The hurry before the wait

So, I spoke with my coordinator at the agency today. She said that due to my history with surrogacy I should match really quickly. That is most certainly good news! She is putting on my "profile" that she sends to potential parents that I need to schedule my pregnancy a certain way, so that the parents know up front about it.

I suppose that you may be wondering what about my history would cause me to be matched quickly. Well, basically, its because I get pregnant really easily, have a big uterus (apparently thats good for IVF?) and have virtually no complications aside from normal stuff like morning sickness...

My first pregnancy was very easy, and my son was 9lb 9oz. His weight alone made me a desirable candidate to potential IPs. For some reason they all liked the idea that I would be comfortable, if not capable, carrying a larger than average baby or two average sized babies at once.

The first surrogacy we did a frozen transfer (meaning that the embryos were frozen for nearly 6 years before they were thawed and transferred to my ute), and I got pregnant the first time. There is some debate about the survival rates of frozen embryos. One side claims that embryos that survive thawing are more hardy, and more likely to implant. The other side argues that frozen embryos become compromised because they loose a few cells in the process of freezing then thawing. I dont really have an opinion either way. We transferred two embryos (a 7 cell and an 8 cell) and both implanted. One did not survive past 5 weeks, and the other turned out to be an 8 pound 6 ounce baby girl.

My second time was a fresh transfer, and again I got pregnant on the first try. Only one embryo stuck around, but we did transfer two. I had a really low level of PAPP-A (pregnancy associated plasma protien - A) likely due to the biological mother being 41 at the time of egg retrieval, which raised the odds of a few things. Down syndrome, stillbirth, pre-mature labor / birth, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia, just to name a few. The parents elected to do a CVS (chorionic villus sampling) at 13 weeks. Everything with the CVS turned out fine, but since the level of PAPP-A was so low the pregnancy was still considered high risk for all those other possibilities. So, I ended up with having a monthly ultrasound until 32 weeks, then 1 per week, and a weekly non-stress test after 32 weeks. Everything went normally through the entire pregnancy, and their baby boy was born at 39 weeks weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces.

So, I guess all of that = my womb being in fairly high demand.

P.S. - I want to forwarn everyone that once I start injections I'll be posting pictures. You're liable to see needles, some blood, and probably bits and pieces of my butt. I'll preface those posts with a warning, for the squeamish or prude readers :)