Week 29.. Time Has Just Flown By...

Their are days I look at myself and still cannot believe that I am pregnant with my very first surrobaby. Whenever I first started this journey I expected it to take a few years. But whenever I deliver it will exactly a year since I received J&J's profile from the agency. I got their profile the beginning of July and I will be delivering beginning/mid July. I love talking with people about the surrogacy journey just as much as I love talking to people about my own children. Surrogacy is still kind of new to a lot of people and most people have no idea what surrogacy really is. So it's nice being able to educate people about it.

Well in the past 2 weeks a LOT has changed and I mean a lot. Last I told y'all Adam had changed his mind about what he wanted to do in the military. Well he finally re-enlisted into the military and ended up reclassing to a different MOS(a different job in the military).

Once he re-enlisted he gave his wish list about where we wanted to move to next. Our choices were Fort Carson(Colorado), Alaska, Europe, and Fort Campbell(Kentucky/Tennessee). We waited and waited and WAITED! It seemed like it took forever. Then he came home from work one day and told me his orders were posted but not on his website yet. It goes through a process and certain people can see it before they are posted to where WE can see it. Well we got Fort Wainwright(Fairbanks), Alaska! Those of y'all that know me know that Alaska is my DREAM BASE! It always has been. Yes I know that its going to be FREEZING and that during the summer it will be daylight even when its night time and during the winter their will be days with little to no sunlight. I know that. BUT Alaska is another once in a life time opportunity. We will get to visit the North Pole, see the Northern Lights in real life not just in a picture, go dog sledding, and experience things that some people can only dream of doing. Yes the winters will be BRUTAL! But we will bundle up and make it work and enjoy our home away from home for the next 4 years :)

 

I am so nervous about this move. Not MOVING to Alaska, I'm excited about that, but just about the process. Thankfully we will be going to a levy brief here soon and they will help us understand the whole process and what exactly we need to do to make this an easy move.

We also had spring break this past week. Even though it was spring break for the kids Adam still had to work. So the kids and I just hung out outside and played ALL WEEK LONG! From sun up til sun down. We lathered on the sunscreen and they played with all their friends while I worked on my tan. It was very relaxing for me and the kids enjoyed the time off. But come Monday I was ready for normal bedtimes and to send Brett back to school haha. This is Brett's last week of physical therapy for his foot and next week he will have a follow up appointment with his orthopedic doctor to see how things are going with his foot. His ankle is still swollen but no where NEAR how it was. It looks so much better. I have a few questions for the doctors about the septic arthritis when we go in for his follow up. I did some googling but I didn't get many answers since most people really don't get septic arthritis so I am hoping he can clear up a few things. My main question is what are his chances of the infection coming back. Does he have the same chances any other person has that has never had septic arthritis or does he have a higher chance of the infection coming back because he has had it once before.

Enough about all the changes. Now to update about the pregnancy. We are now 29 weeks(tomorrow) and everything is going great. We have had a few minor complications with me but not with the pregnancy(I'll update y'all about those in the questionnaire). Even though this pregnancy has had the most minor complications out of my 3 pregnancies I have still really enjoyed it and am sad that this part of the journey will be coming to an end soon. But I'm also really excited to see J&J with their daughter for the very first time.

28 weeks(left) and 28w2d(right)
As you can see someone hit a growth spurt.

How far along: 29 weeks(tomorrow)
Total weight gain: 10lbs
Maternity clothes: I haven't bought any new ones but that's pretty much all I wear now..
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: Falling asleep is the hard part but once I'm asleep I'm good. If I wake up in the middle of the night its normally only once to pee.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- feeling surrobaby move all over the place. Not surrogacy related- enjoying spring break with my kiddos
Miss anything: just a glass of wine :)
Movement: Oh yea she is an active little girl
Food cravings: WATERMELON! It's been so hot lately that watermelon has been so refreshing
Anything make you sick: No
Have you started to show yet: More and more everyday.
Gender: It's a girl
Labor signs: Not that I've noticed.
Belly button in or out: Still in but it is coming to surface a little more each day
What has your mood been: great :)
Looking forward to: The rest of this year! So many good things are happening! Surrobaby will be here before we know it. We will be moving across the country. A few mini vacations hopefully to enjoy the rest of our time while here in NC.
Any issues: For some reason my chest has been so broken out I have tried lots of different things to make it go away but I'm pretty sure its due to the pregnancy and all the hormones. So hopefully after I deliver it will go away. My hair is shedding like crazy! The skin stretching in the belly area is getting a little uncomfortable. But other than that we are good haha. Thankfully those are normal things to experience during a pregnancy though so its nothing to worry about.
Baby is the size of a: butternut squash

Upcoming appointments:
May 1st- Chiropractor appointment
May 13th- Hopefully I'll be doing the 2nd 3D ultrasound on this day
May 14th- OB appointment

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)

Past the Halfway Mark!

