Surrogacy #3

Well, as you can tell from the title I'm doing my 3rd surrogacy.  I signed up with GG again and they told me they didn't have any matches for me.  I don't know if it had anything to do with my weight because I had gotten up to 220 at that time or what the reason was.  But everything happens for a reason.  In January of this year my husband and I started keto and I lost 55 lbs.  Then I signed up to do a surrogacy for a local agency, Tomorrow's Parents International.  Everyone in the surrogacy world here in Ga has heard of THE surrogacy lawyer, Sara Clay.  Well, she started her own agency and since I'd heard lots of good things about her I decided to try her agency.  Everything has gone great with her and I have no complaints about her or the agency, they've all been great.

I got matched pretty quickly with a local couple here in Atlanta which I love.  I'm very excited about this couple being so much closer and being able to share more of this pregnancy with them.  They are great guys, super nice!  We've only met for dinner once so far and that's the only time outside of the various surrogacy meetings that we've gotten to hang out.  Hopefully that changes soon, once the pregnancy progresses and we get to know each other a little better and the weather gets nicer.

We are using Emory Reproductive Specialists this time and they've been great.  I love that they are in the same hospital where I'll be delivering.  The med protocol has been a little different but it's working great.  I don't think my lining has ever gotten so fluffy.  The last ultrasound before the transfer my lining was at a 15 which is great for me.  With my first surrogacy it was "almost 7" the day of the transfer.  Even with the twins I don't think it ever got over 8.

So, my transfer was this past Saturday, 12/22.  Sunday night and all day Monday I had a lot of cramping.  By Tuesday (Christmas) my boobs were getting sore and it only got worse over the next 3 days.  On Thursday I was feeling a lot of pelvic pressure and discomfort and today I've been kinda nauseous off and on but nothing too serious and I get tired easier.  I'm usually a night owl but I'm doing good to stay up until 11:00 these days.  I took my first pregnancy test yesterday and got a very faint positive.  I was kinda surprised to get a positive at all though because I'm notoriously late getting positive tests.  With my first surrogacy I took like 15 pregnancy tests over several days before I got one to come back positive 8dp3dt.  The same thing happened with both my kids.  I've always known I was pregnant before the tests could detect it.  Besides the twin pregnancy though, this is the first time I've ever gotten a positive so soon.  It was positive on the first test, 5dp5dt and the next morning as well.  I think I'm going to wait until Sunday to test again and hopefully the line is a little darker.

I am working now.  I work at Petsmart as the dog trainer.  I enjoy it, it's definitely a fun job.  I've been there for a little over a year now.  The kids were getting older and they were like, "Mom, when are you going back to work?".  So here I am...lol.  They are 11 and 9 now.  My oldest started middle school this year which is scary.  They grow up too fast.  She just got her own cell phone for Christmas.  I remember I was at this same point in my first surrogacy as I am now, when she was starting pre-k.  She was crying every morning and the teacher would have to pry her off my leg so I could leave.  I was an emotional wreck between that and all the pregnancy hormones.  It's crazy how quickly time has gone by and how much the kids have grown and changed.

But this is going to be my first pregnancy with a job so it'll be interesting to see how it all works out.  Only one girl at work knows anything about the surrogacy and I'll probably keep it like that for a while.  At least until after the 1st trimester if possible.  I worked up until 3 or 4 months with my first pregnancy and I've been a stay at home mom ever since then until now.  Hopefully I can work up pretty close to the delivery.  I really hope I don't have another huge baby or twins.  The likely hood of having twins this time is very low though because they only transferred one embryo.  But fingers crossed for a nice 7 lb baby...lol.

Ok, time for everyone's favorite part, the pictures.  I'll try to keep you updated as the pregnancy goes on.  I go in on Wednesday 1/2/19 for my blood work pregnancy confirmation.

