Big travels happening for both my family and my Intended Parents! We are heading for a 3 week vacation from Washington, DC to Grand Haven, MI for Coast Guard Festival. Check out this link to see what Coast Guard Festival is all about! Coast Guard Festival
After we spend about 9 days there, we will be heading around Lake Michigan and maybe stopping by a friend's house who lives in Chicago. Around the lake to north of Milwaukee to Kurt's family's house! We will spend about 9 days there as well and take in a Brewer's game and the Kiel Picnic among other outings like the cheese and chocolate factory. From there we will head north and go through Canada and spend a couple of days in Toronto followed by going south through Niagara Falls and back down to Virginia.
My IPs are heading for Italy. Which sounds much more grandeur than my mid-west and Canada tour. My IMs best friend is getting married! Her best friend actually lives in NYC. J- If you are reading this -- best wishes on your special day. A little advice from a non-bridezilla. As long as your groom shows up (and he darn well better!) and the officiant shows up to marry you -- the rest are just details. At the end of the day, if you have a snafu and something doesn't go right, the only person that knows it didn't go right is YOU! Don't sweat the small stuff. You will still be married at the end of the day and have a great story to tell people in the future. Here's to many many years of a blissful marriage!
So now onto the actual surrogacy update!
Here are the weekly updates including the bump photo!
I will try to update in the next 3 weeks while we are not home as well but just know that we will be crazy busy if I don't! The week we come back, we will have the big anatomy scan too! Exciting stuff to come!
So what I was alluding to last night -- I got the approval to share with everyone. It is mostly my intended parents news so I wanted to make sure they were ready to share it before I did!
So this has been in the works for a couple of months but my intended parents are coming back to the States in September! Which to me, is so exciting. When they are here, it will be my Intended Mother's birthday, and to celebrate, we will go get an ultrasound to check out the baby so they can officially meet teacup!
As exciting as that is, their trip isn't just to meet their baby. They are actually coming for another egg retrieval and asked me if I would carry the sibling for this baby in the future (of course this is all dependent on a healthy and happy delivery!) What an honor to carry a child for a couple, but to be asked to carry a sibling too? Makes me feel pretty darn special!!! So that is the plan -- retrieve some eggs, make some embryos, test them and freeze them so that in a couple years, we can jump back in the saddle again. We don't have a timeline yet for when the sibling journey will take place and that will depend on how quickly they are ready to jump back in the saddle with having a newborn at home!!
So there is our secret we have been hiding for a few months. We wanted to wait for a retrieval date and the doctor we work with will be out of office all of August so September it is!!!! I am elated... Over the moon!!!
It is that time of night again... the time of night when I feel incredibly ill. It is nearly every night at the same time... Reflux? Needing more food? Night Sickness? Whatever it is, needs to pack its bags up and take a hike. I ask myself nightly 'Would eating make this feel better or worse?' Usually I go for some crackers and cheese in hopes to feel better. It usually doesn't make me feel better.
Today on the way to the OB appointment, I needed to stop and break a $20 to make change to pay someone for something on the way to the hospital and also needed change to pay the babysitter (who is amazing might I add!) So I had to find a good snack to break that money and to have in my purse because I didn't know how long the appointment would take. Feast your eyes on this... the best treat I have found in a LONG time. These things are amazing. The right texture, the right flavor and just the right size to throw in my purse. I am in need of more. Why didn't Amazon Prime Day sell these by the case??
I got to the hospital and got to the reception desk to check in and they told me that I have no appointment. Fortunately, I had brought 'the purple book' that the OB coordinator had written my appointment down in and I showed it to her. The OB coordinator somehow made the appointment but didn't notify the front desk. I guess I am a special case. My last OB called this doctor to tell her about me and ask to take me on as patient even though she is not taking new patients. So the OB coordinator never relayed the information so I waited an hour to be seen at the end of her morning before she took lunch. They assured me it wouldn't happen again so just a little bump in the road.
I finally got to the back and was seen and the doctor is amazing. She was really inquisitive about surrogacy and my intended parents but in a really respectful way and is happy to take us on as patients. With surrogacy, it is a lot easier to see the same doctor for each appointment rather than explaining each time about the situation and let's face it, surrogacy is not everyone's cup of tea and not everyone has a positive outlook on surrogacy due to the media jading a lot of opinions. That is why I take the time to answer every question (even the rude ones!) in the most positive and educational manner possible -- even when I am seething inside.