Well we are officially past the halfway mark and the belly is really coming out. A lot of y'all have asked about how my kids are taking it. Others assume kids don't understand. They seem to do really great with it. Neither has EVER called it their sister. They both call it J&J's baby(they say their names though haha). Today as I was walking into the store Brynna wanted me to carry her I did for a few minutes and then she started to get heavy so I told her I had to put her down. She said "That's okay mommy, I don't want to hurt J&J's baby in your tummy." It's so cute listening to her talk about their baby. The baby is starting to move around a lot more which is pretty neat to feel. I can't wait to be able to video my stomach moving because of the baby. Also I started back at my light work outs.. I don't work out during the first trimester because I am WAY too tired to do anything more than I have to do which is pretty much keep my kids alive. But now that I have my energy back I decided to bring out the light weights and keep in shape while pregnant. I did it with Brett but not with Brynna. With Brynna I was SO LAZY I seriously only wanted to eat and sleep the whole entire pregnancy.

Brynna wanted to workout too haha

My last post I mentioned how I may have MRSA well turns out I did in fact have MRSA.
I was put on an antibiotic and continued pushing all of the nasty gunk out of it. It is now pretty much healed up. Since I have had MRSA before(whenever I was in high school) I caught it very early and thankfully knew what to do to keep it from getting really bad. Well I guess that's really all that's happened in the last week.

Yes I know my mirror is so dirty in this picture it will be clean next time haha

How far along: 21 weeks
Total weight gain: Hopefully none but I haven't been back to the doctor yet since my last post
Maternity clothes: I still only wear my 2 pairs of maternity jeans and 1 maternity tank BUT I bought a pair of maternity shorts and a few maternity shirts for this summer..
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I wake up every night to pee sometimes 2-3 times and sleeping on my stomach isn't always an option anymore.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related-I found a little gift I'd like to send J&J with the 3D ultrasound pictures but I want to wait to buy it until we get another confirmation that it's a girl. Not surrogacy related- Brett and I went to the Circus with my friend Kelly and her son Jacob and we had a blast! Aliana(our niece who is living with us) is officially walking all on her own! And Brett was able to get a slot in a gymnastics class the same time Brynna is in her gymnastics class(they will be going to the same gym but he is in the older class)
Miss anything: not peeing on myself when I sneezed!!
Movement: yes
Food cravings: water(I know its not a food but I CRAVE water this pregnancy) and for some reason at night I have to drink a whole bottle of water before I go to bed because I feel so dehydrated even though I know for sure I am not.
Anything make you sick: Today we were out all day and I completely forgot to eat lunch well by 3 I felt so nauseous. That's when I realized CRAP I skipped lunch! I had to get a little snack to hold me over until I got home because I was scared I was going to vomit!
Have you started to show yet: YUP!
Gender: It's still a girl
Labor signs: None
Belly button in or out: in BUT it is slowly started to come to surface. I can tell its not as deep as it was before pregnancy.
What has your mood been: It just depends.
Looking forward to: Hopefully going to Great Wolf Lodge for my sons birthday sometime in April depending on a few things.
Any issues: None
Baby is the size of a: pomegranate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Dates(I decided to add a new thing to my blog and that will be upcoming stuff since now each month more stuff will be happening)
March 17th- OB appointment

March 20th- 3D ultrasound
March 26th- Brett's 6th birthday!!(not surro related but a big deal!)

A Week Full of First Times..

This week was a very busy week.. And most of the week were first time experiences. And for this hormonal momma it was very emotional and I had to fight off the tears a lot..
Brynna started gymnastics this week. She is in the 4-5 year old group and is the smallest but no surprise there. So the coach has to help her out with some of the stuff because she is so small. But she LOVES it!! She goes 2 days a week and gets so excited about it. Brett also wants to start gymnastics so I may have him go 1 day a week because he will also be starting tball soon and I don't want him to have to much going on and him fall behind in school. Here are some pictures from her class. BTW these are zoomed in phone pictures so not the best quality.

