Nothing new, but fun!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since the last update, and I've been told I'm slacking on the blogging, although nothing really exciting or fun has happened lately. Today, though, Dorothy decided she was going to be interesting. I was sitting on the couch, vegging out as I tend to do when I'm trying to figure out if/what I'm going to make for supper (I won, didn't cook tonight! hehe) and suddenly my belly (and other fatty parts of me, although that doesn't really narrow it down...) started wiggling, with no explainable reason from the OUTSIDE. I could feel her squirming and kicking inside, and it was so fun to finally SEE her kicks!! She's a bit of a turkey, as every time I feel her kick and am able to try to feel it with my hand, she stops...let's hope this doesn't indicate a trying child for Henry and Emily!!!

On a different note, I've been thinking a lot lately about my surrogate tattoo. I found a pretty celtic mother's knot, that the intention is you add a dot for each baby:

but my long-term intent would be to add initials and dates for each future surrobabe, plus most artists won't even touch you for less than $50, so paying that much for a little dot would make me mad. So here's my challenge to you all: help me with my tattoo!!! Come up with a great idea, nothing too big or gaudy, but something that's sweet (like me hehe) and will fit nicely on my left shoulderblade (my kids are on my right). The prize will go to the winner(s), it will be my lifelong thanks for coming up with an awesome tattoo idea!!!!

Another checkup is next Thursday, the 28th, so be looking for an update then, although I'm sure it will be another boring visit!! Have a great Easter, everyone!!!

22 Week Update

Went in for my checkup this morning. Boring, as usual. But that's a good thing. Of course she measured the fundal height (yep, sure, whatever that is hehe) and listened to the heartbeat. Little Dorothy was a wiggler this morning and it actually took the doc a couple of minutes to find (and keep) the heartbeat long enough to count it, but she ended up with something in the 140s, consistent with where she's been.
Nothing unusual has developed, so I didn't really have any questions for her. Rhogam shot (because I'm Rh negative) will be in about 6 weeks, next appointment is in 4 weeks, and after that one I start being seen every 2 weeks. wow! Time has flown by! We will probably start seriously talking about scheduling an induction at one of the next few appointments. Still not quite sure what Emily and Henry are thinking as far as dates, but we can schedule as early as July 29th, so that's all still up in the air, but hey, at least we know she'll be born sometime between today and the middle of August!!! Everyone have a fantastic weekend!!

The Big Gender Reveal!!!

Yesterday was the 20 week anatomy ultrasound!!! The tech showed us the growth charts and baby is almost right on the "average" line for everything, said everything looks good!!! I drank a small cup of coffee yesterday morning to make sure the baby didn't cross it's legs, because we REALLY wanted to know the sex, and the baby was playing peekaboo with us during the ultrasound. It was SO CUTE!!
So, for those of you who don't have me on Facebook or see me in person often, IT'S A GIRL!!! Emily and Henry will be joined by a baby "Dorothy" rather than Hunk.
I know several people have asked how I feel about this, because I have 2 boys and no girls. I'm pretty sure I don't want to have to deal with a teenage girl. I was one, and I sure don't want that kind of payback!!!! Yes, it would have been neat to have a girl myself, and I would have been happy wth either both times. But really, this is NOT my baby. I don't have that emotional mother/baby connection with her like I did with my boys when I was pregnant with them. I'm not really worried about how I'll cope with "giving up" this child, it's not my child. I have no right to it.
I'll have to hop back online later and get pics posted of the ultrasound, I have to get ready to go meet Emily and Henry for breakfast before they head back home. I'm going to be sad to see them leave, but they need to go spend time celebrating the girl with their family and friends!!
Hope everyone has a great day!!!

When's the big day???

TOMORROW!!!! Ultrasound is at 10:30 tomorrow morning, then we're going to tour the OB ward, then I have to hurry home and get working on the last minute stuff for the party!!!! This of course means (for those of you who are not attending the party) that you will have to wait till either late tomorrow night or Tuesday to find out the sex, IF the baby chooses to let us know what it is. Any guesses??? I'm thinking girl, slightly, not sure why, just am. I'll update as soon as I can!!!! Wish us luck!!!

Another great Dr. visit and a worrisome weekend

I know, it's been almost a week since my Dr. visit, but hey, I've been busy! Visit was on Friday, got to hear the heartbeat again and it was in the 150s like usual. As expected, it was a pee in a cup, listen to heartbeat, measure fundal height, ask if there's any questions type of visit.
The weekend was a bit more eventful. I was exhausted for some odd reason and everytime I tried to carry my 16 month old somewhere with bit of distance, my back ached (no huge surprise) and my belly hurt in an odd pressure/pulling way that I've never experienced before. I just dealt with it Saturday, thinking it would stop on it's own. It was still bothering me on Sunday so I mentioned something to Emily (who had been dealing with some sort of virus since Wednesday and today is finally back to her usual routine)and she had me call the OB department. The nurse said it's probably nothing, but Emily was a bit uneasy still. The nurse had told me that the on-call doc was coming in that evening for another patient, so she said if the doc hadn't been in by suppertime, she would have her call me. Doc basically said it's probably just my muscles groaning because my body didn't have as much time to recover between pregnancies as it did last time and last time I didn't have a toddler to carry around, so it's probably nothing, but if I wanted my cervix checked, she would be more than happy to do that to ease everyone's minds. Long story short, Emily decided she would prefer if the doc looked at me, just to be safe. I went in, got checked in and she checked me and the nurse listened to the heartbeat, still in the 150s. Doc said my cervix was high, long and closed. All good.
Anyway, that's been my adventures of late. Monday is the anatomy ultrasound, and we're hoping the little one will cooperate so we know if we should call it Dorothy or Hunk!!! I'll be sure to update within a day of that!!! Have a great week everyone!!

