19 Week Check In

Hello everyone!

No news is good news in this part of pregnancy! The weeks are long and appointments are far apart.

I went today for a check up so thought I would just share that we are doing well. Pixie is measuring right on track with her due date of November 15th.

Next appointment will be on Friday, July 7th. We have the anatomy scan that day. We already know that she is a girl due to genetic testing but they will check bone growth, her heart, brain, and so much more during this ultrasound. E and P will be joining me that day as well as big sister C! After our appointment we are headed to the hospital for a tour so that they can see where their little girl will be born!

Here is my 19 week bump photo so you can see how much she is growing! She is the size of a MANGO. I finally look pregnant and not just like I ate a big lunch.

I wanted to share this picture too (although we need an updated one!) This is my best friend Danielle. She is expecting her second miracle baby! We never thought in our wildest dreams we would be pregnant at the same time since I was done having babies before she even got her first miracle!

I hope everyone is having a great summer! I will update after our sonogram in July!

A visit with the Parents, Telling the kids, and a Check up

We have had a lot going on the past few days!

On Saturday, we went up to Naperville to enjoy the day with Pixie's mom, dad, and sister. The plans were to swim and hang out by the pool, but mother nature wanted us inside. We had a great lunch and the kids played for hours on end. C (Pixie's big sister) is eight years old and was a fabulous cruise director. Most of our friends have children around our kids ages, so this was something fun for us. She played games with them, dress, up and so much more and we were able to just sit back and relax!

We did sneak in some pool time in between storms and of course some Portillo's chocolate cake for dessert! 

The kids had a great time and were asleep in the car before we even left the neighborhood!

Last night was the night we decided to talk to Tucker about what is going on with mommy's tummy. He has seen lot of the past few months. Mommy taking a lot of medicine, shots in my rear, sleeping a lot. He always thinks I have a tummy ache so I wanted to set the record straight. Plus, I am showing now so before someone else tells him, we wanted to have a talk with him.

We started by reading The Kangaroo Pouch. It is a story about a mommy kangaroo who knows someone who can't carry a joey, so she carried the joey until she is big and strong for the other kangaroos. (We also have Sophia's Broken Crayons and The Very Kind Koala that we will be using in the coming weeks) After the story I asked him to retell it to me, he had the major concept of it down so that's when I told him that E has a tummy that can't hold a baby anymore, but mommy's tummy could. We went to the doctor and the doctor put the tiny baby in mommy's tummy so she can get big and strong. Once she is big enough, she will come out and then will go live with E and P and sister C. I reiterated that the baby girl would not be ours, that she is just growing here and will have to go home when she comes into the world. And that she would be C's little sister! He thought that was cool that she was going to have a little sister like he does. He asked if we could have a baby at our house and I told him that we already had two babies, him and Lainey. He then informed me they were big kids not babies! 

I asked if he had any questions and he didn't at the time. We put him to bed and about 5 minutes later he called me into his room, he had a question. Okay, here we go I thought!

Me: "What is your question?"

Tucker: "How do babies sleep?"

Me: "Like now? She sleeps in my belly, but after she is big and strong she will sleep just like you, by closing her eyes, laying down, and going to sleep." (no hint there that it is bed time ha!)

Tucker: "No, babies sleep in cribs!"

Me: "Well okay then!"

So apparently he doesn't have any major questions yet! :) 

On to today, I had a check up at the doctors office. E and P made the drive down today so that they could meet my doctor. The first thing Tucker said to them was "Mommy has a belly in her belly it its yours!" Clearly her understood so thats a good starting point. I figured we would have to reiterate it a few times! Someone at the agency gave me the idea of the kids meeting the parents first, and I am so glad we did. I think it made it more concrete to Tucker 9Lainey is clueless)

On our way to the appointment we went past the hospital so that they could see where we would be welcoming their little girl into the world! At the office, we got to hear Pixie's heartbeat (a steady 160 today!) Since E has already had a baby, she knows a lot that first time moms might not know, so we didn't have a lot of questions. But, our doctor is completely on board with everything we are picturing for a "perfect labor and delivery." Goal is to have E and P present and for baby to go straight to mom for some skin to skin. Our hospital is very surrogacy friendly as well. We will be doing a hospital tour with them around 20 weeks so that they are familiar with our situation and can have rooms prearranged. 

I went into labor with Tucker, but with Lainey I was induced at 40+6, so the doctor said that if things are favorable, we could look at an induction after 39 weeks if we wanted a more scheduled timeline. We will play that by ear. I am somewhat nervous for how quick this labor could go and I want to do everything (safely) possible to have E and P there. We will see as the time goes what is right for us and baby girl. 

Overall, things are looking great! I will be 15 weeks tomorrow! Thanks for staying with this long post! Love to you all :)

13 week Update

We are officially 13 weeks along and on the final week of the first trimester! My nausea has started to subside and I am finally getting some energy back! Pixie is growing and is healthy. We will check in on her again on May 23rd for just a general check up. Her parents are coming to Bloomington/Normal that day to meet with our doctor and get a feel for our town since I will be delivering here at Advocate Bromenn.

Here are a few pictures of the activity going on!

 My Wednesday outfit, stork leggings!

 There are many apps that can update you along the way. I use two to find out what she is doing inside me! They conflict on the type of fruit this week though, so you choose Lemon or Peach?!