Another first was Brynna had her very first pageant. It was SO not what I was expecting but we had a good time and she enjoyed it. I knew in pageants some people prepared a little skit thing or whatever you want to call it but I didn't know you did that in this pageant so we had nothing prepared. She was a little shy when going on stage the first time BUT daddy stepped in and helped out the second time. Also she was not a fan of all the waiting around. This pageant started at 11 and didn't end until about 2:30ish and it was a LOT of waiting because you have 2 different outfits so she went on stage in her first outfit and then you have to go change and wait for about 20 other girls to go on stage with their outfits and then you go back on stage again for your second outfit and then you wait for 20 other girls again to go show their second outfit. THEN they had a 3rd outfit if you wanted to pay for it but we didn't do the 3rd outfit. And THEN it was time for judging. It was a good experience and we enjoyed it but for now we will stick to gymnastics. (btw it was nothing against this particular pageant or any pageants she just wasn't a fan of waiting and was ready to leave before it started. She enjoyed being on stage but the waiting part not so much haha)

 Brynna was crowned 2014 Doll Miss Princess.

And the last and worst first experience.. Adam(my husband) is in the military and they went to the field for 3 days. Well he left Wednesday morning and my mom, grandma, and brother got here Thursday. So thankfully I wasn't home alone long.. I HATE sleeping home alone. I have no idea why but I'm such a big baby whenever it comes to that. Well Thursday night they had some night training to do while in the field and around 3am they had a training accident. I didn't know about this training accident until about 1-2pm whenever I got a call from Adam saying that he was okay and everything was fine... My first thought was "Ummm... Why wouldn't you be okay??????" He called me thinking I'd be home freaking out about him. Well what he didn't know was that I was out with my mom and had no idea what was going on. If I would have been home I would have seen on the TV, Internet, and facebook that his unit had a causality and some injuries. He didn't tell me over the phone what happened so I had to find out on my own and when I found out what happened I wanted to vomit! Adam has been in the military a little less than 3 years and we have been extremely lucky so far and have not had a deployment yet. I know it will come sooner or later but as of now I will count my blessings and be thankful that he hasn't deployed. Well we also have been extremely lucky and haven't dealt with any deaths or major injuries to anyone close to him. Until this past week.. They had a training accident that killed one, seriously injured 2 others, and 5 others had minor injures. It was a very emotional day for me. I was extremely thankful that my husband was not hurt or killed but it also made me extremely sad for the guys that were and for the families involved. I just cannot imagine the pain and fear they were dealing with. I know I have posted this on my facebook page a couple times but one of the soldiers has a wounded warrior fund to help with some of the cost and I wanted to share it one last time here too. I know most of yall are thinking the military will help him out and while yes the military will cover a lot of the cost. There is more to it and every little bit will help out. You can read the page and it will explain more in depth of what the money will help out with. https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dhiT2


Now enough about first here is the surrogacy part of my post.

How far along: 19 weeks 5 days
Total weight gain: I have not gained any weight since my last appointment(a week ago) YAY!
Maternity clothes: Still 2 pairs of maternity clothes and I got my first maternity tank today. I also just bought a normal take in a bigger size
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I wake up every night to pee and sleeping on my stomach isn't always an option anymore.
Best moment this week: Baby related- We scheduled our first 3D ultrasound!! Not baby related- My mom, grandma, and 2 brothers got to come visit us this past weekend!
Miss anything: not peeing on myself when I sneezed!!
Movement: A tiny bit.
Food cravings: Pink sherbet ice cream!!
Anything make you sick: Nope
Have you started to show yet: I'll let you be the judge of that from the picture I posted of todays belly shot
Gender: It's still a girl
Labor signs: No more Braxton hicks thankfully.
Belly button in or out: in :)
What has your mood been: Aggravated not sure if its because of the pregnancy or other stuff.
Looking forward to: Honestly just the next few weeks. A lot of stuff is happening :)
Any issues: I may have MRSA but waiting for my culture to come back..
Baby is the size of a: Since I'm 2 days shy of 20 weeks we will go with the 20 week baby size and it is the size of a banana

You've Got To Take The Good With The Bad..

So Adam went to Florida for 2 weeks and what I didn't realize was 2 weeks is the longest the kids and I have been by ourselves.. Whenever Adam was in basic(10-11 weeks) and ait(4 weeks) the kids and I lived with my Gigi(grandma) and whenever he was in Korea before we moved with him we stayed living with her. So we were never alone. Adam has been gone before but I think the longest he has been gone is 5 days at the most and I think the furthest he's ever gone was an hour or 2 away and this time it was like 9 hours!! Now for those of y'all that are thinking he's in the military get use to it. Yes I know that but so far we have been lucky and he has not deployed yet(no I don't count Korea as a deployment because it's not a deployment, he doesn't have a deployment patch from it and there are military families living in South Korea with their spouse so no it's not a deployment in my book it's an overseas duty station lol). So I am counting this as practice and in my opinion we've been doing pretty good :).

