2 Months Have Come and Gone..

Some days I look back and just cannot believe all that has happened this past year.. Our whole lives changed. It has now been a little over 2 months and surrobaby is doing great. I love when I get pictures of her and talk with her parents. We actually just talked today and they said she was baptized recently and she's starting to smile more and more. I am still pumping and shipping but my supply is taking a big dip :( I am hoping to get it back up but we will just have to see. Even though this pregnancy was my hardest out of all of them and even though emotionally I went through a lot during this pregnancy I would still do it all over again. I am so thankful I was able to be a surrogate.

I have had a lot of people tell me they have thought about being a surrogate and ask me questions about it. That is the main reason I did this blog. To educated people on surrogacy. So they not only see the ugly that the news reports but also the good.

A lot of people are still asking if I will be a surrogate again. Well I finally have somewhat of an answer. It's the best one you will get for now. I have considered doing another journey but for now the Army and NY laws will be preventing that.. Adam's orders were changed from Alaska to New York and in New York surrogacy is illegal. Sad I know. I doubt I would have done another surrogacy in the next 2 years but I still dislike the fact that I can't even if I wanted to. And once we move from New York we may be trying to move to Germany or Italy and I won't do surrogacy there either. So we will see what happens later on.

I enjoyed doing this blog so I decided to start a new lifestyle blog about our upcoming travels and changes in life. If you'd like to follow that blog you can go to it by clicking here. It will take you to my new blog. Or you can go to www.movingwiththemorenos.blogspot.com. I will continue updating this blog from time to time but not as much as I once did. If you'd like to get updates whenever I do post a blog post go to the right of my and you can enter your email and subscribe. So when I do update on here you will get it right in your email. I will probably update every few months on here but don't hesitate to ever ask me questions. I really don't mind them..

Thank you to everyone who supported me during this journey in life and for everyone who followed and read my blog post.

37 weeks... Eviction Time!

Alrighty, surrobabe you have now made it to full term! You can come out now :) Oh wait... I should probably pack my hospital bag.. Goodness between giving birth and preparing to move all I have been doing is procrastinating... I want to lay on the ground and throw a fit like my 4 year old and just scream "I DON'T WANNA!!!" or "DO I HAVE TO?" why can't I just snap my fingers and it be done haha.

Last night I went to the hospital tour.. And I wasn't impressed. The rooms were clean but extremely outdated.. The delivery room was big which is good because we will have 3 people there during delivery along with all the nurses and doctor. The room you go to after you deliver was an okay size but awkwardly shaped.. Now as most of y'all know I'm kind of a pro at having babies.. Not really but this isn't my first rodeo. Yes it's been a few years but I'm pretty sure it's still the same concept. GET THE BABY OUT! Both my deliveries Adam was with me through the whole thing and this time he will be with me. Well unless I go past my due date and he has to leave for his school. Hopefully that wont happen. But my issue is I have had an epidural twice. Adam has seen me get 2 epidurals. He was in the room and supported me during the epidural and told me how HUGE the needle was(thanks babe) well this hospital make you watch a 10 minute video BEFORE they give you the epidural... When I'm asking for an epidural I want it RIGHT THEN not 10 minutes later. Also no one is allowed in the room when you get the epidural. Ummm.... I don't want to lean on some random person I have never met before I want my husband to talk to me and keep me calm while I have this HUGE needle going in my back. What if this nurse stinks like BO or cigarettes? Then they tell everyone for vaginal delivery protocol is you stay at the hospital for 2 days.. Okay no big deal that's 1 day for delivery and 1 day after you deliver? NOPE. Two days AFTER you deliver. TWO DAYS? Are you kidding me. Did I mention I was a pro at this... I want to pop the baby out and if I have no complications send me home to my comfortable couches and bed.. Well if they're even still here.. The movers may be picking up our furniture while I'm pushing out a baby.. Who knows. Whenever I delivered Brynna I was at the hospital less than 24 hours after I delivered her. I wasn't even in the hospital 2 days total, from the moment I was admitted to the moment I left was like a day and a half. Now if I have complications I understand keeping me but if everything is good I want to go home. I hate being in hospitals long term. They had a few other "rules" I also didn't like but now I can't remember them. Darn pregnancy brain.

