38 Weeks.. Our Birth Story

My very last bump photo.. At 37 weeks and 5 days

38 weeks.. I actually made it to 38 weeks! Even though I am pretty sure if I would have gone in sooner they would have admitted me an induced me(I'll explain why in just a bit). I PROBABLY should wait to do this blog post but I am bored, relaxing, and TRYING to stay awake for at least another hour.. So IF I start to ramble or get confusing. Forgive me. I did just give birth haha.

So you remember last week when I said I was a pro at having babies... Well let me correct myself. I am a pro at having babies when I have an epidural... I am NOT a pro at having babies the natural way.. Okay now where to begin.

So last week I had my OB appointment and was 37 weeks and 3-4cm dilated. No biggy I could be 3-4cm dilated for a month and still end up needing to be induced. BUT all week I was having contractions. Thursday I almost went in to labor and delivery because I was having contractions for 2 hours but they finally started to slow down so I decided to stay home. The rest of the week I continued having contractions here and there but nothing that made me want to go to labor and delivery. The weekend came and we celebrated Adams 25th birthday.. Nothing big just us as a family. The kids and I also surprised him with a cake. We also set up for the garage sale we were going to have Tuesday and Wednesday. I know normal people don't have garage sales on the weekdays BUT whenever your in the military and live on a military base you learn a few things. Pay day was Monday and we wanted to do it before the holiday weekend because everyone would probably spend all their money so we had the garage sale on Tuesday...

Tuesday I had contractions on and off all day.. They were some what uncomfortable but I kept telling myself they would end up going away. And I think they did.. Or I just ignored them? I'm honestly not really sure. I did the garage sale and around noon we put everything up. Then Brett had a friend to come over and play for a bit and the contractions kept coming. Some were painful some weren't. But I kept thinking they were going to just stop. They always stop. Plus I was barely going to be 38 weeks and as much as I wanted her to come a few weeks early I didn't think she'd listen to me.

