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.

Does this baby not realize how many people are waiting to know?

Last night Adam and I had dinner with J&J. I wanted to go to a place that we only had here, well one place closed early on Sundays so we couldn't go there and the other place didn't have any reservations until 8pm so we couldn't go there. We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse and had a great time and some great food!! It was good getting to see them and catch up again face to face. Adam was nervous that we wouldn't have much to talk about but it's just like catching up with friends. We talked about the delivery, the hospital, my previous labors, baby names and I love the names they have picked out. I really liked the boy name a lot but I think its because I'm biased whenever it comes to most B names and the boy name they have picked out is a B name. After dinner we headed home and I got everything ready for the next morning.
This morning I got up and started getting ready. I was so anxious and excited for the u/s. I could not believe we have already made it this far in the pregnancy! I cannot imagine how J&J felt. So it was time to head to the appointment. We get to the doctors office and J&J pull up right after I do and we walk in together and wait. I was weighed and had to pee in a cup. BTW I DID NOT PEE ON MY HAND!! You other women know what I'm talking about. Every time you have to pee in a cup most of the time you end up peeing everywhere but the cup! Well apparently I've been getting lots of practice from peeing on pregnancy test, in cups, and in MORE CUPS! But I was so proud about not peeing all over my hand. But then it was time to wait. I felt like we waited FOREVER! But we were finally called back.
It was a totally different room this time around and this time they had warm gel which felt much better than the freezing ice cold gel! The first place she looked was in between the legs. I couldn't believe we were about to know what I was carrying! FINALLY!! It's a...... Well.. The legs are pressed right up against each other. Lets see if we can get the baby to move some. The nurse kept looking and trying to get the baby to move. Nothing. The baby was moving but instead a moving the legs in and out it was moving them side to side like scissors. So we got NOTHING! She said we would come back in a bit and try again. So we looked at all the organs, brain, umbilical cord, etc. and it was so neat seeing everything. Even though a lot of the stuff you really couldn't tell what it was you just acted like you did. We listened to the heart beat. BTW the heartbeat was 156 this time. Then we went back to the boy/girl parts. She took another look. COME ON BABY!! MOVE THEM LEGS!! I don't think the baby realized that tons of people are WAITING to know if its a boy or a girl? WHAT ARE YOU!! SHOW US! NOTHING! So the nurse went and looked at another angle. From what she could tell it looked like a little hamburger. Which means GIRL!! So for now it looks like J&J will be having a baby girl! She was so not cooperating at all.. But from what it seemed there were no boy parts poking out anywhere. I will be having a 3D/4D ultrasound sometime in the near future and hopefully that will give us a more for sure answer. But either way they are both so excited and I am so excited for them.
After the ultrasound Adam and the kids met us at Chick Fil A for an early lunch. Brynna had already met them before and this time they got to meet Brett and Aliana. Brett was so excited to finally get to meet them and Brynna was excited to see them again. It was a great visit and we always have a good time whenever they come down.

How far along: 18 weeks 5 days
Total weight gain: I am still not sure what my starting weight was but I have gained 2 pounds since last appointment which was 2 and a half weeks ago.
Maternity clothes: I have 2 pairs of maternity jeans that I wear but other than that its leggings and sweatpants.
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: I wake up every night to pee and sleeping on my stomach isn't always an option anymore haha.
Best moment this week: Baby related- We now know IT'S A GIRL! Not baby related- We had a TON of snow this past week so Adam was off work for a few days due to being snowed in. And my mom, grandma, and brother will be in here a couple days
Miss anything: Not lately. I mean yea I still miss having a glass of wine but that's really it haha.
Movement: A tiny bit.
Food cravings: None.
Anything make you sick: No
Have you started to show yet: It still depends. Yes I am showing but it depends what I'm wearing.
Gender: It's a GIRL!!
Labor signs: I think I have been getting Braxton hicks. I'm not 100% sure but a few nights ago I woke up with horrible labor pains. I knew they weren't the real deal because I actually remember the labor pains with Brynna. They weren't bad but I do remember them. But a few people said they sounded like Braxton hicks..
Belly button in or out: in :)
What has your mood been: Tired. These past few days I've been really tired for some reason.
Looking forward to: Brynna starting gymnastics and my mom, grandma, and brother coming to visit
Any issues: A little bit of Braxton hicks contractions AND peeing on myself!! I HATE sneezing! Because I have to do the awkward leg cross thing and if I don't I will more than likely pee on myself and even if I do the leg cross thing I will probably still end up peeing on myself and its no fun! BTW I have the weakest bladder EVER thanks to Brett(my first born). Also I have been having this very weird taste in my mouth and it is driving me absolutely CRAZY because I can't figure out what the taste it.
Baby is the size of a: Mango