Working on weight loss

Well, I haven't been counting calories anymore and have gained back all the weight I had lost and I'm no longer in "one"derland.  :(  Now, my husband and I are doing a juice fast.  Today is day one and I was at 205 this morning.  I've never done any kind of fast before so this is a first for me.  I've heard people say the first week is the worst b/c you're detoxing and it's cleaning out your system and everything.  I really didn't think it was going to be very hard but now I'm starting to second guess that thought.  We got a Nutribullet and are basically going to try only drinking our fruits, veggies and nuts.  I had my first one earlier and it was actually pretty good.  I put spinach, half an apple, a banana, about 5 strawberries and 5 or 6 baby carrots.  It was a LOT to drink.  The Nutribullet works great though.  If you've ever seen the documentary on Netflix called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" that's what we're doing, except with a Nutribullet instead of a juicer.  Our goal is to do it for a month but we are going up to the lake for 4th of July weekend in 2 weeks and I doubt we are going to keep it up over the weekend.  I keep getting the urge to eat something, just out of habit when I'm fixing the kids food or I see chips or something laying out.  Something in my head says take a bite even though I don't feel hungry.

Nathaniel is a year old now.  He turned a year in April.  Him and his daddies are doing great.  I sure would like it if I got more updates and pictures but not much I can do about that I guess.  :'-(  I am going to be doing another surrogacy this year.  I'll probably sign up with GG again in August or September.  I just don't want to transfer until after my birthday in October.  I'm going to be 30 this year and want to be able to go out with my hubby and my friends and have a good time and a few drinks.  I can't wait to be pregnant again though.  I miss my prego belly.  I had to wait 2 years from the time I transferred to the time I am able to transfer again b/c my OB wouldn't clear me medically until then since I had a c-section.  I have never heard of anyone having to wait that long and I'm really thinking about finding a new OB.  Not just b/c I've had to wait so long but b/c they seem to have a high c-section rate and really push c-sections and I don't like that.  Hopefully I can find a good OB between here and Atlanta that has a low c-section rate and is covered by the surrogacy insurance.

Nathaniel's First Birthday!

Stressed

We've been going through a lot the past 2 months with my youngest daughter.  First, with her hitting her head really bad and having constant headaches for almost a month and having to have  a couple of CT scans.  Then she got sick one day, developed a fever and was very lethargic.  I took her to the dr and she said Zoe just had a virus and she would be fine.  This is her at the dr office.  Normally she would be running around the room.

I ended up taking her to the ER that night b/c her fever was up to 103 and wasn't coming down with tylenol or anything.  They sent us home telling us that she was fine, she just had a virus and to keep her hydrated.  After we got home she was walking really funny and we couldn't figure out why.  That was a very scary night.  I was up with her most of the night and her fever got up to 103.6 and she started having hallucinations which was really freaky.  This is her the night she was having the hallucinations.  I have no idea what she was staring at, there was nothing there :/  Several times she started talking to the hallucinations and trying to hit them.

Then I noticed a rash about the size of a slice of bread that was red, hot and slightly swollen on the top of her thigh but didn't think too much about it.  The next day she still had a fever and was vomiting and i took her back to the dr and they still said the same thing.  Within 2 days the rash spread down the front of her shin and she still had a fever and was vomiting.  We ended up taking her to the ER that night (a different ER) and they still told us that she just had a virus and she was fine.  They gave her a bag of fluids b/c she was dehydrated and took some blood to run some tests that were supposed to be ready the next morning and we all went home for the night. 

The next morning I went back up to the hospital by myself to get the test results.  When the doctor told me that all her test results came back normal I couldn't take it.  I broke down right there.  I was just so scared and we had been taking her to the doctors constantly and no one was helping us, just saying she had a virus and she would be fine.  Here is a picture of the rash after it had spread down her leg...

