It's a ........

So after a slight delay our IP's got to come visit our tiny little town and meet my family, including the dogs, and find out what their baby is! It was such an exciting day!! It was a little stressful preparing for our Ips arrival, they come from a very large city and well... it's Redding. I wouldn't say that I was worried, just anxious to see how they reacted to such a small place! It all went well and they even survived their drive through all of the cow and horse pastures in Cottonwood to my house.
   Of course I had not slept well the night before and started my morning off with a trip to the dentist which sucked!! But after all of that I was able to meet up with our IPs and do a little catching up before we went to tour the hospital. With Mercy being a catholic hospital I was not sure how a surrogate pregnancy would be received, but it went well. The lady that gave us the tour was very nice, answered all of our questions and showed us everything on the labor and delivery floor and pediatrics. It sounds like they will be as accommodating as possible to the needs of our unique situation. Then it was off to the doctor for our BIG ultrasound!!
   I love my doctor. I chose him because I knew that he had worked with a few other surrogates in the area, he is younger and fairly laid back. He has a good sense of humor as well! His staff has really worked with us as much as possible to make sure that everything goes nicely. My Ips really liked him too. He took the time to answer questions and even gave us a little 3D peek of the baby!! Which brings me to the ultrasound. What an experience!! This was the fourth time that I have been able to see the baby BUT it was the parents first time getting to see their baby! It was so amazing to get to witness them seeing their baby move and we even got some really nice picture of its face. Again, my doctor took the time to explain all of the things that we were looking at and reassure the parents that everything looked normal. Emotionally it was an interesting experience for me. I was amazed by the 3D images, I did not have 3D with my kids. It was so cool to see the facial features already! But I did not feel that warm, falling in love with my baby feeling that I had with my own. It was more of a sense of joy for the parents. This was the moment that the pregnancy became very real for them. It was not just pictures and emails from the other side of the world, they were there, in the room seeing their baby and watching it move around and kick, and seeing its little heart beat. It was just an amazing experience! And so what everyone wants to know..... what is it??

 IT'S A BOY!!! He is not modest at all and gave us quite a view!! THIS was especially exciting for me because while I knew that my IPS were leaning toward girl, I really thought it was a boy! They, of course, are thrilled with a boy as well! This is my first time carrying a boy so I am excited to see just how different it will be from my girl pregnancies. Unfortunately, this pregnancy is going so quickly!! I cannot believe that in just a few days I will be 6 months pregnant. That means that in about 16 weeks we will get to meet this little guy!

 What a year it has been. To think back to this time last year, I was stressing over if I would meet the right couple and how long this process takes. Now, I wish it would slow down a bit! This has been such an amazing, life changing experience for my whole family!

   As if seeing their son for the first time and checking out possible places to live for a bit was not enough, my IPs got to meet my family in person for the first time! We started off kind of slow. They met me and the kids at the mall and had a few minutes to chat with the kids while we did some shopping. Then my mom joined us. Now, I was quite excited for her to meet them. While she has been very supportive, I knew that meeting the parents in person would be when she would fully understand how and why I can carry a baby and be okay with not taking it home. Also why I would go through all of the medical stuff and the body changes of pregnancy for people who a year ago were strangers to us. As expected, she loved them! Then we all went to dinner where we were joined by George and Dallys. Dinner went really well and it was full of laughter and good conversations!

  Today my Ips came out to the house to say goodbye. We had a nice visit and my dogs were pretty well behaved! As some know, I am a stress cleaner before we have company. Well because we had all been so sick we just deep cleaned a couple of weeks ago and time was pretty limited so of course things were not as clean as I would have liked, but it was reality! I have 3 kids and 2 dogs and work while going to school and pregnant, some dust and clutter is what life is really like for us! Now in about 3 weeks my housekeeping allowance will start!! I will still do the stuff I am crazy about but it will be so nice to pass on cleaning the floors and bathrooms! Dusting too, I hate dusting! I have never had someone else clean my house for me so I am really torn, do I hire a company that I know will do a good job, or do I hire Dallys who is cheaper labor!! Really, I think that I may do both, have Dallys clean one week and a professional the next!