A VERY IMPORTANT DATE!!

We have an official due date! I still cant believe it! Yes with surrogacy you know your EXACT due date because you know the age of the embryos and when you became pregnant but your OB still gives you your due date. My OB finally gave us a due date yesterday! J&J's baby will be due July 16, 2014!! I am so excited for them! Like over the moon excited for them! I am still in shock some days that I am actually pregnant and that everything worked on the very first try. Not everyone is as lucky and go through 3 transfers with no luck but we were extremely lucky and one embryo stuck on the very first transfer! I am also very thankful because even though I LOVED Cali personally I do not want to do that flight again. If I do another surrogacy journey I may request to use a clinic on the east coast just to make it easier on me because that flight is miserable! But anyways lets get on to yesterdays appointment.

Yesterday was a busy busy day. Due to "extremely" cold temps Fort Bragg and all of Fayetteville decided they wanted to delay school by 2 hours. So instead of going in at 8am they would go in at 10am. Even though I loved the extra hour of sleep it made things a bit more difficult. Brynna had a dermatologist appointment at 10am. Thankfully though I was able to drop Brett off with Kelly at 9:30am and then be on my way. I actually found out whenever I got there that the appointment was at 10:15 and even though we were there about 20 minutes early we still weren't seen until about 10:30.. OH JOY! Once we were seen we were in and out. After that we came home and I started dinner. Normally I don't tell y'all about dinner but OH MY GOSH I made this AMAZING crockpot taco chili and it was SO GOOD! Did I mention AMAZING?? At the end I will tell y'all the recipe and to those that need a new crock pot idea your welcome :) after that I headed to my OB appointment at 2pm. It was going to be a long appointment so I knew ahead of time it would not be a good idea to take Brynna or Aliana with me. Again, Kelly came to save the day, like she always does. BTW those of y'all that don't know I don't always use and abuse Kelly, she uses me too haha. She knows that I will always return the favor like for the next few weeks I will be her in home caregiver/nanny/best friend/daily roommate. Kelly is having surgery and I will be the awesome best friend and come keep her company while Doctor Brynna keeps and eye on her leg. So lets get back on task. I swear I must be really ADHD today because I keep going off subject.

So I get to my doctors appointment and still have no paperwork with my insurance information so the insurance lady(I cannot remember her name but she was so helpful) called who I THOUGHT was my insurance for my surrogacy. Turns out that was not who I had insurance through and they had no record of me in their system. Well that's funny I have emails stating that would be who I would have my insurance with! So instead of wasting my time and making all these phone calls I decided to call one of the IP's and thankfully he was able to help me out. I gave the info to the insurance lady and we got the ball rolling! I was weighed and sadly I have already gained 10lbs!!! WHO DOES THAT? Who GAINS 10 POUNDS BY 12 WEEKS?? But to my defense it was the holidays! And yes I used pregnancy as an excuse to eat WHATEVER I WANTED!!!! But I have also started back working out again. Nothing too crazy I know I have to be careful I am making a baby! But I cannot be lazy this whole pregnancy. Personally I really do enjoy light workouts while pregnant it makes me feel much better. After that I went and talked with an RN about what to expect through out everything. She thought it was amazing what I was doing and was so helpful and nice. We talked about who all would be in the room for delivery. I told her that I assume it'd just be J&J and then my husband. I know the only person I want in there for me is my husband. I know this is not his baby but I want him in there for me and for emotional support. Pushing out a baby is not all butterflies and flowers! It's hard work. And I want J&J in there because DUH! It is their baby and I want them to be able to experience the birth of their child. She said she thinks they allow up to 3 people but it may only be 2. But she told me since this is a surrogacy the doctor will more than likely make an exception. Since I am due in July I also don't know if Adam will be here whenever I deliver so it may just be J&J or if J&J don't make it here in time for delivery it MAY just be myself!! But hey I'm a military wife I will be fine!! I hope haha. So on to the rest of the appointment.

