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!

10 week ultrasound

Well, I have learned that the farther along in the pregnancy I am the more difficult it is to stay up to date on my blog! We are just days away from reaching 12 weeks and the end of the first trimester which means that the risk of miscarriage goes down greatly. It also means that it has been almost 2 weeks since my last appointment!
  Everything is going good and I am still feeling well for the most part. There are days I am nauseous or things that make me gag but it's NOTHING like it was! I am starting to expand, which is both exciting and scary. Having been so heavy in the past, it is hard to feel my pants getting tight again BUT I know that it is baby this time and not just fat! I am entering into the awkward stage where people are questioning if I am gaining weight or pregnant. The strangest thing that I am finding is that as my uterus expands, so does my muffin top. I am not gaining any weight (aside from the 15 I gained when I started meds) but it doesn't stay in like it used to! Here is a picture of the ever so tiny baby bump making an appearance.

So to the fun stuff... the baby! At the ultrasound everything looked great. Kimberly was with me for this one so she got to see the baby moving all around. It has been really cool to share this experience with my girls and my doctor is so good at explaining things to them. The baby is growing well and at 10 weeks 3 days it was measuring 11 weeks 1 day. My first question was if that was any indication that the baby would be large (mine were over 8 and 9 pounds), I was assured that it meant nothing other than it was healthy and growing well! I now have to wait until December 19 for another appointment which will just be a basic check up BUT I may get to hear the hear beat at this one. Up to now I just get to see it on the ultrasound. Then the big anatomy scan ultrasound is scheduled for February 4th. Super exciting because our IPs will be coming here to be there for the appointment. They will also get to meet my family in person for the first time (haha, they can't change their minds now when they see how nuts we are! :)  ) 

   After the ultrasound I had to get some blood work. Usually I have to get 2 vials, no big deal. THIS time I also had to have blood taken for some screenings AND my prenatal panel for my doctor. They took 7 vials of blood! Poor Kimberly hates needles so she so graciously held my purse in the waiting room! It really was not that bad but I hate to see all of that blood leave my body! Good things came from at least 2 vials though, I got to stop all of my hormone meds and baby aspirin. What a relief!! Now I am down to an allergy pill, DHA, folate and 3 vitamins a day. Yes 6 pills is a relief!

   Now for the next few weeks my goal is to focus on eating well and trying to fit exercise back into my routine. While I obviously expect some weight gain, it does not have to be a lot. The past few months of extra hormones and busy schedules have shown me that it is easy to go back to old habits and that the effects of those habits are still the same!

I will leave you with the latest French Fry picture! As you can see it is looking more human!

 

8 week ultrasound

   This is going to be a short blog, mostly because I have taken so long to write it that it will be time for another in just a few days! On 10/31 I had the 8 week ultrasound. The baby is developing on schedule and everything looks good! It is starting to look more and more human, although my mom and Kaylee think it really resembles a peanut! Here is a picture of French Fry at 8 weeks!

My labs were good this time too, I got to reduce most of my medications!! That was a big relief. After a while it gets really hard to take so much medication every day! I am hoping that after this weeks appointment I will be able to start taking even less!

 

I have actually been feeling pretty good. I rarely throw up, but have a very sensitive gag reflex. My family all think that it is HILARIOUS to try and make mom gag or throw up. Most effective is dog eye boogers and farts. Yeah, leave it to my kids to get me gagging and LAUGH! Poor George, normally I don't have any problem taking care of my dog BUT this baby doesn't like dog poop. My poor girl pooped and as soon as I saw it the gagging started! George came to the rescue to pick it up for me!

The only other complaint that I would have is that I am TIRED!!! I remember feeling tired before but not like this! Most of it is probably the craziness of my life but this is crazy. If I don't get a nap, and I have been too busy to nap lately, I am exhausted by the time I hit my pillow. Hopefully that will get better in a few  weeks when the first trimester is over!



Well, that's it for now! I have my 10 week monitoring appointment on Thursday so hopefully there is more good news!

