5 month OB

Mama came to this appt in hopes we were picking our C-Section date, buuut that didn't happen :(

She was pretty bummed and i was to, just not as bummed as i would've been had i been in her shoes.

I gained 5 pounds, so now up to 175. After i gain the next 5 pounds, which is clearly going to happen - i will be at the highest weight in my 32 years. Its crazy though because even though with past pregnancys, I have weighed this much and even though that was at the very end - i still don't look as heavy now, as I did then. I seem to be carrying just belly. I am very thankful. I already have enough work to do after these guys come, let's contain it where we can THANK YOU!
However, we do have 15 weeks to go, so still plenty of time for that to happen.

Blood pressure was great, we discussed physical therapy for the back discomfort I've been having but oddly enough, I haven't had any since that appt. That was the worst and it can stay away, far away.

Riley and Ayden have been totally involved with the growing bump. Kissing, reading stories, and talking to the babies. They can't wait to see their new "cousins"!

Kicks and giggles

Pretty much sums up my day. Even though I was at work.... Today was the first day that I was constantly feeling something going on in there. Kicks up top, head bumps on the bottom, All while I'm on the phone with my customers. I try not to focus on it, but when i do it just makes me laugh. Even though I've been pregnant before, its always a great thing to feel. These two little babies growing inside ya and feeling their movements throughout the day, just amazing. I feel so bad knowing that mom is missing out on this. I feel a bit of guilt talking to her about the kicks and movement, knowing that it has to make her feel some sort of a way. She always says "Please forgive them"  lol    Of course i do...this is all apart of being your surrogate!!

5 months and counting!

I am officially more than half way through. I know that time flies WAY. TOO. FAST, but that normally doesn't count when your pregnant, in the summer. I can honestly say though that this is going fast. I often wonder if it's because I don't have the added stress of baby preparations or maybe it's because the anxiousness of awaiting my new baby isn't there. Of course I am anxious to see these precious little ones, but it's just not the same as if it were my own. No matter which, I just can't believe that in 17 weeks, this surrogate journey will be at the end.

Mom and I went to my 5 month ultrasound this week. Since everyone has been telling me that I am measuring small, I was kind of curious to see what the doctor would say about the sizes of the babies.
Thankfully they are doing great, measuring right on target and I just will embrace my small bump because i'm sure it probably isn't going to last.

Little mans heartbeat was 148 and little ladies was 142. They were busy moving around the whole time putting on quite a show for their mama.

I have been feeling really great for the most part. No sickness, no soreness, just starting to get tired earlier and feeling a bit stretched out at times. Comes with the territory. Never been pregnant with twins before, I'm actually a little shocked at how great I am doing so far. It's very hard for me to sit and relax. I always have to be doing something. Tonight I was out pulling weeds, digging holes for flowers and just finally making the outside of our house look nice. One of our neighbors came by and said "You have got to be the most active pregnant woman I know", made me chuckle. Kind of hard to just sit anyhow when every other minute one of my two are yelling Mom, Mom, MOOOOOM!!!!!!
I know the time is coming that i will have to relax for both me and the babies, but for now - i'm enjoying having the energy.

4 month Checkup

Can you say...Boring!!  But that's a good boring. Blood Pressure is fine, weight gain she said is fine but it was up 4 pounds since last month, and heartbeats for both were heard. I'm gonna put it out there for record keeping purposes. I'm at 170 now. This is what i was at during my last month of pregnancy with both of my own kids  : x
Of course when i left there, i realized there were 2 questions I wanted to ask and I didn't..oops. I'll save them for the 5 month check up. Mom didn't come with me to this appt. It's a pretty far drive for her to come for a 5 minute appt. Towards the end I'm sure they will attend these.

