33 weeks

I know. I know. I'm slacking.. I have been trying to sit down and do this blog post but this week has been so busy and when I'm not busy all I want to do is just lay down. I'd love to take a nap but with Brynna that's not always possible. The weeks are flying by and surrobaby seems to be running out of room in the womb. I skipped a week of going to the chiropractor and man did I regret that. So I'm back to weekly chiro visits. I will probably end up going every week and a half again but I cannot go 2 weeks!! My OB appointment went great and my bump is measuring right on track.



I was too lazy to get a standing picture so
this is my 33 week bump :)

How far along: 33weeks
Total weight gain: 11lbs
Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes. I did buy a new swim suit but it should fit me the rest of the summer.
Stretch Marks: honestly I have no idea. I know I have stretch marks but I don't know if I have any new ones this pregnancy.
Sleep: I want to sleep ALL the time!!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- going to the chiropractor!! OH MY GOODNESS! It helped relieve so much discomfort. Not surrogacy related- Just spending time with my family this past weekend. If you'd like to read about our camping trip click here and it'll take you to my blog post about camping at 33 weeks pregnant.
Miss anything: STARBUCKS!!
Movement: All the time.
Food cravings: ice
Anything make you sick: I have to cut dairy out of my diet. Which is extremely hard for me. I don't really drink milk but I LOVE my starbucks which has milk, I LOVE cheese and pretty much have it daily. Sour cream, cream cheese, CHOCOLATE! The list could go on haha. But my stomach has been extremely upset lately. And after talking with my OB we decided it'd be best if I cut out dairy. Last night I did have a little sour cream with my dinner and I felt it whenever I got home. BUT I already feel so much better besides that little sour cream. It was a moment of weakness!!
Have you started to show yet: OH YEA!
Gender: It's a girl
Labor signs: All the time!
Belly button in or out: In.
What has your mood been: sleepy.
Looking forward to: The start of summer. Heading to the beach for a long weekend.
Any issues: I some how have a heat rash on my arms that is not wanting to go away.. And it itches like CRAZY! So today I kept myself on lock down and avoided the sun in hopes that it will be gone by Sunday so we can enjoy some pool time.
Baby is the size of: Pineapple


Upcoming Dates:
June 4th- Chiropractor Appointment
June 10th- OB Appointment
June 15th- Fathers day
June 29th- Adams Birthday
July 16th- DUE DATE!

Primitive Camping While Pregnant..

This weekend Adam had a long weekend and I knew I wanted to go to the beach. We only live 2-3 hours from the beach and pretty soon we will be having a BIG change of scenery so I want to enjoy the beach life as much as possible. So I had to decide WHICH beach. We have so many beaches to choose from. I knew I didn't want to go to Myrtle, nothing against myrtle beaches BUT we have already been to Myrtle 4 times and I wanted to experience a different beach. So I ended up picking the Wilmington area. A lot of people recommended some places to stay and one of them was a camp ground. Now I know what your thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Camping at 32 1/2 weeks pregnant....... ARE YOU CRAZY? Ummm... Maybe.. Just a little. BUT I kept looking for hotels just in case I found one for a decent price. Every day I kept going back to the camp grounds and looking more into camping. Brett has been begging to go camping so I thought it'd be perfect to do camping and the beach at the same time. So I brought it up to Adam and we decided to do the camping and beach. And we planned our weekend at Fort Fisher camping grounds and Kure Beach.

I did LOTS of research and I mean LOTS!! What to eat while camping because if we were going camping we were doing it right. What to take to cook and drink. Fun camping activities. And things to do in the area so that away Monday on our way home we could stop at a few places and enjoy more of the area. I also called my dad to get his camping advice. He gave me lots of good tips and advice about primitive camping. My MAIN issue with the whole camping thing was no electricity and the toilets being far away.. When I say far away what I mean is it's not 5 steps from my bed. I'm 8 months pregnant I get up NUMEROUS times a night to pee.. And I am not an outdoors person that can just "pop-a-squat" when I need to pee. Even if I was how in the world do you do that at 8 months pregnant???? I'd probably end up falling over and landing in my pee or peeing on myself and waking everyone up. Can you imagine looking out your tent to this really pregnant woman, shorts to ankle, rolling back and fourth, scream and crying, in her pee!! Yea that's what I imagine when I think about popping a squat pregnant or not pregnant.

