6 Months Down..

Where does the time go.. In the beginning I felt like this pregnancy was going by SO SLOW! But I pretty much knew I was pregnant by day 4 when most people don't find out their pregnant until further along. But now that we are towards the end it feels like it has just flown right on by. I'm sad that this part of the journey will be coming to an end but also excited because I cannot wait for J&J to meet their daughter. Even though this part of the journey will be coming to an end I know the journey will never end.

A lot has happened these past few weeks which is why y'all haven't had much of an update. What little time I have had these past few weeks I have used to catch up on much needed sleep.

A lot of y'all have read my facebook post about Brett. Well I am happy to say he is doing AMAZING! Not 100% but he is doing so much better. He is currently in physical therapy and is still seeing the orthopedic surgeon. He is still out of school but now we have a home bound teacher that will be coming to the house once a week to make sure he doesn't fall behind. This morning he woke up in a little bit more pain than normal but he still has the infection in his foot and is still healing so he will continue having good days and bad days. Today is also Brett's 6th birthday!! We were planning on going to either Great Wolf Lodge for a weekend get away or go spend the weekend in Raleigh and go to the zoo and an amusement park but right now Brett can't be submerged in water and he isn't able to do as much walking as the zoo requires. So if we can't go before Adam leaves then we will go once he gets back for sure.

I had my 24 week check up Monday, March 17th, and everything was great. I didn't gain any weight which I had a feeling I wouldn't I started light work outs and then everything that happened with Brett I knew that I wouldn't gain weight. Don't worry I didn't stop eating or anything. I made sure to eat because I knew even though I wasn't hungry that I still needed to eat and feed the growing baby girl in my belly. A few days later I had the 3D ultrasound. It was so amazing! J&J again had a camera shy baby girl. She did NOT want us to see her. The beginning of the ultrasound was mainly the back of her head but we finally got her to wiggle and move and she some what cooperated.. The package J&J got came with about 8 printed images, a CD with the images on them, a coupon to come back, and a few other things. It did not come with a recording of the baby's heartbeat so I bought them a teddy bear with a recording of baby girls heart beat :) I have been wanting to buy them a gift and was glad I got to finally find out what to send them.

How far along: 24 weeks(baby is now considered viable if born at this stage)
Total weight gain: I really need to ask the nurses what my starting weight was and what it is now but I have not gained any weight since my last appointment.
Maternity clothes: My maternity 2 skinny jeans, a maternity tank top, and I got a maternity tunic and t-shirt this past week.
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: Who needs sleep?? I DO!!! I think I posted before that I wasn't able to sleep on my stomach anymore. Well I lied it was just that previous night that I couldn't sleep on my stomach. I continued sleeping on my stomach but at 23 weeks and 4 days it became extremely uncomfortable! I still sleep somewhat on my stomach but my belly has to go towards the side because it is too uncomfortable to sleep fully on my stomach. I also wake up twice a night to pee. I try so hard to fight it and just go back to sleep but I can't.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- getting the 3D ultrasound and sending J&J their gift. I was so happy to hear that they got it and that they loved it :) not surrogacy related- Brett is walking and healing so much faster than we expected! Also having my family come to visit and help out with everything going on.
Miss anything: sleeping on my stomach
Movement: yes! Lots of it!! I think she is already practicing for the Olympics
Food cravings: ice cream! Still pink sherbet ice cream
Anything make you sick: Thankfully no
Have you started to show yet: Oh yea.
Gender: She was still stubborn during the 3D ultrasound but the ultrasound tech also said its a girl.
Labor signs: I have had some braxton hicks but nothing too crazy
Belly button in or out: still in but not as deep as it was.
What has your mood been: ON EDGE! Adam has said I have been snappy lately but I don't think I can completely blame it on the pregnancy.
Looking forward to: Our lives going back to normal. We are back to a family of 4. Adam is now back at work(he took leave while we were dealing with Brett. Brynna is going back to gymnastics and Brett is doing much better. Not back to school but hopefully will be soon.
Any issues: My only complaint is my back pain. It's not too bad but I have decided to start seeing a chiropractor for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Baby is the size of an: ear of corn













Upcoming Dates:
April 14th- OB appointment AND the disgusting glucose test. This will also be the start of when I go every 2 weeks to the OB instead of 4.

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 :)

It's Almost Show Time!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were busy days of talking with the agency, the clinic, and waiting. Lots of waiting. Wednesday I got an estimated schedule BUT I was told that J&J were trying to move the date by a few days. Which would actually work out better for me. So we had to wait until Thursday to know for sure. I waited for the email to get the new dates and they decided to keep them the same. So for now as long as nothing changes the transfer will be sometime between November 1st-3rd. I will fly to Los Angeles the day before transfer and then fly home probably 2-3 days later. So I could be in LA a total of 4-5 days. I am hoping that the transfer is either on the 2nd or 3rd because if it is on the 1st I will miss Halloween. I know Halloween may not be a big deal to most people but this year I made my daughters Halloween costume. This year is also the first year my husband is going to be able to go trick or treating with us. Every year he has been working or gone and next year he may not be here for Halloween either so I have really been excited for this Halloween. BUT if I have to miss Halloween I am just thankful that Adam will be able to be with the kids and enjoy Halloween with them.

