18 weeks

I'm 18 weeks along now and feeling great.  Not much new going on here.  I've been having a lot of headaches this week but nothing I can't handle.  I can't wait till the guys come up in Dec.  I went to a Pampered Chef party at my aunt's house yesterday.  I really enjoyed it.  There were a lot of family members there that I normally only see once a year and only one or two of them knew about the surrogacy.  My aunt is very happy about the surrogacy and can't wait to meet the guys when they come up in December so of course she was asking how I was doing and how everything is going and before long everyone knew about the surrogacy.  It went really well.  As a surrogate you always wonder how people will react but everyone was really happy about it and no one had anything negative to say so that was good.  Everyone said I looked great (which is always good to hear).  So, here is a 18 week belly picture.  It's not great but here it is anyways :)

In other news...

There is a fellow surrogate I'm really worried about.  I've been thinking about her all day.  She is 18 weeks, just like me, and she got admitted to the hospital last night b/c she was leaking amniotic fluid, there is a tear in the sac.  They did an u/s and the baby had a good heartbeat but the fluid was low.  This is an update she posted earlier...

 I have a tear in my sack. The baby has a lot of water still around her. The doctor said its considered a miscarriage and began prep for an immediate C-Section. I refused (which pissed off the dr) who then began to tell me all the awful things that can happen with low water. I got the IF on chat and we discussed it. He supported me completely. Contractions set in..hard ones. I was crying and begging for them to stop. They gave me meds to stop them and morphine for pain. I got 6 bags of IV fluids in just a few hours and things started to slow down. I was sent home to do "what you feel safe doing" and ordered to return if more fluids come out or my contractions start again. I have to manage to keep her in for the next 6 weeks until I hit 24 weeks for her to even have a chance. I'm scared and I feel like I failure (i know..its not my fault). My IF's are amazing and just keep telling me how much they love me and lucky they and Elle are to have me. I refuse to give up on this baby. I love her.

I can't believe they just sent her home and wouldn't keep her or try anything else but she is going to see a different doctor tomorrow so hopefully they will try to do something and not just send her home again to basicly await the inevitable.  Personally I'm hoping that with the right doctor and lots of bed rest and fluids the tear will heal itself and the fluid level will go up again and the baby will be fine.  I'm sure whatever happens it's going to be a long hard journey.  Noone ever wants to be on bed rest, especially for as long as she would have to be.  I just wish her the best of luck and hope that baby hangs on, for everyone's sake.