A Week Full of First Times..

This week was a very busy week.. And most of the week were first time experiences. And for this hormonal momma it was very emotional and I had to fight off the tears a lot..
Brynna started gymnastics this week. She is in the 4-5 year old group and is the smallest but no surprise there. So the coach has to help her out with some of the stuff because she is so small. But she LOVES it!! She goes 2 days a week and gets so excited about it. Brett also wants to start gymnastics so I may have him go 1 day a week because he will also be starting tball soon and I don't want him to have to much going on and him fall behind in school. Here are some pictures from her class. BTW these are zoomed in phone pictures so not the best quality.

Another first was Brynna had her very first pageant. It was SO not what I was expecting but we had a good time and she enjoyed it. I knew in pageants some people prepared a little skit thing or whatever you want to call it but I didn't know you did that in this pageant so we had nothing prepared. She was a little shy when going on stage the first time BUT daddy stepped in and helped out the second time. Also she was not a fan of all the waiting around. This pageant started at 11 and didn't end until about 2:30ish and it was a LOT of waiting because you have 2 different outfits so she went on stage in her first outfit and then you have to go change and wait for about 20 other girls to go on stage with their outfits and then you go back on stage again for your second outfit and then you wait for 20 other girls again to go show their second outfit. THEN they had a 3rd outfit if you wanted to pay for it but we didn't do the 3rd outfit. And THEN it was time for judging. It was a good experience and we enjoyed it but for now we will stick to gymnastics. (btw it was nothing against this particular pageant or any pageants she just wasn't a fan of waiting and was ready to leave before it started. She enjoyed being on stage but the waiting part not so much haha)

 Brynna was crowned 2014 Doll Miss Princess.

And the last and worst first experience.. Adam(my husband) is in the military and they went to the field for 3 days. Well he left Wednesday morning and my mom, grandma, and brother got here Thursday. So thankfully I wasn't home alone long.. I HATE sleeping home alone. I have no idea why but I'm such a big baby whenever it comes to that. Well Thursday night they had some night training to do while in the field and around 3am they had a training accident. I didn't know about this training accident until about 1-2pm whenever I got a call from Adam saying that he was okay and everything was fine... My first thought was "Ummm... Why wouldn't you be okay??????" He called me thinking I'd be home freaking out about him. Well what he didn't know was that I was out with my mom and had no idea what was going on. If I would have been home I would have seen on the TV, Internet, and facebook that his unit had a causality and some injuries. He didn't tell me over the phone what happened so I had to find out on my own and when I found out what happened I wanted to vomit! Adam has been in the military a little less than 3 years and we have been extremely lucky so far and have not had a deployment yet. I know it will come sooner or later but as of now I will count my blessings and be thankful that he hasn't deployed. Well we also have been extremely lucky and haven't dealt with any deaths or major injuries to anyone close to him. Until this past week.. They had a training accident that killed one, seriously injured 2 others, and 5 others had minor injures. It was a very emotional day for me. I was extremely thankful that my husband was not hurt or killed but it also made me extremely sad for the guys that were and for the families involved. I just cannot imagine the pain and fear they were dealing with. I know I have posted this on my facebook page a couple times but one of the soldiers has a wounded warrior fund to help with some of the cost and I wanted to share it one last time here too. I know most of yall are thinking the military will help him out and while yes the military will cover a lot of the cost. There is more to it and every little bit will help out. You can read the page and it will explain more in depth of what the money will help out with. https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dhiT2


Now enough about first here is the surrogacy part of my post.

How far along: 19 weeks 5 days
Total weight gain: I have not gained any weight since my last appointment(a week ago) YAY!
Maternity clothes: Still 2 pairs of maternity clothes and I got my first maternity tank today. I also just bought a normal take in a bigger size
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I wake up every night to pee and sleeping on my stomach isn't always an option anymore.
Best moment this week: Baby related- We scheduled our first 3D ultrasound!! Not baby related- My mom, grandma, and 2 brothers got to come visit us this past weekend!
Miss anything: not peeing on myself when I sneezed!!
Movement: A tiny bit.
Food cravings: Pink sherbet ice cream!!
Anything make you sick: Nope
Have you started to show yet: I'll let you be the judge of that from the picture I posted of todays belly shot
Gender: It's still a girl
Labor signs: No more Braxton hicks thankfully.
Belly button in or out: in :)
What has your mood been: Aggravated not sure if its because of the pregnancy or other stuff.
Looking forward to: Honestly just the next few weeks. A lot of stuff is happening :)
Any issues: I may have MRSA but waiting for my culture to come back..
Baby is the size of a: Since I'm 2 days shy of 20 weeks we will go with the 20 week baby size and it is the size of a banana

My Hot Mini Soccer Mom Car.

