37 weeks... Eviction Time!

Alrighty, surrobabe you have now made it to full term! You can come out now :) Oh wait... I should probably pack my hospital bag.. Goodness between giving birth and preparing to move all I have been doing is procrastinating... I want to lay on the ground and throw a fit like my 4 year old and just scream "I DON'T WANNA!!!" or "DO I HAVE TO?" why can't I just snap my fingers and it be done haha.

Last night I went to the hospital tour.. And I wasn't impressed. The rooms were clean but extremely outdated.. The delivery room was big which is good because we will have 3 people there during delivery along with all the nurses and doctor. The room you go to after you deliver was an okay size but awkwardly shaped.. Now as most of y'all know I'm kind of a pro at having babies.. Not really but this isn't my first rodeo. Yes it's been a few years but I'm pretty sure it's still the same concept. GET THE BABY OUT! Both my deliveries Adam was with me through the whole thing and this time he will be with me. Well unless I go past my due date and he has to leave for his school. Hopefully that wont happen. But my issue is I have had an epidural twice. Adam has seen me get 2 epidurals. He was in the room and supported me during the epidural and told me how HUGE the needle was(thanks babe) well this hospital make you watch a 10 minute video BEFORE they give you the epidural... When I'm asking for an epidural I want it RIGHT THEN not 10 minutes later. Also no one is allowed in the room when you get the epidural. Ummm.... I don't want to lean on some random person I have never met before I want my husband to talk to me and keep me calm while I have this HUGE needle going in my back. What if this nurse stinks like BO or cigarettes? Then they tell everyone for vaginal delivery protocol is you stay at the hospital for 2 days.. Okay no big deal that's 1 day for delivery and 1 day after you deliver? NOPE. Two days AFTER you deliver. TWO DAYS? Are you kidding me. Did I mention I was a pro at this... I want to pop the baby out and if I have no complications send me home to my comfortable couches and bed.. Well if they're even still here.. The movers may be picking up our furniture while I'm pushing out a baby.. Who knows. Whenever I delivered Brynna I was at the hospital less than 24 hours after I delivered her. I wasn't even in the hospital 2 days total, from the moment I was admitted to the moment I left was like a day and a half. Now if I have complications I understand keeping me but if everything is good I want to go home. I hate being in hospitals long term. They had a few other "rules" I also didn't like but now I can't remember them. Darn pregnancy brain.

My IP's asked me today if I was still willing to pump and ship breast milk. We talked about this at the beginning of the surrogacy whenever we were going through the matching phase but I also wasn't planning on moving right after delivery and then again 10 weeks after delivery. With us being only 3 weeks away from surrobaby's due date I have been thinking about this a lot. I was actually planning on bringing it up next time we talked but they beat me to it. I was so glad to hear they still wanted me to pump and ship. Now to just figure out what I'm going to do about pumping for the drive from NC to TX.. Also anyone have any recommendations on breast pumps? I am leaning towards the Medela instyle but they have a bunch of different ones. It's like picking where to eat for dinner..

Just got home from the OB's office for my 37 week appointment. I am now 3-4cm dilated! WOO HOO!! Those contractions actually did something! They didn't check my iron for some reason :-\ so if I'm still exhausted and haven't gone into labor by my 38 week appointment I may ask to see if they'll recheck it.. But he did say when I go into labor they will check it. So at least we'll know if its low during delivery. Also all my testing they did last week came back normal so that's a good thing :)



Photography by Brett :)

How far along: 37 weeks
Total weight gain: 13.5 pounds
Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes..
Stretch Marks: honestly I have no idea.
Sleep: Is becoming very uncomfortable!!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- J&J asking me to pump for surrobaby. Not surrogacy related- just preparing to move and get everything done.
Miss anything: wine, sleeping on my stomach, not peeing all the time
Movement: Oh yea.
Food cravings: ICE!!!!!!
Anything make you sick: Not really
Have you started to show yet: yes
Gender: It's a girl!
Labor signs: Last week I almost went into labor and delivery but about 2 hours later the contractions finally stopped.. But today I found out I am progressing!! She still needs to DROP but I'm dilating!!
Belly button in or out: In/flat
What has your mood been: annoyed, uncomfortable, aggravated lol
Looking forward to: delivering surrobaby :)
Any issues: Just my iron. Thankfully the swelling of my feet have gone WAY down!!
Baby is the size of: a winter melon


