Wamba Land is Open for Business! You'll be happy to hear that my sister's appointment with Dr. Williams yesterday went well. She seemed to know what to expect - Dr. Williams checked "under the hood" to make sure that there were no remnants from her previous pregnancies. I was referring to this step as checking to make sure Wendel & Oliver didn't leave any tape or thumbtacks in the walls of her womb when they checked out. ;) He also measured her uterus so he knows how far back to transfer the embryos. Some of you may recall, that during my previous transfers - they always had trouble getting around some turn of sorts. But he did mention that she had a "straight shot" - which can't hurt, right? And after the checks, she thought it was cute that he asked, "Are we still friends?" - since that's something he's said to me in the past as well. (FYI - My husband and I decided that we needed to come up with a nickname for my sister's womb. And we decided on "Wamba Land" - after the nursery/childcare section of our friends' church.)
Two Sticks for the Price of One: She also had her blood tests done yesterday - which was a little more eventful than her time with Dr. Williams. The lab tech girl had trouble finding a good vein - but finally found it, drew one vial of blood, and sent my sister on her way. Unfortunately, she ended up having to flag down my sister while she was walking to her car. The girl apparently misunderstood the directions from the guy and didn't realize that she needed to draw 3 vials of blood for all of the tests. Lucky for them, my sister was a good sport about it. The girl tried to find another vein to use, but then punted to the guy. My sister likes to watch the needle go in ( just like me) - but after he was rooting around in her arm, he asked her to look away because he was having "stage fright" - lol. She turned away and said it still took him another minute, but eventually he did find one and got the other 2 vials of blood. They were both very apologetic to my sister - but she wasn't upset and just apologized for her not-so-great veins. And she got a call with her test results and she passed - so thankfully, our cycle won't be stopped on account of my sister having any crazy STDs. Whew! ;)
No Testing for Jimmy! While my sister was checking out with McKenzie after her appointment with Dr. Williams, she mentioned that we didn't have any lab request sheets for her husband's blood tests. McKenzie let her know that the blood tests for her husband were option - only if the intended parents (that's us) require it. And she said that typically as long as the gestational carrier's blood tests come back okay - then we can assume that their husband's test results would be good as well. So after long debate (not really) - we decided to pass on the blood tests for our brother-in-law. You're welcome, Jimmy! ;)
Contract Review: My IVF Buddy also sent us back a copy of the contract for us to review. We will have to find some time for the 4 of us to review it and see what we want to change or take out. She also said that she can represent us and that her partner is willing to represent my sister and her husband. Yay!! :) To save them some time, I think the 4 of us (the intended parents, the gestational carrier, and the gestational carrier's husband) will all sit down to review the contract and figure out what we need to change or take out. Then we can set-up some time to review with my IVF Buddy, finalize it, and then do whatever we need to do to make it official.