I finished up with the RN and then it was time for my appointment with the OB. This time around I have to get fully undressed and have to have a full body exam to check for lumps in my breast, have an pap smear, and etc. Oh what fun.. Not really. But I'm glad to know everything was fine. After that I had another u/s and man in almost 3 weeks the baby has grown a lot! It was so crazy seeing how big he/she was. And the baby was so active! The 2 pictures we got were so blurry because he/she wouldn't stay still it was really neat to see it wiggling around in there. But everything looked great! I am now 13 weeks pregnant!! I'm so upset because my darn phone died whenever I tried to get a video of the u/s with the baby moving around.

After the u/s I was supposed to go get blood work but because of the insurance I have I have to go to this place called quest which is about 10 minutes away from my OB's office. So I went to quest. Well quest wouldn't see me because I didn't have a copy of my insurance card(it was on my phone because I literally got it 5 minutes before) so now I have to go back tomorrow to get all that done. Hopefully I don't cry. In 3 weeks I will be going back to the OB and honestly I'm not sure if I will have another u/s. I'm hoping I do because I'd love to get a video of the baby but if not they will at least finally listen to the heartbeat! Well that's it for now. Here is a picture of my 12 week "bump". I thought it looked a lot bigger but whenever I took a picture it really didn't show like I expected.. I will take a better one by the time I post another blog post :)

 

 

So like I promised here is the recipe for the taco chili :)

- 1lb ground beef cooked and drained(I ended up using about 1.30lbs)

- 1 package of dry ranch dressing mix

- 1 package of taco seasoning

- 1 can crushed tomatoes

- 1 can diced tomatoes

- 1 can of corn

- 1 can of kidney beans

- 1 can of black beans

Put everything in the crockpot and mix it up(I also sprinkled some chili powder in with it but not too much I didn't want to make it too "spicy" for the kids. Depending on when you put it on you can do low, medium, or high I put mine in at 1 and cooked it on high and then around 4 I dropped it down to low. If I was going to put it on in the morning I'd do it on low. I also cooked corn bread with it. It was seriously AMAZING and I will be eating it for lunch today.



Merry Christmas (Eve)

This Christmas has been so hectic already. We came home for the holidays and man even though I am so thankful we were able to come home and that we had a safe trip it has been constant GO GO GO! The whole time we have been here. My husband drove 12 hours total the first day and then we drove another 6(I drove 4 and he drove the final 2). I cant remember if I posted before about how I am horrible at long distance driving but 4 hours is about all I can do in a day haha. We have really had a great time though and I'm so not ready to leave. I was nervous about leaving the house but thankfully we have people watching it for us. My only issue with coming home is that like always Brynna is sick. We think she has a viral infection but are still giving her antibiotics just in case it is a bacterial since Christmas is tomorrow and we really don't want to end up BACK in the ER.

The day before we left North Carolina I had an OB appointment to check up on J&J's baby. I was 9 weeks and 4 days and measured 9 weeks. We saw the heart beating away so perfectly and everything looked great :). Sunday while I was out Christmas shopping I took a belly shot at 10 weeks pregnant. Here yall go. I go back the second week in January for my official first OB appointment and its like 2-3 hours long. I am so not looking forward to that but thankfully Kelly will be helping me by keeping Brynna.

