Quick Update

My IFs decided that they would wait until the 20 week u/s to come up.  They are going to come up on Friday and go to the appointment with me then we will go to the hospital tour and we'll probably do lunch or dinner sometime too.  Then Saturday the plan is to go to the Ga Aquarium which should be fun.  Zoe hasn't been since she was a baby so I'm sure she will enjoy it.  Gonna have to make sure I bring my leash for that wild child.  It should be interesting to see how the kids take to the guys and how the guys handle being around a kid in the middle of her terrible twos.  After the aquarium we are going to go out to dinner with a bunch of the family so everyone can meet.  And hopefully on Sunday we can meet up one more time before their flight and maybe go to lunch or something.

My next appointment is on November 3rd.  Until then I leave you with this...

...a picture of me at 13 weeks 4 days.  This looks much better than the one in the white shirt :)

13 week u/s pics and rumors

I am 13 weeks along now and the baby is doing great.  Growing right on track and heart rate was 151.  I mentioned something to her about how that was the lowest the heart rate has been so far b/c it's usually around the 170s or 180s and she said that's normal really early on in the pregnancy and the heart rate usually slows down a little bit after that.  Why couldn't any of the other doctors explained that?  I was hoping to be able to get a video today of the baby and the heartbeat but they had some stupid rule about not being allowed to video the ultrasounds.  At least we got a couple of pictures.

The guys (IFs) have been going a little crazy lately b/c they are dying to know the sex of the baby.  They were wanting me to talk to the doctor today to see if we can schedule the 20 week u/s at 17 weeks.  Of course they said no, I figured they would.  They've never been very big on changing the way they do things unless it's medically necessary.  I e-mailed the guys today and let them know what the doctor said and told them that the doctors up there are very good and they are just going to have to trust that the doctors know what they are doing and I know what I'm doing. I got this!  And I told them not to worry so much b/c all they're gonna do is make themselves (and me) get grey hair...LOL! 

Also, the other day when I talked to "I" he said (if we were able to get everything scheduled for a 17 week u/s) that they were going to come up on Friday (day of the u/s) and leave on Saturday.  That really kind of upset me, and I didn't go into details with him about why, but I did say something to him about it today.  I just feel like it's a really strange situation if you ever stop to think about it (which I happened to do a couple of weeks ago).  I am pregnant by someone I've only met once or twice and while I know this is what I signed up for and I don't regret it at all I just feel like I wish there was a better process for getting to know your IPs and really getting that friendship to grow.  When he said they would be coming up Friday and leaving Saturday all I could think was, what am I doing wrong?  Do they not like me?  Why are they not interested in spending time with me and my family esp. since that was going to be the only time I would see them again until delivery.  I am spending all this time and energy growing their baby and they can't even give me at LEAST one full weekend of their time?!?  I know that we have a good relationship and we text almost daily but it would just be nice if they put a little more effort into getting to know me and my family and spending some time with us.  Thankfully after I talked to "I" today he said that they would stay for the weekend like I requested and they were going to talk about whether or not they wanted to come up before the 20 week u/s (around the beginning of Dec) to do a 3D/4D u/s to find out the sex of the baby.  I'm hoping they will decide to do it b/c that's one more time I get to see them before the baby is born :)

Anyways, on to the important stuff......PICTURES!!!!!

And, because I had requests from a couple of my surro sisters to wear a white shirt for my belly picture, here you go.  I hope you're happy b/c I feel HUGE in that shirt :/

Oh, and about the rumors.  My mother-in-law, Paula, got a call from an old friend/neighbor of hers the other day and she said her sister told her that Paula was pregnant.  Of course Paula thought she was crazy and told her that she's XX years old and she's DEFINITELY not pregnant.  Then the friend went on to say that her sister said that it was a surrogate pregnancy and that Paula was doing a surrogacy.  Now I don't know where this sister got her information from but I'm guessing it was some kind of rumor that got going around (probably started by something someone read on FB) from someone who knew someone who knew someone and it happened to get back to us but how in the world it got turned around to say that Paula was the one doing the surrogacy I will never know.  Guess that's just what happens when you live in a small town.  People like to talk and half the time they don't know what they're talking about.

