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 :)

Merry Christmas (Eve)

This Christmas has been so hectic already. We came home for the holidays and man even though I am so thankful we were able to come home and that we had a safe trip it has been constant GO GO GO! The whole time we have been here. My husband drove 12 hours total the first day and then we drove another 6(I drove 4 and he drove the final 2). I cant remember if I posted before about how I am horrible at long distance driving but 4 hours is about all I can do in a day haha. We have really had a great time though and I'm so not ready to leave. I was nervous about leaving the house but thankfully we have people watching it for us. My only issue with coming home is that like always Brynna is sick. We think she has a viral infection but are still giving her antibiotics just in case it is a bacterial since Christmas is tomorrow and we really don't want to end up BACK in the ER.

The day before we left North Carolina I had an OB appointment to check up on J&J's baby. I was 9 weeks and 4 days and measured 9 weeks. We saw the heart beating away so perfectly and everything looked great :). Sunday while I was out Christmas shopping I took a belly shot at 10 weeks pregnant. Here yall go. I go back the second week in January for my official first OB appointment and its like 2-3 hours long. I am so not looking forward to that but thankfully Kelly will be helping me by keeping Brynna.

Monday morning my mom, grandma, and I went to the next town over to finish up the rest of our Christmas shopping and I waited to long to eat so I got extremely nauseous. Thankfully we were finished and it was time to head home. About 5 minutes before we got home I had to stop to get a shopping bag out of the back just incase. Thankfully I made it home and to the toilet before I vomited. I thought I was in the clear and made it without vomiting but I was wrong. OMG it was miserable and horrible! I'm not going to go all into detail but let me say it was HORRIBLE!! And embarrassing. After I was done I walked out and my mom and Adam both told me I looked like crap. Well DUH! I JUST threw up!! JUST NOW! Little did I know it was worse than that.

Its now Tuesday night and looks just as bad. I have these little blood spots in my eye's, down my neck, and ALL over my face. Around my eyes is the worst though. I'm really hoping its a bit less noticeable tomorrow because as of now make up doesn't really help covering it. BUT once I threw up I felt much better haha. I am going to try and get a recording of the HB tonight or tomorrow morning so I can send it to J&J Christmas morning for their family to listen to it. I know they would be over the moon about it. So pray that I am able to get it on the Doppler. Well I have to get to the kitchen to help decorate(eat) Christmas cookies for Santa. Lets hope I don't eat them before he gets here haha. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas.

It's Still One..

Every time I go to the OB I get so nervous about another baby showing up. I know with surrogacy its not too common because the doctors normally search pretty good if they know you transferred more than one embryo BUT I could be that 1 in a million with the way my luck goes.. So far we are in the clear and their is only one. Tomorrow I will be going to the monitoring clinic and I am so nervous that since I'm seeing a different doctor and it will be a different person giving me an ultrasound using a different machine that they will be the one to find the second embryo hiding out.. Hopefully that doesn't happen but I am so nervous about it..

On an extremely good note though I have less than 2 weeks left of shots! I cannot wait to stop doing these darn shots. They are not getting any easier! I HATE THEM! Yesterday I was 8 weeks and I felt like a little bump popped out but today it seems to be gone. Speaking of yesterday it was Brynnas 4th birthday party! We had such a great time. I really wanted to get a bounce house but due to nasty weather we decided against it. She had a Doc Mcstuffin Party we had some of her friends over, had a piñata, cooked out on the grill, she had a Doc McStuffin cake made, and she just had a great time. Here are a few pictures from her party.

 

 

A few things that have changed due to me being pregnant is I cannot eat onions. I can eat them cooked but not fresh. I also don't like eating breakfast. Normally I eat oatmeal or special k cereal but now I only eat a banana. I can't drink coffee, a lot of yall are probably thinking your not supposed to anyways. Coffee isn't really bad to drink while pregnant. Its bad if you drink an excessive amount and if I drink coffee its normally at most 4 times a week. For it to be harmful to your baby you probably have to drink around 4 cups a day. I can't drink coffee at all. It makes me feel so sick. I LOVE orange juice. And hate wearing jeans. So I pretty much live in leggings and sweats because jeans just make my stomach feel weird. Still no morning sickness and the nausea has let up for the most part. BUT I'm waiting for my energy to come back :)

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of doctors appointments. It will be Brynna's 4 year check up and then my 8 week monitoring appointment(an hour and a half away) so we are calling it an early night. Be on the look out for an update tomorrow and hopefully their will still only be one :)

One of Those Days..