Instead of being hermits and staying indoors, because getting out with 2 little ones can be pretty hectic by yourself, we have had fun. Brynna and I went grocery shopping and to hobby lobby to get all the supplies needed to make her Halloween costume. She is going to be little red riding hood. I did order the hood/jacket part because I'm not that crafty yet. This is my first tutu thing to ever make and I must say I'm proud of it :) I will be cutting the ties shorter this was just to see how it fit. I can't wait to see how it looks all put together though.

We also had a dinner date with some friends of ours. We went to eat at sonic and then had a movie night at their house. Today I had an frg coffee and a friend down the street kept the kids. They only live a couple houses down from us, normally we just walk over there and today the kids really wanted to walk. Well I wanted to drive because it was super hot out and I just wanted to drop them off and head to the meeting. So I decided I'd let the kids walk and I'd drive next to them. They thought they were so grown up and it was so funny watching them walk "alone".


I have realize that good and bad things will always happen when daddy has to leave. One day one I locked myself out of the bathroom which honestly isn't thatbig of a deal but normally Adam unlocks the doors whenever we look ourselves out haha. Finally 6 days later I decided to go get the key and unlock it. Day 2 Boidoe pooped in the house and normally I make up some lame excuse as to why Adam needs to clean it haha. But I knew if I left it there for 12 days and waited for Adam to get home to clean it that my house would probably really stink so I decided to suck it up and clean it. Another bad thing is the spiders decided now that Adam has left they will all come out and torture me!! They don't live long because I find a shoe and kill them while screaming haha. But some good things are my groceries last a LOT longer. The gas also last a lot longer, the car was only driven like 5 times the whole 2 weeks. I have more room in the bed. And I don't have to work around Adams schedule I can go and do as I please. Now don't get me wrong I miss him when he's gone and I'd rather him be home than be gone but I'm getting better about him being gone. Even though I don't think it's getting easier on the kiddos. The first night they did great but after that it went down hill. If they got to talk on the phone with him or leave him a voicemail they do much better. Here is Brynna one night having a break down about daddy being gone.

This morning when I woke up and checked my email I had an email from J&J and I was so happy to read that the schedule/calendar is being worked on. So I should get the schedule this week and I'm so excited to finally have a transfer date. Which really if you think about it this process really hasn't taken that long. We were matched the end of July and should be transferring in November!! I'm so excited to be going back to Cali. if any of y'all ever go to L.A. and y'all like sushi go to a place called B.A.D. Sushi they are seriously amazing and I can't wait to go back.

"You've got to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you've got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from mistakes, but never regret."
- Unknown


Kayla

One of Those Days..

Have you ever woke up and just know that you were going to have a bad day? Well today I woke up super excited. I have been looking forward to this day for 2 months. Those of y'all that don't follow me on fb, Brynna(my daughter), had a really bad leg infection a few months ago and the doctor diagnosed her with a fungal AND bacterial infection, prescribed ointment, and sent us on our way. The ointment worked but then it quit working.

This is what it looked like the day we went to the doctor

This is what it looked like once we started using the ointment

And this is what it looks like now. You can't tell but it was starting to move to her left knee also.

So I have been so excited for today and for her to finally see a dermatologist. I woke up this morning in a great mood. Even though I got very little sleep last night. I did my hair, my make up, and then got dressed. Then I woke up Mrs. Grouch(Brynna) and we ate breakfast. Got her ready and we were on our way. I got to the dermatologist and was not happy with the front desk at all. They were very unprofessional and rude(not to me but to other people). The doctor was also very different from all the other doctors I've ever meet. Not going to go into detail there though because that's not what made me mad. But anyways the doctor diagnosed her with eczema which made me extremely happy. I'm not happy that she has eczema I'm just happy to know what is wrong with her leg.
The doctors office was 20 minutes away no biggy honestly because anything off post is about that far. I drove back home 20 minutes. Pull in to the pharmacy I normally use and was so excited that there was front row parking and then BAM!!!