My IP's asked me today if I was still willing to pump and ship breast milk. We talked about this at the beginning of the surrogacy whenever we were going through the matching phase but I also wasn't planning on moving right after delivery and then again 10 weeks after delivery. With us being only 3 weeks away from surrobaby's due date I have been thinking about this a lot. I was actually planning on bringing it up next time we talked but they beat me to it. I was so glad to hear they still wanted me to pump and ship. Now to just figure out what I'm going to do about pumping for the drive from NC to TX.. Also anyone have any recommendations on breast pumps? I am leaning towards the Medela instyle but they have a bunch of different ones. It's like picking where to eat for dinner..

Just got home from the OB's office for my 37 week appointment. I am now 3-4cm dilated! WOO HOO!! Those contractions actually did something! They didn't check my iron for some reason :-\ so if I'm still exhausted and haven't gone into labor by my 38 week appointment I may ask to see if they'll recheck it.. But he did say when I go into labor they will check it. So at least we'll know if its low during delivery. Also all my testing they did last week came back normal so that's a good thing :)



Photography by Brett :)

How far along: 37 weeks
Total weight gain: 13.5 pounds
Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes..
Stretch Marks: honestly I have no idea.
Sleep: Is becoming very uncomfortable!!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- J&J asking me to pump for surrobaby. Not surrogacy related- just preparing to move and get everything done.
Miss anything: wine, sleeping on my stomach, not peeing all the time
Movement: Oh yea.
Food cravings: ICE!!!!!!
Anything make you sick: Not really
Have you started to show yet: yes
Gender: It's a girl!
Labor signs: Last week I almost went into labor and delivery but about 2 hours later the contractions finally stopped.. But today I found out I am progressing!! She still needs to DROP but I'm dilating!!
Belly button in or out: In/flat
What has your mood been: annoyed, uncomfortable, aggravated lol
Looking forward to: delivering surrobaby :)
Any issues: Just my iron. Thankfully the swelling of my feet have gone WAY down!!
Baby is the size of: a winter melon


Upcoming Appointments
Adams Birthday- June 29th
OB appointment- July 3rd
4th of JULY!
Due Date- July 16th
Moving Date- July 20th(I hope)


So I'm curious... When do you think surrobaby will make her grand entrance and what do you think her length and weight will be??


35 vs 37 weeks

Also a lot of y'all have asked where will I be delivering surrobaby. I am delivering here in North Carolina. NOT on post, it will be an off post hospital. J&J will be coming here for the delivery. Also I cannot leave NC until I deliver surrobaby so IF I went past my due date and everything was done with packing and moving I could not leave NC until I delivered her. And once I delivered then I'd head to Texas while she heads home with her parents :)

Primitive Camping While Pregnant..

This weekend Adam had a long weekend and I knew I wanted to go to the beach. We only live 2-3 hours from the beach and pretty soon we will be having a BIG change of scenery so I want to enjoy the beach life as much as possible. So I had to decide WHICH beach. We have so many beaches to choose from. I knew I didn't want to go to Myrtle, nothing against myrtle beaches BUT we have already been to Myrtle 4 times and I wanted to experience a different beach. So I ended up picking the Wilmington area. A lot of people recommended some places to stay and one of them was a camp ground. Now I know what your thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Camping at 32 1/2 weeks pregnant....... ARE YOU CRAZY? Ummm... Maybe.. Just a little. BUT I kept looking for hotels just in case I found one for a decent price. Every day I kept going back to the camp grounds and looking more into camping. Brett has been begging to go camping so I thought it'd be perfect to do camping and the beach at the same time. So I brought it up to Adam and we decided to do the camping and beach. And we planned our weekend at Fort Fisher camping grounds and Kure Beach.