I will update after our next appointment! 

Sending my love.

Brooke

End of April update!

This is the slow part of pregnancy, so there is not really much to update you all on yet!

Today, I did go to the doctor for a check up. Everything is going well and her heartbeat was 162 which is fabulous! I will be 11 weeks this coming Wednesday. Next appointment won't be until the end of May now. I have been going so frequently, that these next 4 weeks are going to seem like an eternity to check in on her.
I am still pretty nauseous in the evenings (usually after about 2 pm) but it is getting later and later. Last night it didn't hit me until about 9pm which made for a good day! (especially because it was Dan's birthday! Happy birthday, Dan!)

In other news, I am completely off of all hormones now! I am hoping combining the lack of excess hormones and rounding out my first trimester, that I am on the mend from the (not so) "morning sickness."

Last week, I started documenting "bump pictures" so that we will be able to share them with Pixie (my newest name for her).  I also wanted to document the pregnancy well for her parents.
There isn't much of a bump yet, but with it being my third pregnancy, I am sure one will appear over night at some point!

My stork leggings will be my official Wednesday outfit from now on which is when she becomes another week older each week!

Thank you for all of the continued prayers for Pixie, her parents, and me. We will be sharing the news with the kids soon, so watch for that update. I am not sure the questions that Tucker will have, but I am sure they will be great! He is a funny kid. As of now, he thinks mommy as a lot of belly aches and I don't want him to worry about me much longer. He has seen a lot (shots in my back side, lots of medicine, and me laying in bed sick) but he is always so sweet and comforting! My kids are one of the main reasons I am doing this! Without them, our lives would not be complete and I am so excited to help another family feel complete!
Love to you all!

A Heartbeat and Medical Release

I feel like all of March I have been playing catch up!
It has been a crazy and busy March but one I will remember forever!

It is hard to think that transfer was only just over a month ago and here we are with baby girl safely growing inside me!

Last Monday, March 27th, I had an ultrasound and blood work done here in Normal. Baby girl's parents were on vacation so it was much easier than driving up to Naperville to be monitored. The ultrasound detected a heartbeat which was AMAZING! Her little heart was just fluttering away at 130 bpm. The ultrasound showed a yolk sac and a fetal pole which is the next big step!

She was measuring around 6 weeks and 1 day. That was a little shy of the current due date, but the tech told me that at this stage they are so little that measurements can be slightly off.

Today, April 4th, I went for another ultrasound and some more blood work to check on her status. Official results have not been sent to me but things look great! She is now measuring at 7 weeks 3 days (again just shy of the due date measurement but that's not a problem!) Her heartbeat is steady (I forgot to ask what it was but my report will tell me tomorrow).

She's still just a blob, but is slowly getting bigger and is currently taking on a bean shape. I haven't come up with a "name" for my belly buddy yet, but I throw quite a few out there during the day. They currently include: jellybean, bean, nugget, peanut, baby fetus, and blob.

Tomorrow, I will receive instructions about being released back to my OB here in Normal and weaning off of the MANY medications I am on! I will not be sad to see those injections go! We are currently at 37 injections so far!

Hopefully, I will have more to update soon. I will likely be seeing my OB in the next two weeks, but hopefully it is quiet until then! At this point, no news is good news!

Thanks for all of your prayers and love! We can sure feel it!

First Sonogram

We are officially 18 days post transfer! Today was my first sonogram.
I was really nervous because they have not checked my beta levels since last Monday (That was the number that needs to double every 48 hours!) I felt like we were going in blind again!

I drove up to Naperville this morning and met up with little Embryo's mom and dad and then we all went to the clinic together. I had blood work done and then a sonogram.

Here she is!!

Little baby girl is currently a yolk sac! How crazy is that? A heartbeat was not seen today, but that is normal. Measurements say due date is November 15th and we are 5 weeks and 5 days into the 40 week pregnancy! Praise our good and sweet Lord!

After our appointment, we had a late breakfast and then I went to visit with my Aunt Shar and Uncle Bob who also live in Naperville before heading home! It has been a long day but SO SO rewarding! I think I will sleep well tonight for the first time in a while!

I will go to my OB here in town next Tuesday for another sonogram and we will hopefully hear a heartbeat at that point!

In the mean time, I was sent home with a TON of girl scout cookies!! :) This Stork is pretty happy!

It's Positive!

Wow it has been a crazy few days!

On Friday, we got the call we had been hoping for! I tested positive for the embryo sticking in my uterus!
We transferred a 5 day old embryo on March 2nd. 8 days post transfer, my beta levels were at 107, which was a great start!

The weekend was terribly long. They wanted my numbers to double by Monday, March 13th. It took until about 1:45 to get the call today. 643!!!

Take a look at that number! I am not very good at math, but I do know that more than doubled!!

As anxious as I was all day, I am so excited to see the results.

No further testing until next Monday. I will head up to the clinic to do an ultrasound and another round of blood work. At next weeks appointment, they should be able to see a gestational sac. Hopefully a fetal pole too. A heartbeat probably won't be heard yet, as I will only be just 5 weeks along (usually heartbeats are heard 6-7 weeks along).

Thank you all for the prayers! We aren't there yet, but this is a great start! God is so good!