There's a motorcycle!! The people walking by when I yelled GADANGIT! Had to be cracking up at me because I was laughing at myself at how dumb I looked haha. I probably still could have fit my car there but thankfully there were another parking space about 10 spaces down. So Mrs. Grouch and I get out of the car and walk into the pharmacy and get in line. Walk up to drop off the prescription only to be told. We don't carry this.. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I didn't get mad at the pharmacist. It's not her fault. I just knew this would happen so now I have to drive another 20 minutes pretty much back to where I just was to get her prescription filled.. Which I was not happy about. So Mrs. Grouch and I get back in the car and go to rite aid. I get ready to drop off the prescription only to realize my military id I had 20 minutes ago is no where to be found. That darn pharmacist kept my id!! Nope she didn't. I was just sitting on it hahaha.. So Brynna and I went to walmart and bought a few groceries to kill time while the prescription was being prepared. Finally 4 hours later we pull up in the driveway and are HOME!!! All I wanted to do was cry and scream in my pillow but I couldn't because in 10 minutes I had to leave again to go pick Brett up... BUT instead of driving I walked with my awesome friend Kelly. :) btw today was not a bad day or even a crappy day. I have had bad/crappy days haha. It was just one of those days :) we all have them every once in awhile.

And... Apparently it's one of those days for Brynna too haha.

My 30 Hour LA Visit

I had an AWESOME time in LA. It was amazing. I completely forgot that it gets chilly there in the evening but thankfully it wasn't too bad.

Thursday morning I dropped the kids off with Kelly, a friend of ours who lives down the street, and headed to the Raleigh airport. For those of yall that dont know Kelly was one of the first 3 people I told about me wanting to be a surrogate(she may not even know this haha) I had to tell a few people and use them as references. Well one had to be near me and not be my husband. Kelly and I had just recently started hanging out with the kids and she was NORMAL! I have met other normal people but its very rare to come by haha. I liked hanging out with her and the kids liked her kids. I didn't want her to take it badly and not want to ever hang out again. Thankfully she took it great and offered to help anytime I needed it. I didn't want to abuse her offer but I REALLY needed someone to keep the kids while I went to LA. Adam was warned ahead of time he'd be in the field and I have no family here. I thought about interviewing people asap but was really nervous about some random person watching my kids for 2-3 days(I was leaving Thursday morning and wouldn't be home until Saturday morning. Adam was told he would be home Friday but you never know with the military he could of came home Sunday for all we knew haha) these kids are my life. I already knew I trusted her and the she has a son the same age as Brett and Brynna doesn't care as long as she's with Brett. PLUS she also has a baby and Brynna LOVES babies. Finally I asked her and SHE SAID YES! This took a huge weight off my shoulders but still made me super nervous. Not because I didn't trust her but because of what I was trusting her with. My babies. This was the first time Brett and Brynna have ever stayed overnight with ANYONE other than family. And I will show you the picture she sent me the first night that shows how the sleepover went. Another girl I know that lives across the street from us(I don't want to post her name because I don't know if she wants me to or not) offered to watch Boidoe for me while I was gone. She didn't know why I was leaving because I hadn't made it public yet but they were both HUGE lifesavers and helped out tremendously. Just because it wasn't my kids doesn't mean I would say yes to anyone who wanted to help with Boidoe. I needed to trust this person in my house. I had a few people offer but I was giving someone a key to come into my home without me there. And also Boidoe is our 3rd child if yall haven't noticed on facebook :) haha. So I wanted to give a BIG thank you to both of them :) Now back to the LA trip.

As you can tell they had a great time :)

My flight left at 11am but I had to leave at 7am to get there on time. Well I could of left about 8am but thankfully I left by 7:30 because what I didn't know was that the highway I PLANNED on taking was shut down and I had to go back and take a different route. Finally got to the airport and got on the plane..

Yup I got the VERY back of the plane. It was extremely LOUD! And to top it off there was no window? You know whenever you get on the plane or get your ticket and your like YES WINDOW SEAT? I don't know about you but I love the window seat. Then you get back to your seat at the VERY back of the plane and guess what Sorry about your bad luck we had a budget cut and couldn't afford a window for this row? BUT you get to enjoy the wonderful smell of human pee and crap. Hope you enjoy your flight. As soon as we landed for my second flight I went to the delta desk and asked to change my seat for the second flight. They only had one option available. It was only like 8 seats up but I didn't care haha. My second flight I tried sleeping but it just didn't work out. When I sleep I'm a mouth breather and I sleep with my mouth completely open. It's far from cute. And every time I'd start to doze off I felt my jaw drop open and I'd wake back up. So for the rest of the flight I played games.

I felt so old doing crosswords and drinking coffee but this flight was kicking my butt and I needed something to keep me awake. The coffee was disgusting but I just dealt with it. I NEEDED COFFEE!  

