Thursday, February 25, 2016

Welcome 2nd Trimester

Today marks week 15 of pregnancy, and I was freed from the crazy hormone regimen that I've been on since November at week 12.  I felt just horrible the first trimester!  I think this pregnancy will go down as the most "real vomit" pregnancy that I've had.  All of my other pregnancies I've thrown up quite a bit but it always seemed to be dry heaves or bile.  I've lost track of the amount of times that I've legitimately puked.  Sometimes I threw up multiple times a day.  It almost makes me cry to think about my husband and kids listening to me barf so often.  At week 12, Ben walked in the house from work and could only hear the sound of me throwing up in the nearby bathroom.  I simultaneously peed my pants! (It's ok if you laugh...I would laugh at you if you would have done the same thing!)  Our eight year old, George, would holler out, "Watch out...she's going to blow!" when he heard me starting to gag.  I can speak for everyone in our family, we're ready for Mama to start feeling better.  And I do finally feel better!

Thankfully I had my first midwife appointment around week 11 and Liz gave me a prescription for an old-school anti nausea that has saved my life.  I initially was going to use it simply to take a shower, because I threw up every single time I washed my hair, but I found that I feet like I could live again if I took it every four hours, and now I'm only taking it maybe twice a day.  Thank God for Liz and for anti nausea!  Our first appointment with Liz was great.  Liz's nurse, Kristen, is beyond adorable.  This is the first time she's ever worked with a surrogate and it's fun to answer her questions.  I often have to remind myself that most people have a curiosity about surrogacy.  I forget that it's not mysterious to our family and friends because we've gone through this before so it feels pretty normal to us.  Liz totally surprised us and gave us a little seek peak at the baby at our first appointment with an unofficial ultrasound.  I honestly believe that it helps my IPs feel more connected to their baby when they can actually see it moving around in there.  We had our second midwife appointment today and got to hear the heart beating 156 beats per minute.  It's such a beautiful sound to my ears!  Our next visit will be for our 20 week ultrasound.  It's debatable at this point if they're going to find out the gender or not - I know my vote doesn't count, but I hope they wait until the birth!  :)
1-28-16

For those of you concerned about the relationship between Liz and baby and what might happen if something goes wrong, I assure you that we had an in depth discussion about how Liz will step away and we'll have someone jump in if necessary.  This is best for Liz, the baby, and myself.  Please rest peacefully knowing that a backup plan is in place, and please believe that everything will go as smoothly as planned.  I'm not just jumping into this because my IPs would love for the baby auntie to attend the delivery.  I, more than anyone, want Liz to be the one to take care of me!  This has been well thought out and we want everyone to be as excited as we are to be able to have the birth that we all have dreamed about.  Thank you for your support!

Sucking Blood
Brutal
Life insurance is a piece of our contract that most people wouldn't think about.  I'm carrying a baby that is worth it's weight in gold.  I had a vampire visit me to suck my blood in order to apply for life insurance for myself and a policy for my IPs.  The lady reeked of smoke, how do you come into my house smelling so horrific?!  She was nice and all, but she was the most brutal phlebotomist I've ever had in my whole entire life.  I'm not a wimp, like IP-A, when is comes to needles, but this lady hurt me pretty bad and I ended up with a terrible bruise.



The baby is now four inches long and weighs about two and a half ounces, similar to an apple. It's squirming around in its warm womb and occasionally I do feel something moving in there.  It can already urinate, move all it's joints, and is passing amniotic fluid through it's nose already.  I can't wait until I can feel more movement.  That's my favorite parts of pregnancy. 

13w3d
14w1d
I officially weigh the same as I did when I was 9 months pregnant with Spencer.  I'll take the weight gain instead of having the food issues I did last time.  I'm grateful that I can eat and I've gone two weeks without throwing up.  A cute little bump is starting to protrude.  It doesn't really look like I'm pregnant yet...just a "she ate too many peanut butter cups" belly.  Speaking of peanut butter, I've been obsessed with peanut butter!  I eat it all day long and on everything - apples, bananas, celery, and inside chocolate!





Smells that have been overly offensive include our gas range and stove, our basement, the ultrasonic solution and x-ray processor at work, bad breath, the smell of man (so much that I've had to buy my husband new deodorant, soap, shampoo, and shaving cream that is all unscented or mint smelling), liquid soap, dish soap, any scented laundry detergent, car exhaust, and cigarette smoke!  UGH, those things would make me vomit at a drop of a hat.            

Snowman, Kevin, and a Monkey in the Tree
My energy levels are finally starting to increase.  I was able to make some amazing snow sculptures with our kids over the last month, which have now melted.  Best of all, I'm finally able to run again!  I have put in a pathetic 32 miles since the beginning of the calendar year.  Last year I was already at 200 miles at this point.  I'm thankful that I've been able to get outside again and our family has had some bonding miles under our belt for the year.  I'll be heading out for a run just as soon as the kids get home from school.  They LOVE running with mom and mom loves running with them!   
Family Fun Run