Tuesday evening at 7pm Brett and Brynna went over to Kelly's for a bit while Adam and I went to meet with someone and around 8pm we went to pick them back up. The contractions were STILL coming and they were getting uncomfortable. Adam kept asking me if I needed to go to the hospital and I kept saying no. We got to Kelly's and she pretty much forced me to leave the kids there and go to the hospital haha. So we went home really quick, called J&J, got our bags, and dropped the kids bags off at Kelly's(she lives on the same street as me just a few houses down). Finally around 9pm we headed to the hospital. Even though the contractions were uncomfortable they weren't painful. I could still walk. I could still laugh, talk, and it just wasn't what I expected it to be when I'm in labor. We get to labor and delivery and OH MY GOSH! Thank goodness I was not in full blow labor I probably would have delivered the baby during admission! I pre-registered during the hospital tour so I was told it would be quick at admission.. Ummm... NO admission took longer than my delivery! The lady had no idea what she was doing and the guy next to her was not helping at all.. Thankfully I wasn't in full blown labor yet and I was still just having the uncomfortable contractions. I get taken to triage and wait. I still didn't think I was in labor and we explained to J&J that their was a chance I could get to labor and delivery and be sent home so they decided to wait until I was checked and if the doctor decided to keep me they'd be on their way. It was only an 8 hour drive and again the contractions weren't that strong. Plus I was barely about to be 38 weeks. They had everything ready and in the car so if I was in labor all they'd have to do was leave. The nurse came in to check me and I was 5cm dilated and contracting.. They still weren't for sure if they were going to keep me but said to tell the parents it'd probably be best if they headed this way. The doctor decided since this was my 3rd he was not going to send me home at 5cm dilated and contracting(even though the contractions weren't that strong). Since my iron was so low during my pregnancy they wanted to check my iron just in case I had complications during delivery. I was put into a delivery room and the nurse gave me some IV pain meds. She told me I could have them every hour if I wanted but once I got to 7cm dilated they weren't allowed to give them anymore. I decided to get the IV pain meds around 11pm so that I could take a nap before J&J got there. I was exhausted but the contractions were a little painful for me to sleep through BUT I did not feel like they were epidural painful.. Adam and I took a little nap and I woke up around 1am. The nurse checked me again because I was about to ask for an epidural and I was about 5-6cm dilated but the baby was SUPER high still, and needed to drop. Apparently whenever I get pregnant the babies don't like to drop, because I also had this issue with Brett.. The nurse also told me that my iron levels were 8.6 which is still really low but a little better than the 7.4 that it previously was. She left the room and about 5 minutes later that's when it happened. The PAIN. The horrible, stabbing, EXTREMELY painful, I'm going to DIE CONTRACTIONS!! These were the contractions I have been waiting for all day. Well not these but some thing like this. SWEET JESUS OH MY GOD THEY WERE PAINFUL! Why was I in this much pain when I was only 5-6cm dilated!! OH MY GOD I NEED TO PUSH! Adam jumps out of bed(he slept on a little couch bed in the room) and comes beside me. The nurse walks in because I am seriously screaming in pain. Asking WHY I'm in so much pain. She checks me again and I am seriously PUSHING but baby is not ready. I am trying to crawl up my bed because of how much pain I am in.. I have NEVER EVER EVER in my entire life been in THIS much pain. I swear I could have probably been in the exorcism moving. That movie they are probably video taping people in labor with no pain meds! When the contractions stop the pain somewhat stops. The nurse tells me I can't push yet because the doctor isn't there. The doctor walks in checks me and sure enough baby is coming. And I am being told it is too late for and epidural... TOO LATE??? It's NEVER too late. I WANT AN EPIDURAL! I start to panic and then have to calm down and realize that this baby is coming with or without an epidural.. People have babies all the time without epidurals. It can't be that bad some people have numerous babies without epidurals. So I sucked it up and tried to give myself a little pep talk before another contraction came.. Well that pep talk didn't last long and it didn't work either once the pain started.. HOLY CRAP CONTRACTIONS ARE PAINFUL! I thought I was dying. Seriously DYING! The doctor wanted to change his shoes because he seriously just got there and the nurse said that he had time because I wasn't pushing yet. Well that didn't last long because I WAS PUSHING NOW!!!! The doctor explains to me that I need to push the baby down and THEN out.. Well I was in so much pain I didn't realize what he was talking about all I knew was I needed to push and all I could think about was how much freaking pain these stupid contractions were. And why in the world people would have an all natural delivery when they had the option to get an epidural. I was trying to push and all their telling me is I'm doing it wrong and then I need to push like I'm trying to poop.. I thought I was but apparently I wasn't and the pushes I was doing were not working so baby wasn't coming down.. Finally through out all the pain I figured out how to push and out she came........ I thought. There was no crying, no baby, no pain, nothing. AND THEN PAIN!!!!!!!! This pain was worse than the previous pain. WAY WORSE! Doctor starts to put on his delivery gown thing, pulls a light down, a drawer out, the things your legs go in, and who knows what else. I am being told to PUSH! Baby needs to come now! PUSH! I have a contraction and start to push and I'm asking I THOUGHT THE BABY WAS OUT!!! NOPE baby wasn't out. What I just did. All that pain I JUST went through did nothing but make the baby finally DROP into place. WHAT? NO BABY! I was really wishing I had an epidural now.. So on the next contraction I PUSH! And again I'm not pushing right. But finally I figured it out and out comes baby.. I thought baby came out right away but Adam said at first just her head was stuck and THEN I pushed her out. It was the most painful experience I have EVER in my life experienced. I seriously may have PTSD. Not really but yes it was TERRIFYING and painful and scary. But that wasn't it.

This was seriously seconds after I delivered. Right after this
picture is when the hemorrhaging started..

