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.

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)