What Do You Think Surrobaby Will Be??

Today I had an OB check up, all they did was weigh me and listen to the HB but I have been so excited for this appointment BECAUSE I could finally schedule the anatomy scan. J&J will be flying in for the anatomy scan because as long as the baby cooperates we will be able to find out if its a he or a she. I cannot wait for them to finally know. I know how exciting this must be for them. We picked 3 dates that worked best just incase the OB's office couldn't give us the exact date we wanted. And thankfully we got our first pick. We will be having the anatomy scan on President's Day, February 17th! It works out best because they will both be off that day so they won't have to take off work, and Adam will also be off that day so he can keep the kids while I go to the appointment. So it worked out great.

I have started to feel the baby move. Not too much and its only at night. I still sleep on my stomach so whenever I'm laying there at night I can feel little flutters. I have also somewhat started to show.. I wish I had a better bump but most days the bump hides.. Here's my "bump" at 16 weeks(black and white shirt) and then again at 16 weeks and 1 day(grey shirt and pink pants). At night I look much bigger compared to during the day. I think the baby will be a boy because I carry boys so much better than girls. But with the way things work with me thinking its a boy it'll be a girl. We will know in 2 weeks and 4 days :) Be sure and vote on my poll what you think the surrobaby will be. I have my poll on this post below the avocado picture and above our snow pictures.

 

I have decided to start doing a questionnaire each time I do a blog post. And I will use the same questions each time to see what has changed..

How far along: 16 weeks
Total weight gain: I think 10lbs but I'm honestly not 100% sure what my starting weight was so it may only be 5lbs
Maternity clothes: Still none. BUT it's also winter so I have been living in sweats, leggings, and dresses
Stretch Marks: no new ones.. I still have all my previous ones from my kiddos
Sleep: I wake up at LEAST once a night to pee sometimes 3 times a night. Normally I wake up around midnight and 4am(whenever my husband wakes up for work). I have never woke up to pee before during a pregnancy but this one I have been waking up since I became pregnant! This is probably my biggest complaint because I hate waking up in the middle of the night.
Best moment this week: Baby related- scheduling the anatomy scan. Not baby related- IT SNOWED a ton! I'll post a few pictures of the snow day at the end of my blog post.
Miss anything: WINE! I'm not a big drinker but man lately I could go for some wine haha. Also sushi I have been craving sushi lately but I am terrified that surrobaby wont agree with sushi so I won't try it.
Movement: Very little. I have to really be paying attention and laying very still.
Food cravings: Salads.. But some days nothing.
Anything make you sick: Not anymore thankfully
Have you started to show yet: It depends what day it is and who you ask haha
Gender: We will know in about 2 weeks!!
Labor signs: none thankfully
Belly button in or out: in and it'll probably stay that way.. My belly button has never popped out.
What has your mood been: Honestly I think it's the same as normal. I don't even feel pregnant..
Looking forward to: J&J coming to visit again and finding out if surrobaby is a boy or a girl. Also going car shopping.
Any issues: I have a UTI which has sucked.. Apparently their pretty common during pregnancy though but I am still ready for it to be gone!
Baby is the size of an: Avocado



So be expecting my questionnaires from here on out haha.

What do you think surrobaby will be?
	boy
	girl
pollcode.com free polls

Here are some snow photos from yesterday we had a BLAST!

 

Here are a few photos that we went out and took today before the snow melted away completely

 

YES I KNOW I TAKE WAYYY TOO MANY PICTURES!! BUT I hope yall enjoyed them :)



Guess What??

As long as things go according to plan we will be scheduling the anatomy scan at my next doctors appointment and we are hoping to schedule it for Valentines day!! J&J will be flying in again for the anatomy scan and hopefully as long as the baby cooperates we will be able to tell if J&J will be getting a baby boy or a baby girl.. So yall have a little less than a month to get yalls guesses in :) I am thinking its a boy.. With Brynna I blew up a LOT quicker than with Brett.. I'm wondering if I can find a few baby bump photos of both pregnancies.. Let me see if I can remember my myspace passwords because I think that's where most of my Brett baby bump photos are HAHA! So I got another heartbeat video and sent it to J&J a few days ago. They LOVED it! It was so amazing listening to it and so neat at how much easier it was to find it this time around compared to last time. Here is a little clip of the video. Towards the end the baby started moving so the heartbeat wasn't really registering.. But you can still hear it clear as day!

Also like I promised here is another baby "bump" I swear this thing is getting smaller and smaller each week! I guess in the beginning it was more bloating?? I'm not really sure. Some days it looks like a bump and some days its just GONE! Not sure where it goes though haha. But normally towards the end of the day it likes to poke out more than in the mornings. So this was me at 14 weeks. I am now currently 14 weeks and 3 days pregnant and not much has changed.

That's really it for now. I will update again soon. My next OB appointment is on the 28th but they wont do a sonogram at that appointment so I wont have any baby photo's for yall BUT who knows I may actually have a pretty decent bump at that time :)

A VERY IMPORTANT DATE!!

We have an official due date! I still cant believe it! Yes with surrogacy you know your EXACT due date because you know the age of the embryos and when you became pregnant but your OB still gives you your due date. My OB finally gave us a due date yesterday! J&J's baby will be due July 16, 2014!! I am so excited for them! Like over the moon excited for them! I am still in shock some days that I am actually pregnant and that everything worked on the very first try. Not everyone is as lucky and go through 3 transfers with no luck but we were extremely lucky and one embryo stuck on the very first transfer! I am also very thankful because even though I LOVED Cali personally I do not want to do that flight again. If I do another surrogacy journey I may request to use a clinic on the east coast just to make it easier on me because that flight is miserable! But anyways lets get on to yesterdays appointment.

