We jinxed it!

The IPs have all of their family out of town and they were planning on going to home for Thanksgiving.  I was maybe a tiny bit nervous but felt comfortable since I was only about 32.5 weeks along when they were flying out.  Before they left Ms. J and I joked about how they would leave and that something would end up happening.  Little did we know that something would be happening.

I had a cold for about 3 weeks by the time they flew out to visit family and just hadn't been feeling so great!  I went to the chiropractor the day they left and was under the weather but was managing life for the most part.  I picked up my daughter and the thought of dealing with dinner and bed seemed like a nightmare with how I was feeling.  I had texted a couple surrogate friends and they said I should go in and ask for an IV to see if that would help.  Even though I was still drinking fluids it just didn't seem like it was enough.

I called my daughter's dad and had him come take her for the night.  I felt good enough to drive but did notice that I had kind of painful Braxton hicks when I headed to the hospital.  I figured that with this being my 3rd pregnancy that it wasn't anything special.  When I arrived at the hospital Ms. J texted me saying they had landed so I called her with the news that I was at the hospital.  She was all ready to get back on a flight back to Utah just in case.  I told her to hold off until we knew for sure what they were going to do or say.  I go up to Labor and Delivery and they get me all hooked up and lo and behold those BH were actually contractions and not getting any  better.  They seemed to be gradually getting more intense and closer together.

This little guy was moving like crazy the entire time they were monitoring me which was a good sign and so reassuring during this.  While I was in L&D they did an Fetal Fibernectin test (FFN) on me which basically gives you an idea if you will deliver in the next 2 weeks.  They gave me fluids which helped a ton!  Since the contractions weren't really letting up they decided to give me a shot to stop the contractions or at least slow them down.  They checked me and everything was still closed tight and no sign of a progressed cervix, thankfully!

The family was already planning on staying at a hotel that was close to the airport so if needs be Ms. J could have hopped back on a plane.  She didn't need to thankfully since I am very much pregnant still.  It was comforting to know that she would have done so if needs be.

I went the OB office the next day and saw the on call OB and he checked my cervix just to be sure nothing happened over night.  Still nothing was happening there!!  I have basically had contractions and Braxton Hicks every single day since this and just have to deal with it.  I was given a prescription to stop contractions if they get bad again but with being almost 35 weeks my OB said we probably wouldn't stop them at this point.  I have just been taking it easy and not doing anything out of the norm.

Let us hope he stays put til the beginning of January, at least!

Huge update

First and foremost, I have to tell you what this little snowflake is since I was keeping it a surprise!  The IPs will be welcoming the cutest little BOY in the next month or so!!  They are so excited and getting things ready for his upcoming arrival!

Since I last posted I had talked about my thyroid being a bit crazy.  That ended up taking care of itself once I got further into the pregnancy.  It is apparently very normal when pregnant for some of your hormones to go whacko, my thyroid happened to be one of those things.  After that it was pretty much smooth sailing and no other scares came up.  I had my glucose test the middle of October and that came back normal and great!  Yay for being able to eat like I normally would and not having any food restrictions.

I hired a doula for this delivery and LOVE her!! :)  Since I won't have my mom at the birth and I am not sure if certain people I've asked to be there will be able to make it I opted for a doula.  I will need an advocate for me and someone to be there for me when this sweet boy is with his parents!  Ms. J and I have met with her and told her our wishes and things we are hoping to happen during the birth!

The beginning of November we had a 3D ultrasound and let me just say this little boy is the cutest thing ever.  He has the sweetest little face; chubby cheeks, perfect lips and LOTS of hair.  Yes, we could see a head full of hair.  It makes me feel better knowing that the insane heart burn I've been having is paying off.

I started taking a hypnobabies class the past few weeks and have really enjoyed the class.  Ms. J has come with me several times and we will make a good team getting this little guy here!  I just need to keep listening to my tracks and practicing my breathing.  I am excited and maybe a bit nervous about this birth since this will be the first unmedicated birth I've had.  The unknown can be a bit scary and not knowing what to really expect freaks me out.

