Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to share a photo of the beautiful Christmas gift from Sabrina and her family. It's a quite unique photoalbum made of copper. Absolutely beautiful!! I can't wait to fill it up with wonderful memories.

Also wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR, may 2008 be a fantastic year for all of you! :o)

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Flights booked

...for the 20 week ultrasound!

March 12th: Oslo - Amsterdam - Seattle - Redmond/OR. Same way back on the 16th. (Thats a total of 4 airports and 6 flights in 4 days, ladies and gents..! Did I hear anyone say "jetlag"?!!)
My amazing surrogate has offered to accomodate me, which I have gladly accepted.

Now, I am used to BIG airplanes and I have traveled A LOT (my mom was a flight attendant/purser for 35 years) - but - the return flight from Oregon to Seattle has like a total of -9- seat rows.. :insert scary smiley here: Yes, I'm surprised you can even call it an airplane!! So, cross your fingers that I will make it back home alive.

But hey - in "only" 72 days I will know if its a boy or a girl !!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Week 9

"Your amazing growing baby has been accepted into to the fetus-club, a very exclusive and exiting new stage in their prenatal development. Basically, this means the little sweet pea has graduated from swimming embryo creature to a recognizable human being! This week in particular, the irises of the little eyes can function, but the eyelids remain fused shut for a while yet. The external ears are formed and the inner ears are now filled with fluid—so your little one is already developing their sense of balance. Your baby's little swimmer legs are still relatively, although other bodily developments are going forward at a nice pace: the kidney is actually functioning now!"

Monday, December 24, 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007

Week 8 ultrasound

Sabrina went in for her second ultrasound today. Baby is measuring at 8 weeks 1 day with a strong heartrate of 171. According to her the little one looks like a gummy bear and wiggled for a good portion of the ultrasound! She also got to hear the babys heartbeat!! Apparantly the Dr. was very impressed as he said he can hear maybe 10% of the babies at this young age. New u/s in two weeks, and the NT scan is scheduled for January 17th. Everything is looking perfect!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Week 8

"Your little embryo has finally reached the one-inch mark (30mm). And if it were possible to take a peek, you could actually see your tiny baby without a telescope! What’s more, your baby is finally starting to take on some very distinct human features. For starters, their little tail (really just the spinal cord) has disappeared completely. It’s nice to know your baby can no longer be mistaken for a sea creature! Additionally, both their toes and fingers are prominent with very little, if any, webbing. Upper and lower limbs all show recognizable joints (elbows and knees) and the lower limb bones are starting to ossify. But don’t expect your baby to resemble either parent quite yet. Right now, your baby’s head is disproportionately larger than the rest of their body--making up almost half of your little one’s height and weight!"

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Week 7

"Your baby is really beginning to develop more physical definition this week – the oversized head isn’t just large and oblong anymore, it’s actually a little bit pointy. The tiny receding tail bud is now starting to be overshadowed by the growth of their legs, which are now complete with knees and the beginnings of toes. Their eyes and ears are the most visible features on their head and their miniature bones are starting to harden throughout their body. You also have some variation on a boy or a girl at this point, although their genitals won’t be visible enough to determine which color cigars you’re going to buy until around the 16th week."

Monday, December 10, 2007

First ultrasound..

...and we have a heartbeat!!!

Baby is looking great, everything is measuring well, heartbeat is strong and there is definitely only ONE in there!! *phew*! ;-)
I couldn't be happier !!!!!



Sunday, December 9, 2007

Patiently Waiting

...for tomorrows ultrasound.

Well I need to make myself occupied with something to avoid insanity (no pressure, Sabrina...! ;)

Here are some pictures from the process so far.


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Week 6

"This is going to be a busy week for your amazing little embryo. Their brain is still growing remarkably fast; miniature hand plates are starting to develop and the early formations of what will be their fingers are already visible. Also, the lower limbs do not develop quite as fast, so they’re pretty much still flippers. Up until this point, your baby has been very curled up with the head and tail in close proximity, but this week their trunk and neck are beginning to grow and straighten as their tail recedes into its resting position in the back. Even though your little miracle is only 6 weeks old, they’re already capable of demonstrating reflex responses to touch!"

