1 Week Later..

The first week was harder than I expected.. From what I remember after my 2 kids I bounced back pretty quickly.. With Brett I had a harder time because he caused some bruising and swelling that made it painful for me to sit, laugh, sneeze, move, etc. But he was also my first. With Brynna I felt amazing after delivery. But this time around was totally different. I was really sore in my stomach area from them pressing down on it trying to get all the blood and clots out. I also hated that I had to go home and pretty much do nothing.. Thankfully I didn't have an infant I was bringing home because how can they send you home with an infant and tell you to relax and do nothing? It's pretty impossible after you have a baby to do nothing. haha. But since I was a surrogate and baby didn't come home with me it was a little easier..












The first few days were the hardest. I was EXHAUSTED but I wanted to go and do things. So we tried... On the 4th since it was only 24 hours after I had been released from the hospital we stayed home and watched the fireworks. We wanted to go watch the fireworks and to a concert but I knew my body wasn't up for it so we bought the kids a few small fireworks that they could do in the back yard and they had a blast. Saturday we ended up taking the kids to chuck e cheese.. About half way through I was pretty much having to hold my head up and force my eyes to stay open I was so exhausted. But the kids had a blast :) That evening we did another fire and just relaxed outside and finished off the s'mores we had left. Sunday I think we relaxed at home but honestly I have no idea haha.

Monday it was time to get back to reality. Adam is in the military and the people he works with knew I was pregnant and most of them knew I was a surrogate so when I went into labor Tuesday night he just gave them a heads up that I had the baby and that he wouldn't be at work on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday they were off but Monday he went back to work. So Monday morning he goes in for PT and they didn't know why he was at work they expected him to be home with me and told him if he wanted to that he could fill out the paperwork and go on paternity leave. Have I ever told y'all how much I really like the people he works with?? If not, let me tell you they are amazing! They have been so supportive and took me being a surrogate WAY better than I expected. AND he never once brought up maternity leave. I know a few surros in the military whose husbands requested maternity leave after their wife delivered a surrobaby and it was denied because it wasn't their baby.. We decided before hand to not even try for paternity leave because he doesn't really work now anyways. He is out processing and is just getting forms signed. He's constantly in and out of the house printing out paperwork, dropping off paperwork, and things like that. Even if he was on paternity leave he'd still have to out process so we could get everything done for us to leave in time. Plus again its not like I have a baby I need help with. Yes with my low blood count and iron I could pass out or hemorrhage again BUT I did good over the weekend and wasn't too worried plus if I noticed I was getting a little tired I'd just sit down and relax for a bit. And if I thought I was hemorrhaging again I'd call him immediately to take me back to the ER. So he was back at work.

Tuesday was a GREAT DAY!!! We finally got answers from the movers.. For those of yall that don't know we are moving soon.. VERY SOON. July 18th is the last day we have in this house.. Well the transportation office and port call have been making this move EXTREMELY stressful. I finally just gave up and was just done with everything and told myself that this was just going to be a horrible PCS and that they were going to make everything as difficult as possible. Which they did. Transportation scheduled the movers for August 5th(YES AUGUST 5th not August 1st) and we have to be out of housing by July 18th.... AWESOME. AND my husband has to be at Fort Sill, OK no later than July 24th.. Well Tuesday we got a call from the movers and they were able to fit us in to pack up our house on the 17th and pick everything up on the 18th!! YAY!! Then we had to schedule our move out inspection and pre inspection. The pre inspection was the following day and thankfully everything went well on that.

Wednesday I had a chiropractor appointment and boy did that feel great. I think its been about 3 weeks since I last saw the chiropractor and I was in a lot of pain. I felt like such a little kid because before I scheduled my appointment I had to call Adam and see what his schedule was like and make sure he could drive me to my doctors appointment. Wednesday was also 1 week from delivery.. WOW... A week. Surrobaby was officially 1 week old. I couldn't believe 1 week passed by so quickly. How does it do that. Before we know it she will be walking and talking haha. J&J said she is doing great. She had her first doctors appointment and is healthy :)

Emotionally I feel great.. Physically and sometimes mentally I'm exhausted. I don't even want to go back and read my previous blog post because I have a feeling I had a lot of typos in it and probably some bad ones haha. Adam and the kids have been doing great helping me relax and just lay around. I'm up moving more than I was in the beginning but its more my choice and I know not to push myself too hard and to just take it easy. Pumping is going great. I can tell it is also helping my uterus contract and go back down to normal. But I also know that it'll take time for that to go back to normal too. I gave in and bought a belly bandit.. I like it and wished I would have started using it sooner haha.

My last baby bump photo. This was a few days before delivery..



My one week post partum picture.. On the left I'm not
wearing the belly bandit. On the right I am wearing the
belly bandit. Everything is still wiggly but not too bad.

Questions I've been asked lately..

Was it weird to leave the hospital without a baby?
A little bit. I had a few tears(I didn't cry I held them in haha) as I was being wheeled out but it wasn't sad tears it was more wow it's over...

Were you sad?
Not at all.. I was happy for J&J, their daughter, myself, and my family. I was also very proud of myself. I had just given J&J the best gift they could ever receive. And I knew she would be loved by both of them.

How did the kids do and did they get to meet her?
They did great. They got to meet surrobaby and see her with J&J and they knew she was going home with them and not us. And they were perfectly fine with that.

Will you do another surrogacy?
This is one of the hardest question for me to answer I honestly have no idea.. I would love to be medically cleared in 6 weeks and start the matching process all over again but I wont. My body needs time to heal and I want to focus on getting back in shape. I'd love to start running again and doing some fun runs with the family. Plus we're in the process of moving... We are actually moving in just a few days!! AHHH!! And then we will be moving again in 10 weeks.. So I want to focus on that. AND I want to spend time with my family not pregnant. Yea we had fun while I was pregnant but their was some stuff I wanted to do and being pregnant made it a little more complicated haha. I'd like to sit out back and have a few drinks with my husband while the kids are asleep or go ride fun rides at 6 flags with my son, and jump on a trampoline with my kids. Well that's still a little complicated after you have kids haha.. So honestly I have no idea ask me again in about a year or five haha..

Will you continue blogging?
Yes I will. I will continue blogging. I really enjoyed blogging. It wont be as often because things slow down a lot once you deliver but surrogacy will always be a part of my life. BUT I will also blog about our moves, living in Alaska, and if/when I do another journey I will start blogging about that process.. BUT I may just create another blog for our life in Alaska :)

Those of yall that want to read the delivery story its in the previous blog post :)