Monday morning my mom, grandma, and I went to the next town over to finish up the rest of our Christmas shopping and I waited to long to eat so I got extremely nauseous. Thankfully we were finished and it was time to head home. About 5 minutes before we got home I had to stop to get a shopping bag out of the back just incase. Thankfully I made it home and to the toilet before I vomited. I thought I was in the clear and made it without vomiting but I was wrong. OMG it was miserable and horrible! I'm not going to go all into detail but let me say it was HORRIBLE!! And embarrassing. After I was done I walked out and my mom and Adam both told me I looked like crap. Well DUH! I JUST threw up!! JUST NOW! Little did I know it was worse than that.

Its now Tuesday night and looks just as bad. I have these little blood spots in my eye's, down my neck, and ALL over my face. Around my eyes is the worst though. I'm really hoping its a bit less noticeable tomorrow because as of now make up doesn't really help covering it. BUT once I threw up I felt much better haha. I am going to try and get a recording of the HB tonight or tomorrow morning so I can send it to J&J Christmas morning for their family to listen to it. I know they would be over the moon about it. So pray that I am able to get it on the Doppler. Well I have to get to the kitchen to help decorate(eat) Christmas cookies for Santa. Lets hope I don't eat them before he gets here haha. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas.

I Think My Husband Is Trying To Tell Me I'm FAT!!

So this morning as my husband and I were getting ready he starts to tell me how fat I look! Just kidding he's not that mean of a husband. I'm only 8 weeks pregnant and with Brett it took me forever before I started showing. Brynna I started showing a little bit sooner. This one is a LOT sooner. But apparently the more you have the sooner you show! AWESOME! Well as we were getting ready he says "Babe, don't get your feelings hurt BUT your starting to show.." THANKS BABE! haha not really but he followed with. "You don't look fat because its not saggy and hanging its more poking out so it doesn't look bad or anything." I couldn't help but laugh. Don't worry he didn't hurt my feelings I know I'm not a size 0 anymore and I knew I'd probably start showing sooner than I wanted to. But I am only 8 weeks pregnant ITS TOO SOON!! I mean if I was pregnant with twins I'd be a little more accepting because their would be 2 in there but their is only 1!! BTW there is a color run that is September 2014 my goal is to run the color run whenever it gets here and that will be my first 5k after the delivery. I will deliver in July so it'll give me 2 months to prepare. Well really a little over a month because I have to wait to be cleared after delivery. I'm also going to make Adam and the kids run it with me. I just hope Adam will be able to :)

Well after the name calling episode I dropped Adam off at work and then Brynna and I headed to Cary. I know I told y'all I would be going to get my ultrasound yesterday(Monday) well the RE's office had a little mix up and thought that I had been seeing the monitoring clinic all along when I was really seeing my local OB so that I didn't have to make the 1 1/2 hour drive anymore. Well my local OB didn't want to see me again until next week and my RE wanted me to have an u/s again at 8 weeks(now) so I had to go back to my monitoring clinic. SO me being the genius I am I decided to call the monitoring clinic yesterday before I made the drive to make sure they had the paperwork needed for them to do the u/s. Sure enough they did NOT! So I had to wait another hour before the RE's office opened up before I could call them and ask them to send the paperwork and by that time it would be past the walk in hours. So I ended up having to wait to go today. Thankfully it was just another u/s and nothing that we needed done ASAP! And in the end it worked out for the best because yesterday we had a lot of doctors appointments for Brynna(on her actual birthday). The 1 1/2 hour drive was horrible today! It was almost nap time(for me), very gloomy out, and then we hit the rain. Darn you weather. So what did I do! Turned up the music and sang my heart out. If you ever see me driving in the car and I am just rocking out know that I am extremely exhausted and I mean almost to the delirious stage. And that is how I prevent myself from falling asleep :) this first trimester is kicking my butt!!!