I've been seeing a chiropractor since I was about 16 weeks which has literally been heaven sent.  The further along I get the more I feel like I need an adjustment.  I also just recently started going to get a massage every other week to help with the extra back pain.  I can't tell you how amazing it is to lay on my tummy for the chiropractor and the massage.  To have the extra weight not pull on the middle of my back and feel a tiny bit weightless is amazing!  I joke that I'm going to have to steal the belly thing they have me lay on during these.

I can't believe we are almost at the end of this pregnancy.  It really has flown by and been amazing!  I couldn't have picked a better couple to be part of this journey with.  They truly are amazing and some of my very best friends! :)  We root each other on and encourage each other through all of this.  I love that they have involved me in this process and let me be part of things that they didn't necessarily have to involve me in.  Love them!

34 weeks along already

I have been so behind in keeping up with this journey and now that we are nearing the end I figured I should give an update.  For now I figured I would give a look into this pregnancy via pictures.  This little one is growing like crazy!!

Test results

I had mentioned that I had some blood work done at my initial OB appointment on the 1st.  Well I got the results back and everything was good except for my TSH levels weren't were they should be.  We are keeping an eye on them and will be retesting to see if they have resolved.  J and I were a bit nervous about waiting til my 2nd trimester since thyroid levels can affect the baby and can cause problems.  That's what we get for reading Mr. WebMD.  My doctor was sweet enough to let us come in sooner to get them rechecked and is willing to let us recheck as many times as we need.

I've never had any issues with my levels coming back abnormal so it definitely through me off guard.  We checked these levels when we first started the process, through the fertility clinic and nothing was wrong.  Then I had them checked again in April when I was doing my life insurance policy stuff.  It just is weird and I am hoping it resolves.

The doctor said it is very normal for your thyroid to get out of whack once you get pregnant but it generally resolves and levels out.  If it does not we will be going to an endocrinologist at that point.  Please send prayers that it levels out and doesn't harm the baby at all. :)

Graduated

This post may be all over the place, so please bare with me....



We went to our last ultrasound appointment at the fertility clinic on June 2nd.  Little snowflake was so cute and was moving around a little bit.  Looked like a little gummy bear, I was about 8w2d at that point.  It is so crazy to finally say we are graduated from the clinic and now this is considered just a normal pregnancy.

I am still taking my medication until the 14th but other than that I am good to go, no extra ultrasounds or appointments besides with our OB.  Speaking of our OB we went to her on the 1st and J was able to meet her at the appointment.  Was bummed T couldn't come but we have plenty more appointments to go to that the whole family will meet our amazing doctor.  I can't speak anymore highly of her.  She truly is amazing!

Our OB appointment was great.  We weighed me and I can say I've only gained 2 lbs so far since starting this whole process.  That is a feat since the medication usually add like 5-10 lbs. ha  Dr. L brought in the hand u/s machine and took a little look at my little buddy.  Babies hb was measuring about 180ish which is great news!  Measuring on track!!  I had some blood drawn and left a urine sample and then just needed to wait for those results.  I will post about those later.  We set up our next appointment which was a little tricky.  J&T live in Utah but all their family live in the South, it so happens they are going to be out of two a lot this Summer.  We scheduled our next appointment but only T can make it to that one, J and the kids are going to be out of town during it.  We will be skyping or facetiming with her.

I just have to send my praises to how grateful I am that everything has been going so smoothly with this process.  Besides being super nauseated 24/7 everything has been perfect!  I have been so nervous with every u/s that something bad was going to show up.  Nothing has gone wrong.  Baby is perfect and extremely strong.  The family is amazing and I love having them close and so involved.  This is going to be an amazing process, I mean it already has been.

Colpo di fulmine

“Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can’t be denied. It’s beautiful and messy,
cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there’s no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is
irrevocably changed.” 
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

I loved this quote because it made me think of how amazing and wonderful yesterday was.  We are 6 weeks along now and generally the fertility clinic likes to wait until we are 7 weeks to do an ultrasound to check on baby.  T's mom is in town but leaving today and so she wouldn't be here to see her newest grandchild if we waited.  J convinced them that we needed to have an ultrasound sooner and that we wouldn't be discouraged if we didn't see a heartbeat yet.  It worked and they agreed to do one sooner!