I did LOTS of research and I mean LOTS!! What to eat while camping because if we were going camping we were doing it right. What to take to cook and drink. Fun camping activities. And things to do in the area so that away Monday on our way home we could stop at a few places and enjoy more of the area. I also called my dad to get his camping advice. He gave me lots of good tips and advice about primitive camping. My MAIN issue with the whole camping thing was no electricity and the toilets being far away.. When I say far away what I mean is it's not 5 steps from my bed. I'm 8 months pregnant I get up NUMEROUS times a night to pee.. And I am not an outdoors person that can just "pop-a-squat" when I need to pee. Even if I was how in the world do you do that at 8 months pregnant???? I'd probably end up falling over and landing in my pee or peeing on myself and waking everyone up. Can you imagine looking out your tent to this really pregnant woman, shorts to ankle, rolling back and fourth, scream and crying, in her pee!! Yea that's what I imagine when I think about popping a squat pregnant or not pregnant.

Thursday we went and bought the camping items we needed that we didn't have. Friday we(I) spent cleaning and getting all our stuff together while Adam went fishing with a friend. Friday evening Adam packed up the van while I ran to the store and grabbed some last minute items. Saturday morning Adam did the color run with some of the guys he works with and by noon we were off.. We were all so excited and I was a bit nervous. All I kept thinking about was no electricity.... No close toilets.. Oh what joy. BUT I found out some friends of ours were also going to the same camping area as us and was excited about that. The reason I was bummed about the no electricity was because I needed a plug to blow up our air mattress.. I was NOT sleeping on the ground with just a few blankets. I am a stomach sleeper. Yes at 8 months pregnant I STILL sleep on my stomach. It is the only way I can sleep. I don't sleep completely on my stomach. It's a weird sideways stomach position. No it doesn't hurt me or the baby. It is the only way I can sleep. BUT I cannot sleep that way on hard ground because it's extremely painful. I also can't sleep on my back because I feel like I'm being suffocated from the inside when I do, and sleeping on my side hurts my back.


Saturday when we got there we set up camp and got everything organized as best as possible. Then I was on a mission to find an outlet to blow up my air mattress. I found one in the locker rooms but was trying to see if I could find one closer. Surprisingly right next to my tent was this metal box that looked like it could be for an outlet so I asked Adam to open it and check. Sure enough IT WAS! I have never been so happy to find a plug before :) After we got everything set up the adults played corn hole while the kids played soccer. For dinner that night Adam made some delicious burgers. Then we waited for the sun to go down and headed to the beach to look for crabs.  I think we were to the point of giving up and they finally found some..

Sunday morning I woke up around 4:30am... It may have been earlier it may have been a bit later but I know it was before 5am and I know it was before the sun came up. The reason I woke up was because I had to pee.. I tried anything and everything to fall back asleep because I was NOT walking to the restroom by myself and getting attacked by a deer or kidnapped! I even had a moment of weakness and considered popping a squat but just couldn't bring myself to even try.. So I laid in the bed with my eyes closed and NOTHING! I honestly have no idea how I didn't pee myself. When the sun finally came up I got out of my tent and walked to the restroom to pee.. Little did I know I actually was about to have the runs. AWESOME!! Camping at 8 months pregnant, no close restrooms, a weak bladder, and NOW I HAVE THE RUNS!! Last time I went camping was EXACTLY 3 years prior and guess what, I had the runs then too.. BUT I pretty much OD'ed on pepto on the way to our campsite and it helped a lot. BUT guess what you cannot take while pregnant?? PEPTO! Thankfully it wasn't too bad but that morning I ended up clogging the toilet!! SERIOUSLY! I am in this disgusting restroom just laughing at myself wondering WHY DID I THINK CAMPING WAS A GOOD IDEA??? And then a knock on the door!! I just clogged 1 of 2 toilets for the tent camping area we were in. AND whoever was knocking on the door would see my face and know I CLOGGED THE TOILET!! NOOOO!!!! Then I saw the plunger. I tried everything possible to unclog that toilet and it did not work. I am the worst when it comes to plunging a toilet. I have no idea what I'd do if the kids flooded the toilet while Adam was gone. Thankfully though everything went down except for a few pieces of toilet paper. I walk out and its the lady camping next to us with her 2 little boys. Hopefully since she has kids of her own she understands you cant always control it. Before this pregnancy I NEVER went number 2 in public but this pregnancy has done things to me that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy haha.

I head back to our tent and everyone slowly starts to wake up and I decided to start on breakfast. I made eggs mixed with sausage on the grill :) The group of people we knew that we were camping by were heading back home today but we were spending the day at the beach and spending the night one more night. So they packed up and we all had to wait until 9am whenever reception opened. Once reception opened they headed home and we headed to the beach.