12 weeks

I am now 12 weeks and a couple days.  I had my first OB appointment today and it went great.  I called the guys and put them on speaker phone so they could talk to the doctor and ask her any questions they had.  Last time the guys talked to Kolb he suggested I see a "high risk pregnancy specialist" for my 20 week u/s which I never understood since I'm not high risk.  My OB felt the same way.  She said that there isn't anything high risk about me or this pregnancy but if any of the routine tests or u/s showed anything out of the ordinary then I would of course see the high risk specialist.  Before I left I got her to write me a Rx for Zofran b/c I had just ran out 2 days ago.  So happy to have more :)

In some ways I am feeling better since being off meds but in some ways I am feeling worse.  When I was on all those meds I constantly felt bloated and it was really hard to eat even half of what I would normally eat b/c it made me feel terrible.  Since stopping meds that has completely gone away.  But something else popped up.  I normally get headaches and migraines every once in a while when I'm not pregnant but with my last pregnancy they completely went away during the pregnancy.  I was hoping that was how this pregnancy was going to go and that's how it was going until I stopped the meds.  Since stopping the meds I get a headache or migraine every day and the worse the headache gets the worse the nausea gets.  I'm hoping this is just from my hormones adjusting to being off the meds and everything will level out soon and I will start feeling better b/c this is no fun. 

But, I started feeling movement yesterday, that's always fun :)  It's just a little bit every once in a while (maybe 2 or 3 times a day) but it's a start.  I can't wait till the kids can feel the baby move and kick.  That's going to be so much fun to watch.  I see lots of cell phone videos in my IF's future :D

And here's a picture of me at 12 weeks maybe starting to get a little bit of a baby bump.  My 4 year old tells me my belly's getting bigger...lol.  Kids are so honest :)

Better late than never I guess

I am currently 11 weeks along.  I went to my 10 week checkup last week and everything looked great.  The baby was measuring 10 weeks and a couple days and the heart rate was in the 170s.  After last weeks appointment I got the wonderful news that I could stop the estrogen injection and cut my PIO down to .5cc a day and take 1 estrogen pill 2x a day for the next week.  I had to go in today for some more blood work to make sure my levels are staying up after weaning off the meds and they looked great.  Soooo...I am officially off ALL meds!!!  Yay!!!!  Wooohooo!!!  *Happy Dance*  I'm still pretty tired a lot of the time and nauseous.  I think I'm starting to get a handle on the nausea and I've still only thrown up once.  *knock on wood*  If I get hungry I get nauseous and the sooner I eat something the sooner the nausea will go away.  If I get nauseous and don't eat something soon then when I finally do eat it still takes FOREVER for the nausea to go away, if it does.  Besides the nausea, heartburn and indigestion (which I'm hoping was from the extra progesterone I was taking) this pregnancy has been great so far.  I will be glad when this kid moves out of my pelvis and off my bladder but can't wait till I start feeling movement :)

The guys are just over the moon excited about everything and can't wait to find out what we they are having.  They are really wanting to do an early u/s to find out the sex of the baby and hoping for a girl.  I've only been pregnant with girls so hopefully I won't break that streak now :)  I go to my first appointment with my regular OB next week and with the guys on speaker phone we will talk to the doctor (they have lots of questions).  Hopefully they will be able to find out the sex of the baby early (b/c that means I won't have to wait until 20 weeks to see them again).  I'm thinking that maybe when they do the u/s for the first trimester screening they can try to find out the sex then.  Guess we'll see.  Also, the guys talked to Dr. Kolb the other day and he suggested that we have a level 2 u/s done by a high risk pregnancy specialist.  That doesn't really make since to me b/c this isn't a "high risk pregnancy".  Plus, I thought after the first trimester we got released to our OB and were supposed to do what they recommend, not some doctor on the other side of the country.  I know some OBs will recommend seeing a high risk specialist if a test says something may be wrong but besides that I'm pretty sure I am fine with my u/s tech and I really don't like the idea of having to go who knows where to get an u/s done by a "high risk pregnancy specialist" when I don't need it. 

Guess we'll wait and see how everything goes and maybe the guys will be happy doing whatever the doctor suggests.  I'll leave you with this picture from the 10 week u/s.  Not a great picture but here you go.  Head is towards the bottom and you can kinda see 2 little hands :)