Well Thursday we got the estimated dates and Thursday I was told that I would receive a package on Friday with all of my meds I will have to take, and they emailed me a cycle schedule. I start my first shot(delestrogen) Sunday or Monday depending on when AF(Aunt Flow) comes. Also if AF doesn't come by Sunday morning I have to go get blood work done at my local monitoring clinic, which is not local at all. It is 1 1/2 hours away. The joys of not living in or near a big city. Even though in my opinion Fayetteville is a big city. Friday I stayed home most of the day waiting and waiting for that package. By 2pm nothing. So I walked down the street to a friends house. We only live like 7 houses down but you can see my house from her house and the FedEx truck passes her house to get to mine. So I knew I'd see it heading to my house. At 3pm I received a phone call from the pharmacy that was mailing the package asking if they could mail it to me Monday.. Umm.. WHAT? I have been waiting for a package that was not even mailed haha. But I explained to them that I needed the meds ASAP because I would have to start them by Sunday or Monday. Thankfully they overnight them and they mailed them that day instead of waiting so I would receive them by Saturday. Well we have been planning to go to a place called Hubb's Corn Maze with a some friends and their kids and guess which day we were going. Saturday. I decided we would still go to the corn maze but PRAY that it came before we left. We weren't planning on leaving until around 12:30 so it should come before then. Plus it didn't need a signature like I thought it did so they would leave the package.
It's funny how things work out... Whenever we were getting in the car to leave the FedEx truck turned down our street and thankfully had the package I needed. So my nerves were put to rest.. Those of y'all that live in NC I really recommend Hubb's Corn Maze my kids(5 and 3 1/2) had a blast and my husband and I also liked it.

This is the jump pillow and they loved it. Brynna face planted but thankfully it didn't hurt.

Both kids loved the slides(daddy did too haha)

Then was time for the corn maze. I have never been to a corn maze before it was really neat. I'm not good at reading maps, I like technology and just listening to my GPS give me directions but it was fun reading the map and finding all the checkpoints.

After the corn maze we let the kids play for a bit and then headed home. We did dinner at a friends house and the kids were going to spend the night afterwards. Well since they only live a few houses down we went home first bathed the kids and then headed over. Adam went first because I still had to get Brynna dressed and he was going to grill his burgers. We were about 5 minutes behind him and whenever I walked in the door everyone yelled SURPRISE! I was not expecting a surprise party. They played it off good. Brynna was even surprised. Kelly made me a cake and it was GOOD!! This is my first birthday away from home and things like that make being away from home a little bit easier.

 

Since AF still had not come we had to be up early to head to the monitoring clinic an hour and a half away. I had to be there at 8:30am but since it was on a Sunday the fertility clinic called me on Friday and told me to call the clinic on Sunday before I drove there to make sure they were open(I'm not sure why they didn't check before they put it on my schedule but o well). So Sunday morning I woke up and AF still had not made her appearance!! So I called the monitoring clinic and no answer plus it said they were closed on Saturday and Sunday on their message. Which meant that I would now have to go Monday morning unless AF decided to finally show. Thankfully a few hours later she finally did and now I wont have to make the drive until the end of next week. I will have blood work and a sonogram to check my lining to make sure it is good to go for transfer. 

Sunday I also went through and made sure everything I needed was in the package and ready to go on Monday. Plus I also wanted to see what I was going to be getting stuck with. I'm going to make Adam give me my shots and I'll probably cry hahaha. I haven't had a shot in 2 1/2 years and that shot was PAINFUL!! I still remember how bad that thing hurt. So lets hope this one isn't as bad because I will be doing it every 3 DAYS!!

Look at how huge the needles on the right are they are 18 1/2 gauge needles. Thankfully those are not the needles I will be injecting myself with. Those are just the ones that I will be using to put the medicine in the syringe. The green needles on the left are the ones I will be injecting myself with(23 1/2 gauge needles)

 

 

Look at these horse pills! Goodness I wonder if I am allowed to cut them in half? I have been swallowing pills for years and have never had an issue with swallowing pills but big pills like this I am not a fan with. I always cut my prenatal pills in half whenever I was pregnant with my kids so hopefully I can do the same with these. 

I guess tomorrow I will update with how painful or painless the shots were and how long it took me to get the balls to let Adam give me a shot haha.