Since J&J didn't make it in time for delivery they gave surrobaby to me to do skin to skin because it helps to regulated the baby's body temperature. I have no energy what so ever. Delivery felt like it was HOURS long when really it was only about 30 minutes from the very first PAINFUL contraction to delivery. Seriously that was only 30 minutes? I felt like HOURS!!! PAINFUL PAINFUL HOURS! Just when I thought it was all over and we'd get to take some delivery pictures of sweet surrobaby and just relax for a few minutes. All hell breaks loose and it gets BAD. Worse than before. The pain keep getting WORSE not better.. I had a plan. I have delivered 2 babies before. Remember I'm a pro at this. Right??? WRONG! Completely and totally WRONG! I still have surrobaby and I have to give her to Adam or the nurses.. Honestly I'm not really sure at this point what is going on. I can barely keep my eyes open. I can barely stay awake. All I want to do is just pass out. And I keep hearing the doctor talking with the nurse and Adam wont leave my side. Even though all I want is for him to get some good pictures of Julia since J&J missed the delivery. All I wanted was for them to have good pictures of her delivery. Adam did end up getting some but at this point he wanted to make sure I was okay.. I hemorrhaged. Bad.. I had no idea at the time what was going on but I knew it wasn't good. I had hands going in places I didn't know hands could fit. Tongs with gauze going who knows where. Nurses pushing on my stomach, doctors pushing on my stomach. And all I could tell myself was to stay awake and not fall asleep.. I knew if I fell asleep it probably wasn't a good thing.. The doctor kept telling me is this is going to hurt, or you are bleeding and we need to get it under control, and that he couldn't find the bleeding. He also said if I didn't stop hemorrhaging that he'd have to give me a blood transfusion. The nurse came in with pills for me to take and shots. She told me what they were and what they were for and all I know is it was supposed to hopefully stop the bleeding. The nurse continued pushing on my stomach to get the blood and clots out and the doctor walks out because it was now time for a transfusion.. And I was terrified.. I also felt horrible because my amazing husband who has supported me through this whole thing who has seen me give birth 2 times before is now seeing me give birth for a 3rd time and having to witness all of this. Who knows what was going through his mind. The doctor comes back in and the blood is on its way. That's when the nurse says the bleeding may be slowing down. PLEASE DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP! NO MORE BLOOD!! I lost a TON of blood.. Way more than I should have but thankfully it finally slowed down. The doctor kept the blood ready but decided for now to hold off on it. He didn't want to give me a blood transfusion unless I REALLY needed it. Because a transfusion can bring on other complications... I was physically drained. DONE. I have no idea how with all of that pain and blood loss I did not pass out. But I kept telling myself over and over again I had to stay awake. I did not want to pass out. I NEEDED to stay awake for my husband and my kids I had to stay awake..

During the pregnancy any time I got an ultrasound she
always had her hand up beside her head and this is how
she likes to lay and be held now that she is out of the womb.

I'm not 100% sure what happened after the bleeding stopped. I remember talking with Adam and he stayed with me the whole time. They also took the baby to the nursery to do her cleaning and stuff. I was also told that my water never broke and that my fluid was low in the sac so they were pretty sure my water had been leaking. They just weren't sure when it started. It had to have started after 37 weeks but we have no idea when. I never had a big gush of water so it never BROKE but they are pretty sure I had a little tear and just had a small leak. We get moved to a post partum room and about 30 minutes before J&J get to the hospital they bring Julia to our room and we waited.. She was so precious and so sweet.. It was just amazing. I decided not to hold her and let her wait for her parents to come. I wanted the first thing for them to see when they walked in the room to be their daughter. They finally got to our room and it was so amazing witnessing them see their daughter for the very first time. They were so excited but also so nervous.. But within a few hours they were pros! They were so in love with her and it was just amazing! I helped create that. I helped give them the best gift you could ever receive and she was perfect. For the first few hours we were all in the room. I ended up telling Adam to go home because he was exhausted and about to pass out on my hospital bed haha. And when Julia had to be taken to the nursery for some testing J&J decided to go to the hotel(the hotel was directly across the street from the hospital and was MAYBE a 5 minute walk) to get a quick nap in too.. Adam had been up since 4am the morning before with a few naps through out the night. J&J had been up since the morning before also and we called them around 9pm and they drove from NY to NC all night and got to NC around 6am so they also go little to no sleep. We ALL needed to nap. It felt amazing to get some sleep finally but sure enough I was still bleeding like crazy so the nurses were constantly coming in and changing my bedding, padding, and cleaning me up. I also had a catheter because they didn't want my bladder getting full just yet. Due to all the blood loss I also wasn't allowed to get out of bed without assistance and all I wanted to do was shower. I felt disgusting! J&J came back and we all hung out in the room. Around 3pm Adam and the kids came to the hospital and got to see baby Julia with J&J. It was amazing how much they understood and knew that baby Julia was not coming home with us. They knew that J&J were taking Julia home and they were perfectly okay with that. Adam and the kids left and then Kelly came and brought me chipotle for dinner!! It was delicious! And my nurses were so jealous haha. The hospital food was okay at times but then at times I felt like I was eating worse than what people in prison are fed :-\ so it was nice that I didn't have to eat the hospital food much haha. That night J&J let Julia stay in the nursery and they stayed at the hotel. Which was best for all of us.. I'd get a full nights sleep and they'd get to catch up on sleep too. When they left the nurse came in checked me and gave me my meds.. I was having to take prenatals, 2 iron pills, a stool softener, and my Tylenol #3(Tylenol with codeine). My stomach and uterus still felt like they were stepped on by a herd of elephants and really bruised due to all the pushing they were doing because of the hemorrhaging but during the day I didn't take the pain meds, I just requested them at night so I could sleep comfortably. So I got my pain meds once before bed and then in the middle of the night I woke up in a lot of pain so I got one more then..

