1 month

So not a lot has really been going on since I posted last. Piki is now almost 7 weeks and is so so adorable! I'm still getting emails fairly often with pictures and I love seeing him grow.

Piki at 1 month

 

5 weeks

I'm so glad I was able to help them.  I have 3 more months until I apply again. I haven't really been thinking about it as much, but it's still exciting too.


Coming up for us I have a March of Dimes walk this Saturday, Color Mania (a 5k where they throw colored powder on you at each mark) the 4th, and Warrior Dash (a 5k with obstacles) the 11th. I'm really looking forward to each thing, especially Warrior Dash. I've never done anything like that before.


For my weight loss i'm finally under the weight I was when I became pregnant with Piki! In the picture was from the morning having him, 12 days postpartum (which you'll remember from an earlier post) and then 6 1/2 weeks since having him. Since taking that last picture i've lost an additional 2.6lbs.

And here are some new ones of D and R.

Time to say goodbye

This is a week late in posting. The guys left last Monday to head home. On Sunday we went to my cousins house to celebrate her daughters birthday and then that evening we all met up at Outback for one last dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

 At my cousins

my last time holding him

Afterwards I went back to their hotel to pick up the baby supplies I had loaned them and to say goodbye. I didn't realize it was going to be that hard, but I was definitely a little emotional. It also felt weird knowing that this journey had fully ended. I waited so long to do this and now 1 year later it's over. I definitely look forward to doing another one.


So now i've gotten clearance to start working out from my doctor and i've starting doing Tony Hortons 10 minute trainer dvds. There is no difference yet, but i'm hoping 1 month from now there will be. It'll be nice to feel okay about my body.

As well yesterday dh finally was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church. As well we have our marriage validated after going through a lot to get it done. I'm really proud of him for finding something he believes in. Here is a picture from last night. He's the one kneeling in the brown robe.I ended up getting there a few minutes too late so I had to sit in the choir. At least it gave me a good view!

12 days post partum

That's where I am today. While it's taken some getting use to things are finally getting back to normal. On Saturday D,J, and Piki came over for dinner and we fired up the grill. We also got to share the bottle of Champage they brought with them and it was really good!!


While of course there are going to be updates on how the guys are doing I may also put some focus now on weight loss since my main focus is getting back to where I was before. So far i'm okay with the progress i've made, but I definitely have quite a bit more to do before i'm where I want to be. While I can't really exercise last night I did start lifting 5lb weights and I have done some light walking (aka shopping) to burn calories. Today I started the 3 day military diet which if done correctly you can lose up to 10lbs each round. I've only had breakfast so far but i'm so full from it and i'm really hoping it works. I have 2 other friends who are doing it with me so I will be sure to post our progress!

So now i'm going to post a side by side of what i've done so far. The first picture was taken that morning after I had him. The one next to it is just a little while ago and I apologize for looking like a mess since we all just got up. My weight the day I had him was 158 so i'm guessing I was about 150 maybe there. The picture on the right is at 135.2

A much needed update

So I stopped updating and I feel bad about it. With my computer screen cracking, starting to be exhausted, and just life I ended up ignoring the blog and i'm sorry to those who asked about updates.

So things continued to go really well with the pregnancy. By 30 weeks I started having sporadic contractions which by now i'm totally use to and expecting. Because of this I started weekly appointments and was normally checked each week. By 33 weeks I was 3cm and then a week later was at 4.

By then I started getting pretty anxious wondering what day it was going to be. Tuesday, Feb 26th I ended up in labor and delivery with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. I really thought that it was going to be the day I had him, but I was making no changes so I ended up going home. My OB was going out of town that weekend so I was glad when the time passed and I was still pregnant.

That weekend I started to get the feeling i've gotten with both of my girls. Like things were seriously about to change. I  bought groceries for that week, washed clothing for all of us and made sure I had outfits for the girls, and made sure things were all lined up. The next few days I ended up not feeling that great and was resting as much as I could.

The morning of my 36 week almost 37 week appointment was March 6th. I still wasn't feeling good, but I was ready to find out if I had made any progress. During the check I started feeling some contractions and my OB informed me baby had moved his head down and I was now 5cm and 60% effaced. He didn't feel comfortable with me being there and having the possibility of going into labor and living 30 minutes from the hospital so he told me to come back in a few hours and I was going to be admitted. It was so exciting! I picked up the girls, called dh to let him know he needed to head home, got groceries and lunch for the girls, and then headed home.

Once we were home I was trying to seriously hurry. My deliveries with both girls started with me having contractions, going to the hospital, then getting admitted so i've never had a situation like this before where I could choose when to go up to L&D. I picked out something more comfortable to wear, dh changed, and I fed the girls their lunch while making sure I had everything I was going to need. I was just so anxious, excited, and nervous.

After being unsure at first of where to go I finally went up to L&D and got settled in triage while I waited for a room to open up. I had my cousin and a friend come up and hang out with me while I waited which laying on those beds is so uncomfortable. I also was having contractions every once in awhile, but they weren't as painful as they had been the week before. Finally around 6pm I got my room. 5016. It's normally a room for those who have c-sections so it was a different part of the floor. The room was still really nice and cozy.