Doctors, Pharmacies, and PARTIES!!!!

Well, it's been about 2 weeks since the last update so I figure I had better keep you all satisfied with something, although nothing really has happened in the last 2 weeks, so I hope I don't disappoint!!
I had a lot of strange pressure in my head at the beginning of the week so I went to the dr. (long story short, OBs office had nobody in, so I was going to go see my family doc. He's on vacation. I was then going to see the on-call doc. Scheduler about flipped out when I mentioned something about being pregnant and she didn't think I could be seen. I ended up seeing my friend's OB in that office, she was amazing!) turns out you don't have to have sinus pain or pressure to have a sinus infection. Kind of surprised me. The even BETTER part of the story is the antibiotics. IDK how many of you know this about me, but I generally despise Wal-Mart. It's one of those things I feel like I have to shop there rather than waste the gas to drive 45 mins or more to a Target store, but I despise myself the entire time I'm in there, because I feel like a hypocrite. Anyway, I had the meds sent to Wal-Mart because my son had a prescription there waiting on me to pick it up. The lady said it was going to be a while, 15-20 minutes. I told myself to check back in 25 or 30. yep. That's how they roll. 30 minutes later, I'm checking in there, and they haven't even started it yet. REALLY?!?! It's a stinkin Z-Pak! You double check the script, you slap a label on it, and you print out the information that goes with it. I understand you're busy, but WOW. Needless to say I spent 55 minutes in Wal-Mart that day. Not by choice.
Here's some more FUN information! I have been planning a NOT baby shower for Emily and Henry!! I know I probably shouldn't be advertising this to all of my friends on the internet, as I don't want anyone to be super jealous that they didn't get invited, but I have been asked to keep it to a minimum, so I thought 20 invites would be sufficient. I opted for those who live around here rather than asking people to drive a long way for a silly party. So if you're offended that you're not invited, trust me it wasn't intentional, I don't hate you, I put a lot of thought into who I invited so nobody would be greatly inconvenienced. It's going to be TONS of fun, though!! I'll try to post pics afterwards so you can all feel like you were there! I've been getting package after package in the mail :D I love getting packages delivered!! Sometimes I wonder if I'm not addicted to online shopping!!
Anyway, that's all I have for now, feeling a few occasional flutters, but I think this kid is afraid of all the fat surrounding it ;) so s/he is not as pushy as my boys were. Maybe another sign of a girl???? Only 3 weeks & a few days till we find out!!!!

2nd OB Appointment Update!

I went to the second OB appointment on Friday. I know, it was 2 whole days ago, but I have been busy, some amazing friends of ours were married last night, my husband performed the ceremony and I made potato salad and helped with the other food. But, that's a story for another day.
Friday was AWESOME!! I got the see the female doc in my practice, I prefer her partially because she's female (I know, if you've seen one, you've seen them all, I'll be the first to say it, but seeing and showing are 2 very different things!) and partially because she's just more laid back about things. In fact, she was hilarious, asking all kinds of questions and stuff about surrogacy and how it had gone so far. (The nurse was a friend's mom and she was asking questions, too, but then seemed very apologetic for asking questions. Honestly, I really don't care!) We discussed the possibility of induction (yes, already!) and the earliest (medically) we can induce "just because" is the end of July, so I was happy to inform Emily and Henry of that, so they can think about how we'd like to do that. Our options are basically this:
1. Schedule induction for the first day we can and keep that unless we go into labor before then.
2. Schedule induction for due date (or any day after the date mentioned above) and keep that as a backup in case we don't go into labor before then.
3. Hope and pray this baby isn't like mine and requires an eviction notice to send me into labor and that my IPs will be able to make it here when they get the call that labor is started.
I have a feeling we're going to opt for either option 1 or option 2. Partially due to timing as far as Emily and Henry getting here (both of my boys were induced, 1st was about 13 1/2 hours from when pitocin was started, 2nd was about 11 1/2 hours from when pitocin was started, it's a 9 hour drive, they'll make it ;) I hope!!) Anway, that's pretty much up to Henry and Emily, unless this one decides to make an early entrance or there is a medical concern.
Also on Friday she listened for the heartbeat. She said it was in the 160's. She had to search for it, both of my boys she's mostly found it down on the left side, but this one she found it down on the right side...does that mean girl????? Also we scheduled the 20 week ultrasound this visit...March 14th!! Emily will be on spring break from college so that works wonderfully for them!!
That's pretty much it, nothing overly exciting but still exciting nonetheless!! Won't be too long before I get to visit the doc every other week!! Just a few more months!!
Anybody have any guesses as to pink or blue??? Let me know!!! Have a wonderful superbowl Sunday, and GO PACK GO!!!