Saturday morning I met mom at Babies R Us. She wanted to start browsing baby stuff and i was soo happy when she asked me to meet her there. Tim had to work third shift the night before so we had 2 tag alongs. It's always nice meeting up with her, we always have a good time together.
We had a great time looking at all of the ideas, oooohing and ahhhhing over all of the adorable baby stuff! She decided not to register that day though because while most of the stuff was cute, she wasn't in love with alot of the "big" things. So she is going to do some more research and then register from there.

This Babies R Us is a trap! It is attached to Toys R Us and inside the building the two are connected. The whole time through Babies R Us, my kids were asking "can we go to toys rus, when can we, can we go now?!"

Since they were fairly good during Idah and I's shopping, i decided to give them each a $10.00 max over at Toys R Us. When we got to the register, Idah actually paid for their toys. So awesome! I could get used to this treatment ; )

I had read in my surrogate facebook page about this body pillow that is amazing during pregnancy. So i mentioned it to mom the other day that i wanted to look into purchasing one. As we were leaving, i was putting the kids in the car and she surprised me with a big bag. In it.. a body pillow! She said she had actually bought it for me before i even said anything to her about it. How freaking awesome!! I have slept with it every night since and let me just say..it is even more tough to get out of bed in the morning. I highly recommend this for everyone - pregnant or not!

Some pics from our day out...

 

     

It's a...... and a .......

Wednesday morning we had our 4 month ultrasound and of course the "big" one because it was most likely the ultrasound that we will see penis or no penis. Mom met me there and she was SO nervous. She kept saying she felt like she was going to have a heart attack! (not really though. at least i dont think anyway)

She held my hand the whole way up to the office. This bond is just amazing! I would have never ever thought that when i started my surrogacy journey that I would meet someone like this or be this close to my IM. She knows just the right boundaries but yet is always there to check on me in whatever way she feels like she should.

The other day she sent me a text, more like a reality check that was in midst of. She was at the grocery store and mosied on over to the baby aisle. Her text consisted of this..

"OMG...i just saw how much a can of formula cost! And i need double of everything. Clothes, food, toys...I think i'm going to pass out for a minute!"

She has quite the sense of humor. Of course she is just kidding. She like all other IM's are usually ecstatic to be at this point and she definately is. But I think for any mom, the reality hitting you of having 2 babies at once, can sometimes overtake it all.
On that note, we haven't talked in much detail about breastfeeding. She did ask me to breast feed them while we were in the hospital and i love that she did. I also will pump for her while I am on maternity leave but once I go back to work, i know my life goes back to pure craziness and without trying to sound selfish, i just dont know if i will be able to continue. We will definately need to talk more about that as time moves on.

Ok, Ok back to the important things of the week. Sexes!! Did we or did we not see??

             We DID!!

My two tator tots were right all along. Back in the beginning when they first found out i was pregnant with twins, they names the babies on their own. Baby A was named Alvin by our son Ayden...making him a boy and Baby B was named Emily by our daughter Riley, making her a girl. And they were right! Except that isn't going to be their names.

We found out baby A was a boy first. Mom was so happy and very anxious to tell dad. Then we found out B was a girl and she had the best reaction I have ever seen. I really wish i was video taping her. She was so happy and she cried for hours. What an amazing thing to be a part of! And how awesome, totally awesome that they are getting one of each!!?? They deserve this, they really do.

Mom and dad are both African. They moved her from Cameroon, Africa a few years ago. They are going to name them from their heritage. Their culture believes that twins have specific names.
I won't go into a whole culture lesson here but basically when you have one of these names, anyone you meet within the African culture, knows immediately that you are a twin. Pretty cool, right??

So baby boys name will be Sam-gwa (trying to type it so u can pronounce it)
and baby girl is Nigella.

Here are some 4 month pics of the bump, a pic of mom after we left the dr office and pics of the babies of course!!

