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.

21 weeks

This week baby piki is the size of a pomegranate (and to be honest, I had no idea that's what one looked like). He's gulping amniotic fluid and is tasting what i'm eating. Like my last pregnancy I have a bit of a sweet tooth so he's enjoyed a cookie or two.


I've been so busy so I have to try to remember what happened this week. Thanksgiving was this week and instead of spending that Thursday with family we hung out at home. I did this 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Darcy and it was just so much fun. The next day I did some Christmas shopping and we set up our tree.

20 weeks

Today i'm 20 weeks and 6 days pregnant. Piki is the size of a banana and is working on tastes buds and now drinks the amniotic fluid.


This has been quite an interesting week. On Wednesday D wasn't feeling so good so I took her to the doctor. I'm pretty sure she was misdiagnosed but she's doing better now. Because she wasn't feeling well I was holding her throughout a lot of the day, most of it standing because she'd cry if I sat down. I think that and being out and not drinking water/eating caused my body to be wore out and dehydrated because later on that evening I had some bad braxton hicks and some back pain and went up to L&D. I was up there a total of 4 hours and got an IV with fluids, but started feeling better. Baby Piki was perfect and if anything got annoyed that monitors were invading his space. He would constantly kick them trying to move them out of the way. Other things that happened this week was getting to go to a family members birthday party and having Christmas pictures done of us and the girls. I can't wait to see how they turn out!!

I had a doctors appointment today. I'm not very happy with my weight gain, but everything looked great and we picked up the heart beat right away. I guess the nurses up in L&D were quite excited about someone working with a male couple because my doctor told me he heard about it last week. I think i'm probably going to be one of the first doing that which is cool. Thankfully I now have my 20 week ultrasound now scheduled for the 3rd even though i'll be almost 23 weeks then.

I also figured i'd share a picture from last week that I had forgotten to add. Such a cute profile!

It's a.....

I said I wasn't going to find out, but before I could fully make that decision it was made for me. I had been going back and forth and when talking to D&J about it they said they'd pick something either feminine or masculine and give to me later to find out. So we went to the ultrasound, got situated with everything, and started looking around. Within the first minute the tech told me to close my eyes and I did which she pointed out the gender to the guys. I don't remember how the comment was made but as I heard something along the lines of "Baby is showing the goods right away!" I knew immediately. Being a been there done that mom we know a few things about ultrasounds and the nature of those little people. 

    So without further ado.....

19 weeks

Today I am 19 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Baby Piki is the size of a mango and is about 6 inches long and 8.5 ounces (240.971 grams for those outside of the US) and is working on their senses. I'm sure soon Piki will be enjoying the foods i'm eating.


So currently D&J are out here. They got into TN Friday evening and stayed overnight and came to town that morning for the ultrasound. I'll post the results in another entry. I will say that there was so much excitement going on. After that we took them for bbq and that evening we had a Thanksgiving Dinner in their honor. My friend K came along with her daughter as well as my mom. K is like the best cook ever and I am in love with her cranberry sauce and the pecans she made. I've eaten them all already!

Then on Sunday we went to Memphis. We stopped at Graceland (Elvis Presley's home) first. While it's very interesting I definitely do not recommend it if you have children under 2. My time there was spent having D pull me around everywhere and getting wore out. It's a beautiful home though and even though i've been once before I liked getting to see his home and cars.

After that we went to get some food. My favorite burger place in Memphis is Kooky Canuck. Not only have they been on Man vs Food for their 7 1/2lb burger, but their regular sized ones are just amazing. I wish we had one here so I could go whenever. We also went to Beale street for a short period of time because at that moment it started pouring cold rain. Before it got bad D & D got to enjoy some live music.

Today so far all that's happened is breakfast here (and I feel like I need to be making this everyday) of ham,cheese, and egg croissants and fruit salad. We then went over to the hospital so they could see where they'll be going when Piki is born and get a tour of the room. They've updated it (I think because of a new one coming in) and i'm so looking forward to baby time! Labor and Delivery has always been my favorite part so it just hypes it up. As well I found out that babies 33 weeks and older can be born here unlike before where if it was 35 weeks or earlier I would fly to Little Rock. It gives a lot of peace of mind to me since being separated from my girls for a long time with a long distance scares me. I don't think i'll deliver that early, but I know anything can happen in a pregnancy.  Tonight i'm hoping we'll go out one last time before saying goodbye to D&J as they head back home. I'll miss having them here and I know the girls will too. D really warmed up to them and was having them read her books and play games with her.