Upcoming Appointments
Adams Birthday- June 29th
OB appointment- July 3rd
4th of JULY!
Due Date- July 16th
Moving Date- July 20th(I hope)


So I'm curious... When do you think surrobaby will make her grand entrance and what do you think her length and weight will be??


35 vs 37 weeks

Also a lot of y'all have asked where will I be delivering surrobaby. I am delivering here in North Carolina. NOT on post, it will be an off post hospital. J&J will be coming here for the delivery. Also I cannot leave NC until I deliver surrobaby so IF I went past my due date and everything was done with packing and moving I could not leave NC until I delivered her. And once I delivered then I'd head to Texas while she heads home with her parents :)

36 weeks.. WE WILL HAVE A BABY WITHIN THE MONTH!!

When I say "we" what I mean by that is I will be delivering J&J's baby sometime within this next month. As each week passes it gets more and more real. Am I scared, anxious, nervous, excited, etc. like I was with my own children? YES. But it's different. I am so extremely excited to give J&J their very first child. I am scared and nervous because things can go wrong. Even though I have had 2 easy deliveries with no complications, every delivery is different and you just never know. ALSO I'm a planner and I cannot plan anything right now haha. But I keep telling myself it'll all work out in the end... It always does.

Last week my OB had my iron levels checked and they were at 7.4(extremely low) I expected them to check them again this week but they wanted to wait until 37 weeks so next week I will have my iron levels checked again. My blood pressure was a little high again this week but nothing too bad thankfully. I had the group b strep test done and the OB checked to see if I was dilated.. I was HOPING for at least 1cm but nope... Nothing. She is still extremely high and no dilation what so ever :( I know dilation doesn't really mean much but still it was a little depressing that the doctor could barely reach my cervix haha.

How far along: 36 weeks
Total weight gain: 13.5 pounds
Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes..
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: Is becoming impossible. I'm either hot, have to pee, cant get comfortable because I want to sleep on my stomach but cant, or I'm not tired haha.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- having as much energy as I did this past weekend while we were on our little vacation. Not surrogacy related- Getting our new furniture and getting Adams amended orders with me and the kids on it saying we were approved to move to Alaska.
Miss anything: sleeping through the night, not peeing every 5 minutes, WINTER!!!(its so darn hot!)

 Movement: Oh yea.
Food cravings: McDonalds breakfast, ice, watermelon(I have a love hate relationship with watermelon, I love eating watermelon but I hate cutting it up haha)
Anything make you sick: Normally no but yesterday as I'm sitting in gymnastics these people start talking about how miserable they were during the beginning of their pregnancy. For some reason seeing a pregnant women makes everyone start to talk about when they were pregnant right in front of that pregnant women... But they start talking about morning sickness and vomiting. I'm sorry but SHUT IT! If you make me vomit I'm going to turn around and make sure it lands on YOU!
Have you started to show yet: yes
Gender: It's a girl!

The cankles don't look too
bad in this picture but my
right ankle always swells
more than my left.

Labor signs: I have BH daily. Sometimes they are a little worse than others..
Belly button in or out: In/flat
What has your mood been: frustrated at the military, tired, uncomfortable haha
Looking forward to: delivering surrobaby :)
Any issues: I'm severly anemic and my feet swelling has been horrible! And extremely uncomfortable. They got HUGE this past weekend but now that we got our new couches I have been able to prop them up a lot so that's helped.
Baby is the size of: a large cantelope

Upcoming Dates:
June 26th- OB appointment
June 29th- Adams Birthday
July 16th- DUE DATE!
July 20th- We move(hopefully)



Our new couches in our living room. I'm not posting our bedroom furniture
until we get to Alaska and get the new bedding put on it.