  Overall it was a great visit that was filled with emotions. It was so exciting to get to introduce my IPs to my kids and mom and Dallys so that they all know why I adore my Ips so much. It was also great for my kids to experience a little bit of a different culture! And it was absolutely amazing to get to watch my IPs realize that they really are going to be parents in just a few short months. I cannot imagine what it must be like for them. They have to trust that someone all the way around the world, in a country with different norms will be responsible enough to love and nurture their baby from just a few days after conception until he is ready to come into the world. They have to trust that I really will follow the things that are lined out in the contract and that their baby's health is the top priority. I think about how hard it is for me to let my kids go to a friends house and I cannot fathom what this is like for them. I hear horror stories of the limitations and requests that other surrogate have from their IPs and I am so grateful that mine just trust me to do what is best.  What an honor to be a part of changing their lives like this.

20 weeks

Ok really, I am a slacker.... I am now 22 weeks but it has been a CRAZY couple of weeks since my 20 week appointment! The kids and I have taken turns with every illness going around!
   My 20 week appointment went well. The baby sounded good. It was pretty routine. We were supposed to have an ultrasound on 2/4 but due to some uncontrollable circumstances that appointment had to be changed. Now my IPs will be here on 2/13 for the big ultrasound to see what the gender is!! My vote.... boy. For no reason other than it's lack of cooperation with anything I want to do! First off, when I try to pick up the hear beat with the Doppler it moves as soon as I get it. Then it likes to wiggle when I have to pee and when I go to bed. Of course feeling the baby move is not a bad thing BUT there is no way that I could let it move and not poke it back. That is my little reward for carrying this baby, I get to play with it!! It also hates Taco Bell nachos (which I love) and anything else that has the slightest bit of spice. I pay for that indulgence with some lovely heartburn!
Overall though I still feel great. I am loving being pregnant at this point. I am not so huge that I cannot move and I am out of the "is she getting fat" stage.
  Kaylee was super excited that she got to be the first (and only one besides me) to feel that baby move from the outside! This was quite a feat. It took serious patience and several tries. Our day was spent like this. "Kaylee, it's moving" she runs over pushes her hand on my belly only to feel nothing for several minutes. We repeated this process for hours until finally she got to feel a little roll! I on the other hand am not only privy to little rolls, I am starting to get some good kicks too. Not painful, it just kind of takes my breath away. And of course it thinks that my bladder is a trampoline.
   Noah has been quite entertaining as well now that he has realized that there is a baby in my tummy. He wanted to listen to the heart beat so we did, then he wanted to listen to the heart beat of the baby in HIS tummy. When we couldn't find it he said "oh, the baby in my tummy died!" He also asked why I ate the baby! And the other day in the car he asked how the baby got in my tummy. I explained to him that the doctor used a special tube to put the baby in there. (much easier to explain than a traditional pregnancy!) To that he replied "Well, I want the doctor to put a baby in my tummy too!" Gotta love 3 year olds!!
   Kimberly is mostly into boys and her friends but still likes to regularly jiggle my belly and talk to the baby. I am trying to convince her that the jiggling is not necessary!!
   As stubborn as the baby is, it really likes my dog. Nothing gets it moving like my dog laying her head on my tummy! I have a feeling that it will become a battle once the movements are strong enough to disturb Karma from her napping!
  So far I have not had any strange cravings either. I have cravings.... just not strange stuff. My most common have been steak and pudding. I have also developed an aversion to home brewed coffee, even with my precious pumpkin spice creamer. I have had quite a sweet tooth, for which I am paying every time I look at the scale. My weight gain is not too bad, just not where I wanted it to be. My goal for the next week is to make time to go check out a gym. My schedule is so crazy that I do not have much daylight time that I can go for a walk and it turns out that I suck at doing videos. There are just too many distractions as home!! My hope is that I will be able to fit the gym in between work and getting the kids. The one I am looking at has a lot of options that I am interested in like water aerobics and yoga. Really the big thing is that when I work my ass off at the gym I am more motivated to eat well. It turns out that pregnancy does not go with my eating plan from before. