February 2015

Playing in Golden on a warm February day 

Ella learned paper quilling at The Homeschool Alliance 

Gordon has been playing with Mark's legos from the early 80's. It's amazing the stuff he comes up with to build. 

Mark & I have been trying to get out more, just the two of us. This is us on a date in Denver. 

Ice cream made from Violet's milk 

Evergreen after a snow

This was after I got home after attending the birth of my dear friend's son.  They were glued to me! 

Buddies 

We are FINALLY getting eggs from our chicken named Cheetah Spot. It's a beautiful blue! 

Giving his horse a hair cut 

Moving on up to the 16"

Watching a Science experiment that ended up being a failure 

Violet's home 

Playing in the greenhouse 

Violet 

Denver Museum of Nature & Science 

The museum built a beautiful new discovery area 

Petrified tree 

We spent the last few days of the month taking care of the farm. 

The process of becoming a gestational surrogate is taking so much longer than we thought it would. I had all of my medical testing done in one day back in August. I was told by the clinic that everything looked great. In October I switched to another fertility clinic and had my records faxed. Then I had them faxed 2 more times in the following weeks because they were lost. In January, more than 3 months later, I got a call from the fertility doctor asking me to come in for a couple more tests including a retest of my prolactin since it was high. Nobody ever told me it was high, there was no concern expressed and I got the "everything looks great" from both clinics months ago. Why would they wait 3 months to tell me to get retested?! They withheld important information, it's all very frustrating.  During those 3 months we completed the legal process...but we wouldn't have gone through all of that if we had known medical wasn't truly complete. I agreed to do more testing since this process is all about jumping through hoops. The prolactin test came back high again. The fertility doc said in order to proceed with being a gestational carrier I would need to get an MRI. The only opening the MRI clinic had was on our anniversary, so we planned a romantic trip to the clinic. I thought I could handle it since I'm so badass, having a home birth makes you invincible. They put the IV in and started putting me in the tube. I panicked and asked them to give me a minute out of the tube. I made the mistake of keeping my eyes open while I slid in. I gave myself a mental pep talk and shut my eyes and back in I went...for 45 minutes.  Halfway through, the MRI tech came in so I opened my eyes expecting to be let out of the coffin. He was just starting the contrast IV. Opening eyes = bad idea. My entire body started to sweat. I tried to focus on the music that I could hardly hear over the MRI noise. With 2 minutes left I pressed the help button.  I was starting to panic. He said I only needed to wait 2 more minutes. My body started shaking and I felt like I couldn't breath. Finally he came in and got me out and I made it through the whole scan, they got what they needed. I'll take a heavy sedative next time I need a scan! 3 days after the MRI I got the results. They found a small benign tumor on my pituitary gland. It's generally not dangerous and very common. I need to keep an eye on it the rest of my life to keep it in check. As far as being a gestational carrier, I need to take meds to bring down my prolactin levels. After a month of taking the medication I need to have my levels checked. If it works, I can still be a gestational carrier. Send positive vibes my way so I can carry a baby for this incredible couple. 2 egg donors have already been tested and failed so they are testing a 3rd. Please let this donor be the one!