1 Week Later..

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












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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Questions I've been asked lately..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Chubby Cheeks and Open Eyes

Life is getting busy and time is flying right on by! Before we know it surrobaby will be here and my family will be preparing for a move across the country.


Our 3 year anniversary dinner

Last week I told yall about mine and Adams anniversary and how I planned a surprise for us for our anniversary. Well that was a total bust.. TOTAL BUST!! The surprise was a pedicure. A nice relaxing pedicure. Well he wasn't too excited about someone rubbing on his feet so as soon as we walked in we walked right back out. Thankfully I didn't make an appointment because then I would have felt bad. I was upset that he didn't want to get a pedicure but on Saturday he made up for it :) Saturday he told me to be ready by 5:30 because he got a baby sitter and was taking me out. Normally I'm the one who plans date night and gets a baby sitter but he had a friend of ours watch the kids and we had a nice dinner just the 2 of us. I love my kids and going out and doing family fun things but its nice to get out and have dinner a husband and wife.

Sunday was Mothers day and we had a great relaxing day. We went to eat for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day at home. I was in a lot of pain the whole weekend and Sunday was probably the worse day of them all. Still not 100% sure what is causing the pain though. I'm guessing its indigestion or reflux(honestly not sure if those are the same thing because I have never experienced this discomfort before but that's what other people seem to think it is). I will say with my previous pregnancies I never experienced pain or discomfort like this.. Monday thankfully wasn't too bad but I still called my OB to see what they wanted me to do. The told me to give Zantac a try to see if it relieves the discomfort so we will see.

Look at those wide open eyes and
chubby cheeks

This is all we could see at
first when we tried looking
at her face. Both arms
covering her face.

Today I had a chiropractor appointment and THEN the 3D ultrasound! I was so excited to see how much she had changed. Well I walk in and get on the ultrasound table. Surrobaby is extremely active. She is pretty much always moving. BUT any time I have an ultrasound she decides to hide or take a nap.. It was funny that the ultrasound tech remembered the previous ultrasound and how surrobabe made us work for good images. The ultrasound was only supposed to take about 15 minutes long. Those 15 minutes were spent pushing my belly, trying to get her to move, me flipping from side to side. NOTHING! She wasn't moving. She has her arms covering her face the whole time. So instead we took a look at her arms, listened to her heartbeat(which was 167), and enjoyed looking at her toes and fingers. Finally we got the arms to move and then she puts a foot in front of her face. So then we had to get her to move that. FINALLY she showed us her whole face. She has such cute chubby cheeks this time and her lips are so plump. It was amazing watching her move on the screen. You could actually see her opening her eyes and see her looking around. It was so neat to see..

 Precious lips

I asked the ultrasound tech if she could take a look to see if she has any hair yet.
And sure enough she does :)

It was amazing to see how much she has changed and how much she has fattened up(in a good way) compared to the last 3D ultrasound. If you want to see the images from the 3D ultrasound we did at 24 weeks click here and it will take you to the blog post about that ultrasound.

Tomorrow we have an OB appointment and I will update again with the pregnancy questionnaire and with a bump photo :) We also have our levy briefing Thursday and I am so excited about that. It will give us a lot of information about our upcoming move and pretty much what to expect! I am so thankful for all the friends we have here that have been able to help us with the kids during the appointments. Yes I can take the kids but my focus will be on them instead of the person talking at the meeting and I will probably miss a lot of important information. So be on the look out tomorrow or Thursday for another blog update :)

I HATE PUBLIC RESTROOMS!!!

This is a picture of a toilet in the women's
restroom in South Korea. Even though
I hate public restrooms I will be glad
that our public restrooms are
not the same as theirs..