Maternal Fetal Medicine

My next doctor appt was with Maternal Fetal Medicine. This is basically the "high risk" doctors office.
We went in Wednesday May 30th. Mom met me there. I wasn't sure what to expect from this appt because I never had to see a high risk doctor before. As soon as i got there and got checked in they took me in for an ultrasound. We were happily surprised because we didnt really expect to see the two little ones that day. They finally look like little babies and they were bouncing all over the place. I mean, seriously - they were going to make me sick if i stared at them because of how bubbly they were. But heartbeats were perfect, measurements were on target , and we got a clean bill of health.
Dr. Bayliss is who we saw. He was the first person thus far to sit us down and tell us all of the in's and out's of a twin pregnancy. Some things he mentioned...
        
                                    - I will gain between 40-50 pounds ( are u joking me???)

                                    - Bed rest is a high risk, especially after 20 weeks

                                    - No overtime at work (BONUS!!!)

                                    - When i come home at night i need to just sit on the couch, prop my
                                       feet up and let someone else handle the house work (this just                                         isnt possible but I do use it to my advantage sometimes...shhhh)

I do take it alot easier than I normally do. But i am just not a person to do that. I always have to be doing something. Even though I plan to have this 37 week, healthy, great pregnancy - reality is, bed rest happens often in twin pregnancy and i want to get some of my projects finished up just in case. But again, i am taking it easy and not putting strain on myself. Do a little and break, do a little and break ;)

We have a monthly appt here which we have already scheduled up to the very end. Our next appt is June 27 and guess what - we find out sexes!

Here are some pictures of everyone...

 Baby A (aka Alvin)

 Baby B (aka Emily)

Riley and Ayden have given the kids those temporary names

Me and mom after our appt...I asked her to give me a big real smile because her smiles are always small..and this is what she gave me  LOL

The of course some pics of me and 13 weeks...

             

Let's play a game...

Called Catch Up!!!   I have a feeling this game will become pretty popular over the next few months.
Overtime at my job has picked up, so by the time I get home, get situated and you know - do that mom thing...I. AM. BEAT!!

Soooo...what's new with these babies!!!???

Since I last posted we had two appointments. My first appt was with my regular OB, Lancaster Physicians for Women. I got to meet my first of 3 doctors. Dr. Jones.

Here is how that morning began. I woke up around 6 - PUKING! Really?? No way am i NOW starting morning sickness. I ate breakfast, puked it up. I just felt so so bad. Earlier that week Riley was home from school sick for 2 days but i did not relate the two at the time. Tim had decided to come to the appt with me, mom was also meeting us there. He was then going to take me to work and pick me up after work so we could go out on a date and celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. I was pretty excited at him coming along because I normally don't ask or assume he will, given the circumstance. But he is completely supportive of me, so I shouldn't expect any less <3

On the way to our appt, we stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast. I just ate some fruit ontop of a crepe and it seemed to settle ok. Got to our appt and had an exam, all was good under the hood.

So we talked...the doctor got to know mom and then she gave me a prescription for Zofran, assuming this sickness was morning sickness as well. She said that really with twins, it could just be starting late.
We also then discussed the VBAC option over the csection. She made it pretty clear that we really should just schedule the csection. There were more cons than pros..and of course we want to do whats best. So it sounds like at 37 weeks which will be the end of November, we will be welcoming these little boys, girls, boy and girl..hmmmmm who knows!!!

After leaving the appt, Tim was supposed to take me to work. But i just felt way too bad for that. We took a run to the mall so that I could pick up a few pairs of maternity jeans, stopped at Rite Aid so I could get my zofran, and then home to sleep. Woke up and unfortunately the zofran did not work.
At this point I just knew this was not morning sickness. I had a bug. Sure enough, the next day I felt a bit better but i wasn't completely better until that next sunday afternoon. All i know is, thank you thank you for not being morning sickness because if I had to live like this everyday for the next few weeks or whatever - i would NOT be happy. Bless those mama's that do have to go thru this, i have no clue how you do it!

This is my catch up for tonight. I have another appt and some pics - i will do this tomorrow. My eyes are way too heavy for this now.  Good night