16 weeks!

Baby's now the size of an avocado!

Watch what you say...tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean he can now pick up your voice. A few more minuscule changes: Eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. - TheBump.com

So cool, right!?
Wanna know something else cool? We got to find out the gender of the baby this week!

All snuggled in!

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I don't think my IP's thought we'd be able to tell the gender this soon, heck I didn't know either, but sure enough when the tech asked if they wanted to know the gender and she scanned over my tummy...there it was! Lol. Clear as day. It's a boy!! You couldn't have pried the huge smile off of my IF's face! It was priceless!
I'm so happy for the both of them! They'll be welcoming their little boy into the world this November...seems far away, but I know time will fly by.

Here's what the little avocado is looking like from the outside:

And just for comparison sake, I made another "tummy collage" for weeks 12-16...

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Whatcha think? I don't think there's much change yet...perhaps I'm delusional, lol.

Oh and guess what else I'm super happy about?! I am officially off of all meds!!! WOOHOO!!! Geez, while I'm seeing all these other surros finish with meds @ 12wks, I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with me! I'll just chalk it up to an overly cautious RE, better to be safe, right? ☺

That's all for today! TTYL!

My rant for the day

This is not surrogacy related, but I just wanted to vent.

Today I was taking my oldest daughter (8) to school and we were talking about her science fair project that she turned in on Wednesday. It was titled "Baking powder vs. baking soda, does it make a difference?"; she made cookies to test the theory.
I told her I was proud of her work and how great she did...you know the typical mom stuff, lol. Then I asked her what she thought of her work and she said she thought she did a good job and had fun doing it, BUT the substitute teacher that was there yesterday said her cookies "looked gross". SCREEEEEECCCCHHHH!!! (that's my car coming to a hasty stop in the school parking lot) I snapped my head back so fast and looked at her..."WHAT?!" "She said WHAT?!"
Here's the dialogue my daughter tells me that was exchanged between her and this fu*king substitute:

Teacher: "Those cookies look gross"
Kailey: "Well, you can taste one to see if you like them or not..."
Teacher: "Ewww, no!"

Seriously? Are you fu*king serious? A grown ass woman degrading a friggin' 8 year old?
Let me just tell you, my daughter aspires to become a baker/chef when she grows up, so for these words to come out of an adult's mouth...it's not something I take lightly...
Needless to say, Kailey said that it really hurt her feelings, and by extension it hurt my feelings too! So this bi*ch was gonna feel the wrath of an angry, hormonal, PREGNANT mom!

I pulled into a parking space and told Kailey we were gonna get an explanation AND an apology from this lady TODAY! When I got to her class, Kailey's regular teacher was there and Kailey explained to her what happened, and at this point she was crying, which only fueled my fire even more. The teacher did her best to comfort Kailey and then she told me that she was going to find the sub from yesterday because she was there today too. Good. 

The sub came in and gave me some lame ass explanation and "apologized". I told her that she didn't need to apologize to me, but to Kailey, so she turned around and apologized to her and did her best to act as if she really had feelings, but that bi*ch wasn't sincere, in my eyes.
Rather than cause a scene in front of all the kids, I decided that as long as Kailey got her apology, that I could leave well-enough alone. So I thanked both teachers, gave Kailey a hug and left. Then I called my husband.
If you know my husband at all, then you know you don't wanna piss him off, especially when it comes to his kids.
Let's just say that he has a meeting with the Principal in the morning and hopefully that bi*ch ass substitute will be in attendance so she can get the full "Kevin Wallace Experience"...she'll never be the same, lol.

I apologize for all of my "eccentric" wording in this post, but at this moment it's the only vocabulary I could come up with to express my disgust.    

Here's my "baby" with her project (before that evil witch killed her joy!)

Thanks for "listening" ☺

15 weeks!

Ok, I'm "technically" 15w2d, but I didn't get a chance to post, so better late than never, right? Here's the belly pic:

Some days I feel bigger than others and some days I LOOK bigger than others, but I think for the most part my tummy has stayed the same size these past few weeks. IDK. I guess next week I'll put together a little collage so I can really compare.
There's not much to report today, but next week we have some things going on that are quite important. I won't get into too many details at the moment, but send your good vibes our way! ☺
Anywho, guess what I figured out the other day? I was going thru some old emails and ran across the "officially matched" email that I got from my agency. I've been matched with my IPs for a year now! Well, a year and 6 days, if you wanna get technical. Wow, time flies! And I'm soooooo happy that I didn't give up on becoming a surrogate after the miscarriage I had with my former IPs.
M & M are such great people and I'm glad that they chose and trust me as their surrogate. And I can't wait to be able to see them holding their precious baby that they've waited so long for. I often wonder what that day will be like. I'm sure it will be a surreal experience, like no other...
Happy Anniversary to us! ☺
TTYL!

Fun weekend

I had a good weekend! On Saturday I went to my oldest daughter's soccer game and then afterward my "sister" and I went shopping to get some new clothes for my ever expanding tummy! I finally came to the realization that I can no longer fit into my "normal" clothes and had to break down and get some maternity tops. And by the way, maternity clothes are highway robbery! Thankfully I found some great deals at one of the regular clothing stores that also carried maternity items. If you know me, then you know I refuse to pay full price for anything! I either have a coupon or it's on sale OR BOTH! No, I'm not quite as gifted as those "Extreme Couponers", but I'd like to be. ☺ Anywho, got some cute tops and some shorts (cuz it's HOT in Texas!) and then I got tired of walking and my sister said she wasn't about to push me around the mall in a wheelchair, so we left. (Well, not before I could get a a chocolate chip cookie) Mmmmm....

Guess what I did yesterday!?

