Paying it Forward

From the day that my sister offered me and my husband her eggs, I have felt indebted to her. How could we possibly repay her for such an amazing opportunity and possibly the most amazing gift we will ever receive throughout our lives? In the beginning of this new journey of attempting to conceive a child through donor eggs, I had to repeatedly remind my sister that it was not as easy as she thought. The doctor can't just suck out some eggs just like that. I've said it before and I will say it again, I really thought that the process would be too much for her and she would have backed out months ago. But here we are now....2 weeks into Lupron and day one of the stimulation medication! We are only 10 days away from the doctor being able to "suck them out" as my sister refers to it!

To show our appreciation of the time, energy, and dedication that this cycle has required from my sister, we have gotten her gifts along the way. We are "paying it forward" so to speak. My sister is a busy woman. She works full time, she is a single mother, and she has her own house to take care of. She's only 23 years old. In the midst of our cycle, she has applied to return to college and has been looking at houses to buy. Not many 23 year olds are like this one. Not many people can say that they have a sister who was willing to go to such extreme measures to help them have a child.

As we prepared for this week to begin, yesterday we had a little bit of a girls day. It started off with massages and ended with lunch. I knew my sister would enjoy a massage because she is always saying her back hurts and Thursday night while sitting up until 3am chatting about her personal relationship issues, even though she had to be on the road at 6:30am for her baseline ultrasound, she mentioned how much she needed a massage. She had no idea that I already had one scheduled for her! I thought it was just a small way to show her that she deserves to be pampered and a great way to get her relaxed for the week she had ahead of her.

Today was the first of eight stimulation injections. My sister worked a double today too, what a trooper. She's a dispatcher at a police station for those that don't know. Tonight I took my sister some dinner that my husband made, helped her figure out how to mix the two medications today (we aren't quite sure if we did it right...I emailed the nurse for confirmation so she doesn't mess up on day 2 if we weren't right), watched her give herself her shot which she said burned like hell, and then gave her another gift to once again say a simple "we are so grateful." Today she got a Coach clutch I scored at 50% off back in July:) Of course she loved it, and said "it feels like Christmas! I get Christmas in October, November, and December!"  Well, that's how we wanted it to feel because, if all goes well, we could be hearing our baby's heart beating a few days before Christmas and it's really the ONLY Christmas gift that I want this year.

As a little added gift, because my sister has worked doubles the past couple of Sunday's, I've been babysitting my niece on Sunday nights for her. Typically our parents watch my niece on Sunday nights and my sister has to pick up her daughter at 12:15am, get her home, and get back up to have her daughter at pre-school by 7:45am and herself at work at 8am on Mondays. Watching her daughter at her house at least cuts out the having to pick her daughter up from our parent's house and carrying her to the car especially with it getting cold outside and my niece getting heavier and heavier. Typically my niece does pretty well with me watching her but tonight she was not having it. After her bath, she changed her pajama's three times, refused to let me brush her hair, and shut herself in her closet while she sat in a basket full of her shoes crying big crocodile tears! She did not want me, she wanted her mommy. After a 15 minute phone call with her mom where she cried the whole time, she finally agreed to eat a bedtime snack with me and fell asleep in 5 minutes. She was clearly exhausted because she's been talking in her sleep while I've been typing this! Even when my niece is being difficult, it makes me want these nights so badly with children of my own. I can't wait to give baths and pick out pajamas and wipe away tears and eat bedtime snacks and tuck my children into bed!

Here's to hoping that dream comes true soon! Our next update will either be on Tuesday after my sister's blood work or Friday after her first ultrasound to see how many follicles have started to stimulate! Until then, she will continue to give herself 10 units of Lupron every morning and her stimulation injection in the evening (Follistim + Menopur).  She will continue to open one gift every day after both injections have been done for the day just to keep her motivated and knowing that we truly are thankful for her and what she is doing for us,  I will continue to take 10 units of Lupron every morning too along with my Lovenox injection, and starting tomorrow I double my dose of Estrace to keep working on plumping up my uterine lining to get ready for Baby Monnier to come on home to mommy! Stay tuned, and if you have someone as special in your life as I have in mine-remember to pay it forward!