Whether you are a first time surrogate or a pro, staying organized is key to having a stress-free surrogacy experience. With all the shots, supportive medications, doctors appointments and day to day life, staying on track and organized can seem difficult at times. We talked with Surrogate Ashley Bolger on the tips and tools that she used to stay organized during her journey.
1. Use Google Calendar for everything
There are so many important dates to keep track of including cycling appointments, transfer day, ultrasound appointments, and even meetings with your intended parent(s) and the Hawaii Surrogacy team. Google Calendar was super helpful for Surrogate Ashley. She could put in all her appointments with locations and the GPS automatically plugged in. Calendars can also be shared, so Intended Parents can keep track of critical dates too.
2. Think out of the box with your medication organization
Ashley used a clear hanging jewelry organizer to help keep her medication organized. “I got a cheap jewelry organizer off Amazon and printed out little sheets of paper with the date and medication dosages for those days. Then I put the medication in each pocket.” A simple yet super effective way of keeping track of all your medications that visually looks like a calendar.
3. Stay on top of reimbursements
When dealing with reimbursements, what helped Ashley the most was putting a reminder in her Google Calendar right away. Every time she had a medical copayment from the pharmacy or appointment, she put in her reminder for reimbursement. Any paper receipts can be quickly photographed with your phone. Use Dropbox to share a receipt file with the agency to avoid large email attachments.
4. Schedule time with your Intended Parents
The final tip that Ashley shared with us is scheduling time with your intended parent(s) at least once a week to connect meaningfully. Keeping in touch is easier than ever thanks to tools like FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, and voice messaging! Committing a few minutes of time just to keep them in the loop and to say hello can help provide comfort and reassurance for everyone involved.
5. Build a digital archive of your shared experience
Have belly pictures? Video clips from your ultrasound? Once again, lean on Dropbox to build a digital archive of your journey. You can have a shared folder which allows you as a surrogate to save media into the cloud. Your agency can also contribute to this folder if they’re capturing memories for your Intended Parents. Having a single archive documenting your journey will be a special keepsake for all.
If you have any tips and tricks that helped your stay organized during your surrogacy journey, feel free to share with us on Instagram (@hawaiisurrogacy) or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hawaiisurrogacy