The first ultrasound

One would assume that a positive blood test would mean I was pregnant, end of story. Not so much when you are a surrogate. That test must be repeated to ensure that the hCG levels are rising, which is indicative of a viable pregnancy. SO... my first level on 10/7 was 959, wry much pregnant since a level of 25 is the minimum to be considered pregnant. The doctors want to see that number double by the next draw. On 10\7 my level was at 4,551 and on 10/10 it was 9,059, hormones are needless to say, rising nicely. Now the not so good part. Because this is a surrogate pregnancy the doctors are extremely cautious about everything. Did any one with a normal pregnancy every hear a word about estrogen or progestrogen levels? Me either! This time it is something they watch. My first draw everything was great, but the second time my progesterone dipped to 23.3 and they want it above 25. Now I consulted Google and found that my level is still "normal" for a pregnancy, just not where HRC likes it so I had to increase my progesterone injections to 1.5cc daily. No big deal, right? WRONG! See I had some mild nausea by this point, after the increase that turned to daily vomiting. And the knots from the injections got bigger, so big that it was uncomfortable to wear jeans! I tried everything I could think of to get them to go away. TONS of heat, George massaging them like crazy and Tylenol. I finally broke down and asked my nurse for help. Now that the pregnancy is confirmed (I'll get to that later) I can switch to an oral progesterone lozenge! Such a relief. Well, except for the fact that they are the consistency of slightly hardened jello with a wax coating. They also taste horrid, something like a crayon dipped in grape cough syrup. BUT choking that down for 4 more weeks is way better than the knots from the shots!! Now, I am not shot free, I will still do estrogen injections every 3 days, but they are nothing! Aside from the last week and a half that was rough, I feel good. I have not vomited in 3 days and can wear pants again! I am tired though, as to be expected. I schedule in my daily naps! My family has been a huge help. George is picking up my slack and massaging knots like crazy! The girls are helping out as much as possible too. One morning they even got Noah dressed, fed and in the car for me so we could get out the door on time!
   Now the fun part! We had our first ultrasound on 10/18. It was so cool! Kaylee (my 10 year old) got to go with me. The doctor was great at explaining to us both what we were looking at and the most exciting part.... We got to see the tiny little heart beat! Fetal development is so amazing! I am 6 weeks pregnant and the baby is the size of a lentil, but we could see that little heart beating away! Everything looked good and the doctor confirmed that there is only one baby, so good news all around. We will have another ultrasound on 10/31 to check development.
  Another fun fact..... with my last pregnancy my niece Dallys would say that I was not having a baby, it was a squid. So after the first transfer she decided that this pregnancy was a snail, or escargot. Just the idea seemed gross! At the ultrasound Kaylee thought that the baby looked like a little potato so our official nick name for this little one is French Fry! Nick names are something that everyone on my mothers side of the family have. My grandfather, who passed away 15 years ago, used to give everyone their names. After his passing the names stopped, except for my kids and the names Dallys gave them, so this little nick name is our family's contribution to the baking of this baby!
  So I leave you with French Fry's first photo! It is a bit blurry because it took quite a bit of zooming to get it big enough to see, but you get the idea. The arrow is pointing at it's little heart! It is so amazing to finally be on the way to helping my IPs have their family! I love hearing how excited they are and how they are already preparing for the baby! This little French Fry will be so loved!!

The results are in...

   The moment we have all been waiting for, the official test results! A hcG level of at least 25 is needed to be considered pregnant. My hcG level was 959, so we are PREGNANT! Of course it is still quite early and I will have to go back for more blood tests on Monday and again on Thursday to make sure that those hormone levels keep rising indicating a healthy pregnancy. The next big step is October 17th, this is the "pregnancy confirmation" ultrasound where we will hopefully get to hear the heart beat for the first time!
   Now as I mentioned before I did take a home pregnancy test 4 days after the transfer and got a VERY faint positive. I had mixed feelings about that. Last time I got a similar faint positive, but not until 7 days after the transfer. So of course, I had to continue to test daily to make sure that the line kept getting stronger..... AND IT DID! At 5 days I thought I would try a digital test, it came back saying that I was pregnant!