Let me just say how excited I was that we were able to see little snowflake sooner than later, but I think it is safe to say we were all a bit nervous about what we were going into.  I went to lunch before our appointment with J and Ms. L, we were all a bit anxious for our appointment and ready to get there.

We got to the fertility clinic and waited for the doctor to get there.  I was so nervous that we would be devastated after this appointment because something was wrong.  J&T were nervous that there was more than one growing in there.  I will say that my beta numbers were higher than normal so it could have been a possibility that this little one split on us.

The second that little tiny body popped up on the screen I was relieved.  I was so glad to see that this baby was growing and healthy.  It is so stressful in the beginning of any pregnancy but I feel a huge weight lifting knowing that they aren't going to be heartbroken.  I was so happy that baby was hanging out in there.

I was 6w1d when we had our ultrasound and so there was a good chance it was too early to see or hear a heartbeat yet.  To our surprise we saw and heard this little one's heartbeat.  I am elated for us!!  I look over and Ms. L is crying and so I started crying.  J&T are literally just ear to ear grinning.  It is finally more real and is happening.  I have felt a little more guarded with this journey and more nervous about what if and so it was so nice and reassuring to see that there is a baby growing and it's sticking around and not going anywhere.

Honestly I wish I could have bottled that moment in time to remember forever.  I love seeing the looks on mom, dad, grandma and grandpas faces when they saw little snowflake and heard his little heart pounding.  That is one of those most perfect moments and makes this whole process worth it.  The shots are worth seeing them light up and get excited.  Now if only there was a way to make the next 34 weeks to go by faster!

Final Beta

We had our final beta on Monday the 11th and it was perfect!  It was....






                               7649!!!



We are definitely pregnant and expected a very strong baby in there!  We have our first ultrasound this coming Monday and are hoping to see a heartbeat.  It still might be a little early so we are trying to not get our hopes up if we don't see one then.  YEAH for our little snowflake wanting to stick around. :)

Cellulitis

I figured I would share the good, the bad and the very ugly of this process.  A couple days ago I ended up having quite the rash near my injection site.  It was swollen, hot and super itchy.  I thought maybe it was just a weird knot but after some reassurance to go in I'm glad I did.

I had called the clinic who said to come in the morning to get it looked at, if it got worse or unbearable to go into the instacare.  I ended up going to the instacare and it was determined that I had cellulitis which meant it was infected.  It was still very swollen and miserable but they started me on a pregnancy safe antibiotic that night.  I seem to always wait til it is 9pm or later to go get my stuff checked out.  The instacare put dots around it to make sure it wasn't going out of the lines.

The next morning the clinic called and there was a misunderstanding on my part and I thought that since I went to the instacare that I was okay and didn't need to be seen.  They still wanted me to come in.  I made arrangements with work to leave.  Then I got a call that they wanted my family doctor or a dermatologist to look at it.  I thought it was best to see a dermatologist if possible since they specialize in skin.  By the morning it was exceeding the dots that were made last night.  That made me a bit nervous and I was hoping that it was just because the antibiotic wasn't completely in my system yet.

Finding a dermatologist that was open that day was becoming kind of difficult, most were booked til mid Summer.  I finally found an office that would see me that day, I didn't care who it was as long as we were seen that day.

I had text J saying that they wanted me to be seen and she immediately got ready and was at the fertility clinic before I even found coverage at work.  I was so glad she was coming with so that we could make sure all was well.  We had a good time waiting for our appointment too.

When we finally saw the doctor she immediately said it was definitely infected, made me feel better for going in the night before.  She also said that it looked like the antibiotic was working and that it was within the dots.  That was a relief since it was exceeding when I got to work.  She gave me a cortisone spray to use for the itching which was great.  She mentioned that if this happened again it could be more of a reaction to the oil so that is something we have to consider too.

I'm just glad to know that it wasn't a huge deal and we got it figured out quickly.  I am also grateful that I didn't need them to pull any liquid off or pack anything in the area.  The swelling has gone down considerably and it will hopefully clear up really soon.

Another beta...

I love seeing this number double every couple of days.  This means we have a very strong little one in there and little snowflake is growing and thriving!! :)