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Week 5

"You are now in week 5 of your pregnancy.

Your tiny baby is growing its brain right now and has exchanged limb buds for limb flippers. Your baby's also starting to develop digestive organs such as the liver and stomach while its tiny heart is already hard at work. You're still pretty much on the same symptom train you were on last week although you might begin to experience the first bouts of morning sickness."

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Tick Tock...

..whattt, not even a week since the last post?!!
Feels like forever.

I think I'm gonna have to work on my patience skills the next few months.. :-)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Beta!

Just HOW pregnant can you get? Apparantly, VERY!!

Although ecstatic about the positive home pregnancy tests from this past weekend, its definitely been one LONG week. Today, finally, Sabrina went in to get her HCG levels checked. Everything over 100 is a good sign that there is a thriving little bean in there and that the pregnancy is developing as it should. Well, our number was a whopping

239.9 !!!!!!!

Which means that there is indeed a very healthy little eskimo in there! Rumours has it that the number could even qualify for twins (which would mean identicals, since we only transferred one embryo) but my guess is one happy, healthy and strong baby.

Ultrasound is December 10th. Yes, you are absolutely right, an eternity. But SO worth the wait!!!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Lets go Digital

...just in case there was any doubt!!!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.....breathe in......breathe out........
.....breathe in......breathe out........
.....breathe in......breathe out........

ok... So I woke up this morning to three facebook messages from Sabrina.
First one: "Call me!"
Second: "Call me NOW!"
Third: "CALL ME!!! ("#$%&!&%#)"

(Ok, the last one didnt include the desperate and edited cussing as stated above, but I have a feeling that was what she was silently thinking when she wasnt able to get in touch with me..)

So I called, of course I immediately understood something is definitely going on, and she forwarded THESE pictures:





The feeling is, of course, impossible to describe, so I will not even attempt, but yeah you get the picture!!!!!!!!!!

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

First beta is in a few days.......

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

2ww

The wait has begun...

Monday, November 12, 2007

The little one

Probably the most beautiful picture I have ever seen.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Transfer day pictures

Sabrina





Lynlee with one of the PFC nurses

Today is the day!

Transfer is 6:30 California time / 15:30 Norwegian time.
That's in LESS than one hour!!!

Apparantly the yellow/green outfit is ready (supposedly lucky colours for transfer) and the roomservice bedrest french fries are pre-ordered. Also, it's Fathers Day in Norway today. That has to be a good sign, right?

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Thank You!

What a great way to start the day! I woke up to these beautiful orchids on my door this morning.
Sabrina, you truly are amazing! I am so happy that you are the one sharing this icredible journey with me.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Embryo update

I contacted Dr. Sahakian today for an update of the development of the eggs. Of the 10 eggs that fertilized, 8 are looking great! What a big relief! Can't wait for Sunday to come around... it's going to be one LONG weekend.

We have managed to get our friend Lynlee to fly in from Kansas to take care of Sabrina while she is on bedrest. She has had three successful transfers and I am really happy that she will be able to be there for Sabrina since I can't. Lynlee, I'm trusting you will take great care of her and keep her twitchiness to a minimum (well, at least for the first 24 hours ;-)

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Fertilization report

A total of 15 eggs were retrieved yesterday, and out of those 10 fertilized!!! The embryos will be left to grow for the next few days until they reach the Blastocyst stage at day 5 in culture. I will probably know the quality of each embryo prior to the transfer on Sunday morning. With ten eggs fertilized I am crossing my fingers that there will be a decent number of high quality blasts to choose from.

I won't deny that I have been scaringly close to a nervous breakdown for the past two days (imagine me in the 2ww..), but now everyhting is just pure joy. What a happy, happy day!!!!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Egg retrieval today

Sunday's ulstrasound showed 23 follicles and the donor will be going in for her egg retrieval today at 8 am California time. Please cross your fingers, toes and other crossable body parts for a nice number of healthy eggs!!

