19-22 Week Update

Hey everyone!

It has been about a month since I posted last (oops). But there has not been too much to report. I am doing great! Feeling healthy and wonderful. We had our anatomy scan about three weeks ago now and everything with baby girl is perfect! She did not want to cooperate and let us get very good photos of her face. It also took quite a bit to get her spine measurements because she had her back pushed all the way up against my right side. She is head down as of now, and better still be that way by the time D-Day comes. Ha.

Now that we are over half way to my due date, I am starting to think of how I would like her birth to go. I have been reading and studying something called Hypnobirthing. From all of the research that I have done, a lot of women that have used this kind of technique have had almost "painless" births. Pretty much how it works is taking all of the pain and pressure you are feeling and just being so deep in tune with your body, that you can channel the pain you are feeling to really help your baby out. To birth without pain and fear. I have watched quite a few births now (YouTube mostly) I am 100% confident. I won't go on and on about it, but if you want to learn more you can here. This book so far has been great and very informative.

Christmas 2014
21 Weeks

I  am feeling a lot more movement now too. She is super active almost all day. They say babies sleep up to 18 hours per day, she does not. Ha. I am starting to see her move on the outside, but it is still very subtle. Once I can see it more, I will be post a video. I love feeling and watching her move. To me this is the best part of pregnancy! I have my next appointment tomorrow, just a simple check up. My next appointment after this one, I am pretty sure I will have to test for Gestational Diabetes. Where you have to drink the orange or clear stuff. I am hoping for the clear, the taste of the orange will probably make me throw up. Haha.

20 weeks

Well that is all for now! Once I start having check-ups every two weeks I will start updating every two weeks! If anyone has any questions about surrogacy or wanting to become a surrogate, please feel free to comment or send me a pm! ♥

17/18 Week Update

Trying to cover her face

Hey Everyone! Today I am 18 weeks. We are almost halfway to D-day! This past week I had an appointment with my midwife and a follow-up ultrasound. The appointment went great. Just the basic blood pressure, weight check, etc. Everything is good. I have lost about about 20lbs since I got pregnant in August (horrid morning sickness is to blame) but my midwife is not concerned about it at all. Honestly, it sounds worse than it is. I had a few extra pounds I do not mind parting with AT all. :) BP was great, as it always is. We listened to baby girl's heartbeat and tried to get a recording of it for my IF, but she was so active we could not get anything that did not sound like a bunch of fuzz. But luckily for him, he got some cute photos from the ultrasound, which in my opinion, is even better.

The ultrasound went great, but the tech was a little sketchy. I was not very happy with her, to say the least. She was not very personable and of course I was alone for the appointment, so it made for an awkward thirty minutes. I don't think she really knew what the ultrasound was for or anything either. She asked a lot of questions that I feel like she should have already. I assume she had specific things to look for per my midwife. But oh well, I hopefully won't see her again. Ha.

Just relaxing with her hands behind her head

I am really enjoying being pregnant. Even with all of the sickness and everything I have been through the past few weeks. I did jinx myself in my last post about feeling so much better because last week, I was sick for almost three days in a row. So I am not going to say that I am feel great this time. I will say that I have not been sick, but that can change. (hopefully not). I haven't really had any cravings other than chocolate covered strawberries with dark chocolate only. I have been having little movements and "pressure" of her moving. Every single day I can feel her getting stronger. Today I have felt her move a lot more than usual. I actually felt her on the outside and I don't have to really concentrate anymore to feel her moving. She has always been very active from the first time I saw her on the ultrasound. So she is going to be a handful! I did have a few braxton hicks contractions today while cleaning. (or nesting I should say...)

Everything with my IF seems to be going a lot better (not that it was horrible) this week. I have gotten a bit more communication from him, which is always nice. After thinking about it for awhile, there really is only so much for us to really chat about. His biggest concern in not wanting to be too overwhelming to me or taking a lot of my time away from my every day life. But it is also awkward to be like "Hey, I threw up three times today." ha. Not that I would ever say that though. Everything is starting to become more real to him and I am starting to feel a lot more of his excitement. Which is all I want from this journey. I cannot wait to see him hold his little girl for the first time. To know that I am helping someone have a child is one of the most rewarding things I have/will do in my life. I love this feeling so much, that I know I want to do it again. I know some might not understand, but this feeling is so indescribable it is no question in my mind.

18 Weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks 

15/16 Week Update!

Hey Everyone!

Not too much to update, so this will be short and sweet. I have been feeling so much better the past two weeks. It has been three weeks exactly since I have last thrown up! I think I mentioned feeling some movement in my last update. Mostly just little flutters and a "pressure" feeling. But now I am feeling little kicks here and there and a lot of the "pressure" feeling when I assume she is flipping around. This is the most exciting part of pregnancy to me! It makes being sick so worth it. Cannot wait until I can actually feel her moving around more. She is about the size of an avocado now! It is so crazy to think how quickly babies grow.

