And now we wait....

Wow. What a long day. I was out the door at 10:30am, headed to USC Fertility in Los Angeles, for a 2:00pm appointment. I'm only about 45mins to an hour away...but I didn't want to chance getting lost and be late to my appointment!! USC Fertility is located in the heart of down town Los Angeles. There are high risers on every corner, crazy drivers by the hundreds, and people (of all kinds!) walking the streets like they own the place. Anyhow, I picked up my co-pilot, my dear Nana, and we were off! The plan was to get there early; locate the clinic; continue on to find a nice place to eat lunch and to kill some time; and then arrive early to the clinic to fill out paperwork, settle in and wait to be called back. Well, it didn't take us very long to eat lunch. I think my Nana and I were more paranoid about being out of our element than anything else. I couldn't stop having thoughts of my car getting broken in to or someone mugging us. So, needless to say, lunch was pretty quick. We arrived at USC Fertility at 12:50pm. May I remind you that my appointment wasn't until 2pm!! Oh boy. Haha!! I think the front office staff were still on their lunch break because I had to ring a bell to sign in--I kind'a felt bad, but oh well. Paper work was filled out pretty quickly. Then we sat there. Waiting. I thought maybe because I was early they'd squeeze me in early? No. I didn't get called back until just AFTER 2pm. It didn't seem like a long wait though. I enjoyed spending time with my Nana talking about the surrogacy and enjoying a nice cup of coffee together. USC Fertility is a very nice clinic. The staff were all very warm and welcoming. I felt very comfortable there. We went over my medical history; Breast exam; Blood work; Urinalysis; Pap. They had a hard time checking my lining and my uterus because I had an IUD in place. We all agreed that it would be easier to have it removed today instead of sending me to my gyno to take it out and then back to USC for the ultrasound (and to be honest, I just wanted to move forward with everything already!). Once they removed my IUD they were successful with the ultrasound and pleased with what they saw. Side note: They didn't perform the sterile water thing. "...next time!", according to the doctor. She continued to say, "Everything looks normal thus far. Now we wait about a week to get the blood and urinalysis results back". Lastly, I was told what happens next--The schedule of the meds--what they are and how they work and that this will all start as soon as contracts are in place. This was all so "surro-real" (as one of my surro-friends said it best =)). I was told to start taking prenatal vitamins and I should hear from them next week with the test results. I left the clinic feeling like I was on top of the world. I felt amazing! This is going to be an incredible journey and I am so honored to be a part of it. During our ride home my Nana asked me, "how was the transfer". I said, "what transfer? What do you mean?". LOL, I don't know where she got the idea, but she thought the transfer was today! Oh Nana, I love you. =)

Driving towards downtown Los Angeles. I felt like such the tourist, haha! Can you tell I hardly get out of Orange County? My girlfriends and I joke that we are "stuck behind the orange curtain". 

We were surrounded by tall buildings. It was a neat sight, and a scary one too. What IF there was an earth quake!?! I cringe at the thought

My Nana and I in the waiting room.

Getting ready for the exam. Dr thought it was so neat how I am documenting this whole journey. She was more than happy to snap a quick picture =)

A jar of unwrapped condoms. I thought it was funny....

TMI but whatever. Can you spot the IUD? Crazy to think that thing was in my cervix for the last two years!

The lighting on this picture is pretty bad sorry, but if you look towards the middle of the picture you can see how much traffic there was going both ways. This is what rush-hour traffic looks like in L.A.. Thank goodness for carpool lanes!!