So the appointment -- everything was great and my vitals were great. The baby's heartbeat is measuring at 137 today so of course, we have to divulge in the song that my intended father E has chosen to match the heartbeat -- its a good one!
Now I am back on team blue. I don't know! My intuition is failing me -- much like my last pregnancy when it totally failed me then! Good thing I don't have to buy stuff for the nursery/baby! It would all be yellow and green!
After the appointment, I was sent to the lab to have the second part of the genetic testing drawn and to the pharmacy to pick up a couple prescriptions for headaches and for my eczema/allergies around my eyes.
The next appointment will be in 4-5 weeks after we have the anatomy scan to check out the baby! The anatomy scan is on August 20. At this point you can find out the sex of the baby but will E & L want to know? Their secret is safe with me! If they choose not to find out, then I will not find out -- not only does my contract say that I won't find out, but even if it did not say that -- I still wouldn't. It is their baby and I don't have any planning that I need to do to so why would I find that out before his/her parents?! I wouldn't. And you will have to wait to see what the parents decide too!
I might have a great big secret in the bag too -- not the gender of the baby but something else -- but I need to ask their permission to share it before I can share it here! As always, I respect their privacy and consider their feelings before I post any big news!
So here is this week's info from the apps about this gestation. I did find a good way to put them together nicely so they are in order. I will have to remember this for the upcoming weeks!
(Okay maybe my genius cropping isn't working because the font is tiny!! Maybe I can tweak that next week!)
Until dreams come true...
Speaking of dreams -- I am dreaming of Sunday when my new washer is being delivered. Our washer died last week - we presume from the flooding in the basement - so I have been washing laundry at the laundry mat and bringing it home to dry it, which is getting old!! We got a nice new Samsung and an extended warranty this time!!!
This is going to be a fly by post with nothing but screenshots offering info for the week! I am tired this week and still not feeling well. The thought of meat is really not good at this point so I am back to basically all potatoes and carbs. I need to invest in some protein powder to mix with my frozen fruits to get enough protein in. I haven't gained any weight as of now -- if I have it is 1-2 lbs that come and go so it is not consistent. This Friday I have an OB orientation at the hospital to get paperwork started. Next Wednesday is my first OB appointment and we did get the doctor we were hoping for (the one my last OB recommended -- she took me on as a special case even though she was not accepting new patients!) I will also be getting the second part of the blood work done for the genetic testing. This weekend we are going to visit my Aunt on the Eastern Shore and maybe try sailing -- Hopefully teacup enjoys sailing and I don't regret this!
I still cherish the excitement that the parents feel. I can just read it in every single email from them! They are amazing and it is such a joy to work with two people who are so amazing in general, but even more so to me!
The sweet teacup is looking less like a sugar cube and more like a baby now!
Baby nearly doubled in weight since last week
(these are from 3 different apps and totally out of order! maybe next time I should number the photos so I can make sure I put them in the right order!)
So there you have it -- Information overload for week 15!
OHHHHH!!! One last thing!! I sent L another charm for her necklace -- this time a double decker bus -- you know the kind they have in London? The significance of this charm was that there are TWO levels and we are in the SECOND trimester -- witty right?
Baby is as big as a lemon (or in some cases a peach!) I know I just posted a blog yesterday but I couldn't skip such a big milestone -- the SECOND TRIMESTER! Woohoo!!
That's right -- my friend's baby has been gestating for 14 weeks now!
Not including the legs, the baby is nearly 3.5 inches long (from head to bum).
If we had an ultrasound done now, this is what the baby would look like.
What is going on with the Baby!
What is going on inside of my body!
Finally, in response to my blog post yesterday, my IM sent me this lovely email. I get asked often how it is to do an international surrogacy (many surrogates won't even consider an international couple). Honestly, working with them is no different than working with a local couple. The only difference is they are not able to do come to every appointment and we can't meet for lunch whenever we want. But even if they were local or semi-local, IPs may not have time to do this anyway. There is rarely a day that goes by that we do not email each other back and forth and often it is in a group email with both IPs and myself. The distance is small when you make it small and we work really hard to keep the world feeling a bit smaller! With the right teams working together, anything can be accomplished and we are doing just that!