I am not a germaphobe or anything like that but public restrooms disgust me more than anything in this world.. Even the really clean ones are disgusting! Normally I do anything possible to try and avoid peeing in a public restroom and NORMALLY I can make it to the house before I have to pee. But lately anywhere I go my bladder is just so excited to release itself in the public restrooms.. My previous 2 pregnancies were nothing like this. My non-prego friends peed more often than I did but this time around I am CONSTANTLY PEEING!! Even after I go pee I STILL FEEL LIKE I NEED TO PEE!! I feel like a child because before I go anywhere I make sure and pee that away I don't have to visit any public restrooms. But it never fails I get out of the car and where is the first place I go? THE PUBLIC RESTROOM! Well enough about my bladder :)

Besides the constant peeing everything else is going fine. Sleeping is getting a little more uncomfortable but that's to be expected. I have started to use coconut oil to help with the stretching of the skin. I swear with each pregnancy the skin stretching gets a little more painful. Baby girl is moving around like CRAZY! I don't think she ever sleeps haha but feeling her kicks makes me not worry so I don't mind them. BTW I forgot to mention we are now in the double digits!! 99 days until J&J's baby is due.

How far along: 26 weeks(tomorrow)
Total weight gain: again I have no idea. I'm going to make sure and ask my nurse whenever I go in this next appointment
Maternity clothes: Well I am pretty excited about this one. We had our first hot day of the year about a little over a week ago and my only option was my maternity skinny jeans and a tank... IT WAS HOT!! So I finally caved and knew I had to go buy some maternity shorts.. I'm cheap and do not want to spend an arm and a leg on maternity clothes because I'll only wear them a few more months. Well I found this resale shop and they had a pair of SUPER cute maternity shorts!! They sell online at motherhood maternity for about $35 but I bought them for $10!! BTW if any of y'all are pregnant and hate the maternity shorts, look into indigo blue maternity shorts they are super cute!! I also went to ross and bought a few maxi skirts that I'm in love with! Sadly one skirt wont fit me after I have the baby because the only way it fits now is because I put the waste band above my bump and the bump holds it up haha
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I'm becoming nocturnal.... I have also learned how to walk to the bathroom and pee with my eyes closed..
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- tomorrow I will be going to my very first chiropractor appointment and hopefully it'll take some relief off my back and help with my sleeping :) not surrogacy related. Brett went back to school on Monday after a month of being out due to his infection. Also Adam finally made a decision about his military career :)
Miss anything: sleep......
Movement: yes! TONS!
Food cravings: I have had this one for a bit but keep forgetting to put it. Cheerios! They are my new obsession. Also apples. A nice juicy cut up apple on a hot summer day is amazing!
Anything make you sick: Thankfully no
Have you started to show yet: Oh yea.

Gender: surrobaby is a girl :)
Labor signs: nope..
Belly button in or out: still in but slowly coming to surface
What has your mood been: better.. Life has started to slow down some and go back to normal. I am able to actually relax and I feel like I can breath again.
Looking forward to: Adam getting his next orders.. We should find out next week if we will be moving the end of this year. I'll explain more of that in just a second.
Any issues: Just the lack of sleep and back pain but isn't that normal in a pregnancy :)
Baby is the size of an: eggplant

So about Adam.. Adam has again changed his mind about what he wants to do in his military career. I say again because he has been going back and fourth about 2 different paths to take. But honestly can you blame him. It's a huge decision. It decides not only what happens to him for the next 4 years but also the kids and I. It is a big life changing decision no matter what choice he makes. I have tried to help him as best as I can and give my input but this is only a decision that he can make. He knows no matter what the kids and I will support him 110% but I want him to be happy with whatever decision he makes. I could honestly careless what choice he made as long as he doesn't get out of the military right now. The military has treated us very well these past 3 years and we have no reason to get out right now. Now if I knew that he absolutely HATED being in the military then I wouldn't ask him to stay in but he loves what he does just not so much his current MOS.. I am thankful for these past 3 years we have met some amazing people we have experienced so much more than some people ever experience. I am also thankful that in these past 3 years we have not dealt with a deployment. I know it will come with time but I will count my blessings and be thankful that we have not dealt with one yet. We have lived in a foreign country, near the beach, and hopefully now we will be going to the mountains. We SHOULD find out next week if we will be staying here or pcsing in the near future. I am nervous but also excited. I am just glad that we now have some what of a plan. Now I just need to know if we are pcsing and where so I can get the ball rolling on that :)

Upcoming Dates:
April 9th- Chiropractor appointment
April 14th- OB appointment and glucose test
May 12th/13th- I will probably do the 2nd 3D ultrasound around this time