Also if you'd like to read about our trip to outer banks this past weekend you can click here and it'll take you to the blog post about it.

Outer Banks a Few Days Shy of 9 Months..

A few months back Adam got orders to PCS(move) to Alaska. So we have been trying to enjoy the beach life as much as possible before we leave here. We have already been to Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, and Kure Beach. One place I REALLY wanted to go was Outer Banks. It was a further drive compared to the other beaches but one I REALLY wanted to make. So as soon as Adam got it approved I started planning the trip. My biggest fear with this trip was that I'd go into labor while I was there. I know I wouldn't be exactly 36 weeks just yet but I didn't want to go into labor and then be out all that money, the kids not get to enjoy the weekend I had planned, and have to make the 4 hour drive back while in labor! Thankfully surrobaby stayed put.

Friday morning we packed up the van and headed out. We made a few stops along the way but got there perfect timing. The drive really wasn't that bad. I was nervous about traffic but thankfully we didn't hit any. By the time we got to outer banks it was almost time for us to check in to our hotel. We decided to stop at a souvenir shop before the hotel because I have to buy a fridge magnet, Brett and Brynna needed kites to fly whenever we went to the sand dunes, and Brett needed a new boogie board.  Once we got to the hotel we unloaded the car and headed to the beach! The first day at the beach was extremely windy. The kids still enjoyed it but

man that wind was
crazy! And it hurt when the sand would hit you. So after a few hours we called it a day and headed back to the room. We all got showered, got the kites ready, and headed to Jockey's Ridge State Park. If any of y'all decide to go see the dunes I recommend going in the evening. I could not imagine going during the day, the sand gets HOT and when we went it felt amazing. Even with being huge pregnant and doing lots of walking and the sun being out I wasn't miserably hot and wasn't sweating. I actually really enjoyed it. Plus watching the sun set while on the dunes was gorgeous. Once we left the Dunes we stopped somewhere for a quick bite to eat before dinner. It was already late and we were all tired so we just found a place and pulled up.. The food was good but not $80 for 4 people amazingly good. It was expensive and the kids didn't even eat most of their food. So we decided we'd go buy a few groceries since our room had a stove, oven, microwave, and fridge.

 

 

 

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Duck Donuts for breakfast. A few people recommended this place so it was on my list of things to do. Who can say no to donuts? Not this pregnant woman and definitely not my kiddos. We get there and the line is out the door.. We were seriously standing outside waiting for donuts! WHO DOES THAT? Well it was worth the wait. The line went quick. And waiting on our donuts took no time at all.. The donuts are fresh and made right in front of you so that was neat. The kids picked chocolate donuts with sprinkles, I got a peanut butter donut with a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant, and Adam got a chocolate donut and a strawberry donut along with a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant. The bread part of the donut tasted like a funnel cake and they were delicious! REALLY SWEET! But still delicious! I couldn't eat them as much as I could eat Ennis(our home town in Texas has amazing donuts) donuts but they were still really good and I'm glad we waited. A little tip if you make the stop at Duck Donuts with kids, take a change of clothes and wipes. Thankfully we had paper towels and water in our car to clean the kids off with and we made a paper towel bib to protect their clothes so we didn't

 

After breakfast we went to The Bodie Island Lighthouse we weren't able to do the climb like I wanted to because Brynna is to short but it was still really neat to see. Plus they only do tours, you can't climb the light house on your own you have to go with a group of people and we happened to get there right when the tour was starting so it was too late for Adam and Brett to go. We hung around for a bit, took some pictures, and went to the pier they had. Brett saw a bunch of crabs and thought it was the coolest thing ever! He was upset though because he didn't see any snakes. They had a few signs that warned you to stay on the sidewalks or the paths because they have snakes all over. So he expected to see a snake. I told him I'd throw him in the tall grass and he can go find one but he wasn't too fond of that idea.