The next morning my darn alarm wakes me up. I apparently forgot to turn my alarms off :( but the nurses were about to come in anyways so it worked out. Then the doctor came in and guess what! He told the nurses they could take my catheter out! YAY!!!! He also told me my iron levels and blood count were still extremely low and he wanted to keep me one more day. I was sad and asked if there was any way I could be sent home tonight? So he told me that once I got my catheter out if I could get moving around and not get dizzy or light headed then he'd send me home tonight. Well I felt amazing so I don't see why I'd get dizzy.. I didn't realize the reason I felt so amazing was because I had only been awake for MAYBE 2 hours and I was in a bed.. Not up moving around haha. I took a shower and boy did it feel great. But then my energy was gone. I never got dizzy or light headed I was just exhausted! Adam brought the kids to see me again and he brought my bag so I could change and stuff.. It felt so good to be back in my clothes and clean! They left and I got to take a nap while J&J were gone for a bit. That evening I asked my nurse if I was being discharged.. Well apparently I had no discharge orders.. WHAT? I didn't pass out so I want to go home.. She told me she'd call the doctor and see what he said... Well before they called the doctor another nurse had to come in and speak to me. She told me if I wouldn't have hemorrhaged and if my blood count wasn't so low they would be perfectly fine with sending me home but with my blood count being so low it was a extremely serious and that I needed to understand my risk. She explained all my restrictions, what I can do, what I cant do, what to look for, etc. She did not want me to go home but I was more than ready. I knew I couldn't do much but I wanted to sleep in my bed. I wanted to relax in my home with my husband and kids.. Adam took the kids to Kelly's while he picked me up because we had to wait for the papers and who knew how long that'd take lol. We ended up taking a few photos of all of us before I was discharged and then it was time to go! I could not believe it had only been a total of 2 days. TWO DAYS from admission to discharge! I got to labor and delivery at 9pm on the 1st, delivered at 2:03am on the 2nd, and was leaving at 9pm on the 3nd... Some women are in labor longer than that. But surrobaby was eager to get out! They sent me home with the Tylenol #3 to help with the pain and I can take it every 4 hours but I only take it at night to help with the pain so I can sleep through the night.

Leaving was easy at first.. We said our goodbyes and I got in the wheelchair and then it hit me.. I just delivered a baby and was going home without a baby.. I was not sad I was going home without Julia it was just different. I was sad that this part was over. I have fulfilled my duties to J&J. What would happen next? It was different for both Adam and I. It's something you just cannot explain. When we got in the car we talked about it and both agreed that it didn't make us want to have another baby or even that baby. We are both so happy and excited for J&J. We cannot wait to see where Julia is in a year, 5 years, 20 years, etc. I don't expect them to update me with every little detail. I just hope we all stay in touch over the years and they remember me on some things. Who knows maybe one day in a few years Adam and I will finally get to take a trip to NY and we can see them again in person instead of just pictures :) The experience was AMAZING! The Journey was life changing. And I am so thankful I was able to give them such a precious gift. Julia will always hold a special place in my heart and so will J&J.

Last night I got home and it felt great. I got to sit on my couch and watch the rest of a movie with Adam. I got to kiss my kids goodnight and sleep in my big bed next to my husband. And this morning I felt GREAT! The stairs are probably the hardest part of being home.. I thought walking up the stairs 37 weeks pregnant was hard.. Nope. Walking up the stairs when you have lost so much blood is even harder haha. So I try to avoid going upstairs unless I have to. Adam wont let me lift much.. My options are the remote, food, or a drink.. Other than that he takes it away from me and says its too heavy haha. Now that I am home the kids forget they have a daddy to help them do stuff so they come straight to me.. Adam keeps reminding them to get him not me. This morning we woke up and headed to the hospital to go see J&J and Julia before they headed back home. I felt great the first 2 hours and by hour 3 I wanted to crash.. So I'm about to go take a nap to get some more energy for the night. I am hoping to stay awake and get to see some fireworks. But we will see..