Thursday we went and bought the camping items we needed that we didn't have. Friday we(I) spent cleaning and getting all our stuff together while Adam went fishing with a friend. Friday evening Adam packed up the van while I ran to the store and grabbed some last minute items. Saturday morning Adam did the color run with some of the guys he works with and by noon we were off.. We were all so excited and I was a bit nervous. All I kept thinking about was no electricity.... No close toilets.. Oh what joy. BUT I found out some friends of ours were also going to the same camping area as us and was excited about that. The reason I was bummed about the no electricity was because I needed a plug to blow up our air mattress.. I was NOT sleeping on the ground with just a few blankets. I am a stomach sleeper. Yes at 8 months pregnant I STILL sleep on my stomach. It is the only way I can sleep. I don't sleep completely on my stomach. It's a weird sideways stomach position. No it doesn't hurt me or the baby. It is the only way I can sleep. BUT I cannot sleep that way on hard ground because it's extremely painful. I also can't sleep on my back because I feel like I'm being suffocated from the inside when I do, and sleeping on my side hurts my back.


Saturday when we got there we set up camp and got everything organized as best as possible. Then I was on a mission to find an outlet to blow up my air mattress. I found one in the locker rooms but was trying to see if I could find one closer. Surprisingly right next to my tent was this metal box that looked like it could be for an outlet so I asked Adam to open it and check. Sure enough IT WAS! I have never been so happy to find a plug before :) After we got everything set up the adults played corn hole while the kids played soccer. For dinner that night Adam made some delicious burgers. Then we waited for the sun to go down and headed to the beach to look for crabs.  I think we were to the point of giving up and they finally found some..

Sunday morning I woke up around 4:30am... It may have been earlier it may have been a bit later but I know it was before 5am and I know it was before the sun came up. The reason I woke up was because I had to pee.. I tried anything and everything to fall back asleep because I was NOT walking to the restroom by myself and getting attacked by a deer or kidnapped! I even had a moment of weakness and considered popping a squat but just couldn't bring myself to even try.. So I laid in the bed with my eyes closed and NOTHING! I honestly have no idea how I didn't pee myself. When the sun finally came up I got out of my tent and walked to the restroom to pee.. Little did I know I actually was about to have the runs. AWESOME!! Camping at 8 months pregnant, no close restrooms, a weak bladder, and NOW I HAVE THE RUNS!! Last time I went camping was EXACTLY 3 years prior and guess what, I had the runs then too.. BUT I pretty much OD'ed on pepto on the way to our campsite and it helped a lot. BUT guess what you cannot take while pregnant?? PEPTO! Thankfully it wasn't too bad but that morning I ended up clogging the toilet!! SERIOUSLY! I am in this disgusting restroom just laughing at myself wondering WHY DID I THINK CAMPING WAS A GOOD IDEA??? And then a knock on the door!! I just clogged 1 of 2 toilets for the tent camping area we were in. AND whoever was knocking on the door would see my face and know I CLOGGED THE TOILET!! NOOOO!!!! Then I saw the plunger. I tried everything possible to unclog that toilet and it did not work. I am the worst when it comes to plunging a toilet. I have no idea what I'd do if the kids flooded the toilet while Adam was gone. Thankfully though everything went down except for a few pieces of toilet paper. I walk out and its the lady camping next to us with her 2 little boys. Hopefully since she has kids of her own she understands you cant always control it. Before this pregnancy I NEVER went number 2 in public but this pregnancy has done things to me that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy haha.