Yesterday was a busy busy day. Due to "extremely" cold temps Fort Bragg and all of Fayetteville decided they wanted to delay school by 2 hours. So instead of going in at 8am they would go in at 10am. Even though I loved the extra hour of sleep it made things a bit more difficult. Brynna had a dermatologist appointment at 10am. Thankfully though I was able to drop Brett off with Kelly at 9:30am and then be on my way. I actually found out whenever I got there that the appointment was at 10:15 and even though we were there about 20 minutes early we still weren't seen until about 10:30.. OH JOY! Once we were seen we were in and out. After that we came home and I started dinner. Normally I don't tell y'all about dinner but OH MY GOSH I made this AMAZING crockpot taco chili and it was SO GOOD! Did I mention AMAZING?? At the end I will tell y'all the recipe and to those that need a new crock pot idea your welcome :) after that I headed to my OB appointment at 2pm. It was going to be a long appointment so I knew ahead of time it would not be a good idea to take Brynna or Aliana with me. Again, Kelly came to save the day, like she always does. BTW those of y'all that don't know I don't always use and abuse Kelly, she uses me too haha. She knows that I will always return the favor like for the next few weeks I will be her in home caregiver/nanny/best friend/daily roommate. Kelly is having surgery and I will be the awesome best friend and come keep her company while Doctor Brynna keeps and eye on her leg. So lets get back on task. I swear I must be really ADHD today because I keep going off subject.

So I get to my doctors appointment and still have no paperwork with my insurance information so the insurance lady(I cannot remember her name but she was so helpful) called who I THOUGHT was my insurance for my surrogacy. Turns out that was not who I had insurance through and they had no record of me in their system. Well that's funny I have emails stating that would be who I would have my insurance with! So instead of wasting my time and making all these phone calls I decided to call one of the IP's and thankfully he was able to help me out. I gave the info to the insurance lady and we got the ball rolling! I was weighed and sadly I have already gained 10lbs!!! WHO DOES THAT? Who GAINS 10 POUNDS BY 12 WEEKS?? But to my defense it was the holidays! And yes I used pregnancy as an excuse to eat WHATEVER I WANTED!!!! But I have also started back working out again. Nothing too crazy I know I have to be careful I am making a baby! But I cannot be lazy this whole pregnancy. Personally I really do enjoy light workouts while pregnant it makes me feel much better. After that I went and talked with an RN about what to expect through out everything. She thought it was amazing what I was doing and was so helpful and nice. We talked about who all would be in the room for delivery. I told her that I assume it'd just be J&J and then my husband. I know the only person I want in there for me is my husband. I know this is not his baby but I want him in there for me and for emotional support. Pushing out a baby is not all butterflies and flowers! It's hard work. And I want J&J in there because DUH! It is their baby and I want them to be able to experience the birth of their child. She said she thinks they allow up to 3 people but it may only be 2. But she told me since this is a surrogacy the doctor will more than likely make an exception. Since I am due in July I also don't know if Adam will be here whenever I deliver so it may just be J&J or if J&J don't make it here in time for delivery it MAY just be myself!! But hey I'm a military wife I will be fine!! I hope haha. So on to the rest of the appointment.

I finished up with the RN and then it was time for my appointment with the OB. This time around I have to get fully undressed and have to have a full body exam to check for lumps in my breast, have an pap smear, and etc. Oh what fun.. Not really. But I'm glad to know everything was fine. After that I had another u/s and man in almost 3 weeks the baby has grown a lot! It was so crazy seeing how big he/she was. And the baby was so active! The 2 pictures we got were so blurry because he/she wouldn't stay still it was really neat to see it wiggling around in there. But everything looked great! I am now 13 weeks pregnant!! I'm so upset because my darn phone died whenever I tried to get a video of the u/s with the baby moving around.

After the u/s I was supposed to go get blood work but because of the insurance I have I have to go to this place called quest which is about 10 minutes away from my OB's office. So I went to quest. Well quest wouldn't see me because I didn't have a copy of my insurance card(it was on my phone because I literally got it 5 minutes before) so now I have to go back tomorrow to get all that done. Hopefully I don't cry. In 3 weeks I will be going back to the OB and honestly I'm not sure if I will have another u/s. I'm hoping I do because I'd love to get a video of the baby but if not they will at least finally listen to the heartbeat! Well that's it for now. Here is a picture of my 12 week "bump". I thought it looked a lot bigger but whenever I took a picture it really didn't show like I expected.. I will take a better one by the time I post another blog post :)

 

 

So like I promised here is the recipe for the taco chili :)

- 1lb ground beef cooked and drained(I ended up using about 1.30lbs)

- 1 package of dry ranch dressing mix

- 1 package of taco seasoning

- 1 can crushed tomatoes

- 1 can diced tomatoes

- 1 can of corn

- 1 can of kidney beans

- 1 can of black beans

Put everything in the crockpot and mix it up(I also sprinkled some chili powder in with it but not too much I didn't want to make it too "spicy" for the kids. Depending on when you put it on you can do low, medium, or high I put mine in at 1 and cooked it on high and then around 4 I dropped it down to low. If I was going to put it on in the morning I'd do it on low. I also cooked corn bread with it. It was seriously AMAZING and I will be eating it for lunch today.