Why are minivans called MINI vans? They are not mini what so ever. They are HUGE! The car we have been driving for the past 3 years is an Acura TSX(small and compact) the cars I had before then were compact also.

and recently we bought a second vehicle, the Toyota Sienna(huge and NOT compact). 

It is still growing on me and I'm liking it more and more each day. My main reason I like it is because it has so much space. I could drive around the neighborhood, pick up random kids and not have to worry about if I have enough room for them. Also whenever I pick up these random kids they will have 2 different TV's to keep them entertained one will be playing Barbie and the other will be playing power rangers. If they don't like one of those tv shows I guess we will have problems but so far the tvs have been pretty awesome! Also this thing drives SO SMOOTH! I mean I feel like we are flying instead of driving. The automatic
doors = AMAZING!! And I love that the middle row moves so easily so if I need to get to the back row I don't have to climb in the car to get there. Plus I have the option for the middle row to have captain seating or bench seating. The only thing I wish the car really had that it doesn't is a sunroof. How do you people without a sunroof survive(btw today was PERFECT sunroof weather).

 

A few reason I don't like it is because I am short which means I have short arms. Whenever I was in my small compact car if a kid talked back to me I could fling my arm around in the backseat without even looking and I would end up hitting a leg sooner or later. BUT in the minivan I cant reach anything! So I guess I'm going to end up going in the woods behind our house and finding a switch. I'll have to find 2 different lengths because if one of the kids are in the 3rd row I need to be able to reach them but if they are in the second row I don't want to use the same stick for fear that I'll end up poking them in the eye or something. Another short people problem is that the windshield is SO BIG which can make things like cleaning snow off the windshield a little difficult. Well last week it snowed a lot(well a lot for what I'm use to) and over night it rained a tiny bit so we had a layer of ice on top of the snow.

 

This is all I could reach to clean off my windshield. Then my husband had to come out and save the day. And clean the rest of the windshield off. Thankfully he was home because if not I would have just turned on the defrosters and waited until it all melted away :)

 

There is this really neat small mirror in the sunglass holder thing that it right above my rear view mirror.

 It is there so you can see your kids, I'm guessing. Does anyone else's minivan have this? Do you use this? Can you actually see the kids? I can see the kids in the middle row but if they're in the back row I can see their figure and that's about it..

 

Even though a few weeks ago I said I NEVER wanted a minivan we may be getting another one(trading this one in) in a year or two but this one will be fully loaded and I will keep it a lot longer. I am learning how to weave in and out of traffic and not be so scared. I promise I'm not driving the minivan like a race car driver or anything crazy. I am just trusting myself with it more. I am excited for our first vacation in the van it'll probably be much more spacious than our TSX was :)


*To make this post have something to do with the surrogacy journey.
Get ready for some AWESOME ultrasound pictures.. J&J thought the 3D ultrasounds looked so neat so we will be doing 2 of them. One around 23-24 weeks and another around 30 weeks!! GET EXCITED because I know I am :) I'm bummed they won't be here to see it on the screen like I will but they will get to see a live feed of it and can show it to anyone they'd like. Plus I'll mail them all the pictures and the cd that will also have pictures on it. I really wished I would have gotten one with Brett and Brynna but honestly I didn't even know about the 3D ultrasounds back then haha.

Does this baby not realize how many people are waiting to know?