I head back to our tent and everyone slowly starts to wake up and I decided to start on breakfast. I made eggs mixed with sausage on the grill :) The group of people we knew that we were camping by were heading back home today but we were spending the day at the beach and spending the night one more night. So they packed up and we all had to wait until 9am whenever reception opened. Once reception opened they headed home and we headed to the beach.

We get to the beach and find a perfect spot. Close enough to the beach but not too close. Or so we thought. Everyone puts sunscreen on and the kids go running to the water. We have been to the beach 4 times and they love playing in the water. They know not to go too far but to still enjoy it. This beach was NOTHING like what they have experienced before. The waves were rough and the current was strong. They were slamming people down and taking

them under. Brynna was SITTING on the sand. The water came up and flipped her over. I brought both kids up and explained that they could play in the water BUT they did not need to go in too deep. Or they'd have to sit out because the water was a little more dangerous this time. Did they listen. Nope. So we decided to just sit and watch and sure enough they learned quick. Brynna gave us a little scare and I took off running!! She didn't realize that even though she wasn't that deep the waves were high and it pushed her down, she did some turns and flips under water and I grabbed her out of the water. After that I made her play in the sand right beside us. While at the beach both kids had to pee.. What do you do when you need to pee at the beach?? YOU PEE IN THE OCEAN! All the animals do it so why can't we? Neither kid understood that EVERYONE pees in the ocean. Brynna kept trying to but the waves would push her over before she could get it to come out. I thought the kids were going to let their bladders burst instead of peeing in the ocean. But FINALLY they both peed in the ocean and turns out so did the little boy next to us and the little girl that Brett and Brynna were playing in the sand with. Yea she peed in the ocean too. And they ALL announced it to the world. Finally we decided to head back to the camp site take showers, do some fishing, and start dinner.

 

My main complaint about the whole camp site out of everything was the lack of showers and lack of restrooms. They had a community shower by our camping area and it had 2 shower heads but only 1 worked.. Thankfully we got their first and didn't have to wait but by the time we got out their were 2 people waiting and by the time we left the locker room their were 6 people waiting. After showers we headed to the fishing pier and Adam did some fishing. The kids and I headed back before Adam and we started to get all the dinner stuff ready. We had chili dogs with baked beans for dinner and it was so good! After dinner we started to pack up so that in the morning we wouldn't have too much to pack. Then we made s'mores and headed off to bed. For the first time in a LONG time I didn't get up in the middle of the night to pee!! It was amazing!

 

Monday morning we had muffins and donuts while we finished packing up the car and then headed off.. We decided to skip the beach that day and took the kids to a Children's Museum and they had a BLAST! I think they liked the museum better than the beach.. It really was such a fun and cute place. We spent about 2 hours at the museum and then stopped at Nick's Diner in Wilmington for lunch. After lunch we walked down the street a couple blocks and got ice cream at Kilwin's. The line at Kilwin's was long but it went fast and was worth the wait.





My left ankle isn't too swollen here but
my right one was swollen

After that it was time to head home. Within 10 minutes both kids were out and stayed asleep for about 75% of the drive. On the drive home my feet felt a little weird. I take a look down and they were HUGE! I could not believe how swollen my ankles/cankles were. With my previous 2 pregnancies I never had cankles BUT I also wasn't due mid summer. Apparently heat=swelling. So YAY! I get to enjoy the cankles this pregnancy. The swelling has gone down a lot and I have a little shape but they aren't my NORMAL ankles! Finally we got back to Fayetteville and had to run a few errands before we could go home for good. But once we got home we unpacked, showered, and called it a night! We were exhausted! I don't know how I woke up this morning and I have no idea how I didn't take a nap today but we had a GREAT weekend and honestly I really enjoyed camping. We will probably go back before we move. Which means I will be camping again while pregnant. But hopefully we figured out my stomach issues and this time I will just have to deal with the late night peeing :)

8 Months Pregnant!!!!

Can y'all believe it! I am 8 months pregnant. While I'm sitting here typing this blog my 4 year old is asking me to come JUMP on the trampoline with her.. Ummm... Sorry Brynna ask me again in about 5 weeks then I will be okay if a baby falls out mid jump haha. Even though at night time I am pretty miserable I am still not ready for her to come yet. She still has some baking to do :) Well I guess last blog post I kind of left yall in the dark about the OB appointment and levy briefing so I will start with the surrogacy stuff first since this is a surrogacy blog.

