (but I really hope most don't, no offense.) Chicken nuggets don't usually don a sweater vest but I can't explain why I saw this in my head. That psych counseling really would have been enlightening.......sorry, I digress.

Back to me in the bathroom, holding this pee stick with my jaw on the floor. I hadn't told Chris that I was taking a test, and he was in bed watching TV. Here is a rundown of the conversation that followed:

Ali (calmly): "Um, honey, can you come in here please?"
Chris (sleepily): "No, I'm comfy."
Ali (a tiny sense of urgency in voice): "You really need to come in here."
Chris (still not caring at all): "Why? I'm watching SportsCenter."
Ali (more urgently): "Seriously, come in here!"
Chris (full blown annoyed now): "OMG! Why?"
Ali (growling like the gargoyles from Ghostbusters (ZOOL!): GET IN HERE NOW. (Kaylyn - you know this voice well as I have even used it on Jordan, poor guy.)

Um, I need to note here he still did not come in the bathroom. Apparently my she-devil voice didn't work that night (although, on the occasion mentioned above when I used it on Chris and Jordan, they went scurrying into the house like little kids. The point: this voice has proven to be quite effective in the past.)

I finally went to him, without a word, and showed him the stick. Long story short - he didn't believe it for one second. He didn't even believe it after the blood test. He barely believed it after the first ultrasound! But, as I've said before, I'm telling this from my point of view so I'll leave his feelings and reactions for him to share. :-)

Back to the story. (Did I actually say "long story short" a bit ago? Yeah right, this is turning into a novel, sorry!) I took another test in the morning - another positive. I called Dawn at CRM and told her the news and that I was freaking out. She immediately ordered a blood test for me at my local clinic (it was blizzarding that day and she didn't want me to drive all the way to CRM in Minneapolis.) I proceeded to check my online test results about, oh, every 2 minutes until they finally came in that afternoon. And the result.....definitely positive!!! According to this particular test, anything over 25 miU/ml was considered a positive result; my number was 1527. Two days later it was 3705. It was really true!! We were having a baby!

I had my first OB appointment the next week, where they ordered an early ultrasound, based on the struggles we had before. We went to CRM at 6 weeks for our first glimpse of our little nugget. The first thing both me and Dr. Campbell noticed was that there were very clearly TWO egg sacs. Yep, possibly twins. But, only one looked truly fertilized, so he ordered us back at 8 weeks to confirm. At that time, there was just ONE, so no twins. Dr. Campbell said this is very common, they call it a "disappearing twin". (And no, one did not "eat" the other one. Yes, we've gotten that question.) We would have been thrilled either way!!

I want to take a timeout here to point something out. Here I was, not ovulating and with a non-functioning uterus. Not only did I ovulate an egg, I ovulated TWO eggs, AND my uterus snatched one up and kept it. I don't feel so defective after all!!! AND it happened the very first time we really "tried". It felt like such a victory!

So, we have just one little guy/gal in there, but it's wonderfully healthy and growing like crazy! Dr. Campbell really had no words. He called me a show off and wanted to know my secret. :-) There are no risks, and since there were no interventions to get me here, he released me to the care of my regular OB team. We had another ultrasound last week and Baby Piha is finally starting to look like a baby! Here it is @ 11 weeks, 3 days:

Isn't it cute? :-) His/her head is on the right with it's body laying to the left, if you can't tell. I can't wait to meet him/her! We have decided to keep the sex a surprise, so I guess we'll be calling it "him/her" for awhile yet! We are due December 15th.

For the record, this pregnancy has been great so far! No morning (or anytime) sickness whatsoever. Just REALLY tired. Seriously, who knew that sitting at a desk job and in meetings all day was so exhausting? And, my boobs are so weird. I knew they'd get ruined afterwards, but already?? I also think there might be a tapeworm hiding in there with the baby - it seems I can't get enough to eat! Thankfully all my clothes still fit (for now)! Don't mistake any of this for complaining - every little thing has been worth it!!!! 

What an amazing journey this has been. It certainly isn't over, but it appears the surrogacy chapter has come to a close. You might be wondering about PS#3, and how she feels about it all. She is thrilled for us, and, let's face it, she's pretty excited for herself, because she's getting a niece or nephew out of the deal. :-) Yep, I can finally reveal that PS#3 was Chris's sister, Darial.

I know, right? Amazing. I'm actually tearing up as I write this, because nothing can ever repay the sacrifice she was willing to make for us (and that goes for PS #1 and PS#2 as well!!) Darial actually offered to carry for us from the very beginning, but having his sister carry his child was a little weird for Chris at first. But, after everything else fell through, we reconsidered and realized what an amazing gift she was giving us. And, hey, Phoebe carried her brother's babies on 'Friends' - it's not weird, right?!! It's beautiful. I also have to give a shout out to Darial's boyfriend Andrew, who was also on board for this ride and willing to do whatever was needed to be there for us and Darial. We love them both and will never forget what they were willing to do for us. Seriously, we are so incredibly blessed to have people like this in our lives.

Dari pointed out just how much of this journey has been about timing, and it's so true. There's a reason we turned her down initially. There's a reason PS#1 and PS#2 didn't work out. All along the plan was for me to get pregnant, in due time. Or at least that's what I believe.

I'll finally bring this to a close. Thank you for reading/listening! I will continue to blog, just cuz I love it. I'm sure pregnancy and motherhood will bring all sorts of adventures to write about. :-)

Love you all and THANK YOU again for your support.

Oh, and one last thing. Remember in my first blog post, when I listed all the reasons why it would be awesome to NOT be pregnant? Now I need to hear from you the reasons why being pregnant is amazing. :-)