I hope everyone has an amazing 4th of July. I probably left out a ton of my birth story but if I don't write it now I'll forget even more.. I will end up doing another blog post and answering a lot of the questions people have asked me about delivery. If you have a question don't hesitate to ask. I don't mind answering..

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 :)

The Glucose Results Are In!

Those of y'all that read my previous blog post know that I failed my 1 hour glucose test and had to take a 3hr glucose test. Tuesday morning I went in and took my 3hr test. That glucose test was BRUTAL! The drink was a little bit more than the 1hr drink but had a lot more sugar. I had 5 minutes to drink it and used up the WHOLE 5 minutes! It was taking everything in me to not vomit right there while drinking it. To keep my mind off vomiting I took my laptop and caught up on all my tv shows.

Can you tell which side she is on??

It helped some but I still felt like I was going to vomit. I had to have my blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours! Once before the test and then again every hour. I planned on rotating arms but sure enough my left arm vein didn't want to cooperate and the vein blew so we stuck to my right arm. I have 1 good blood drawing vein in each arm and that's all you get with me. I just knew I failed so I was pretty much waiting for a call to tell me that I failed and I would need to change my diet. Yesterday my plan was to go grocery shopping while Adam stayed home with the kids on his lunch break. I decided to wait to go grocery shopping because I didn't want to do a big grocery trip and THEN have to go back and buy MORE groceries for my new diet. Well around noon I called my OB's office because I still hadn't heard from them(yes I am that patient). I left a message and a couple hours later they called me back.... I PASSED! It lifted a huge weight off my chest. Yes I know GD(gestational diabetes) isn't all that bad. Most people can manage it just with a diet change. BUT it is still a complication and an added expense. I did not want J&J to have to worry about me having GD or have to pay extra for me to see a specialist about GD. Also the fear of having a bigger baby because of GD TERRIFIED ME! haha. I have 7lb baby's... So an 8lb+ baby scares me.

Peanut butter & banana's on
wheat bread.

Almond milk, ice, strawberries,
bananas, flaxseeds, and spinach

Now all I have to do is change my diet to have more iron in it. I am hoping to get my iron levels up naturally instead of having to take an iron pill. So yesterday while I'm at the commissary buying groceries I am checking labels on everything and looking at the iron. Did y'all know chocolate ice cream has iron in it?? Now I don't feel so guilty about eating ice cream for lunch sometimes. Hey I NEED THAT IRON! haha. I looked at the list of high iron foods and I'm not a picky eater but really let me just cook up a batch of chopped liver and oysters with a side of tofu and prune juice to chase it down. Okay not really, but a lot of things on that list just sounded disgusting. So I had to get creative. Well someone mentioned making a shaking an adding a cup or 2 of spinach leaves. I also am changing up my breakfast. Yes I still have my cheerios that I am addicted to but not every day. Some days I will make eggs for breakfast and then a couple hours later I'll make my shake with added spinach. Or I'll have wheat toast with some peanut butter and banana's and then a bit later my shake. I also have added more beans to our dinner meals. It's not that I didn't eat much iron before but my body needs more now. So instead of 2 scoops of ice cream I will now request 3!

How far along: 27 weeks 2 days
Total weight gain: 9 lbs
Maternity clothes: Still the same from my previous post. A few skirts, a pair of shorts, skinny jeans, and a bunch of different shirts.
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: Last night I think I slept all night. I'm not really 100% sure but whenever I sleep all night or only wake up once to pee its like I haven't peed in days! I am terrified that when I move to get out of bed that I'm going to end up peeing on myself. Yes its that bad!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- passing my 3 hour glucose test. Not surrogacy related- going to the beach this past weekend with my family. We really had a great time just getting away for a few days and spending time together as a family.
Miss anything: being able to control my bladder! :)
Movement: YES! Yesterday I thought she was trying to come out of my belly button! She was going crazy in there.
Food cravings: cheerio's and water(I know water isn't a food but yes I crave it) and ice! I craved ice with both my previous pregnancies and now again this one.
Anything make you sick: Nope
Have you started to show yet: More and more everyday.
Gender: It's a girl :)
Labor signs: Nope it ends up just being gas -___- haha
Belly button in or out: In but it is slowly coming to the surface..
What has your mood been: tired. But hopefully adding more iron to my diet will help with that.
Looking forward to: Getting Adam's orders. We are checking 3 times a day to see where we will be moving to the end of this year and they are taking FOREVER! :)
Any issues: The leg cramps have started and they are strong! I don't get them everyday but when I do its in the middle of the night while I'm in bed and I have to jump out of bed, make the leg cramp stop, and THEN go pee before I end up peeing on myself. Also my bladder I would love to be in control of my bladder again. But one kick to the bladder and its RUN to the restroom..
Baby is the size of a: head of cauliflower