I played candy crush A LOT on this flight and even during the trip because I had a lot of down time. Well GUESS WHAT? I still have not passed this darn level. I even paid $2 extra to try and pass it and NOPE! (BTW don't tell Adam about me paying money for a game haha)

I finally got to the airport and the super shuttle picked me up and took me to my hotel. OMG TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE! I have only been to LA once and it was years ago we didn't really stop we just drove through. So I was glad I did not get a rental car. I got to the hotel and at first was a little disappointed. I thought it was an outside hotel. You know like those cheap motel/hotels where the doors are OUTSIDE and it just seems cheap and scary. Well once I really looked around I realized that it was an indoor hotel its just that the breakfast area was in the center of the hotel and that they had that open. It's hard to explain haha. 

I got to my room and was ready for bed but also starving. I knew I really wanted sushi but I also didn't want to go too far so I decided I'd just walk down the street and see what I found. Well as I was walking out the door I decided to ask the people at the front desk and they recommended a place called BAD Sushi and it was about 1/2 a mile walk but I was fine with that

The Sushi was AMAZING! And then I treated myself to some ice cream afterwards.

The next morning I woke up and got breakfast then got ready for the day.

Breakfast was okay. The coffee wasn't all that great but I'm picky when it comes to coffee so thats to be expected. It was better than the airplane coffee though haha. The chocolate muffin was good and the eggs were okay.. The cinnamon roll was a little too sweet. All in all I had a good, stay customer service was great and the people were really friendly. 

Friday afternoon around 11ish I finished packing and getting ready and at 11:45am they called for me a taxi to take my to my appointment. I got in the taxi and he asked me for the address I gave him the address and it took him a minute to figure out where it was. I didn't want him to know I was not from Cali so I told him it's about 5 minutes away(I mapped it on my iphone before we left) and he laughed and said "more like 20" then I realized CRAP I'm in LA not Fayetteville! LA traffic SUCKS! It was horrible! Thankfully it only took about 15 minutes but that was a $10 taxi ride and we only drove 2 miles! So I finally got to the appointment around noon and my appointment was at 12:30 so what did I do while I was there facebook, instagram, and took pictures. This office was GORGEOUS! Like I wanted to live bring my blanket and just move in haha. 

YES I had to make it EXTRA LARGE so you could see all the gorgeous details! It had 2 flat screen tvs, a pretty bench that is not pictured, Some coffee thing that I was too scared to use it made all different types of drinks, these 2 neat bench/seating things, and a bunch of pretty chairs. Oh and those pretty flowers. Just everything was gorgeous. Now lets move on haha.

So I got called back to the Doctors office. He had a bunch of questions. Do I smoke? No. Do I drink? On occasiona. Where do I live? Fayetteville. How many times I've been pregnant? Twice. How many children do I have? 2. Have I had an IUD? Yes. CRAP! I did not want him to ask me this. I already knew what would happen if he asked me this. WHY DID HE HAVE TO ASK THIS?? Well if you have had an IUD you have to go through something called a Mock Cycle? What is a Mock Cycle you ask? It is where you go through all of the pain and suffering for the transfer BUT you don't really do the transfer. The reason they do this is because say if my uterus has scarring from the IUD then my body would not react correctly to the mock cycle and they would not approve me to be a surrogate yet. So he gave me the prescriptions for the mock cycle medications and the instructions on what to do. I was so bummed out this was extra time and money being spent to see if I was going to be approved or not. I seriously wanted to cry. BUT I sucked it up and dealt with it. Then we went into a room and I had to have a ultrasound to check my uterine lining, ovaries, and just see how my baby making parts looked. His exact words were, "Well you know how I told you, you needed a mock cycle??" "Forget I ever said that." I was so confused and terrified? What was wrong? Was I pregnant? Did the IUD screw up my uterus THAT MUCH? WHAT? So all I can say was Oh no whats wrong? And he said, "Your uterine lining is perfect." YAY!! NO MOCK CYCLE!!! I was so excited! GO KAYLA AND MY SUPER BABY MAKING PARTS! After that I had to have my blood pressure checked. My blood pressure is normally 110/70 even pregnant my blood pressure is never over 120/80. The night before I started thinking to myself watch my blood pressure go high during the screening and them disqualify me for my stupid blood pressure. Well they checked my blood pressure and GUESS WHAT? It was 141/82? WHAT THE HECK! I was literally freaking out. I kept telling the nurse how my blood pressure had NEVER EVER been that high. So she checked it on the other arm. It went up to something like 144/84 or something like that. I was freaking out. Didn't understand why it was so high. So she told me to quit thinking about it, they would do the rest of the screening and someone else would check it. So I had my blood drawn.