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, my main staple for lunch was deli meat and left over chicken. As my luck would have it, the dietary recommendations have gotten stricter since the last time I was pregnant and all meats must be heated (including the deli meat). This disrupted my routine and I now fall victim to the temptation of the Taco Bell burrito! Really it comes down to I have no idea what the hell to eat for lunch that is safe and does not have to be heated. Now, if I had an office job heating food would not be an issue BUT that is not what I do! I go from place to place in my car all day and who knows where I will be when I get hungry!!
  The other challenge I have had is that I cannot get anyone (like my doctor) to tell me EXACTLY how many calories I NEED while I am pregnant. I am certain I have to have more than the 1200 I ate before! My doctor's only solution is to get more aerobic exercise. Now, don't get me wrong. I know that I enjoy exercising when I do it. I just truly have not been able to find the time to do it! Now, I tell clients all day that you have to schedule self care blah blah blah... I suck at that!
   My self care has been naps! Which again I relate to my lack of exercise the last few months. Let me bore you with my sleep history. I used to sleep like shit. Can't fall asleep, cant stay asleep and so on. Now when I was running regularly I slept great. The first trimester, I still slept great. Second trimester my sleeping sucks again. And I NEED sleep!! I am not a person that can function on a few hours of sleep. I wish I could say that I was losing sleep because I was uncomfortable or the baby moved too much but no, that is not it. I just can't sleep! Most nights I do fall asleep ok but I wake up around 2 am and stay awake for HOURS! I think it is so frustrating to me because I know how to sleep better but I have not found a way to fit it in. I am however, getting ready to register for the Gnarly Neon again. This was is the 5k that I ran last year. It is May 3rd and I will be about 36 weeks pregnant so I am pretty sure that I will NOT be running it BUT you bet your ass I will be walking those 3 miles with my girls!! In order to do that though I need to start doing something!
  I am also still really wanting to have a drug free birth (which again is easier when you stay active). I am not super woman and I know it hurts like hell. I tried with Kaylee but I did not have the greatest support at delivery so when my doctor was not supportive of a drug free birth I caved. I obviously chose a different doctor this time! I also have a doula and a supportive husband. I do worry a little bit about my IPs though. See, I know me and pain. I have a pretty high tolerance BUT it absolutely turns off any censor that I may have to my mouth! I worry that I may call them names or yell at them but hopefully they will know that I really do love them and don't mean it!! Really I am hoping to use some relaxation and meditation techniques to help me stay in control. And quite honestly, I am fully willing to accept that there may be a point that I decide that drug free is more than I can handle!
   The next two weeks will be a whirl wind of prep for our IPs to come. They not only get to hear and see their baby in person BUT in the two days that they are here they will get to meet my family as well. They will get a slight introduction into my schedule as well. The day they get here I have a dentist appointment ( which I have put off several times and HAVE to go now) then we will do the hospital tour and sonogram. After that I will rush back to Cottonwood to pick up the kids and back to Redding for Kimberly's Orthodontist appointment. Then we will all have dinner together hopefully before Noah get's tired and turns into super asshole. Friday won't be as bad though. I just have to drop off the kids and prepare for George and I to leave town early Saturday for my farewell trip to the beach!
   I am trying to not be sad over the fact that the day is soon approaching when I will not be able to sit on the beach. I know it is temporary but that is my heaven. Nothing is as soothing as sitting on the beach watching the waves. That is where I go when I need a break. The mountains and lakes are nice but nothing like the beach! I really wish that I was closer to the ocean. Enough of that, I really can't think about it anymore.
   Hopefully the next update will be a big gender reveal!!

 

Here is a growing tummy picture at 5 months