Upcoming dates:
April 24th- Chiropractor appointment
April 29th- OB Appointment
May 5th-  Brett's orthopedic follow up(not surrogacy related I know but still important)
Beginning of May- 3D ultrasound :)

A Few Minor Complications..

I have had 2 extremely easy complication free pregnancies. With Brett I had low iron which was no big deal I took prenatal pills and was fine. With Brynna I had no complications what so ever. So whenever the surrogacy agency and RE reviewed my pregnancy and birth records I was cleared in that area because I had no complications. This pregnancy has seemed to be the complete opposite!! I have had a few complications that yall know about and a few that I haven't posted on here. Thankfully though none of the complications have affected the baby but the thing is their is very little they can do to help me because I'm pregnant and am limited on what I can use/take while pregnant.

 

This morning I had a 9am doctors appointment before the doctors appointment I'd drink the drink for the glucose test and then see my OB and once I was done with my OB visit I'd wait to have my blood drawn. The glucose test is just a 1 hour glucose test and it test you for gestational diabetes. From the get go I knew I'd pass this test. I have never failed it before why would I fail it now? Well turns out I was wrong. My OB wants the results to be 130 or lower and mine was 153. They let me know that its very common to fail the 1 hour test and a lot of people that fail the 1 hour end up passing the 3 hour test. So tomorrow morning I go to another lab to do the 3 hour test. Oh JOY! I am so nervous about this test but hopefully it will come back normal. Well whenever they did the 1 hour glucose test they also checked my iron and turns out my iron levels were low. They want it to be no lower than 11 and my iron level was a 9.. So we ended up switching my prenatal pills. I'm not taking iron pills just yet but we switched to a different prenatal that has a little more iron than the ones I'm taking now. They also gave me a list of foods high in iron. So hopefully that will help get my iron levels up. I was so upset whenever they told me I failed my 1 hour test and THEN told me I had low iron levels. I felt like such a failure. I felt like I failed my IP's. I had 2 perfectly healthy pregnancies of my own but then get pregnant with their child and have all these complications. Yes I know they are very minor complications and it could always be worse but I don't want them to have to worry about any complications. PLUS its more money for them to spend. I don't want them to have to spend money on things they shouldn't have to. They could be saving this money for other things. But hopefully tomorrow I will pass this 3 hour test with flying colors. My only issue is I will have to get my blood drawn 4 times!! In 3 hours!! Have I told yall before I have horrible veins :(

Well besides my blood work coming back with bad results, everything else looked good :) The OB said my belly is measuring right on track at 26 weeks and the baby's heartbeat was strong. So I'm happy about that. I also found out exactly how much weight I've gained. With this being a surrogacy pregnancy my weight has been tracked since before I became pregnant so I have 2 different amounts for you haha. I gained 9 pounds from the IVF meds and then once I started seeing my OB for the pregnancy I have gained 9 pounds from then. So if we are going off my OB I have gained 9 pounds. BUT I will be wanting to lose 18 pounds total once I deliver. Tomorrow once I get my 3 hour glucose test results I will update the questionnaire part because that will be exactly a week after my last questionnaire.

I thought I'd also show yall what we did this past weekend :) The weather was gorgeous this past weekend so we ended up taking the kids down to the beach. Myrtle Beach is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from us so we packed up a cooler, took some beach toys, and headed to the beach. We stayed the night Saturday night and really enjoyed our time there my only complaint is we were being cheap and didn't want to spend the money on a nice hotel when we were seriously just using the shower and sleeping in it.. Next time I won't be cheap I'll spend the money for a bit nicer hotel. The water was freezing but Brett didn't care and Brynna prefers playing in the sand over the water.

Upcoming Dates:
April  15th- 3hr Glucose Test
April 16th- Chiropractor Appointment
April 29th- OB Appointment
May 5th-  Brett's orthopedic follow up(not surrogacy related I know but still important)