I HATE getting blood drawn. My veins SUCK. I mean literally SUCK! Do you see a vein there? Nope! NOTHING! Thankfully they could faintly see the vein and only had to poke me once. The first nurse didn't want to do it because she didn't want to chance me having to get poked more than once. THANK GOD! Because that would of been a record breaker! Even though my veins are most of the time not visible I have only been poked once every time I have had to give blood. Now bad to getting my blood pressure taken again. HOPEFULLY for the last time.. A new nurse checked it and this time it was.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....  150/90!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! Was I dying? So the doctor came in and told me to lay down for a little bit and he would personally come check it... 30 minutes later he came back and check it manually and THANK YOU JESUS IT WAS BACK TO NORMAL! 104/74 or something like that I don't remember it was just NORMAL! 

YAY! I was able to leave the clinic now and go get something to eat. Last time I ate was breakfast around 8:30am and it was now 3:30pm! I WAS STARVING! So I started walking right across the street was this cute pizza joint and on the sign it said it was healthy. Healthy pizza? Sure why not haha. I got a veggie pizza to make myself feel a little better about it :) and it was delicious! I mean really really good. A lot better than pizza hut and papa johns ;) 

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After I was done with pizza I thought about calling for a taxi to take me to the mall or something but instead remembered I saw a massage place down the street.. It wasn't really down the street it was like a mile away but I still decided to walk. It felt great out and I just wanted to see what all was around the area since I would end up going back in a few months. So I walked, and walked, and WALKED. It seemed like it took forever but I finally got there. I was SO excited to get a massage it had been months since I last had a massage. I planned on getting one on vacation but it was like $280 for Adam and I to get a massage at the condo so we decided thanks but no thanks. This place in Cali was only $45 for an hour. She told me to get undressed. I was only expecting a back massage so I took off my shirt and bra and kept my pants on. She laughed and told me to take everything off. So I took everything off but my panties. I cover up and lay down and she came back in. The first thing she did was pull my panties ALL the way off my butt! I was a little freaked out but I REALLY wanted this massage! She covered me up with towels and massage first on top of towels. I was like PLEASE dont let this be what she does the WHOLE HOUR! Where is the lotion and the skin to skin I want a real massage. 5 minutes go by and nothing. FINALLY she takes the towels off and gets the lotion! You don't know how excited this got me! My back has been killing me lately and she could tell once she went to work haha. That massage was AWESOME! I was a little uncomfortable and at times WAITING for her finger to go up my butt or something and that would of crossed the line. I would of grabbed my clothes and bag and ran out of the place BUTT NAKED! Not even kidding. The massage went great and I got over the fact that God and the massage therapist could see my butt for the whole hour massage. BTW WHILE I was getting this massage my phone kept ringing. I had it on silent but it still vibrates. I secretly charged it while I was getting the massage. I was using their outlets because my phone only had 8% left. I thought it was Adam but before I went into the massage place I text him and told him I was leaving the phone behind a counter to charge and not to call me because I wouldn't hear it. So I didn't know why he was calling. I think my phone vibrated like 10 different times. And it was not short vibrates they were long and loud -___- So once I was done and got dressed I looked at my phone. I had 6 missed calls and 2 text from MY MOM! I called her back and the first thing she says is "I thought you were kidnapped! Why didn't you answer my calls?" I told her mom I was getting a massage and you kept trying to interrupt me! She was like your in another state far away don't scare me like that! I didn't understand why you told Adam you were putting your phone behind a counter what counter were you using? You could of been kidnapped Kayla! I was like MOM I didn't put it behind a counter I just wanted to wait until AFTER the massage to tell Adam haha. But I was busted about half way through. I paid for the massage with my card and we have a joint account so he checked out account when my mom started to worry and that's when he realized that I wasn't kidnapped I was just getting a massage.. BUSTED! But whenever he realized that it was a 1 hour FULL body massage for just $45 he didn't care haha. Plus it could of been worse. 

I COULD OF BEEN KIDNAPPED! ;)

After that I headed back to the hotel. It was about another mile walk but I was in no rush. During that walk I saw about 8 different homeless people and seriously wanted to feed every single one of them. If I would of passed an atm or something I would of pulled out cash for each of them. It seriously broke my heart.. I have seen homeless people before but nothing like this. Once I got to my hotel I still had another 2 hours to kill. So I headed to BAD Sushi again! If yall can't tell. I'm in love with Sushi and this place is AMAZING! I plan on going back to this place whenever I go back to Cali for the transfer. This time I took my time walking and looked at all the different stores that were near it. I found a place called Blick or something like that. It was an art store and I almost didn't go in. But I saw these ugly cute stuffed animals in the window and decided to spend a few minutes in there to see if I found anything for the kids. I found something called a munny for Brett and got Brynna the ugly cute stuffed animal.