WOW! 32 weeks! I know I say this pretty much every post but this pregnancy is going by SO QUICK! I am getting to the miserable stage of pregnancy, mainly because I'm short. EXTREMELY short. On a good day I am 5 feet tall.. But depending on who is measuring me, if I'm wearing shoes, and how my back is I range from 4'11" to 5' .5" so most people either complain the baby is squishing their lungs or squishing their bladder.. Whenever I am pregnant no matter if I carry high or low the baby does BOTH! I'm to the point of wearing depends and an oxygen mask to bed every night. JUST KIDDING! BTW NO I don't pee on myself at night! Only when I sneeze! If you have never been pregnant before DO NOT JUDGE ME! Everyone does it sooner or later while pregnant. And if you didn't do it your first pregnancy believe me it'll happen.. JUST WAIT! Other than that though the pregnancy is going good. I have contractions pretty much every other day.. Some days they are REALLY strong where I actually have to remind myself to BREATH through them! Other days they are just little baby contractions. OH YEA I went grocery shopping with Brynna last week.. Had contractions the WHOLE time I was there but we needed groceries bad so I had to just deal with them. Well I go to buy some eggs and normally I just grab the eggs from the shelf that is pretty much arm level and I don't have to do much bending. Well sure enough this time all the eggs were gone except for the eggs on the very bottom shelf at the back. I have to squat all the way down and reach for these eggs(if we didn't NEED eggs I would have just kept walking and made Adam go back over the weekend but we needed eggs). When I go to get up a lady asked if I needed help. I felt like such a fatty and I couldn't help but laugh. I was taking my time to get back up because I was having a contraction while I was squatting and I was waiting for it to end. But man she made me laugh. I guess I must look REALLY pregnant now.

How far along: 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 10.5lbs
Maternity clothes: I haven't bought anymore maternity clothes and probably wont. I MAY buy a swim suit top but that's probably it. I only have about 8 weeks left at most so I shouldn't need to buy any more clothes.
Stretch Marks: honestly I have no idea lol
Sleep: HAHAHAHAHA!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- J&J got my package I sent them last week and LOVED it!! I sent the 3D ultrasound pictures and CD's and also bought surrobaby an outfit and some mittens(those of y'all that don't have children of your own yet, mittens are like a HUGE NEED!! They are kind of like socks and the dryer likes to eat them up so you need a lot of them) Not surrogacy related- It's a 4 day weekend and we have fun things planned :)
Miss anything: Energy, Sleep, Wine??
Movement: All the time. I don't think she ever sleeps.
Food cravings: Still ice but I think ice is what's making me sick :-\
Anything make you sick: I THINK ice.. 
Have you started to show yet: OH YEA!
Gender: It's a girl
Labor signs: I'm kind of hoping whenever I go in this next week they will want to check me to see if I've dilated any. YES I know that dilation means nothing. I could be stuck at a 2/3 for WEEKS or I could go from a 1-10 in a matter of hours. But I'm still curious if these contractions are doing ANYTHING!
Belly button in or out: In.
What has your mood been: tired. But today I had a little bit more energy than normal.
Looking forward to: This long weekend :)
Any issues: Not really.
Baby is the size of: Jicama(what in the world is a Jicama?? Doesn't this thing looks smaller than a head of lettuce)

Upcoming appointments:

May 27th- OB appointment

May 28th- Chiropractor appointment
May 29th- EFMP screening for the kids and I
July 16th- Due date!!

July 22nd- Moving Date!