   Now to the fun part, how have I been feeling? Pretty good. I am pretty tired, since I am doing my practicum 3-4 days a week, going to school 3 nights a week and taking care of my kids and now pregnant, being tired is not a surprise. As expected my boobs are super sore, and I have had a few headaches. I also have my pregnancy "super nose" where I smell everything and most of it is gross! I have started in the last few days getting some morning sickness. Now I am not running to puke all of the time, but there is a daily debate of if I take my medicines on an empty stomach I will feel like I am going to puke BUT if I eat I will also be nauseated. I got some protein shakes in hopes that they will be easier to stomach. It is pretty consistent that if I eat any sort of big meal, or anything with too strong of flavoring, no matter what time of day I will be feeling it. I am also getting some pretty big knots from all of the injections. After every shot I apply heat and massage the injection site for a few minutes but every couple of days I have to have George REALLY rub it HARD. This hurts a bit but it seems to help loosen up the knots. None of the symptoms are too bad or so disturbing that I am not able to go on with my day to day activities, I am just a little slower!
   I am excited that we are finally pregnant and my IPs are on their way to becoming parents. I am hopeful that the high hormone levels are going to be a good sign that we will remain pregnant and that there will be no more complications. This is such an amazing journey and I have been very blessed with so much support from friends, family and my IPs. My mom, kids and husband have been so much help. They are really trying to pick up the slack and help with the things that I am unable to do right now. The dr told me to take things easy and not to pick up anything! That is harder than it sounds, probably one of the hardest restriction (besides the pelvic rest). Someone else has to lift Noah into his car seat and he really doesn't get why mommy can't pick him up. There are tons of daily things that require lifting too. Like carrying in groceries or taking laundry baskets to and from the washer. Little things that I never considered, but I am figuring it out. My family has had to do some adjusting with their dinners too! I am gone 3 nights a week and I am tired so they have had easy meals! I'm thinking tonight is grilled cheese!

Transfer #2

Friday morning we dropped all of the kids off at school then started our trip south. We stopped in Red Bluff for coffee and then walked through Ide Adobe State Park. That is a tiny little historical park in Red Bluff. Then we stopped at a few little shops along the way before having lunch in Sacramento and hitting the Spirit store! It was a nice relaxing trip since we had plenty of time to get there before our flight. The flight was on time and uneventful :) We flew into the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, it is much smaller than LAX and much closer to the hotel! After checking in we went to dinner at a cute little Mexican restaurant and they took our pictures! They give you a complimentary post card and since it has been forever since George and I had pics done, we bought more!

 

Yes, that is my last margarita in the background and it was YUMMY!

 



 

After dinner we walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel. The beds are awesome at the hotel and I was sleeping really good (rare for me) when at 1:30 am we were woke up by the loudest group of drunks ever! It turns out that there was a Latin wedding earlier in the day and they REALLY party afterwards! It wasn't a big deal though because the morning of the transfer I actually got to SLEEP IN! It was so nice! We left the hotel a little after 10 and were at the clinic by 10:30. The doctor had been in Texas and we literally saw him running in the door a few minutes prior to our appointment!

 

Here is the infamous waiting pic

 

 

 

 

Same thing as last time, it was very quick and easy, although I don't think the doctor appreciated my jokes about how cold the speculum was! That's ok, George and I thought it was funny! Here is a pic of the actual transfer. If you look REALLY closely in the center of the picture there is a tiny white dot. That is the embryo in my uterus!

 

 

After the procedure I had to hang out on the table for almost an hour. That was so boring!! Then back to the hotel for bed rest!. Earlier that morning George thought he would watch TV while I was in the shower, turns out our tv was possessed! The volume would go up to the max on its own and then it would turn itself on. We let the hotel desk know when we left but of course it was not fixed by the time we got beck so George unplugged it and then plugged it in again and it worked fine! I mostly read the new Nicholas Sparks book though. It was really good!

  The next day I stayed in bed until it was time to go home. We had an hour delay on the way home but the flight was smooth and easy.

 

Now we are a week into the two week wait, my official pregnancy test is October 3. Of course I really debated doing home pregnancy test, but if you know me at all, you know that I HATE surprises and have no will power when it comes to that stuff! So I tested this morning but I won't be sharing the results until the official blood test!!





Final monitoring appointment

   Shortly after I wrote my last blog I got an email that my ultrasound results were NOT great. They thought that my lining was thickening too slowly. To help things along I was instructed to increase the hormones! I went from taking two tablets a day to four and from injecting .1 cc every three days to injecting .2cc EVERY day! BUT it worked! At my last appointment my lining was at a nice fluffy 9 with 11 days before transfer. So it is a go! 9/21 we will try again to make my IPs parents!
  Another strange thing that I have had happen twice this time and never before, it seems I have hit a vein when doing my injections! How do I know this? Well I turned to put the syringe into the sharps container and felt something running down my leg, what do I see? Blood shooting out of the injection site all over me and the floor! It didn't hurt or anything, just bleeding all over. So gross! It stopped with a little pressure and was no big deal, just a surprise to see blood literally shooting out of my body!
   Transfer plans are that we will fly out Friday afternoon, transfer Saturday and come home Sunday. I am a little nervous about the flight though. We have had so much smoke in the air that I have had a sinus headache for days. I am working on clearing it up with my secret potion.... Apple Cider vinegar. It tastes horrid but it thins the mucus so that hopefully I am not in pain this flight.
   That's all for now, I'll update again after transfer.