Monday, November 5, 2007

We have a transfer date!!!

..and the big day is November 11th!

Sabrina will fly down to Los Angeles on Saturday, do the transfer Sunday at 7 am and then most likely stay on bedrest until Tuesday morning. I will of course chain myself to the nearest computer and telephone to make sure my physical absence is not forgotten! ;-)

Only SEVEN days to go, ladies and gentlemen..

Friday, November 2, 2007

22!

New egg donor ultrasound today revealed 22 follicles! She is being monitored closely and I will get an update on Sunday. The transfer will be delayed a couple of days in order to get the best egg quality possible.. new dates are Nov 11-12th. Guess I can hold my breath for another couple of days!

Sabrina also had an u/s and her lining is 11mm which is good. She also has a triple stripe (which I have no idea what means but apparantly its a good thing.. so hooray for that! :-)

Monday, October 29, 2007

15!

Great news, my egg donor had her ultrasound today and they found a total of 15 follicles! Looks like the hyperstimulation medications did the trick! She will go back for a recheck on Thursday to check the growth of the eggs.

YAY!!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ICSI it is...

All the how/what/whiches seems finally to have been decided upon.
I was leaning towards travelling back to LA to do a fresh transfer, but a number of things has made me decide to stay here. First of all, the RE has assured me that the success rates of ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) vs. conventional IVF (In-vitro fertilization) are very similar. Also, a ton of stress at work has made it close to impossible to take another two weeks off so soon.

So, since ICSI is the preferred method when using frozen sperm, that's the way we'll go.

Video of the procedure below!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Injection time! part 2

We're officially cycling!!


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Injection time!

HOORAY! Sabrina got her medication today, starting Saturday!! This is so exciting!! (And, on a side note, oh am I glad those needles are not for me..)




What a ride!!

Sabrina and yours truly in the very front.. MAN that thing went faaast!!
(Oh, and I especially loved the part where Sabrina screams "OH MY F****NG GOD!!!!!" right in front of the innocent school children watching the ride.... priceless!)

Monday, October 15, 2007

Fast forward

Desperately trying to stay awake here in order to get back into Norwegian timezone.. so ignore the zombie state of mind I am in right now (and the messed up words and sentences..) but-

What a GREAT trip to LA! Met Sahakian (the doctor/RE) last wednesday and did the testing and donation part. Easy enough. Decided to walk back to the hotel, HAH!!! Gave up after about 4 hours after navigating my way from Wilshire to Santa Monica Boulevard.

Thursday I met Sabrina and Matt at GG and we headed off to Knott's, an amusement park not too far away from Disneyland. Obviously not too well known and school day as well so there were literally no lines at all and we were like kids running around from ride to ride. Too many rides for some, but man was it a blast. Sabrina was just as great as I had expected and the day flew by way too fast.

And the big news - - - according to Sahakian, we should be ready for an early November transfer!! WHOA!! The ED is already on medication and Sabrina will start hers on saturday. I thought she had to be on them longer but apparantly things are looking good and Sahakian has given his thumbs up to go ahead. Only a short month away... I am super excited, super nervous, super everything. Good thing I got warmed up at Knott's, cause these next weeks will definitely be a rollercoaster of emotions.

I'm planning to go back in November so we can do a fresh transfer instead of ICSI..





Saturday, October 6, 2007

Ready for documentation!

Already, two months after signing the agency retainer, I have a TON of documents. Of course, everything is neatly sorted in folders; surrogate, egg donor, insurance, agency correspondance, receipts, specialists, travels, etc. I want to save everything, every little email, to make sure my child one day can experience and understand the entire process. So now only one thing was missing - a digital camera to make sure the visuals are in order as well!! ;-) After getting a ton of advises from the AAS ladies, Jon, Jonas and I went cam shopping today and I ended up with a Sony Cybershot. LOVE it! It's small, light, reasonably inexpensive and great quality. Definitely ready for LA now!!