 If you must know what a munny is I have no idea. They have different kinds and colors. I got the iron man one because Bretts room is the avengers and it matched his room theme. Brett was so excited to put all the stickers on it whenever I gave it to him. Whenever I got back I will probably get a few more because he loved them.

I honestly had no idea what to get Brynna but she loves stuffed animals and loves pink so I got her this ugly cute stuffed thing. And she loved it! 

Once I was done with getting them these things I went and ate sushi and headed back to the hotel to wait for my shuttle. I got to my hotel probably 10 minutes before my pick up window started. My pick up window was from 7:30-7:45pm. The guy didn't get there until 8pm! I wasn't that worried UNTIL I realized holy crap we are picking up other people! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME MISS THIS FLIGHT! I WANT TO GO HOME! Thankfully it was only one other person after me and we headed to the airport. It was 3 girls in the car along with the male driver and what do girls do? We talk haha. One of the girls and I were flying delta and the other girl was flying Korean Air. Turns out she was flying back home to Korea! A lot of yall may not know but about 11 months ago I moved back home from Korea. Adam was stationed in Korea for a year and the kids and I ended up moving there with him part of the time he was there. It was so neat meeting with someone who did kind of the exact opposite and moved from Korea to the US. She asked me how I liked it and I told her I LOVED IT! I asked her how she liked it and she said it was different but she really enjoyed it. She told me thank you for liking her country and I told her I was glad she enjoyed it here. It was so neat meeting here. SO I HAD to take a picture with her. She was so sweet and more than happy to take a picture with me.

Not the best picture but it was night time and I was using my front facing iphone camera and its not always the greatest. I got to my area printed out my boarding pass, got through security with no issues. Then got to my gate, sat down, and charged my phone. All the charging docks at the airport were taken so me being the rebel I am I sat down by an outlet that was not marked for charging purposes. Yep, I know.. I'm hardcore :) 

My flight was supposed to take off at 10pm. Do flights EVER take off on time??? NO! This did not make me happy. I was already exhausted. It was 1am North Carolina time. And I'm normally in bed and asleep before 11pm at home. They finally had us all loaded around 10:30 and we finally took off! This was the MOST uncomfortable plane ride! You know that massage I had earlier.. I needed another one. But just the butt massage part. My butt was SO numb and uncomfortable. It was miserable. I'm fine with tight spaces but the seat needed a LOT more cushion. I'd fall asleep for a few minutes and wake right back up. It was not a good sleep like I was expecting.. BUT on a good note. I sat 4 rows back from first class so I was considered at the FRONT of the plane. AND I got a window seat!! BIG BALLA!! I was so excited. Also I HAD A WINDOW. You remember at the beginning of this blog where I said my row did NOT have a window seat because I was the VERY last row of the plane. Well this time I got the window seat AND a window. I was pretty excited about that :) 

My plane landed at 6am North Carolina time. And they could not get me off that plane fast enough.. I was so uncomfortable, exhausted, I STUNK, and I needed sleep! But I was not cranky. I was still super friendly to everyone. Thats my southern hospitality in me :) So I got in my car turned on pandora and JAMMED OUT! I mean hardcore. My volume was on 30+ it ranged haha. Those of yall that think 30 isn't that loud.. Well in my car... IT IS! It only goes up to 40. I think? But I seriously JAMMED OUT! The whole way home. If I didn't know a song. O well I acted like I did. If I knew a song I sang it loud and proud like I was singing on stage for thousands to hear. THE WHOLE WAY HOME! I sang and sang and sang. That is what I do when I drive tired. Because if I don't sing. I chance falling asleep. And I did not want to do that. So I SANG! BTW it wasn't a short trip it was about 1 1/2 hours. I got home and guess what. I DIDN'T HAVE A HOUSE KEY! I gave one house key to the dog sitter and Adam had the spare. So I called Adam and thankfully he answered on the first try. I got home a little after 8am and crashed out. 

I was miserably tired but I MADE IT! Yes this is me after a 4-5 hour flight and about a 2 hour drive on about 3 hours of sleep! I don't look that bad do I haha.

I honestly have no clue if EVERYTHING is in here and right now I don't want to go back through and proof read. I'm so darn lazy haha. I will go back and reread it in a few days. My blog post will VERY rarely ever be this long because I'm not a fan of long blog post. But there was a lot that went on in those 30 hours it was hard to make this post short. So I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Kayla