Appointment with Dr. Lindauer: This morning we had our weekly appointment with Dr. Lindauer! We were both expecting another "under the hood" check - but Dr. Lindauer said that since we weren't having any real labor signs, she didn't need to check us. I was a little curious to know - but was okay with skipping out on that part of the appointment. Chrissy was definitely curious as she kept asking a couple times whether it wasn't needed. Dr. Lindauer said she would check us if we wanted to - but we decided to save her the trouble. ;)
Everything else checked out fine today. Our blood pressures were both exactly the same today (120/80) and our weights were only off by 1 pound. She used the little tape measure and found that I was now measuring at 40 weeks and Chrissy was measuring at 41 weeks. That just shows growth and it's the same measurement she would use for someone with one baby - so it just shows that we are definitely bigger, which is what they want to see. We also got to hear all four heartbeats - though the girls were a little difficult to find today! ;)
Dr. Lindauer also talked to us a little more about our double C-sections planned for 10/24 (15 days if anyone else that may be counting). Assuming we make it that long - we'll need to go to Riverside on 10/23 to get some blood drawn. Then we won't eat/drink anything after midnight and will be there by 7:30am. They're going to prep both of us together - so that Joby and I will have more time with our little sons in-between the C-sections. Chrissy and I were both asking if we would feel out of it after the C-section and Dr. Lindauer said that we would be alert during the procedure and afterwards. She said that some ladies that are in labor for hours and then get switched to a C-section may be exhausted or a little off after all of the medications- which may have been the types of C-sections that we've heard about. Dr. Lindauer explained that there would be a sheet up to cover what they're doing - so that we could see as much (or as little) as we want throughout the surgery. She said it usually takes about an hour after the anesthesia is delivered into the spine and that it takes a lot longer to close things up than it does to get the babies out. Joby asked her what her panicked face looks like - so he could know if anything was going wrong. :) She said that since she's a doctor, she hopefully doesn't have that face and that she would keep us updated but remain calm throughout the surgeries. ;) He also asked if there were any umbilical cords to be cut after C-sections and she said that they don't let the dads do that for C-sections.
I have mixed feelings about whether I'd like to deliver the girls vaginally or with a C-section. After being there when my sister gave birth to her boys - I am definitely curious to see how I would do in labor. And definitely think that pushing the babies out gives the mom more of an active role in the delivery of the babies - compared to the C-section where they are taken out by the doctor. There are a lot of unknowns as well - which is why we're opting for the C-section for me on 10/24 if the girls haven't started to make their move yet. Although I would of course love to know how it's all going to play out - it is kinda exciting to think that I still have a chance at vaginal delivery if they decide to come out before the 24th. And since I'm a girl that loves having a plan - there is some level of comfort in knowing that the babies will be born on the 24th via C-section if nothing else happens between now and then. At the end of the day, we just want all 4 of our babies safely delivered into the world - so whatever we need to do to make that happen is what we will do! Our next and last scheduled appointment with Dr. Lindauer will be on Thursday, 10/17.
Who's Your Daddy?: As you may or may not recall, my IVF Buddy helped us with our gestational carrier contract between us and Chrissy/James. This contract was required by ORM before they would let us start the IVF cycle. She saved us a lot of money by serving as our attorney and having her partner serve as my sister's attorney!
We knew that additional legal work would be required when the boys are born - in order for us to be recognized as their parents. We've been calling the Delaware County courts off/on for months - trying to understand what they needed us to do. But this is a new situation for them, so we kept getting the "waiting to hear back from the judge" response from everyone. Riverside Hospital told us that we just needed to get a "pre birth order" form filled out for them to recognize us as the parents when Chrissy gives birth to our boys. Unfortunately, we were having a hard time tracking this form down. Since we're now officially in the zone of babies potentially arriving any day now - we figured that we needed to get this taken care of sooner than later. My IVF Buddy talked to a friend of a friend and we ended up meeting with him on Monday to get things figured out.
Our appointment with the attorney went really well - he has a lot of experience doing surrogate/gestational carrier contracts in Franklin County. He let us know that Franklin County's judge won't do the "pre birth order" form - because they believe that the child has to be born before the judge can have jurisdiction on parentage. He also knows the judge/magistrate in Delaware and is going to just call them up and see if the process that the Franklin County judge follows will work. He said typically Delaware will follow suit, so we're hoping that they will go along with it. Assuming that Delaware agrees to this approach – he’s going to have Dr. Williams sign the affidavit saying he did the transfer of our embryos into Chrissy and should have the waiver for us to review later this week. It will have everything filled in (even the boys’ names… we gave them to him to make things go smoother when they are born) – except their birthday. Then we just wait for Chrissy to have our boys. After the boys are born, he will bring the form to the hospital and have us all sign it, get the judge to e-sign it, and then bring it back to the hospital.
During our appointment, we just had to fill out a couple forms with all of our information and Chrissy/James’ info. He also needed to know the dates of when the transfer was done, when the pregnancy was confirmed, and when we had our first ultrasound. Luckily, I have all of those dates memorized! ;) Oh, and we did (of course) have to pay him for his services - kinda crazy that we had to pay $1600 in legal fees to claim our boys. But that's a small price to pay in the big scheme of things. We are just so thankful that it sounds like he’ll be able to get everything taken care of before the boys are born!
Bethenny Show Update: We found out earlier this week that our actual interview with Bethenny wasn't going to happen this week. I was okay with it - since it didn't seem like they were going to be able to give us much advanced notice. But part of me did wonder if we were all going to end up on the cutting room floor after all of our time with the crew on Friday. But today we got an email from our producer contact saying that they wanted to schedule us to be interviewed by Bethenny on Tuesday, 10/15 during their 2PM taping. For this piece, just Chrissy and I would need to be available between 1-3PM that day at my house. We checked our schedules and let them know that we would be available. I assume we will find out more details between now and then - not sure if it will be via phone or Skype or if another crew will be coming to do the interview via satellite. Since I don't think her show is live - my guess is that they record shows the day before, so maybe it will air next Wednesday. I'll definitely let you know - once we find out for sure.
In closing, I'd like to shout out a very Happy 5th Birthday to Miss Katelyn Marie! :) And a Happy Birthday Eve to my fellow 10/10 baby, Nicholas. I'd also like to thank my cousin for inspiring me to blog (even though I was kinda tired tonight) by sending me an email with the subject line of "Worst Blog Updater Ever" today. #thanksgreg 1 hour and 6 minutes until my birthday!! Good night!! :)