I got to (finally) meet up with a fellow blogger (Charity)! I say finally, because we've been planning this for what seems like forever and some way or another, either the weather, sick kids, or anything else you can think of would change our plans! ☺ That's life, huh?
Anywho, we meet up at a park yesterday, or "the wooden park", as my youngest calls it because everything is made entirely of wood. I have to admit, I was kinda nervous at first. It was almost like a blind date, lol. As I was sitting on the bench anxiously awaiting their arrival, I got a call from Charity saying that she had gotten a little turned around, so I pointed her in the right direction and when I got off of the phone I was a little more at ease. I was thinking "thank goodness she didn't have some weird manly voice or something." I mean, really, sometimes you never know what ur gonna get when you meet someone "off the internet"! ☺ She sounded very nice, and I'll tell ya her voice wasn't misleading! When she and her daughter arrived, Charity and I hugged like we had already been friends long before! And her daughter is SUPER CUTE!! She was a little shy at first, but my girls took her over to the park and once they started playing, it was all good.
Between pushing the kids on the swings and cleaning off scraped elbows, we got to talk and learn about each other and I truly enjoyed it! And when the girls were done playing (I'm sure they planned this together), they decided that we needed to go get ice cream; so we went up the street to grab some and it was yummy! ☺ Everyone had a good time and I hope we can do it again soon!


Here we are chillin' on the park bench

Oh, and while I was out having fun this weekend, my dear husband decided that he wanted to become a horticulturist and I came home to this:

Yep, he took all of the grass out of our front yard. Apparently at his college, Google University, they said that we had crabgrass and in order to have a lush, green yard he had to take all of it out and do some other stuff that I don't understand and then put new grass seeds down. So now it looks like this:

And I suppose this next weekend he's gonna finish up and hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to show you the fruits of his labor.
Bless his heart.

Appt today

Today's OB appointment went very well! I thought it was just gonna be a regular "listen to the hb, ask me how I'm feeling" type of appointment, but when I got there they brought me back to the sonogram room! Yippee! It's always fun to get to see the baby! ♥
I called my IM on FaceTime so she could "be there" too and we got to hear the heartbeat and see the cute little baby! She* was moving all around and it was awesome!
I wasn't able to get a picture this time though, bummer! Just as the Dr sat down he got a message that he needed to head down to L&D for a c-section! So this was a bit of a quick u/s since he had to get outta there!
* I say "she" because I'm rallying for my IM that wants a cute little girl to dress up! ☺
(although I do have this nagging voice that says it's a boy, shhhhh! Lol)
We should be able to find out the gender in the next couple of weeks; so exciting!!

That's all I have for you today, TTYL!

14 weeks!!!

Woo hoo!!
Not much to report today. I have a check-up with my OB tomorrow which I'm sure will go well, but I'll update you about it tomorrow.
Today I just wanted to say "yay!" for 14 weeks! Each week is a milestone and a step closer to my IPs getting to hold their precious baby. ♥
I get an email from Babycenter each week with an update on the baby's developments and this week's is pretty cool:
"The baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb. In other news: The baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches -- about the size of a lemon -- and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces."

Isn't that weird about the baby peeing?! It's just floatin' around in there, I guess, lol!

Until tomorrow's update, I'll leave you with my 14 week belly pic. TTYL!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Ok, no, that's not what this post is about, but I realized it is the 5th of May and just wanted to acknowledge it.
But really...can someone tell me what this day is about? I'm serious. I'm pretty sure we covered it in school, but anything that had to do with history I pretty much tuned out and doodled on my notebook. Sad, but true. I thought it was Mexican Independence Day, but apparently that's in September...yea, I could Google it, but I'd rather you do the research and tell me about it. See how that works? ☺

Anywho, I don't really have much to update about on the surro front. Things are going well and yes, I'm still sick!! FML. The good thing is that it's nowhere near as bad as it was earlier on. Now I tend to get queasy and sick around 4pm, like clock work, and it lasts throughout the evening, but during the day I'm fine. Weird.
Now that I'm officially 13 weeks (woohoo!!!), I'm hoping it will GO AWAY soon....and very soon! The fam and I are going to DC in a few weeks and I don't wanna be the party pooper that's puking all the time!
Here's my 13 week belly pic:

If you only wanted a surro update, then you can stop reading now. But if you prefer to hear about something totally non-relative to surrogacy then please, by all means, continue on...
So, my family and I participated in Relay for Life on April 25th. It's an all night walk, from 7pm-7am, that raises money and awareness for a cure for cancer. We've done this for at least the past 5 years and we really enjoy it. Everyone has "teams" and they all make campsites that are decorated with whatever that year's theme is. This year's theme was "The Amazing Race" and our team was "Viva Las Vegas"...it was more like Viva Los Losers. I mean really. Someone (u know who you are! ☺) at Kevin's job was in charge of getting our site together (i.e. decorations, games, etc) and let's just say that didn't quite happen. There weren't even tents!! Thankfully, at least, Kevin and had brought our 2 tents and at least we had that much. But it was quite depressing...I mean, here we are sitting between "Cabo San Lucas" and some campsite that looks like "Bollywood" and all we have are two sad looking tents and a cooler. Needless to say, next year, guess who's in charge? That's right, me! And you best believe I'll have everything but the kitchen sink at our site!
Anywho, I'll stop my rant. ☺ The girls had fun and money was raised, so that's all that really matters!

Here's Kailey playing football with Kevin

And of course, the little one had to join

I'm not sure ANY of them knew what they were doing...

Random friends that the girls made (Kourtlyn, far left; Kailey, far right)

My 2 Princesses

Sorry about the quality of the pics, I was using my phone, but you get the idea! ☺♥