Last night Adam and I had dinner with J&J. I wanted to go to a place that we only had here, well one place closed early on Sundays so we couldn't go there and the other place didn't have any reservations until 8pm so we couldn't go there. We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse and had a great time and some great food!! It was good getting to see them and catch up again face to face. Adam was nervous that we wouldn't have much to talk about but it's just like catching up with friends. We talked about the delivery, the hospital, my previous labors, baby names and I love the names they have picked out. I really liked the boy name a lot but I think its because I'm biased whenever it comes to most B names and the boy name they have picked out is a B name. After dinner we headed home and I got everything ready for the next morning.
This morning I got up and started getting ready. I was so anxious and excited for the u/s. I could not believe we have already made it this far in the pregnancy! I cannot imagine how J&J felt. So it was time to head to the appointment. We get to the doctors office and J&J pull up right after I do and we walk in together and wait. I was weighed and had to pee in a cup. BTW I DID NOT PEE ON MY HAND!! You other women know what I'm talking about. Every time you have to pee in a cup most of the time you end up peeing everywhere but the cup! Well apparently I've been getting lots of practice from peeing on pregnancy test, in cups, and in MORE CUPS! But I was so proud about not peeing all over my hand. But then it was time to wait. I felt like we waited FOREVER! But we were finally called back.
It was a totally different room this time around and this time they had warm gel which felt much better than the freezing ice cold gel! The first place she looked was in between the legs. I couldn't believe we were about to know what I was carrying! FINALLY!! It's a...... Well.. The legs are pressed right up against each other. Lets see if we can get the baby to move some. The nurse kept looking and trying to get the baby to move. Nothing. The baby was moving but instead a moving the legs in and out it was moving them side to side like scissors. So we got NOTHING! She said we would come back in a bit and try again. So we looked at all the organs, brain, umbilical cord, etc. and it was so neat seeing everything. Even though a lot of the stuff you really couldn't tell what it was you just acted like you did. We listened to the heart beat. BTW the heartbeat was 156 this time. Then we went back to the boy/girl parts. She took another look. COME ON BABY!! MOVE THEM LEGS!! I don't think the baby realized that tons of people are WAITING to know if its a boy or a girl? WHAT ARE YOU!! SHOW US! NOTHING! So the nurse went and looked at another angle. From what she could tell it looked like a little hamburger. Which means GIRL!! So for now it looks like J&J will be having a baby girl! She was so not cooperating at all.. But from what it seemed there were no boy parts poking out anywhere. I will be having a 3D/4D ultrasound sometime in the near future and hopefully that will give us a more for sure answer. But either way they are both so excited and I am so excited for them.
After the ultrasound Adam and the kids met us at Chick Fil A for an early lunch. Brynna had already met them before and this time they got to meet Brett and Aliana. Brett was so excited to finally get to meet them and Brynna was excited to see them again. It was a great visit and we always have a good time whenever they come down.

How far along: 18 weeks 5 days
Total weight gain: I am still not sure what my starting weight was but I have gained 2 pounds since last appointment which was 2 and a half weeks ago.
Maternity clothes: I have 2 pairs of maternity jeans that I wear but other than that its leggings and sweatpants.
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I wake up every night to pee and sleeping on my stomach isn't always an option anymore haha.
Best moment this week: Baby related- We now know IT'S A GIRL! Not baby related- We had a TON of snow this past week so Adam was off work for a few days due to being snowed in. And my mom, grandma, and brother will be in here a couple days
Miss anything: Not lately. I mean yea I still miss having a glass of wine but that's really it haha.
Movement: A tiny bit.
Food cravings: None.
Anything make you sick: No
Have you started to show yet: It still depends. Yes I am showing but it depends what I'm wearing.
Gender: It's a GIRL!!
Labor signs: I think I have been getting Braxton hicks. I'm not 100% sure but a few nights ago I woke up with horrible labor pains. I knew they weren't the real deal because I actually remember the labor pains with Brynna. They weren't bad but I do remember them. But a few people said they sounded like Braxton hicks..
Belly button in or out: in :)
What has your mood been: Tired. These past few days I've been really tired for some reason.
Looking forward to: Brynna starting gymnastics and my mom, grandma, and brother coming to visit
Any issues: A little bit of Braxton hicks contractions AND peeing on myself!! I HATE sneezing! Because I have to do the awkward leg cross thing and if I don't I will more than likely pee on myself and even if I do the leg cross thing I will probably still end up peeing on myself and its no fun! BTW I have the weakest bladder EVER thanks to Brett(my first born). Also I have been having this very weird taste in my mouth and it is driving me absolutely CRAZY because I can't figure out what the taste it.
Baby is the size of a: Mango

Lets have some fun

We have a few days to go to figure out if J&J will be having a boy or a girl. Personally I think its a boy. I have no idea why but this pregnancy just reminds me more of when I was pregnant with Brett and not with Brynna. Brett and Brynna both think its a girl. So I will do some at home gender predictions and also list a few Old Wives Tales.