Eventually my cousin had to leave and another one of my friends showed up and was the one to stay with me during the whole birth. I'm so grateful for her being there and she was one of the best people to have up there with me when dh couldn't be there. She also took some kick ass pictures!

I was still at 5cm at that point and after waiting awhile I finally got bloodwork done and had my epidural put it. It actually hurt a little bit more than it had the other times, but it still wasn't bad at all. Once I got settled my doctor went ahead and broke my water. That's always such a weird experience, but thankfully everything was clear. Within the minute of him doing that I went from 5cm to 8cm. No wonder I wasn't progressing!

After that I was so relaxed and I stayed that way the whole time. For the first time in a birthing experience I probably could have taken a nap, but I was having too much fun talking to my friend about what I had on tv.

I'm a little fuzzy on what time everything happened next but eventually I got to 9 and then after being asked a few times if I was feeling any pressure I finally started to feel some, but not a lot. We started practice pushing and then got everything ready to go. Within a little bit of the pushing I finally started having some pain. With both of my girls when I had pressure it was a really painful pressure that would go down my side before even pushing so it was really weird. I wasn't even sure I was pushing right but had wonderful support from everyone in the room. Within 20 minutes (or so i'm told) baby piki was born. I'm not entirely sure if it was 2:37am or 2:42am but it was early morning.

He was just so handsome and I was so happy. I got to cut the cord which is a first and man that was tough! I was scared I was going to hurt him. He got moved over to the warming table and was washed off. I only got to see him for a few seconds before he had to go to the nicu to be checked out further.

I was able to get some rest that morning throughout the nurses checking on me and some other visitors. I was pretty anxious though because I was wanting to know how he was doing as he was still in the nicu. Finally mid morning he got to go to my room. For a baby who wasn't mine I felt very protective over him. I guess because his parents weren't here yet and I knew my job wasn't done just yet. It was so nice though getting newborn snuggles in and I forgot how tiny and precious they are.

Throughout the day I had more visitors, but there were 2 people I was still patiently waiting on and was keeping contact with. By 11pm they finally arrived and let me tell you that was an incredibly heart warming moment. The look on their faces when they saw him will be something I will always remember.


We all were discharged on Saturday and i've gotten to visit a few times. It's been really weird for me as we're transitioning back into our regular lives again. While I still have absolutely no desire to be the one taking care of Adam, i'll admit it feels a little lonely not having those kicks and movements going on inside. I'm also so ready to be past the 6 week mark where I can start exercising and hopefully have a rockin' body come summer time. As well i'm hoping by the end of this year/beginning of next year I might be able to start a second surrogacy journey which I would hopefully keep better track of.

In closing of this super long post I will say this has been an amazing experience. I had waited so long for this opportunity and I could never regret any second of it. D&J and baby Piki are so special to me and i'm glad they are in my life and hopefully will continue to be for a very long time. 


Now for pictures!!

 Waiting on Baby

 

cutting the cord

 

baby piki born 3/7/13

sweet little boy

 

 meeting his parents for the first time.

 

D feeding the baby. she loves him so much!

24 weeks

Today I am 24 weeks and 6 days pregnant. Baby Piki is the size of a cantaloupe and his skin is getting less opaque and more pink. We've also reached viability which is a big goal every pregnancy. While I need him baking as long as possible if he were to come into the world right now he would have anywhere from a 39-70% chance of survival depending on what website you look it up. It always makes me feel 100x's better seeing that statistic.


So what happened this past week? Here not very much. The main thing that I was working towards on Sunday where I was accepted into the Episcopal Church. Originally I was brought up in the Catholic Church, but I realized it just wasn't the right place for me to be in. Especially with this surrogacy journey i'm on i've become to feel more uncomfortable with attending because to them what i'm doing is wrong. Thankfully I am now in a Church that I not only feel comfortable in but just fully feels right.


Like most of the US and possibly the world i've also felt pretty upset over what happened in Newtown CT. As much as i've tried to just ignore the coverage and not focus on it it's hard not to. I guess it may have to do with now being a parent and realizing just how lucky I am to have two girls that I can cuddle,play,feed, and tuck in at night while 20 parents are not having that opportunity right now. While i'm not even sure who really reads this blog I ask that anyone who gets to this post tonight to just hug your loved ones and keep those families in your thoughts.

23 weeks

This week baby piki is the size of a grapefruit. He can now hear noises and voices and listens to my heartbeat. He's probably hearing a lot of screeching from my girls since starting this week began a phase of constantly yelling and having temper tantrums. The terrible two's is now in full force with D. On the 9th we had D's 2nd birthday party. I honestly couldn't think of a good theme so since there was a game we choose a Saints one. Unfortunately they lost to the Giants, but we had good food and cake! She also got a baby that was fought over with her sister. I ended up going to Walmart the next day and buying the same baby just so they would each have one.

22 weeks

This week baby Piki is the size of a papaya. He now is looking more like a newborn and has started a sleep cycle throughout the day. Everytime I would lay down I would be able to feel him moving around in there.

I had my 20 week ultrasound this week and again he was absolutely perfect. He was measuring for the most part a week ahead and moving around like crazy. Unfortunately I found out I have partial placenta previa (a low lying placenta) so it's something that is going to have to be monitored later on. The doctor who did the ultrasound wasn't too worried and said it would correct itself.

Here is one of the pictures of his sweet little face.