End of the first trimester

I believe that I am just 2 days away from the beginning of the second trimester! It is reassuring that the risk of miscarriage is much less and exciting that I will soon start to feel the baby move, that is my favorite part of pregnancy! I am feeling really good these days. Aside from a sensitive gag reflex, I am not sick at all and the extreme exhaustion is gone. Don't get me wrong, I still get tired, but not like I did! I think my body has remembered how to stretch out for a pregnancy though, I had a client ask if I was pregnant the other day. It seems between 11 and 12 weeks my uterus got big enough that the top of my stomach could no longer stay flat resulting in the beginning of a bump appearing. It is a bitter sweet moment. I am struggling with what to wear on a daily basis. I tried rubber banding my pants together when they got uncomfortable to button but the zipper still rubbed and drove me nuts. I have resorted to some maternity pants, leggings and workout pants. I was reluctant to get anything maternity, I'm not sure why, I just was not ready to move into "those" clothes BUT Thanksgiving made the idea of a stretchy waist very appealing! I do have to admit that they are much more comfy and cute than they were 10 years ago. If I wasn't working though I would totally just live in workout pants.
  It is always fun when people ask about my pregnancy if they do not know the story. The first question is usually " wow, don't you and your husband already have a bunch of kids?" To which I get the opportunity to explain that this one is not ours. Ok, I have to admit that I have had some fun with my daughters friends by telling them that its not my husbands and waiting a minute to tell them it's not mine either!! I really have not had any negative reactions to being a surrogate at this point. I am a little surprised at that, I really thought that someone would have something negative to say. My guess is that those that do not support our decision to help grow a family are choosing not to say anything!
   My next ob appointment is on 12/19 which will hopefully be the first time I get to actually hear the baby's heart beat. I am hoping that I can convince my doctor to let me record it so the parents can hear it too. I was originally told that because of malpractice issues I could not record anything, but I'm still going to ask! Really, how much harm could a 15 second recording of the heart beat cause?
  Speaking of growing families, and totally not surrogacy related, George and I are FINALLY Noah's legal parents! November 20th our adoption was finalized! It was a great day. The actual court hearing was really short but we had a nice dinner and we had a good sized group of family there to support us. We also had a photographer there to capture the moment. She got some wonderful pictures!
   Today I will leave you with a picture of my growing belly! I am still in the awkward "is she pregnant or gaining weight" stage but it is starting to look more like a pregnant belly!