1. The Soda Test- You pour urine into the cup with baking soda in it. If it fizzes like a soft drink its a boy, if it doesn't fizz its a girl.. I am pretty sure either way my pee is going to make the baking soda fizz but we will just have to see...
So I did the baking soda test(Thank you Brittany for the baking soda haha). I decided not to video record it because the thought of videoing my pee while doing the experiment and showing the world kind of grossed me out. So I will post the few pictures I took as my proof. My pee is super freaking yellow and I'm guessing its because of my UTI because honestly ALL I drink is water lately(and sometimes lemon water).. Besides my one cup of coffee I had today.

I got a total of maybe 5 bubbles and it didn't fizz like a soft drink.. I will let y'all be the judge of if this test says boy or girl and that will be the tie breaker.

2. Heartbeat test- If the baby's heartbeat is 140 or OVER it's a girl. UNDER 140 its a boy. Well the last time the doctors told me the heartbeat they said it was 140.. Girl

3. Acne- Some believe that if you get bad acne while pregnant you are having a girl.. Well in my opinion my acne has not changed. I hardly ever have bad acne thankfully. Boy

4. Morning Sickness- If you have extreme morning sickness people say its a girl.. Well I only vomited once so far and I'm 18 weeks. Boy

5. Chinese Gender Chart- Went online and it said girl but I don't know if it would go off my birthday or the egg donors birthday and I'm not sure of her birthday so this may not even be valid :-\

6. Mayans Prediction- They look at the mothers age at conception and year of conception if they are BOTH odd numbers or BOTH even numbers then its a girl if one is odd and the other is even its a boy. Well I know the ED and I are the same age and it was 2013 so they were BOTH odd numbers. Girl

Now we will have to wait and see which was correct and which ones were wrong. BTW these were just for fun. I don't think any of them really work but I thought it'd be fun to do :) Those of yall that still have not voted if you think surrobaby will be a boy or a girl then click here and go vote. It's halfway down the blog post in between the avocado picture and the snow pictures :)

Here is my almost(1 day shy) 18 week picture.. I wont post again until I have the u/s which is MONDAY! So everyone be on the look out..

17 weeks and 6 days with surrobaby

18 weeks with Brynna.
I honestly don't think I was showing yet with Brett
but he was also my first and it took me FOREVER to show with him

 

I Could Cry!!

So as most of y'all know Adam and I have been looking at getting a bigger car with a 3rd row. We REALLY wanted a cross over with 3 rows. Well we NEEDED the 3rd row. It wasn't an option that we could give up when looking for a car. It was either 3rd row or no vehicle. So we have been looking a lot for the past month. And I mean a LOT! I found vehicles I loved but were way out of our price range. Or vehicles I loved but had WAY too many miles on them. I really wanted this vehicle we got to be a long term vehicle. Not something we sold or traded in in a few years. So I asked around at who was good to deal with and who to stay away from. Living in a military town lots of people will try and screw you over. So I tried my best to stay away from those places. A few people were really competitive and others didn't really care for the sale. Well yesterday we went to a Toyota dealership and let me just say they were AMAZING(now that we got a vehicle I can say that) they really worked with us. I was NOT happy with the first car they showed us. It was a nice car but the blind spots were horrible. During the test drive I almost side swiped a mini van and almost hit a runner. I'm not a bad driving but test driving stresses me out first off and the company that creates those cars needs to fix the horrible blind spots! So they showed us a few more cars. Well the guy ended up coming over and explained that they had an option to help us. They just got a mini van in and asked if we were up to looking at that.. Those that are friends with me on facebook should know how I feel about mini vans... Those that don't just know that I am NOT a fan of mini vans. BUT a little bit before that Adam and I were talking and I told him if a minivan is in our price range and they can get it down to the price we need as LONG as it has a back up camera then I will do it.. BUT in a year or two whenever his credit is better if I still hate the minivan then we have to trade it in and get me a cross over and it will be FULLY FREAKING LOADED!! haha. So they brought the minivan up and Brynna loved it instantly. I didn't. BUT I compromised because my nerd of a husband was ready to move in haha. I didn't test drive it. I was terrified to so Adam did. They came down on the price a LOT to get it close to our price range but we said we would NOT get it unless they came down a little more and got it exactly at our price range. A few minutes later they brought the paper work over and it was right where we needed it. So yes now we are semi proud owners of a minivan. The car is nice I will say that. I like it and all but I just cannot see me driving a minivan. I drive small vehicles. I drive cars and crossovers not big Tahoe's, Suburban's, or minivans/busses hahaha. So its a big change. BUT it has a back up camera which was a MUST with a minivan and it actually has 2 headrest tvs. So that was a plus. It has TONS AND TONS of cup holders. And lots of storage room. Technically it has 8 seats but the middle row the middle seat is removable. So unless family is visiting or we NEED that 8th seat we keep it removed so its bucket seating and you can just walk through the back seat. Here are a few pictures of our new soccer mom/dad car(enjoy your laugh while I'm over here crying in my bowl of ice cream haha)


