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.

Blessed!!!

I am feeling amazingly blessed and lucky right now to have the wonderful IFs that I have.  I had a pretty rough day yesterday.  My 2 year old was driving me insane.  She woke up about an hour early yesterday morning saying she was hungry so I went ahead and got up a little early and fixed them breakfast and took Alyssa to school.  Zoe was so tired she fell asleep on our way home from taking Alyssa to school.  I woke her up b/c it wasn't time for her nap and we had to finnish getting ready b/c I needed to go run some errands.  We went up town to the tag office and to pay the water bill and I put Zoe in the stroller b/c I had to park down the street and I didn't want her running off or running around the building while I was trying to pay or waiting in line.  She was fine on the walk up to both stores but once inside she started crying and screaming and pitching a fit.  It was horrible and there wasn't anything I could do to get her to stop.  Zoe is one of those kids you DO NOT want to be around when she's tired (or in the same store with).  Of course people are all staring, which I could care less about.  This one lady that walked in the tag office after us was particularly annoying with her staring.  She wouldn't quit!  She looked like she was in her 40s and very heavy set and she was wearing a belly shirt!  Anyways, after that fiasco I decided to cut my errands short and went home to lay Zoe down for a nap.  She fell asleep about half way home and I took her in the house to lay her down and she woke up wanting me to rock her.  So I rocked her then put her to bed and a few minutes later she got up and came out of her room.  So I put her to bed again and a little while later she got up and came out again saying she was hungry.  So I fed her then put her down again and a few minutes later she got up again.  I finally ended up spanking her and putting her back to bed and after that she finally stayed in bed and took a nap.  After her nap we had to pick Alyssa up from school and go to wal-mart so I would try to finnish getting some of the stuff I was needing to get earlier.  The whole time Zoe wasn't listening and wasn't staying with me and she was getting into everything and driving me insane so I put her in the buggy seat.  We had a McDonalds cup with sprite that I had put in the back of the buggy and she reached back there and grabbed it by the lid and tried to pick it up and she dumped it out everywhere.  All over the floor and half the stuff in the buggy.  That was it.  I couldn't take any more.  I had reached my limit for the day.  I got the kids and my purse and left.  Just left the buggy and everything right where it was and went home.

I was talking to "I and A" today and telling them I had a bad day yesterday and they called the lady at GG and told her they wanted to offer to pay for child care.  So if I need to go run errands or just need some me time that they will pay for a baby sitter or daycare.  I couldn't believe it.  I was so overwhelmed that they would do that.  It's just above and beyond and I appreciate it so much that they would offer.  Now, onto my next problem.  I've NEVER left my kids with anyone besides my mom or my MIL.  I'm not real big on day cares.  I went to daycare as a kid, I would just prefer not to leave my kids there if I can keep from it.  I'm sure I will figure out something b/c it would definitely help my sanity to be able to get a break on days like yesterday when the kids are super fussy and I've got stuff I need to do.  I just can't thank them enough.  They are amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better match.

16 week update

Wow!  16 weeks already.  I am feeling great and really starting to enjoy this pregnancy.  The nausea and headaches are gone as long as I don't skip a meal.  The baby's kicks are getting stronger and I enjoy being able to feel them more now.  The 20 week u/s got pushed back a week to Dec 9th.  Everything else is the same.  The guys fly in on Friday and we are going to my OB appointment then going to the hospital tour.  Then Saturday we are going to the Ga Aquarium and having a big dinner with the family later.  I can't wait.  The guys are so excited to come and see me and meet my kids and our family.  They already have their flight, hotel and rental car booked.  December will be here before we know it.

I had a checkup last week and everything looked great.  All my test results came back negative and the baby's heartbeat sounded great.  "I" was on the phone during the checkup and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was the first time he has been able to hear it without it being a recording or something so he was pretty thrilled about that.  Then the midwife happened to mention something about the optional ultrasounds they offer to find our the sex of the baby and of course "I" was all over that.  He said they had had a really bad week and would love some good news to cheer them up.  Unfortunately the last u/s appointment for the day had just been taken and they didn't have another one available until Tuesday (5 days later).  I could tell he was very disappointed so I told him I would call up there every day and see if they've had any cancelations.  The next day they still didn't have any openings so I got her to see if their other locations had any.  Score!!!  We got an u/s scheduled.  I had "I and A" on speaker phone and the u/s tech told them they were gonna have a boy.  They were so excited.  I loved hearing their reaction.  They both started screaming, it was so funny.  Later I asked them if they'd told everyone yet and "I" said, "Everyone, literally everyone!" and they were out shopping for baby clothes and sent me a picture of an outfit they picked out...LOL!!!  They are so funny and they are going to be such great parents.  They sent me some flowers today to tell me thank you for everything and happy belated birthday.

Now, onto the pictures :)

14 weeks

15 weeks

15 weeks

he looks surprised in this one...lol

it's a boy

4D ultrasounds aren't quite as cute this early as they are when you have a 30+ week chubby baby in there, still pretty cool though.

16 weeks

16 weeks 2 days

flowers from the guys :)

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 :)