On another note, I somehow ended up on a shopping spree today. I absolutely HATE shopping (somewhere something went totally wrong with the gay gene there...) but I ended up with new jeans, shirts, dvd's, camera, and .... *drumroll* ... a new carpet! HAH! Jon&Jonas are very pleased that they now only have to focus on talking me into buying new curtains. In due time, in due time.

So without further ado, I proudly present my very first picture of my very new carpet taken by my very new camera. Voila!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Six more days...

..and I'll be in LA!!

I was kind of expecting (or fearing?) a boring week on my own, since I'll be travelling alone this time. But alas, luckily I seem to have been wrong! Aside from meeting Sabrina and her husband (and spending an entire day at Knotts screaming our lungs out on the rollercoasters), I'm gonna meet up with Jolie (Karen, do you remember!?!) who now happens to live close to my hotel in West Hollywood. How small this world really is...! I also might get to meet Lynlee's famous IF hotties, Shaul and Haig. Promising week indeed.

Note to self: buy digital camera!!!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

...drumroll please...!

Please welcome the newest addition to blogland - me!

I have been wanting to create an online blog for quite some time, giving my close friends and family around the world the opportunity to stay up to date on all the stuff that's going on in my life at the moment. And yeah, it's alot!! The past few months have been pretty chaotic, a rollercoaster of emotions. But I finally feel ready and confident about sharing, now that the journey has begun.

So what on earth is going on ????! Well, the short version:
I'M GONNA BE A DAD !!!!!

As for the somewhat longer version:
Those who are close to me know that it has been a big dream for me to eventually create my own family. However, given the circumstances - being single and gay hasn't made it any easier. Until the recently proposed same-sex marriage law is a fact (most likey next year), adoption is not a possability. Creating a child with a lesbian woman/couple would have been an option, and I did give it alot of thought, but it was not for me. I don't want to become a dad and have my child with me every other weekend and christmas.

So I started looking into surrogacy. Months of research, testing, waiting, consultations, more testing, more waiting. Finally I felt confident that this was what I wanted to do. The timing was so right - I have never felt so sure about anything before.

I spent weeks to prepare myself to tell my mom and dad. Not because I thought they would not approve or back me up. I always knew they would. But no matter how sure I was there was always that small doubt in the back of my head. I needed the persons closest to me to be supportive of my decision. I needed their help financially. I was afraid they wouldn't think I had researched it well enough. I guess I was a litte scared about their reaction after all.

The time came, I was over for dinner and helping out with some stuff at my moms place. I finally sat them both down and told them I needed to talk to them. I had the entire speech rehearsed, but as I probably already knew beforehand it didn't really come out as I had planned. I think I started to cry during my opening sentence.. there were just too many emotions at once.

I have the most amazing family. No doubt about that. I left that day feeling so relieved.. with their full support and blessings. It was one of the happiest days of my life!

August 2007. All papers ready, just waiting to be signed. The process had officially been started!!

September has been hectic.. what feels like a million papers, forms and contracts has been signed. Agencies, insurance companies, psychologists, doctors, lawyers.. all experts within the field of assisted reproduction. I have chosen the egg donor, the biological mother of my child. I have been matched with the most amazing surrogate. We are so much alike and have very similar views on the most important issues. Even if she wasn't my surrogate she would be exactly the kind of person that I would love getting to know and enjoy being around. I feel very blessed to have established such a strong friendship with her at this early stage in our journey. We are looking at a possible December transfer, which means - if everything goes by the book, there could be a confirmed pregnancy around Christmas!!

In just a couple of weeks I will be flying across the Atlantic. Undergo a number of medical exams, do my thing and get my groove on at the Medical facility. While in Los Angeles I will also meet my surrogate and her husband who are flying in from Oregon. C-A-N-T .. W-A-I-T ! I wish time would go by a little quicker sometimes.. but I have peace in mind knowing that this in fact IS happening.. it's not just a dream anymore.

So there you have it. The very, very abbreviated version of what has happened and of what is going to happen.
I am on cloud nine. No.... higher. WAY higher.