16 weeks

Here is a photo of me at 16 weeks exactly. Please excuse the two photo bomber's in the back. Haha. I have my second appointment tomorrow with my midwife. I am assuming it is just the normal stuff measurement and heartbeat. I also have an ultrasound the following day. Which will be to check up on her and make sure that everything that should be happening after a reduction is happening. I will edit and update this post to let you all know how both of those appointments went.

13/14 Week Update

Hey Everyone!

I want to start by saying that this is going to be a very emotional post. I found out about a week ago that my IF changed his mind, and decided to go ahead with the reduction. I wanted to wait to post anything until after it was done and over with in case he decided to change his mind again. The past week has been a roller coaster for me, along with my family. I knew that this could happen all along, and I honestly was not prepared for him to actually change his mind. I went through a lot of different emotions. I was angry, hurt, and bitter to say the least. I was also still on my continued bed rest and had a lot of time on my hands to really think about this whole situation. Now that it is done and over with, I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I do not want to feel angry and bitter towards my IF. In reality the babies are his and it was his decision to make. I have went back and forth on why he would have changed his mind. We did not talk about why, but I have an understanding of why he decided to go through with it. I am not going to share my thoughts on that, because it was no one else's decision but his.

The procedure itself, went well. It was something uncomfortable and an indescribable feeling. I was not in pain at all, nor am I traumatized from the experience. Although those things did not happen, I will not ever choose to reduce again. I am on bed rest for the next week. No lifting and pretty much no standing for longer than an hour, the doctor would prefer less. I felt okay after the procedure, but as it has been two days I am gradually having a weird feeling in my stomach and some pain (cramp like) if I do walk around too much.

I also want to give a huge thank you to my very best friend, for taking the trip with me and being there for me. I also want to thank my wonderful Grandparents for helping me out so far with Peyton and taking care of me while John (my hubby)  is at work. Then of course to John for taking care of me 24/7 as well.  I love you guys so much and appreciate everything you have done for me and the support you have given me in the last two weeks! I could not have done it without any of you!

I am here for anyone who is interested in surrogacy and has any kind of questions! Whether it be how to get started, about the reduction, or anything else you may think of! I love educating people about surrogacy and IVF and I want to be as open as possible. One thing though, that I will not tolerate is rude or hurtful comments. Especially regarding the reduction. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, because I know people are pro-choice and pro-life. I respect that and I believe that I deserve that same respect in return.

12 Week Update!

Well the past two weeks have been pretty crazy for me. I have finally been completely weaned off of all of my medications, aside from my prenatal of course. I also had my first OB appointment, which was boring because it was just the maternity counseling appointment. I was just asked some questions about my previous pregnancy and my own health. It was kind of awkward because a lot of the questions did not really have anything to do with me since the eggs were donor eggs, and of course my IF sperm. The nurse was pretty awesome though and we laughed through the awkwardness of it.

So, I will start with the good news first. My IF has changed his mind and will be keeping BOTH babies!! I got a call from my agency earlier last week asking if we (IF and I) had talked about the pregnancy at all. I thought it was weird for her to be calling and emailing me about it (she sent an email before calling). She said that he decided that he did not want to go through with the reduction. She also said that he expressed having concern that I would not want to carry both babies anymore since we had been planning on a singleton pregnancy this whole time. I reassured her I was 100% willing and was always willing to carry both babies. I also sent him a text and we had a pretty good chat about everything and how he was feeling about the whole situation. Also, a few days before I got the news about the reduction, I found out that both babies are GIRLS! I am going to assume this is why I have been SO sick, which I will talk about later. But I am feeling a lot better and now preparing myself for a twin pregnancy!! 

This next little bit of news isn't good, but it also isn't horrible as of right now. Last night I experienced quite a bit of bleeding. I had been sleeping and woke up because I had to pee. I laid there for a minute before getting up. All of a sudden I had this feeling like I was leaking...so I thought that I as peeing myself! I jumped up and rushed to the bathroom to pee. As I was peeing I had looked down and saw two drops of bright red blood on the toilet seat.  I looked into the toilet and it was all bright red. My underwear was also completely saturated in blood, but I did not know at the time because I was wearing dark undies. I called the nurse hot line because I know that sometimes bleeding is common in the first trimester. I hadn't had any cramping at the time of the bleeding either.

*TMI Warning*


After speaking with the nurse, she told me I needed to be seen within the hour. So off to the ER I went. They did blood work, some kind of other lab work where I had to have a catheter put in for them to test to make sure I did not have an infection. Which by the way was VERY uncomfortable and slightly painful. The nurse did bring in a Doppler to find heartbeats. She found one for sure, that was very strong, but was unsure about a second since she only had one Doppler and said it could be picking up the heartbeat we already heard. Then they also did a pelvic exam of course, which was one of the worst ones I have ever had. I am pretty used to all of that going on down there by now, but this was very different and also slightly painful. I couldn't bring myself to just relax. The ER doctor was also not very pleasant or vocal about what was going on down there. At one point he asked for forceps (without saying why or anything mind you) So I am freaking out thinking that he sees one of the babies coming out or something. I had still been bleeding off and on for the past two hours before he did the exam. He ended up pulling out a blood clot that was about two inches long. Then he pretty much got up and left after saying he was going to get a hold of OB in LaCrosse.

