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.

35 weeks and a Little Scared

Tomorrow I will be 35 weeks so technically I'm 34 weeks and 6 days but this will be my 35 week post. Today I had an OB appointment and things have been going good, I cut out dairy.. Somewhat. I still have moments of weakness but I have cut it out drastically and it has helped a LOT! Well at my OB appointment today they checked my iron levels again. Last time I had my iron checked was whenever we did my 1 hour glucose test and my iron levels were a little low they were around a 9. I added more iron enriched foods to my diet and started reading labels to see what had iron and what didn't. Well whenever I had to cut dairy out of my diet that cut some of my iron snacks out of my diet. Today they wanted to check my iron levels again and thankfully they did.. My iron levels are extremely low. They want you to be at least at an 11 and I'm at 7.4. So I had to speak with the doctor again after I got my iron levels checked. The nurses were worried because if I went into labor with my iron this low I could end up needing a blood transfusion. So we need to get my iron levels WAY up before baby comes. The doctor came and talked with me and she is pretty sure the reason my iron is so low is because I am taking my iron pills with my prenatal pills and I need to take them at separate times. So now I will be taking 2 iron pills and 1 prenatal, but I will take an iron pill in the morning and at night and the prenatal in the afternoon. If this doesn't work then I will end up doing an iron infusion, which is a liquid dose of iron given by an IV. Hopefully the iron pills will help because I need my energy back. I am so exhausted it's not even funny, all I want to do is SLEEP!

How far along: 35 weeks
Total weight gain: 13 pounds
Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes but I bought a new skirt for our beach trip to hopefully wear whenever we take some family pictures at the beach.
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 could sleep my life away right now.. Seriously if I could send Adam and the kids away for a weekend all I would do is SLEEP!!!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- finding out why I'm so exhausted and hopefully now we can fix it. ALSO I am now going to the OB weekly instead of every 2 weeks.. Not surrogacy related- buying new furniture.. Once we get it delivered I will post some pictures.. We have been talking about buying new furniture for a long time. We have always said we would buy new furniture before we pcs'd well with moving to Alaska we were going to wait until we got there to buy it but most people recommended buying it here because of how expensive it would be over there.
Miss anything: energy. not peeing every 5 minutes, my ankles.. WINE! haha


My right ankle tends to swell a lot more
than my left ankle.

Movement: Oh yea. She is an active little girl :)
Food cravings: ice!!(yes I know craving ice is a sign of anemia)
Anything make you sick: dairy gives me the runs!
Have you started to show yet: yes :)
Gender: It's a girl!
Labor signs: I have BH daily. Sometimes they are a little worse than others..
Belly button in or out: In.. I don't think it will come out.
What has your mood been: EXTREMELY exhausted.
Looking forward to: Going to the beach! Hopefully getting some energy back.. And I would LOVE to go into nesting phase haha.
Any issues: I had to cut out dairy and I am severely anemic. BUT the heat rash I mentioned last time its gone :)
Baby is the size of: Honeydew Melon

Upcoming appointments:June 15th- Father Day
June 18th- Chiropractor Appointment
June 19th- OB appointment
June 29th- Adams Birthday
July 16th- DUE DATE!
July 19th- We move..




A lot of y'all have asked what happens if you move before you deliver.. Well legally I cannot move until I deliver. And legally my OB cannot induce until medically necessary. Adam HAS to leave by July 19th so if he has to leave before I deliver he will take the kids back home to my moms and I will stay here in NC. I have mentioned my amazing friend Kelly on my blog before, well if Adam and the kids go home then I'll just camp out at her place until I deliver. From the get go I mentally prepared myself that I possibly could end up delivering a baby on my own. No husband. No J&J. Just me, the doctors, and nurses. And I was okay with that. I have had 2 children before, what different could this one be. Yes I know EVERY delivery is different. You could have 5 great deliveries and 1 could go completely wrong. I KNOW! But I didn't think that would happen to me. And it still may not happen to me. BUT I am hoping that surrobaby comes a little early so that away Adam can be here to be my support and be there to keep me calm. I am have been so go with the flow and nonchalant about this delivery but now I'm a little worried and I have a feeling I will be until I deliver and get the all clear. Plus I want Adam there so that away if something does go wrong he can let me know it'll be okay. Yes I know I'll have a doctor and nurse and the parents BUT Adam is my person.

So please say a little prayer that 1. My iron levels go up! At least to a 9.. 2. That surrobaby comes just a little early that away Adam can be here. 3. That I have an easy delivery with no complications and that surrobaby comes out perfectly healthy. I don't think my low iron levels are causing her any issues right now just because you'd think if it was she wouldn't be near as active as she is. I swear she never sleeps. She's always doing some kind of gymnastics flip or karate kick :)

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!