Here is a side shot of the minivan its a silverish blue color. Btw we need a name for it. Any ideas??



This is last night as soon as Adam got home with it the kids were SO excited about the new car haha. Thankfully they are still at that age where any vehicle would have made them happy.

So the van has 2 headrest TV's but its only for the middle row. Originally we wanted Brynna in one seat, Aliana in the other, and Brett in the back. Well Aliana doesn't watch tv so I'm considering putting Brett in the front and Aliana in the back. BUT that kind of makes it harder on us because Brett can buckle himself. Aliana cant.

This is my nerd of a husband who thinks he is the coolest dad ever! What he doesn't realize is he is driving a minivan not a Lamborghini..

 



 

Well now on to the surrogacy. I am now 17 weeks and 3 days pregnant and officially feel like I'm "showing". Cant believe in a little over a week we will know what surrobaby is!! For those of yall that haven't you still have time to go put in your vote if you think its a boy or a girl. I still think surrobaby will be a boy and Brett and Brynna both say J&J's baby is a girl. Click here to go vote what you think surrobaby will be. In between the avocado and snow pictures is where you vote. Things are really starting to change from a growing belly to CONSTANT peeing!!

17 weeks and 3 days

 

How far along: 17 weeks and 3 days

Total weight gain: I haven't been weighed since last week so not sure.
Maternity clothes: I gave in and bought 2 pairs of jeans. I ended up just buying 1 pair but they were too big and kept falling off so I had to go buy a size smaller. I kept the first pair though because I know sooner or later I will end up fitting in them.
Stretch Marks: no new ones.
Sleep: Last night was HORRIBLE! I woke up twice to pee. My bump is starting to get to the point where its sometimes uncomfortable to sleep on it so I have to sleep on my side/stomach. And last night I woke up with what was the start of leg cramps. I'm only 17 weeks! It shouldn't start THIS early!!
Best moment this week: Baby related- the baby is starting to flutter even more but I only notice it at night. Not baby related- we got a new car!
Miss anything: Sleep. A full night of undisturbed SLEEP!
Movement: A little. I have to really be paying attention and laying very still.
Food cravings: Nothing this week..
Anything make you sick: Not anymore thankfully
Have you started to show yet: Apparently now the bump is here to stay. It is officially out of hiding!
Gender: We will find out in a little over a week
Labor signs: none thankfully
Belly button in or out: in :).
What has your mood been: Yesterday I almost had a meltdown at the dealership! Buying a car is always stressful to me! It is something I HATE doing! If I had the money I would never go in I'd just buy a car cash and be done with it. BUT besides that I've been in a good mood :)
Looking forward to: J&J coming to visit again and finding out if surrobaby is a boy or a girl. Plus we are going to a hockey game tonight! We got free tickets and we are all so excited about it. Brett has been talking about it all week. ALSO my mom, gigi, and Corben will be visiting in a few weeks!!
Any issues: Waking up with a minor Charlie horse!! I am also doing light work outs.. Nothing too crazy but I have the energy again to clean and work out so I'm doing some light workouts :)
Baby is the size of a: Sweet potato