You can see it's starting to spread onto the top of her foot on that bottom side.    2 days after taking her to the hospital her whole foot was red and swollen and she could barely even move her toes b/c they were so swollen and she couldn't walk anymore.  I took her back to the doctor again and she took one look at Zoe's foot and said that it definitely wasn't a virus and she put her on some high dose antibiotics and said it looked like she had a bacterial infection.  They also sent us for x-rays which they said looked fine.  She wasn't able to walk for 4 long days and the antibiotics didn't seem to be doing much.  After 4 days on the antibiotics her foot was still red and swollen and hot but she could walk on it a little.  After 10 days on the antibiotics she was walking on it but still favoring that foot a little and it was still red, swollen and warm, just not as red, as swollen or as warm.  So the doctor said we needed to take her to a childrens infectious disease specialist (very scary thing to hear the doctor say).  The pictures don't do it justice, it was much redder in person.

So we took her to the infectious disease specialist and he said to take her off the antibiotic, that it wasn't an infection but he wasn't sure what it was but put her on the steroid, Prednizone.  He said that whatever it was that it wasn't anything serious (insert HUGE sigh of relief).  He said that if he had seen her sooner he probably could have given us a diagnosis.  Then he sent us over to the childrens hospital for MORE x-rays and bloodwork.  Everything came back normal, yet again.  A few days after coming off the antibiotic her foot started to REALLY look better and she was finally able to wear her shoes again.  And now her foot is back to normal :D 

And, just because I LOVE pictures, especially pictures of my beautiful girls, here are some pictures I recently took of her...

And her sister, Alyssa...

And one more of Zoe from today :)

During that time that all this was going on with Zoe I was so consumed with everything that I didn't contact the guys (I and A)  Then about 2 weeks ago I e-mailed "I" and updated him on everything that had been going on and asked about the baby and everything and I still haven't gotten a response.  I sent him a text the other day too and no response.

The worrier in me says that something is wrong, that they're mad at me and want me out of their lives (I know that's probably crazy but it's basically every surrogates worst case scenario).  Then my more rational side says that they're just busy with trying to balance work and the baby and everything is fine, they'll contact me when they get a chance.  But like a very wise surrogate friend said, "A simple text takes so little time but means so much."  Anyways, here are the most recent pictures I have of him (they are from last month).  He is 4 months old now and already weighs 20lbs!

Nathaniel with 2 of his cousins.  I love that face...LOL!

On another note, my agency contacted me the other day wanting to know if I wanted to come back for another surrogacy :D  HELL YEAH I DO!!!  I can't wait to be pregnant again.  I keep seeing women with pregnant bellies and I miss it so much.  It's just an amazing feeling and I think knowing that the pregnancy is for a greater purpose makes it even more rewarding. 

Until then I have been working on loosing some weight.  I went back to my pre pregnancy weight without doing anything and have been wearing all my regular clothes since about a month after delivery but I was already heavy before I got pregnant and this is something I've really been needing to do.  I've been using myfitnesspal and tracking my calories and we try to walk or ride bikes in the evening if we can and I already lost 6 lbs in the first 2.5 weeks.  I'll weigh again in the morning and hopefully that number will go up at least a pound :)  I'm only eating a maximum of 1280 calories a day and some days it's hard b/c I've been having some major cravings the past few days but it's paying off and I'm losing weight so I'm gonna stick to it.  One thing I got REALLY excited about the other day was when I finally broke through the 200 lb barrier.  I have been over 200 for a very long time (probably close to 10 years) and I was very happy to be back in "one"derland :D  I bought a new pair of jeans the other day to celebrate (a size smaller than I would have bought pre pregnancy:).  I think it was the first pair of non maternity pants I have bought in years.

I highly recommend myfitnesspal though.  I never thought counting calories would work for me but it has and the app makes it super easy to calculate everything.  Also, it really opens your eyes to how many calories you were consuming a day (no wonder I couldn't get below 200), how many calories are in things and what the correct portion sizes are.  I love it.  My husband has been using it too and has lost 13 lbs in 2.5 weeks!