A VERY IMPORTANT DATE!!

We have an official due date! I still cant believe it! Yes with surrogacy you know your EXACT due date because you know the age of the embryos and when you became pregnant but your OB still gives you your due date. My OB finally gave us a due date yesterday! J&J's baby will be due July 16, 2014!! I am so excited for them! Like over the moon excited for them! I am still in shock some days that I am actually pregnant and that everything worked on the very first try. Not everyone is as lucky and go through 3 transfers with no luck but we were extremely lucky and one embryo stuck on the very first transfer! I am also very thankful because even though I LOVED Cali personally I do not want to do that flight again. If I do another surrogacy journey I may request to use a clinic on the east coast just to make it easier on me because that flight is miserable! But anyways lets get on to yesterdays appointment.

Yesterday was a busy busy day. Due to "extremely" cold temps Fort Bragg and all of Fayetteville decided they wanted to delay school by 2 hours. So instead of going in at 8am they would go in at 10am. Even though I loved the extra hour of sleep it made things a bit more difficult. Brynna had a dermatologist appointment at 10am. Thankfully though I was able to drop Brett off with Kelly at 9:30am and then be on my way. I actually found out whenever I got there that the appointment was at 10:15 and even though we were there about 20 minutes early we still weren't seen until about 10:30.. OH JOY! Once we were seen we were in and out. After that we came home and I started dinner. Normally I don't tell y'all about dinner but OH MY GOSH I made this AMAZING crockpot taco chili and it was SO GOOD! Did I mention AMAZING?? At the end I will tell y'all the recipe and to those that need a new crock pot idea your welcome :) after that I headed to my OB appointment at 2pm. It was going to be a long appointment so I knew ahead of time it would not be a good idea to take Brynna or Aliana with me. Again, Kelly came to save the day, like she always does. BTW those of y'all that don't know I don't always use and abuse Kelly, she uses me too haha. She knows that I will always return the favor like for the next few weeks I will be her in home caregiver/nanny/best friend/daily roommate. Kelly is having surgery and I will be the awesome best friend and come keep her company while Doctor Brynna keeps and eye on her leg. So lets get back on task. I swear I must be really ADHD today because I keep going off subject.

So I get to my doctors appointment and still have no paperwork with my insurance information so the insurance lady(I cannot remember her name but she was so helpful) called who I THOUGHT was my insurance for my surrogacy. Turns out that was not who I had insurance through and they had no record of me in their system. Well that's funny I have emails stating that would be who I would have my insurance with! So instead of wasting my time and making all these phone calls I decided to call one of the IP's and thankfully he was able to help me out. I gave the info to the insurance lady and we got the ball rolling! I was weighed and sadly I have already gained 10lbs!!! WHO DOES THAT? Who GAINS 10 POUNDS BY 12 WEEKS?? But to my defense it was the holidays! And yes I used pregnancy as an excuse to eat WHATEVER I WANTED!!!! But I have also started back working out again. Nothing too crazy I know I have to be careful I am making a baby! But I cannot be lazy this whole pregnancy. Personally I really do enjoy light workouts while pregnant it makes me feel much better. After that I went and talked with an RN about what to expect through out everything. She thought it was amazing what I was doing and was so helpful and nice. We talked about who all would be in the room for delivery. I told her that I assume it'd just be J&J and then my husband. I know the only person I want in there for me is my husband. I know this is not his baby but I want him in there for me and for emotional support. Pushing out a baby is not all butterflies and flowers! It's hard work. And I want J&J in there because DUH! It is their baby and I want them to be able to experience the birth of their child. She said she thinks they allow up to 3 people but it may only be 2. But she told me since this is a surrogacy the doctor will more than likely make an exception. Since I am due in July I also don't know if Adam will be here whenever I deliver so it may just be J&J or if J&J don't make it here in time for delivery it MAY just be myself!! But hey I'm a military wife I will be fine!! I hope haha. So on to the rest of the appointment.

I finished up with the RN and then it was time for my appointment with the OB. This time around I have to get fully undressed and have to have a full body exam to check for lumps in my breast, have an pap smear, and etc. Oh what fun.. Not really. But I'm glad to know everything was fine. After that I had another u/s and man in almost 3 weeks the baby has grown a lot! It was so crazy seeing how big he/she was. And the baby was so active! The 2 pictures we got were so blurry because he/she wouldn't stay still it was really neat to see it wiggling around in there. But everything looked great! I am now 13 weeks pregnant!! I'm so upset because my darn phone died whenever I tried to get a video of the u/s with the baby moving around.