We get to the beach and find a perfect spot. Close enough to the beach but not too close. Or so we thought. Everyone puts sunscreen on and the kids go running to the water. We have been to the beach 4 times and they love playing in the water. They know not to go too far but to still enjoy it. This beach was NOTHING like what they have experienced before. The waves were rough and the current was strong. They were slamming people down and taking

them under. Brynna was SITTING on the sand. The water came up and flipped her over. I brought both kids up and explained that they could play in the water BUT they did not need to go in too deep. Or they'd have to sit out because the water was a little more dangerous this time. Did they listen. Nope. So we decided to just sit and watch and sure enough they learned quick. Brynna gave us a little scare and I took off running!! She didn't realize that even though she wasn't that deep the waves were high and it pushed her down, she did some turns and flips under water and I grabbed her out of the water. After that I made her play in the sand right beside us. While at the beach both kids had to pee.. What do you do when you need to pee at the beach?? YOU PEE IN THE OCEAN! All the animals do it so why can't we? Neither kid understood that EVERYONE pees in the ocean. Brynna kept trying to but the waves would push her over before she could get it to come out. I thought the kids were going to let their bladders burst instead of peeing in the ocean. But FINALLY they both peed in the ocean and turns out so did the little boy next to us and the little girl that Brett and Brynna were playing in the sand with. Yea she peed in the ocean too. And they ALL announced it to the world. Finally we decided to head back to the camp site take showers, do some fishing, and start dinner.

 

My main complaint about the whole camp site out of everything was the lack of showers and lack of restrooms. They had a community shower by our camping area and it had 2 shower heads but only 1 worked.. Thankfully we got their first and didn't have to wait but by the time we got out their were 2 people waiting and by the time we left the locker room their were 6 people waiting. After showers we headed to the fishing pier and Adam did some fishing. The kids and I headed back before Adam and we started to get all the dinner stuff ready. We had chili dogs with baked beans for dinner and it was so good! After dinner we started to pack up so that in the morning we wouldn't have too much to pack. Then we made s'mores and headed off to bed. For the first time in a LONG time I didn't get up in the middle of the night to pee!! It was amazing!

 

Monday morning we had muffins and donuts while we finished packing up the car and then headed off.. We decided to skip the beach that day and took the kids to a Children's Museum and they had a BLAST! I think they liked the museum better than the beach.. It really was such a fun and cute place. We spent about 2 hours at the museum and then stopped at Nick's Diner in Wilmington for lunch. After lunch we walked down the street a couple blocks and got ice cream at Kilwin's. The line at Kilwin's was long but it went fast and was worth the wait.





My left ankle isn't too swollen here but
my right one was swollen

After that it was time to head home. Within 10 minutes both kids were out and stayed asleep for about 75% of the drive. On the drive home my feet felt a little weird. I take a look down and they were HUGE! I could not believe how swollen my ankles/cankles were. With my previous 2 pregnancies I never had cankles BUT I also wasn't due mid summer. Apparently heat=swelling. So YAY! I get to enjoy the cankles this pregnancy. The swelling has gone down a lot and I have a little shape but they aren't my NORMAL ankles! Finally we got back to Fayetteville and had to run a few errands before we could go home for good. But once we got home we unpacked, showered, and called it a night! We were exhausted! I don't know how I woke up this morning and I have no idea how I didn't take a nap today but we had a GREAT weekend and honestly I really enjoyed camping. We will probably go back before we move. Which means I will be camping again while pregnant. But hopefully we figured out my stomach issues and this time I will just have to deal with the late night peeing :)

8 Months Pregnant!!!!

Can y'all believe it! I am 8 months pregnant. While I'm sitting here typing this blog my 4 year old is asking me to come JUMP on the trampoline with her.. Ummm... Sorry Brynna ask me again in about 5 weeks then I will be okay if a baby falls out mid jump haha. Even though at night time I am pretty miserable I am still not ready for her to come yet. She still has some baking to do :) Well I guess last blog post I kind of left yall in the dark about the OB appointment and levy briefing so I will start with the surrogacy stuff first since this is a surrogacy blog.

