Halfway!

Today marks 20 weeks of pregnancy, the halfway point.  I met M & C at Precious Predictions (Sunny is amazing, by the way, highly recommended if you are local) for the big mid-pregnancy ultrasound.  They surprised me with these:

You can try to tell me that's not the cutest thing ever, but I won't believe you.  Love them, they are so sweet.  Thanks guys!

The mid-pregnancy ultrasound is really the fascinating one, in my opinion, it's so amazing the things they can see during an in-depth ultrasound...from the brain, to the spine, to the nostrils, to the heart, to the kidneys, to the bladder, to the tips of his itty bitty toes - Baby A is looking perfect and healthy, which makes us all happy! And he doesn't have a huge head, which makes me happy :) Pictures coming soon!

It's a BOY for M & C!

Baby A was more than happy to show his stuff yesterday! We had a fun ultrasound and even got some very...revealing 3D pictures haha No doubt about it, in December, M & C will welcome their little SONshine earthside! They have also made an "official" Facebook announcement, it was really fun to see their friends' reactions.

As for me, I have started feeling little kicks and jabs here and there, and even had a stranger comment about the pregnancy this weekend - I guess it's getting to be obvious now at 15 weeks! I've been feeling well, in general, and have been avoiding the Arizona heat as much as possible!

Looking forward to our next midwife appointment on July 8th!

Ramblings of a Surrogate

The most common question I get from those who don't understand surrogacy is "but isn't it going to be hard for you to give up the baby?" I always answer simply "no, it's not, because it's not my baby."

Confession: I don't often think about being pregnant.  This is a complete 180 from my own pregnancies where I walked around giddy with excitement, constantly planning, from the moment the pregnancy test showed 2 lines.  I'm not looking at what stage of development the baby is in each week.  I'm not picking out baby names, researching baby gear or preparing my children for a sibling.  I'm not calculating how many years the new baby will be behind his/her youngest sibling in school and if they'll share any high school years together.  I'm not planning how to best set up the mini crib next to our bed, who the baby will eventually room with or which spot is best for baby's car seat in the car. 

These things don't make me happy or sad, they are just facts.  They are WHY it's not going to be hard for me to "give up the baby", because it's NOT my baby, it never has been, it was never intended to be! I'm not planning for and dreaming about having a new little one around...M & C are!

I do LOVE hearing how M & C are preparing for their new little one, their excitement and the newness of everything to them.  Sometimes they tell me things that make me silently chuckle, the naiveté of first time parents, having been there myself...oh some of the silly things I did! Sometimes I offer advice, maybe I can save them some of the trial and error, but in the end I know that this is THEIR journey, THEIR baby story, and finding their own way will make them more confident parents.  And they are going to be amazing.

P.S. Gender scan is scheduled for June 29th! Any guesses?

Bye bye first trimester, HELLO second trimester!

Today marks 12 weeks of pregnancy and the beginning of the second trimester, a very exciting milestone! M, C and myself went to our first appointment with my midwife, Stephanie, and her assistant Crystal.  These two women are both amazing and so perfectly in tune with our unique situation, I could not ask for a better birth team! We spent an hour talking to them, asking questions and, of course, listening to that sweet baby's heartbeat! Stephanie found it right away, beating in the 150's, such beautiful music to our ears!

 Before we left, M & C were given a little figurine of a baby,

exactly the size that their baby is now at 12 weeks.

I am happy to be officially DONE with meds, as of yesterday, feeling good and excited to be a "normal" prego (as opposed to one on hormone supplements haha)! I will share soon my feelings on this pregnancy and how it has been different than my own pregnancies, for those who are interested!

Until then, we have another appointment to see Stephanie and Crystal in 4 weeks but M & C are very excited to see what kind of baby is cooking so in just 3 weeks we'll be going for a quick "fun" ultrasound to take a peek at the gender!

Graduation Day

Today, we met for the last time with Dr. L and his wonderful staff at Advanced Fertility Care.  This clinic has really been amazing, so thorough and warm and caring.  I have loved working with all of them.  We also saw the little belly bean again today, who has had exactly one week's worth of growth in the past week - couldn't be more perfect! The heart rate is now 134bpm, strong and regular.

Little baby, has now grown to 11mm - almost tripling in size in 1 week!

 



 

Today also marks the day that we have been released to the care of my INCREDIBLE midwife at Nurturing Hearts Birth Services which I am SO excited about! We will see her for the first time in exactly one month, June 6th, at 12 weeks pregnant.  M & C are a bit nervous, as any new parent would be, about waiting that long for a check up but I'm feeling great about this little bean, I'm having lots of pregnancy symptoms and I know everything will be just fine! I am to continue taking progesterone and estrogen support for the next approx. 3 1/2 weeks until the placenta takes over, but other then that - we're a "normal" pregnancy now and couldn't be happier about it!



First ultrasound!

We had our first ultrasound this morning which revealed one tiny little belly bean, measuring right on track and nestled in the perfect spot - we even got to hear its little heart beating away at 111bpm!

 Little baby, measuring 4mm

 

 

As a seasoned mom of 4, the "glop glop glop" of the fetal heart beat is a familiar, albeit reassuring, sound to me - but to hear and see the reactions of M & C as they heard their much-loved baby's heart beating for the first time was PRICELESS, absolutely priceless.  I feel so honored to be on this journey with them and can not wait to hear that "glop glop glop" many more times!

Baby's heart rate (at the bottom)

Fortunately, I won't have to wait long! We go back next Monday for a repeat ultrasound and if everything still looks good - we'll be "graduating" and will be released to the care of my AMAZING midwife for the duration of the pregnancy.

Growing, growing, growing...

Yesterday was our 5^th and final blood test and the beta hcg level came back at 1908.7 which is EXCELLENT! We are definitely catching up in numbers and this little bean appears to be healthy and growing quickly! We will have our first ultrasound on Monday 4/29; because it’s a very early sonogram (we’ll be 6 weeks + 4 days) they will be looking for three main things – how many do they see (there should not be any surprises here as we only transferred one but there is a small chance, as with any pregnancy, that the embryo could have split into identical twins), how big they are and the placement within the uterus.  If we happen to see a flicker of a heartbeat that is fantastic but if we do not it's ok because it’s still early.  We will go back about 10 days later for a second ultrasound and it’s really at the second one that they would expect to see the heart rate.  In the meantime, we're all very excited for Monday!