Tomorrow! Week 2 Recap...

Tomorrow's the day for egg collection, and nobody is happier about that than me!  At this point, I have somewhere around 15 follicles all measuring mature, and everything is difficult from sitting to walking with the added puffiness and pressure from the meds.  I had my appointment for the trigger shot in the wee hours of this morning, and I am going in around 2:30 tomorrow for the 4:30 procedure.  For those who pray, please pray for me, the doctors and nurses, and the surrogate - that her uterus would be hospitable to our little embryos when the time comes!

Week 2 for me has brought some good shopping!  I've picked up most of the things I wanted to find from the previous trip including scarves and bangles for gifts, as well as the cloth that I wanted to find for recovering a chair and ottoman at home when I return.  Honestly the days have blurred into one another here, and it's likely that I'll repeat some things posted before.  Bear with me if that happens!

I met a woman at breakfast one morning (Harris says I've never met a stranger!).   We struck up a conversation, and then had a day shopping together afterwards!  We went to the N-Block market and found several things.  At a beautiful store called Kalol, I found the lovely pink fabrics that I'd searched for to recover a thrift store chair at home.  They have new fabrics brought in each week, and in addition to fabrics there are colorful clothes at very reasonable prices.  From there, we went across the street to a store called "Cottons" where my friend purchased a beautiful flowing muslin robe (white with gold trim!) and took it away in a lovely cloth store bag printed with pink roses! 

After that stop, we were off to Connaught Place (I'm sure that's spelled incorrectly - sorry!) for a quick shopping trip at a store called "Shaw & Sons" where I purchased 15 scarves and 8 bangles (the pretty hand-painted kind).  I bargained with the salesman and was okay walking away with the scarves for 150 INR each, and the bangles for 110 INR each.  Yes, I could probably have done better on the bangles, but the idea of having everything purchased really made me happy, so I went with it!  Shaw & Sons is on the B-block in Connaught Place (burgundy sign with yellow letters), and their upstairs showroom has A/C. 

Finally, I headed to a local shop (truly for locals with goats, chickens, and only Hindi signs) to pick up some of the little ankle bracelets Indian families put on their babies.  One of my girlfriends back home (who knows about this situation & has also struggled with infertility) is having a baby while I'm over here, and I thought this would be a perfect gift!  The anklets are silver and have little rattles all around them.  I didn't bargain for a number of reasons and paid 648 INR for the set - a price I'm fine with!  As near as I can understand, they use them to encourage the babies to kick and strengthen their legs.  When the babies begin to crawl, their feet point and the anklets are then found in the house marking their path.  Cute idea!  The shop I went to was "Pardeep Jewellers" located at C-96, JJ Colony, Khanpur, New Delhi.  The taxi driver had to call for directions and then also ask several people once we got to the area in order to find them.  TIP:  Take the driver with you to serve as the translator because the shopkeeper doesn't really speak much English.  In all honesty, I wouldn't have gotten out of the car without the driver coming with me. I've had all of my successful shopping trips with Suni!


Other than the shopping, there's not been much going on!  I've stayed in a lot to keep my feet up.  They're swelling to the size of personal watermelons most days, and putting them up helps that a good deal.  I have enjoyed staying at the Hilton.  The staff is very personable, the room is clean and comfortable, and it's readily accessible to the mall's food court and shops.  Oh, one funny thing did happen with the hotel.  I ended up having to switch rooms after the phone in the other was seemingly possessed by a ghost.  From 6:30 in the morning until 11 pm at night it would ring on speaker thru to guest services.  I mentioned to the Manager that perhaps there was a ghost in the room and he wanted something.  He suggested I unplug the phone until the engineers could come thru the next day.  The 5 people they had come look at it couldn't figure out the problem, so I was switched to a different room with a front facing view of the malls' courtyards.  On the way out of the old room, the housekeeping manager came thru to see if there was anything I needed.  I said "No, so long as there's no ghost in the new room wanting room service!"  She responded in a very serious tone, "No, no, no ghosts.  I have checked for you and gotten rid of all ghosts."  It was all I could do to keep a straight face as I envisioned the cleansing ritual being performed on the room prior to my arrival!  LOVE the Hilton!

I did go in and sign the contracts yesterday at SCI's clinic.  The surrogate was to come in and sign last night.  The final piece of the equation will be my taking them home for Harris to sign, and then mail back for filing.  It does seem odd to me that I couldn't sign and be done, but they do this everyday so I guess I just have to trust the process.  We'll sign and ship them back on the way home from the airport next Monday. 

That's all for now, I guess. I'm off to prop my feet up and watch "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" after a Skype session with Harris!