Have you ever woke up and just know that you were going to have a bad day? Well today I woke up super excited. I have been looking forward to this day for 2 months. Those of y'all that don't follow me on fb, Brynna(my daughter), had a really bad leg infection a few months ago and the doctor diagnosed her with a fungal AND bacterial infection, prescribed ointment, and sent us on our way. The ointment worked but then it quit working.

This is what it looked like the day we went to the doctor

This is what it looked like once we started using the ointment

And this is what it looks like now. You can't tell but it was starting to move to her left knee also.

So I have been so excited for today and for her to finally see a dermatologist. I woke up this morning in a great mood. Even though I got very little sleep last night. I did my hair, my make up, and then got dressed. Then I woke up Mrs. Grouch(Brynna) and we ate breakfast. Got her ready and we were on our way. I got to the dermatologist and was not happy with the front desk at all. They were very unprofessional and rude(not to me but to other people). The doctor was also very different from all the other doctors I've ever meet. Not going to go into detail there though because that's not what made me mad. But anyways the doctor diagnosed her with eczema which made me extremely happy. I'm not happy that she has eczema I'm just happy to know what is wrong with her leg.
The doctors office was 20 minutes away no biggy honestly because anything off post is about that far. I drove back home 20 minutes. Pull in to the pharmacy I normally use and was so excited that there was front row parking and then BAM!!!


There's a motorcycle!! The people walking by when I yelled GADANGIT! Had to be cracking up at me because I was laughing at myself at how dumb I looked haha. I probably still could have fit my car there but thankfully there were another parking space about 10 spaces down. So Mrs. Grouch and I get out of the car and walk into the pharmacy and get in line. Walk up to drop off the prescription only to be told. We don't carry this.. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I didn't get mad at the pharmacist. It's not her fault. I just knew this would happen so now I have to drive another 20 minutes pretty much back to where I just was to get her prescription filled.. Which I was not happy about. So Mrs. Grouch and I get back in the car and go to rite aid. I get ready to drop off the prescription only to realize my military id I had 20 minutes ago is no where to be found. That darn pharmacist kept my id!! Nope she didn't. I was just sitting on it hahaha.. So Brynna and I went to walmart and bought a few groceries to kill time while the prescription was being prepared. Finally 4 hours later we pull up in the driveway and are HOME!!! All I wanted to do was cry and scream in my pillow but I couldn't because in 10 minutes I had to leave again to go pick Brett up... BUT instead of driving I walked with my awesome friend Kelly. :) btw today was not a bad day or even a crappy day. I have had bad/crappy days haha. It was just one of those days :) we all have them every once in awhile.

And... Apparently it's one of those days for Brynna too haha.

Legal Clearance

It's becoming so real now. Its so close yet so far away! I am so excited yet so nervous. Which is apparently very normal. I have been doing a lot of praying about all of this lately. I have also thought a lot about it and talked a lot about it to Adam and my mom. J&J have finally been legally cleared.. I'm not exactly sure what all goes in to them being legally cleared but it seemed like the legal clearance took the longest out of everything haha. So both me, the egg donor, and J&J have been medically and legally cleared. And that is pretty much the last and final step before we start the IVF meds. YAY(not really I am ready to start them but not excited about giving myself shots). I should be getting my calendar in the next week that will have many dates on it but the most important one... The TRANSFER DATE! Even though I will get a date it could change. The cycle could be canceled. Anything could happen. But I have faith everything will work out in the end. For now that's really all I have to update about the surrogacy news. But hopefully within the next week or two I will have a transfer date!! :)