Finally we get to the monitoring clinic and even though I was told by the RE's office that they scheduled me an appointment for 11am the monitoring clinic said no you were supposed to come during walk in hours. So we will have to see when we can squeeze you in. WHY do I constantly feel like I am playing telephone with the RE's office?? Thankfully I didn't have to be back to pick Brett up anytime soon but it was NAP TIME! I could have came during walk in hours and been in and out in less than an hour and been home in time for nap time haha. Finally I was called back and we got to see J&J's baby :) it was so awesome! We have really been looking forward to hearing the heart beat but the monitoring clinics machine only looks at the baby :( so we still didn't get to hear it BUT you could see it!! And the baby was wiggling away! It didn't look so much like a little blob this time it actually looked like a baby. You could see his/her arms and legs and the outline of the head. It was amazing. Last u/s I measured a little behind but this time I measured perfect! I am technically 8 weeks and 1 day even though the RE's office has me at 8 weeks and 3 days. I have no idea how they added those 2 extra days on but due to the monitoring clinic and the IVF calculators I'm 8 weeks and 1 day so that will be what I go with from now on. I have another u/s on the 18th and I'm so excited. REALLY hoping we can hear the heartbeat this time because I know J&J have really been looking forward to hearing it. Here are some pictures for y'all to enjoy until next week :)


Head is at the top right butt is at the bottom left. BTW there is still one.

8 weeks 1 day pregnant

THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Six weeks have come and gone and today was the day everyone including myself and J&J have been so anxiously waiting for.. I was asked numerous times by many different people if I knew and until now I didn't. BUT NOW I KNOW! So first lets talk about dinner last night!
Sunday afternoon J&J flew in to Fayetteville and Sunday evening we met them for dinner. I decided not to take the kids for our first dinner and first time meeting face to face. I wanted to be able to enjoy that time out as adults and be able to socialize without constant "BRETT dont touch that.." "Brynna dont eat that." "MOMMY I HAVE TO PEE!" or "MOMMY Brynna took my color!" etc etc haha. Don't get my wrong I love taking my kids out and enjoying family time but for this first dinner I wanted it to be the 4 of us. So Sunday evening the kids stayed with my friend Kelly and we headed to dinner. We did dinner at 5:30pm and we didn't leave until about 7:40pm. It was great talking with them and really getting to know each other more personally. It made me like them that much more! We were all so excited for the next morning and just couldn't wait to finally know. BTW it is colder here in NC than it is in NYC!! YES IT'S FREEZING HERE!! So we headed home after dinner.

I woke up around 5:57am and was not able to really go back to sleep after that. I was so ready for 8:30am to hurry up and be here! Time flew quick and we were starting to run late. Since I had to be gone by 7:50am Kelly took the kids to school and I dropped Adam off and headed to the doctors appointment. Due to on post traffic and catching EVERY RED LIGHT I made it RIGHT ON TIME! But thankfully I was able to fill out all my paperwork at home and had it ready so I didn't need to be there early. So it worked out. J&J ended up getting a tad bit lost but made it right before I was called back. I was weighed before I headed back to do the ultrasound and man I weigh less than I expected :) So that made me happy. Instead of gaining weight I'm just super bloated haha. We were put in another waiting room and then called back to see the doctor. The doctor I am seeing is actually working with about 4 other surrogates right now so I'm glad to know that he is familiar with it. FINALLY it was time to go get the ultrasound.. Since its still very early in the pregnancy I had to have a vaginal sonogram so I had to undress from the waist down. So everyone waited outside and once I was ready they all came in. And that's when we finally were told.. Most of yall were WRONG!!! It's one baby! I just knew it'd be twins but turns out I was also wrong. I was so prepared for it to be twins and that I'd be wider than I am taller haha. But nope only one :) either way I was okay with a singleton or twins but with a single pregnancy I know I can handle it. I know I have carried one baby before. I have delivered one baby before. I know what to expect for the most part. With twins it'd be a whole new experience for me. BUT I am glad we finally know :) That little spot that looks like a ring. The part that looks like it could be a diamond is the baby yup its THAT TINY! We could see the heart beating but couldn't hear it. I will have another appointment next week and we may hear it then. Now I have to go get Brynna ready because we are heading to lunch in just a bit :)

Also I again did not proof read this post. I will probably proof read it this evening so don't judge all my misspelled words or bad grammar :)