Hola!!!

Today -- Aggy is 5 weeks old!  Happy 5th week birthday sweet girl! I hope you wore a party dress today!!

I have totally been MIA.  Lots going on in our neck of the woods. 

I started back at school and have just 7 classes left until I graduate.  Right now I am taking an intelligence collections class and it bores my eyes out!  Intelligence (or at least the classes), I find not so interesting but it is my minor for my degree so march on.

I also have been working towards creating a spouse volunteer network with my husband's unit.  I was very active with volunteering when I was in NC and I met some of my best friends through that so it was something I felt strongly about continuing here.  We are such a small unit here that there are only a hand full of spouses, but that won't stop me from trying to create some unit cohesion among the spouses.

I joined a weight loss challenge group and have lost 5%+ of my body weight in just 3 weeks but I need to get out there and try a bit harder so I can lose more.  It ends on March 1.  Which also coincides with our Disney trip.  My kids are so excited for going to Disney -- we have been getting stuff together and the kids have enjoyed watching youtube videos of what they will see at Disney.  Piper has small princess dolls and plays with them every day and asks me to do her hair like Cinderella, Belle, or Aurora.

I am still pumping and I am nearly certified for the Preemies milk bank. I have been working on being certified since before I delivered.  You must get a letter of certification stating that you are in fact a surrogate.  Once I delivered, I had to answer questions about medications that I took during delivery and postpartum.  After that they asked another thousand questions about where I have traveled and other life habits.  Next they send a thermometer for each freezer so that you can have your freezers certified.  (They have to be below a certain temperature).  Next a swab of the cheek for DNA to match the DNA of you to the DNA in your milk so that you do not send someone elses milk into the bank.  Finally you have a phlebotomist come to your house to take blood to test for STDs and other illnesses that can be transmitted in milk.  This might have been more rigorous testing that I had for my surrogacy! Now, the milk bank has all of the tests back and they are getting certified by the medical director so I can start ordering coolers.  At this time, I have 1,500 ounces in my freezer from about 4 weeks (The first week I was pumping for Aggy).  I am still pumping around 55-60 ounces a day.  It is exhausting but rewarding at the same time. 

Some of the milk in my freezer.

Also, I want to give a shout out to two very special people.  This week and last week I received the kindest, most wonderful gifts in the mail.  I received a card each from IF's parents and his sister.  I cannot tell you how special it was to have these cards written out to me.  They were so kind, thanking me for bringing A to their family.  Wishing me well.  Surrogacy is such a mutual gift.  Most people see the gift given to the parents of the baby, but in reality, the gift I received was just as big!  Thank you for making me feel so special. 

Finally, after the last blog post, we did some soul searching and we have all decided to take a break from a sibling journey at this time.  It doesn't mean it won't ever happen but right now, and for the unforeseeable future, they would like to enjoy their daughter that they have wished and dreamed about for years.  They want to spoil her and let her be the only child for now!  Its a pretty special thing!  So until then... I will pump and unless the most amazing couple falls in my lap, we will revisit this at another time!!

And one more thing -- I swear the birth story and photos ARE coming!!!  again, I know they will be worth the wait!!


Now off to pump and head for bed.  The kids have been home every day this week except yesterday.  We got 1/2 an inch last night and it shut down DC.  Tomorrow, we are getting between 18-36 inches of snow in 24 hours.  Kids are excited but me?  Not at all!!  Kids are home again tomorrow and I don't do cold or snow.  They are both 4 letter words (figuratively and literally!!!)