If it wasn't for Brett none of us would have seen this fish.
We waited around a bit and it finally got up and started
swimming.  

After the light house we went to the Aquarium and the kids acted like it was Christmas morning haha. The aquarium we went to on Roanoke Island also had a Dinosaur part that we saw once we were done with the aquarium part. Brett LOVES fish! He is crazy about all the different types of fish and it was funny because he would see things that we didn't see and point them out to us. We got to see an alligator, the otters put on a show for everyone, a huge tortoise, and lots of neat fish. Brett and I touched live sting rays which was really neat,


this is a cell phone photo so it's
not great quality

Adam and Brynna were a little scared and wouldn't touch one. We also saw the divers in the shark tanks. Brett and Brynna wanted to stay for the whole show so we waited until the end and Brett got to ask the divers, "Where do you get your animals from". At the end of the show they said they were going to feed the fish but not the sharks and the kids decided they wanted to go see the dinosaur part instead of seeing the fish being fed. The dinosaur part was okay but we expected a little more. After the aquarium we headed home so we could have dinner and then went for a little night time swim. Well Adam and the kids did. I decided to just hang out on the sand and get my feet wet.

Adam fell asleep on the beach.

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and headed to the beach. It was an all day beach day/fathers day for us. Which I am pretty sure Adam enjoyed. Brett made friends and played with them the whole time we were there and Brynna just hung out in the sand and made sand castles. She also played with Brett some but preferred to do her own thing. I got in the water some but man beach water is COLD! I prefer to eat ice and work on my tan while watching the kids enjoy the beach :) About 5:30 we headed back to our room and got ready to go out to eat and enjoy our last night there. I finally got to get the kids in cute clothes and take them out to have some cute pictures taken at the beach. Normally I have a hard time getting Brett to take decent pictures but for some reason this time it was turd Brynna that didn't want to cooperate during pictures. Every time someone offered to take a group picture of the 4 of us some reason or another she was not happy about something. And sure enough whenever I started to take cute pictures of the two of them this is how it turned out...

I ended up getting some cute ones also so in the

Look at that cankle!

end it all worked out. While we were taking pictures a woman walked over and offered to take one of the 4 of us and one of just Adam and I. Even though after I saw the pictures I decided I should have worn my hair up instead of using stupid sea salt spray I am still glad we got even more photos of the 4 of us while at the beach. I continued taking a few pictures of the kids and as I squat down to take a picture I start to wonder if my water broke. Their was a wetness in my underwear. Did my water just start leaking or did my bladder give out? I JUST peed 10 minutes ago how in the world could I have peed on myself? I continue taking pictures and whatever it is continues leaking. After pictures we run back by the room and I changed underwear and grabbed an extra pair just in case. Well my water didn't end up breaking so I guess my bladder decided to give out on me -___-. For dinner I found a neat little place called Pamlico Jacks. Our waitress was horrible but the view, food, and place was really nice. And dinner was only about $60 for the 4 of us and that was with a dessert and Adam got 2 beers. After dinner we headed right next door and played some putt putt before we headed home and CRASHED!! Well I actually got a foot rub before bed. My right foot, ankle, and leg was so swollen. The foot rub was a little painful but the next morning my right foot felt so much better.

Monday morning we woke up and packed the van up to head back home. We ate McDonalds for breakfast(I have been craving their Sausage McGriddles or whatever their called) and then we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The memorial was pretty neat but it was so hot and so spread out. A lot of the stuff they closed down and it just didn't have much so we decided to call it quits and head home. The drive home also wasn't that bad thankfully. We made it home around 5-6pm and then we had a little bit of cleaning to do(well Adam did most of the cleaning I just sat in a chair and propped my feet up) before the furniture people came and dropped off our new furniture(last week Adam and I finally caved and bought new living room and bedroom furniture.. Now that we have it I have no idea why we waited SO LONG haha!)

Here are a few more pictures from our beach trip..