WOW! 32 weeks! I know I say this pretty much every post but this pregnancy is going by SO QUICK! I am getting to the miserable stage of pregnancy, mainly because I'm short. EXTREMELY short. On a good day I am 5 feet tall.. But depending on who is measuring me, if I'm wearing shoes, and how my back is I range from 4'11" to 5' .5" so most people either complain the baby is squishing their lungs or squishing their bladder.. Whenever I am pregnant no matter if I carry high or low the baby does BOTH! I'm to the point of wearing depends and an oxygen mask to bed every night. JUST KIDDING! BTW NO I don't pee on myself at night! Only when I sneeze! If you have never been pregnant before DO NOT JUDGE ME! Everyone does it sooner or later while pregnant. And if you didn't do it your first pregnancy believe me it'll happen.. JUST WAIT! Other than that though the pregnancy is going good. I have contractions pretty much every other day.. Some days they are REALLY strong where I actually have to remind myself to BREATH through them! Other days they are just little baby contractions. OH YEA I went grocery shopping with Brynna last week.. Had contractions the WHOLE time I was there but we needed groceries bad so I had to just deal with them. Well I go to buy some eggs and normally I just grab the eggs from the shelf that is pretty much arm level and I don't have to do much bending. Well sure enough this time all the eggs were gone except for the eggs on the very bottom shelf at the back. I have to squat all the way down and reach for these eggs(if we didn't NEED eggs I would have just kept walking and made Adam go back over the weekend but we needed eggs). When I go to get up a lady asked if I needed help. I felt like such a fatty and I couldn't help but laugh. I was taking my time to get back up because I was having a contraction while I was squatting and I was waiting for it to end. But man she made me laugh. I guess I must look REALLY pregnant now.

How far along: 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 10.5lbs
Maternity clothes: I haven't bought anymore maternity clothes and probably wont. I MAY buy a swim suit top but that's probably it. I only have about 8 weeks left at most so I shouldn't need to buy any more clothes.
Stretch Marks: honestly I have no idea lol
Sleep: HAHAHAHAHA!
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- J&J got my package I sent them last week and LOVED it!! I sent the 3D ultrasound pictures and CD's and also bought surrobaby an outfit and some mittens(those of y'all that don't have children of your own yet, mittens are like a HUGE NEED!! They are kind of like socks and the dryer likes to eat them up so you need a lot of them) Not surrogacy related- It's a 4 day weekend and we have fun things planned :)
Miss anything: Energy, Sleep, Wine??
Movement: All the time. I don't think she ever sleeps.
Food cravings: Still ice but I think ice is what's making me sick :-\
Anything make you sick: I THINK ice.. 
Have you started to show yet: OH YEA!
Gender: It's a girl
Labor signs: I'm kind of hoping whenever I go in this next week they will want to check me to see if I've dilated any. YES I know that dilation means nothing. I could be stuck at a 2/3 for WEEKS or I could go from a 1-10 in a matter of hours. But I'm still curious if these contractions are doing ANYTHING!
Belly button in or out: In.
What has your mood been: tired. But today I had a little bit more energy than normal.
Looking forward to: This long weekend :)
Any issues: Not really.
Baby is the size of: Jicama(what in the world is a Jicama?? Doesn't this thing looks smaller than a head of lettuce)

Upcoming appointments:

May 27th- OB appointment

May 28th- Chiropractor appointment
May 29th- EFMP screening for the kids and I
July 16th- Due date!!

July 22nd- Moving Date!

Non-surrogacy part of this blog post :)

So last week we went to the levy briefing. Seriously NO HELP! Okay it was a little help but not too much. I had way higher expectations. I left more confused than when I went in.. So my plan is once we get everything finished I will be creating a blog post(it'll probably be after surrobaby is delivered) about PCS'ing to Alaska. And once we PCS I will create a blog post about that. I plan to keep the blog going after I deliver and it will be geared more towards our life living in Alaska. I will give updates about the surrogacy part of my life but it wont be as much as I update now.

But for now I am pretty much on my own trying to figure out exactly what we need to do. Thank God for facebook and helpful military spouses.

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

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)

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

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.