After the u/s I was supposed to go get blood work but because of the insurance I have I have to go to this place called quest which is about 10 minutes away from my OB's office. So I went to quest. Well quest wouldn't see me because I didn't have a copy of my insurance card(it was on my phone because I literally got it 5 minutes before) so now I have to go back tomorrow to get all that done. Hopefully I don't cry. In 3 weeks I will be going back to the OB and honestly I'm not sure if I will have another u/s. I'm hoping I do because I'd love to get a video of the baby but if not they will at least finally listen to the heartbeat! Well that's it for now. Here is a picture of my 12 week "bump". I thought it looked a lot bigger but whenever I took a picture it really didn't show like I expected.. I will take a better one by the time I post another blog post :)

 

 

So like I promised here is the recipe for the taco chili :)

- 1lb ground beef cooked and drained(I ended up using about 1.30lbs)

- 1 package of dry ranch dressing mix

- 1 package of taco seasoning

- 1 can crushed tomatoes

- 1 can diced tomatoes

- 1 can of corn

- 1 can of kidney beans

- 1 can of black beans

Put everything in the crockpot and mix it up(I also sprinkled some chili powder in with it but not too much I didn't want to make it too "spicy" for the kids. Depending on when you put it on you can do low, medium, or high I put mine in at 1 and cooked it on high and then around 4 I dropped it down to low. If I was going to put it on in the morning I'd do it on low. I also cooked corn bread with it. It was seriously AMAZING and I will be eating it for lunch today.



THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Six weeks have come and gone and today was the day everyone including myself and J&J have been so anxiously waiting for.. I was asked numerous times by many different people if I knew and until now I didn't. BUT NOW I KNOW! So first lets talk about dinner last night!
Sunday afternoon J&J flew in to Fayetteville and Sunday evening we met them for dinner. I decided not to take the kids for our first dinner and first time meeting face to face. I wanted to be able to enjoy that time out as adults and be able to socialize without constant "BRETT dont touch that.." "Brynna dont eat that." "MOMMY I HAVE TO PEE!" or "MOMMY Brynna took my color!" etc etc haha. Don't get my wrong I love taking my kids out and enjoying family time but for this first dinner I wanted it to be the 4 of us. So Sunday evening the kids stayed with my friend Kelly and we headed to dinner. We did dinner at 5:30pm and we didn't leave until about 7:40pm. It was great talking with them and really getting to know each other more personally. It made me like them that much more! We were all so excited for the next morning and just couldn't wait to finally know. BTW it is colder here in NC than it is in NYC!! YES IT'S FREEZING HERE!! So we headed home after dinner.

I woke up around 5:57am and was not able to really go back to sleep after that. I was so ready for 8:30am to hurry up and be here! Time flew quick and we were starting to run late. Since I had to be gone by 7:50am Kelly took the kids to school and I dropped Adam off and headed to the doctors appointment. Due to on post traffic and catching EVERY RED LIGHT I made it RIGHT ON TIME! But thankfully I was able to fill out all my paperwork at home and had it ready so I didn't need to be there early. So it worked out. J&J ended up getting a tad bit lost but made it right before I was called back. I was weighed before I headed back to do the ultrasound and man I weigh less than I expected :) So that made me happy. Instead of gaining weight I'm just super bloated haha. We were put in another waiting room and then called back to see the doctor. The doctor I am seeing is actually working with about 4 other surrogates right now so I'm glad to know that he is familiar with it. FINALLY it was time to go get the ultrasound.. Since its still very early in the pregnancy I had to have a vaginal sonogram so I had to undress from the waist down. So everyone waited outside and once I was ready they all came in. And that's when we finally were told.. Most of yall were WRONG!!! It's one baby! I just knew it'd be twins but turns out I was also wrong. I was so prepared for it to be twins and that I'd be wider than I am taller haha. But nope only one :) either way I was okay with a singleton or twins but with a single pregnancy I know I can handle it. I know I have carried one baby before. I have delivered one baby before. I know what to expect for the most part. With twins it'd be a whole new experience for me. BUT I am glad we finally know :) That little spot that looks like a ring. The part that looks like it could be a diamond is the baby yup its THAT TINY! We could see the heart beating but couldn't hear it. I will have another appointment next week and we may hear it then. Now I have to go get Brynna ready because we are heading to lunch in just a bit :)

Also I again did not proof read this post. I will probably proof read it this evening so don't judge all my misspelled words or bad grammar :)