Non-surrogacy part of this blog post :)

So last week we went to the levy briefing. Seriously NO HELP! Okay it was a little help but not too much. I had way higher expectations. I left more confused than when I went in.. So my plan is once we get everything finished I will be creating a blog post(it'll probably be after surrobaby is delivered) about PCS'ing to Alaska. And once we PCS I will create a blog post about that. I plan to keep the blog going after I deliver and it will be geared more towards our life living in Alaska. I will give updates about the surrogacy part of my life but it wont be as much as I update now.

But for now I am pretty much on my own trying to figure out exactly what we need to do. Thank God for facebook and helpful military spouses.

Chubby Cheeks and Open Eyes

Life is getting busy and time is flying right on by! Before we know it surrobaby will be here and my family will be preparing for a move across the country.


Our 3 year anniversary dinner

Last week I told yall about mine and Adams anniversary and how I planned a surprise for us for our anniversary. Well that was a total bust.. TOTAL BUST!! The surprise was a pedicure. A nice relaxing pedicure. Well he wasn't too excited about someone rubbing on his feet so as soon as we walked in we walked right back out. Thankfully I didn't make an appointment because then I would have felt bad. I was upset that he didn't want to get a pedicure but on Saturday he made up for it :) Saturday he told me to be ready by 5:30 because he got a baby sitter and was taking me out. Normally I'm the one who plans date night and gets a baby sitter but he had a friend of ours watch the kids and we had a nice dinner just the 2 of us. I love my kids and going out and doing family fun things but its nice to get out and have dinner a husband and wife.

Sunday was Mothers day and we had a great relaxing day. We went to eat for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day at home. I was in a lot of pain the whole weekend and Sunday was probably the worse day of them all. Still not 100% sure what is causing the pain though. I'm guessing its indigestion or reflux(honestly not sure if those are the same thing because I have never experienced this discomfort before but that's what other people seem to think it is). I will say with my previous pregnancies I never experienced pain or discomfort like this.. Monday thankfully wasn't too bad but I still called my OB to see what they wanted me to do. The told me to give Zantac a try to see if it relieves the discomfort so we will see.

Look at those wide open eyes and
chubby cheeks

This is all we could see at
first when we tried looking
at her face. Both arms
covering her face.

Today I had a chiropractor appointment and THEN the 3D ultrasound! I was so excited to see how much she had changed. Well I walk in and get on the ultrasound table. Surrobaby is extremely active. She is pretty much always moving. BUT any time I have an ultrasound she decides to hide or take a nap.. It was funny that the ultrasound tech remembered the previous ultrasound and how surrobabe made us work for good images. The ultrasound was only supposed to take about 15 minutes long. Those 15 minutes were spent pushing my belly, trying to get her to move, me flipping from side to side. NOTHING! She wasn't moving. She has her arms covering her face the whole time. So instead we took a look at her arms, listened to her heartbeat(which was 167), and enjoyed looking at her toes and fingers. Finally we got the arms to move and then she puts a foot in front of her face. So then we had to get her to move that. FINALLY she showed us her whole face. She has such cute chubby cheeks this time and her lips are so plump. It was amazing watching her move on the screen. You could actually see her opening her eyes and see her looking around. It was so neat to see..

 Precious lips

I asked the ultrasound tech if she could take a look to see if she has any hair yet.
And sure enough she does :)

It was amazing to see how much she has changed and how much she has fattened up(in a good way) compared to the last 3D ultrasound. If you want to see the images from the 3D ultrasound we did at 24 weeks click here and it will take you to the blog post about that ultrasound.

Tomorrow we have an OB appointment and I will update again with the pregnancy questionnaire and with a bump photo :) We also have our levy briefing Thursday and I am so excited about that. It will give us a lot of information about our upcoming move and pretty much what to expect! I am so thankful for all the friends we have here that have been able to help us with the kids during the appointments. Yes I can take the kids but my focus will be on them instead of the person talking at the meeting and I will probably miss a lot of important information. So be on the look out tomorrow or Thursday for another blog update :)

Week 30..