Eventually, the nurse came back in with this tiny ultrasound machine. She showed me both babies and both girls had heartbeats and were moving all around. I was so happy to see them both with little heartbeats! One baby was VERY active, but there has been one that is a lot more active at each ultrasound than the other. So at the moment I am on bed rest until I get an actual ultrasound to figure out what caused this bleed. As of right now I do not know. I am supposed to call right away tomorrow morning to get in with my Midwife and see what is going on. I will update if I get answers tomorrow.

Other than those two things, I have been off and on crazy sick! Some days I get sick about 4-5 times a day. Other days I can eat a TON of food, almost as if my body is making up for the three or four days I hardly ate anything. I have of course lost weight, but nothing that is concerning to my Midwife since I am still hydrated and can at least keep water or tea down most days. But since I am almost 13 weeks now, I am hoping that it will soon pass! Other than that I feel good and my body is feeling good, no pain there yet!

10 Week Update

Hey Everyone!

It has been about 5 weeks or so since I updated. So I have A LOT to talk about in this post.

First things, we have had a few ultrasounds now, and the results are in with twins. But before anyone gets too excited, I have some other news that may not sit well with some. My IP has chosen to have a fetal reduction done. This is sometimes common in IVF for various reasons. Sometimes medical and sometimes more embryos transferred than they are willing to parent to "increase the odds"of at least one sticking. So, in other words, some parents will choose to do a medical reduction and some choose to do a selective reduction. In our case, we will be having a selective reduction done.

In the beginning of all of this, I thought that it was the norm to transfer two embryos, even if the IP only wanted one. So I agreed to transferring two and also agreed to reduce from two to one, unless one of the embryos split (making them identical). I was also very misinformed on how the procedure is done. I was told, when I asked in my interview, that it is something done VERY early on. The procedure was said to be painless and similar to how the transfer is done. So, that also helped me to agree with it. When becoming a surrogate, you want to give the parents any rights that they have to their baby. I went into it with that mind set and I really thought that I would not be in this situation I am in now, had I done my own research on fetal reduction and not just taken someones word for it. But I am not going to dwell on what I did not do. I want this post to educate anyone who wants to become a surrogate, or any potential IPs to REALLY think about what they want. If they only want one child, there is no need at all to transfer more than one. If they want twins, there is no reason to transfer more than two. The odds are not how many you put it, if one is going to take, it is going to take. If not then you try again. It is all part of the process of IVF.

The reduction will be done in November. I will be between 13 weeks. The reason that I have learned (after speaking to the doctor who will do the procedure) that this procedure is done between 11-13 weeks is because they will usually hope that one twin does not make it that far into the pregnancy. The procedure is done with a needle through the abdomen, and a saline solution is in the needle. The needle gets injected into the chosen baby's sac, and then the solution stops the heartbeat. I will update everyone on how the procedure goes and how I feel afterwards. Right now, to be honest I am very scared of the procedure. The needle they use is very small, smaller than what I have been using for my daily shot. But they can only numb you topically, there is no way to numb your uterus.

Some questions that most people have:

Can you (me) keep one?

Absolutely not. Neither of these babies are mine and it is not up to me to make any kind of decision regarding them. Like I said earlier, part of being a surrogate is leaving all parental rights to the parent. Now which of those you are comfortable with, are something that you need to decide and stick to it. No matter what an agency tells you about being "hard" to match. It may take a little longer, but there are IP that do not want to reduce at all costs.

Can they put it up for adoption?

Again, no. When you think about it, if you were in their situation, would you be able to give someone else your child? After all of the heartbreak and money that it has taken to finally have a child?

Why do they not want both?

My IP is single, already has one child. Not having a partner and raising twins is not something that is ideal to him. But I do not think that it would be ideal to anyone.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask in the comment section or send me a private message.

Positive Beta!!

Well....

The results are in!!

First Beta=2057

Second Beta=3904

Which means I am pregnant!! We are all so happy for these results. I know my IF is so excited and relieved that this was the one! My progesterone level was a little lower than they would like today (it went from 29 to 18 in two days) so I get to up my suppositories. Whoo. Not. go in for another Beta next week, then the following week we will have the first ultrasound! I am very excited for that and will be skyping (?) with my IF during so he is there with me!

On another note, my butt HURTS! I had to do two injections tonight, and for some reason the smaller of the two (less medication) left a nasty little lump from where I injected. So now my amazing husband is going to have to rub it out, along with giving me a back rub ;)! Sorry to keep this short and sweet, but I am off to bed!