Well now on to other things. Life has been really busy lately but not too busy thankfully. Brett has homework daily but it only takes us about 30 minutes. He is learning how to read which is amazing and such a joy to listen to. It's so amazing watching your children grow and learn new things daily. I mean they go from not even speaking to talking to reading in just a few short years. I just want to carry him like a baby sometimes but he is way too heavy for that now haha. Brynna is doing great. If you follow me on facebook you have probably read my rants about tricare and how frustrating they have been lately but we FINALLY have a referral for her to see a dermatologist for her leg and hopefully will have answers on Monday. Please pray that we get answers. Her leg issues have been going on for about 5 months now with the nasty infection part showing up about 2 months ago. Other than that she is doing great. Mommy's little side kick during the day while Brett is at school. Adam and I are now on a coed softball team and those of yall that know me personally know I am not big into playing sports. I'm more into cheering on the team. But I'm really enjoying it. I consider it part of my weekly work out :) 

Question before I go. With Halloween coming up its only right to ask. What do you or your kids want to be for Halloween? 

Kayla

Hurry Up and Wait....

I didn't realize when I started the surrogacy journey that the military lifestyle had prepared me a tiny bit haha. But yes for now I am kind of I guess you can say at a stand still.. I'm bummed because I would have liked to transfer in October BUT I'm hoping we can transfer early November if not we wont be able to transfer until December. BUT hopefully I will have some type of a date soon..

So I guess for now I will update you with my family :)

We have had a lot of first this past week.

Brett started his first day of kindergarten. He was so excited to start school again. He got to finally wear his new pair of shoes for the first day of school and he also got a new outfit. He had a great first day and really likes his teacher and the teachers aide.

To prepare Brett for school and to make him more independent we bought him his very own alarm clock. At first I didn't think it was going to work. He would sleep right through it. One morning I finally walked in his room 30 minutes later and turned it off myself because he was not waking up. Well the night before the first day of school I put his clothes on his night stand with his socks and shoes and we discussed what all he had to do the next morning. 7am Tuesday morning he wakes up on his own because of the alarm clock. The alarm clock was a great idea and I'm so glad he has it. It makes mornings easier. Last year he never wanted to wake up in the morning when I would wake him up but this year he does everything on his own. (in the picture you can't really see his alarm clock but its on his night stand right in front of his fan)

Last week Brett and Brynna had their first eye exam. It went exactly like I expected. Those of y'all that don't know my husband and I are BLIND(not completely but pretty much). My husband has a very bad double astigmatism and also bad eye sight. I have a lazy eye(not a wandering eye just a lazy eye) My left eye does not function whenever both eyes are open. The first time I realized how bad my eyes were was whenever I was 15 years old and went to the DPS office to get my permit. You have to look into this binocular type things and read from left to right. I skipped the whole left side. I was so embarrassed and played it off as not hearing what she said but what she didn't realize was that I did not see them at all. Well both of my kids have astigmatisms(thanks daddy) and my son has my eye sight(thanks mommy) and my daughter has daddy's eyesight(thanks daddy).

We decided since Brett's eyes were such a drastic difference to go ahead and get him glasses. We want to try and prevent him from getting the lazy eye like me. Brynna we will be waiting until next year since she will be starting school next year. Her eyes are pretty much the exact same so we are not worried about the lazy eye happening with her. If it was a drastic difference like Brett's we would have gotten her glasses now.

Brett also started soccer. Last year we decided to do tball instead of soccer because soccer is more of a year round sport where tball is mainly a summer thing. He already loves soccer so much more than tball. We will keep him in baseball for a few more years and if he just really doesn't care for it we will just stick to soccer. 

My mom, gigi, and brother came to visit us over the holiday weekend and we had a great time while they were here. I enjoy having them come to visit but hate when they have to leave.. The holidays will be here soon and we will see them again..

Speaking of holidays... What is your favorite holiday/time of year? My favorite time of the year is October-December. I love fall, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I love decorating my house for all the fun festivities. I just love everything about the fall and winter months. So as of yesterday I started fall/Halloween decorating :) I know its super early BUT I just couldn't wait any longer.. And I have brought out the fall smelling candles! Well that is it for now. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be able to update you on when we will be transferring!!

Kayla