We have at the most 11 weeks left but hopefully we only have at the most 9 weeks left. I SHOULD find out next week at my OB appointment if I will be able to be induced at 39 weeks IF she doesn't come by then. But I'm hoping she will come at 38 weeks and 6 days all on her own. Not much has changed this past week but I did start having contractions or Braxton hicks contractions I guess you can say.. They were PAINFUL! Extremely painful. I was at gymnastics with the kids gritting my teeth and just telling myself to breath! Thankfully after about an hour and a half they went away because they were starting to worry me. I also was really sick Monday and was planning on calling my doctor Tuesday morning if it continued but Tuesday morning I woke up feeling much, much better.

Adam and I have been waiting for an email to give us the levy brief date (pretty much a meeting to give us information about our move to Alaska) and he finally got the email. Next Thursday we should finally get some good information and answers about our upcoming move to Alaska. I already have a list of questions to ask :) but hopefully they will answer most of them during the briefing so I wont have to look like this crazy wife asking a million and one questions. I also scheduled mine and the kids EFMP screening(this is just an appointment with an on post doctor to make sure that we are healthy and if anything is wrong they need to make sure they are not moving us somewhere that medically cannot take care of us) we have had an EFMP screening before and did fine so I'm not worried about it.

How far along: 30 weeks
Total weight gain: 10lbs
Maternity clothes: I went to Ross and bought 2 more pairs of shorts because I only had 1 pair of summer shorts and man I'm so glad I bought those shorts! It has been HOT here lately!
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: It depends on the day. Some days I sleep amazing and others I toss and turn all night.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- scheduling the 3D ultrasound. Not surrogacy related- My 3 year anniversary was today :)
Miss anything:
CLEAR SKIN!! and not peeing every 5 minutes


Movement: Still lots of movement.
Food cravings: ICE! Sonic ICE!
Anything make you sick: I was sick Monday but nothing else besides that.
Have you started to show yet: yes :)
Gender: It's a girl
Labor signs: Braxton hicks started last week..
Belly button in or out: In
What has your mood been: good :)
Looking forward to: This Friday. I'm taking Adam somewhere. It's a surprise and he reads my blogs so I can't write about it yet.
Any issues: I am guessing its pregnancy acne but it is getting worse and worse so my next OB appointment I will be asking to see if their is anything they can give me to help with it. For now I am trying out this apple cider vinegar toner that Kelly told me about. Adam hates the smell but hey if it'll help then I don't care haha.
Baby is the size of: a head of lettuce

Upcoming appointments:
May 13th- Chiropractor Appointment
May 13th- 3D Ultrasound(If you'd like to see what the previous 3D ultrasound looked like you can click here and it will take you to my blog post about the one we did at 24 weeks)
May 14th- OB Appointment
May 15th- Military Levy Brief



Today was mine and Adams 3 year wedding anniversary. We have been together for about 7 1/2 years but got married 3 years ago.. I love spoiling him. I love going all out and finding the perfect gift but this time I had no idea what to get him. I really wanted to get him corn hole boards but he'd only get to use them for a month MAYBE two before we moved and then he wouldn't get to use them again until next YEAR!! So then I was like well he likes to golf why not give him a gift card to go golfing.. He said no to that. Well he has been fishing some so I think he's just going to go buy a fishing pole and call that his gift haha. BUT he knew I really wanted a new purse. Tonight whenever I got home from gymnastics I walked in and saw the purse I wanted AND a matching wallet! I cannot tell you the last time I had a wallet and how badly I NEEDED a wallet. Not only did he get me the purse and wallet he also wrote me a sweet letter. I love my purse but seeing the wallet and the letter made me cry. The wallet he didn't have to get. He didn't even know I wanted that exact wallet. I have never mentioned a wallet only a purse but he knew how badly I needed one. This Friday while Brett is at school and Brynna is with a friend of ours I am taking Adam for a little surprise since he's off. He has no idea what it is and it's driving him crazy but I'm so excited about it. It's my treat to the both of us for not killing each other these past 3 years..