T.G.I.F.!

I'm so happy its the weekend!!! Ok, well not QUITE the weekend but just about. I've had a busy and productive work day so far and have gotten lots of little things checked off the "to-do" list!

I've been pretty tired the past couple days, not entirely sure why; I'm hoping some down time this weekend will have me feeling better. I wonder if I'm fighting a little something off since Kenneth has been sick the past week and is just finally feeling better himself! Maybe its because allergy season is beginning and the pollen count seems to be up and my sinuses seem to often be in a state of irritation the past week or two. I can feel it in my ears a little too. I guess I will have to take some claritin and see if it makes a difference. Gotta love Georgia pollen!!

Despite feeling a little tired I am also in a great mood today! Just looking forward, to a nice weekend with my boys and probably with excitement to see what happens next on the surrogacy front. I'm looking forward to getting to know potential IPs and finding out who will be my next and quite possibly last match.

If I haven't already started college by the time this next surrogacy journey ends I know I'll be starting very shortly after and can't imagine wanting to pursue another journey while working towards a nursing degree and most likely home schooling Kent at least at some point in there as well. Not to mention Kenneth will probably be gone quite a bit if he gets the job we think he will! So, at least as of now there seems to be a lot of good reasons to think this could very well be my last surrogacy journey. You never know what the future will hold though! :)

In any event, I'm just looking forward to the next steps and seeing who I might click with and getting to know them better. I was searching posts on SMO yesterday to make a "master list" of questions to discuss with potential IPs and this is what I've come up with so far:

PERSONAL QUESTIONS
1. What is your age, your spouse's age?
2. If you have a religious or faith belief system, please describe.
3. Describe your home. How long have you lived there?
4. What sort of things do you enjoy doing in your free time?
5. Are you involved in any community activities or groups?
6. Are you married, if so how long have you been married?
7. How would you each describe your personalities?
8. What do you each enjoy most about each other?
9. Do you have any children? How old?
10. Have you been pregnant before; if so what did you like/dislike about your pregnancy? Any concerns based on your own experience that you might have with a surrogacy pregnancy?
11. Do you have any prior experience with surrogacy?
12. Do you enjoy your jobs?
13. Do you have animals?
14. Do either you or your spouse smoke?
15. What are your thoughts on a surrogate carrying your baby, how do you think you will feel?
16. What are your biggest worries about a GS cycle and pregnancy?
17. How do you tend to handle conflict?
18. Does your family know you are planning to work with a GS, what about your friends? What are their thoughts?
19. What brought you to pursue surrogacy as a way to build your family?
20. How long have you wanted to build your family through surrogacy?

21. What are your childcare plans?

22. Do you plan on telling your child(ren) that they were born via a surrogate mother?


SURROGACY JOURNEY QUESTIONS
1. What is the most important thing to you, as you look for a GS?
2. Do you have any specific requirements?
3. What qualities are you looking for in a prospective GS?
4. How do you feel about your surrogate having pets, any concerns?
5. When are you hoping to start cycling?
6. If the first transfer fails, how soon would you hope to try again?
7. How often do you think you'd like to communicate during the pregnancy, how involved would you like to be?
8. What about your spouse, how involved would he like to be?
9. What sort of contact level do you hope for after birth?
10. Would you be willing to have your surro and her family come visit occasionally during the pregnancy and/or after delivery?
11. Would you be interested in visiting your surro and her family occasionally during the pregnancy and/or after delivery?
12. Do you hope/plan to attend appointments during the pregnancy?
13. If there is distance; would you plan to visit during the pregnancy for any of the appointments? Would you plan to arrive ahead of delivery and attend the birth if possible?
14. Are you open to using the GS’s OB and normal hospital for pregnancy care and delivery?
15. Do you have any specific hopes/plans/expectations for the actual delivery/birthing experience?
16. Would you hope to do a sibling project if everything went well?
17. How many transfers would you like your GS to agree to?
18. Do you plan to be at the transfer?
19. If you need an Egg Donor, do you already have one in mind?
20. Do you have frozen embryos?
21. Would you like your surrogate to use Home Pregnancy Tests after the transfer, or prefer 22. to wait for the beta blood test?
23. How many embryos do you want to transfer? How many babies is the most you would want your GS to be pregnant with?
24. Do you want the option to terminate, if so what would you consider terminating for?
25. Do you want the option to selectively reduce? If so, under what circumstances would you want to s/r?
26. How much testing do you want to do? Do you want to do an amniocentesis or would you prefer less invasive testing, if any at all?
27. Is there anything special (dietary, lifestyle etc.) that you would ask of your GS?
28. What do you think about your surro pumping for and/or breastfeeding your baby? Are you comfortable with either?
29. Would you like breast milk for the baby if your surro was willing to donate it?
30. Would you enjoy taking and sharing photographs? Would you want to take pictures with your surrogate during cycling/transfer/pregnancy/delivery?
31. Would you be comfortable with your surrogate posting about her experiences on a blog and online community? Would you be interested in joining her in a blog or online community?

There are always so many things to discuss!! I think I am much more interested in doing a lot of talking prior to matching than I have been previously. I just don't want to rush into anything at all, and am looking forward to taking my time and getting to know potential IPs before moving forward!

We're getting ready to have "TGIF" here at work - lunch is being provided by the group who organized today! Then just a couple more hours until I can get ready to head home.

Tonight is day 61 of P90X - Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X. I like this workout!! I haven't been able to finish all the way through the last two nights because of interruptions, so I'm looking forward to finishing this one! My legs are always sore but feel good afterwards.