Friday, November 29, 2013

Week 22 and the acrobatics



This little baby is a mover! I doubt very much this this will be the last time I say that too! He just does not stop. And the rare moments when I think 'oh, he's been a bit quiet', will usually be very short-lived. I've learnt that all I have to do is lay down flat on the couch and wait for about a minute. Something about being flat on my back must either wake him up or restrict his space so that he starts to push against the sides of my uterus. I don't know what it is - but it's a surefire way to check he's ok.

He's so strong now, that he's able to make himself visible on the outside of my belly already too. And if you place your hand in the right spot, you can feel him on the outside of my belly as well. I was just laying down for a rest earlier, and he was kicking up a storm. My 4yr old was able to feel some of his flickery kicks. She was mildly amused! lol

I had been feeling like my energy levels were doing better at the start of this week. And a little while earlier I'd rolled over in bed and heard a 'click' noise, and felt my hip pop back in (it has been significantly less painful since then too). But for the last few days I've really hit a wall at about 3pm and then again at about 8pm, heading to bed around about then. I was telling baby's mum that I feel like a nanna!



So all in all things have been going pretty well. I'm feeling quite on top of things with the housework, our business, the kids and organising christmas. (I actually didn't know if I should buy something for my IPs for baby for Christmas, or just something for their little 2yr old... but I decided to buy for both of them. It's so cute too. Something that I would have wanted to buy for my own kids when they were newborns (if I'd seen this in the catalogue), but wouldn't have ever justified! Especially for the second child! It was hand-me-downs all the way for my youngest! lol



I do remember reading another Surrogate's story at the start of the year, talking about her struggles with going shopping and wanting to buy baby clothes, but not feeling like she was able to. I must say that I haven't really had that yet - I walk past the baby section and look at it more as 'what might be a cute outfit for a collectable teddy bear I'm making', rather than wanting to purchase clothes for the baby. There is definitely a sense of relief there that I don't have to organise a newborn's wardrobe, nursery furniture, prams, slings, rockers and baby swings... this is a very relaxed way to bring a baby into the world. All of the logistical side with clothing and furniture is left to someone else! We've actually found ourselves selling off our old cot and change table as our youngest no longer needs them!

A very bizarre situation indeed!

Another week and a half and I'll do another belly update. I almost did one today - I feel HUGE - but I'd say that's more about eating a massive lunch with my family then having a huge baby in there!


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Symptoms at 20weeks



We have our next hospital appointment tomorrow. IM is flying down again (poor thing has clocked up a lot of km in the last week) to attend with me, so that we can try and avoid the situation that happened at the last hospital appointment.

I actually think that this will be the last appointment there for a while - provided everything looks good tomorrow. And that from now on I can just go to my normal GP who is 5min down the road, and surprisingly very supportive and 'on my side' with all things surrogacy. This is called 'GP Shared Care', and is what I managed to do with my first pregnancy, and tried to do with my second before everyone started stressing that he wasn't growing properly... (being born at 10lb kind of blew that theory out of the water though!).

This pregnancy feels pretty easy at the moment. The worst symptoms I have to report are a bit of hip pain (I'm thinking Pelvic Girdle Pain) that radiates down the right side of my lower back/buttocks, and is worse at night. Especially if I've gone to bed, laid down for a while, then have to hoist myself back up again to see to the kids. Walking in heals probably doesn't help either! lol Nor carrying my 2.5yr old who weighs the same as an average 5yr old... but I must say keeping active and moving through the pain helps. When I stop and try to rest it, it seems to seize up more. Will have to try and remember to talk to the doctor tomorrow about that...



Also getting a little intermittent heart burn still. Not every day yet... that will come soon I'm sure! But just periodically, usually in the afternoons/evenings again. Heart burn is one of those things thats nasty when it's happening to you, but when it's not you're kind of like 'oh, what's all the fuss about!

Oh - and the kicking! For all my stressing about him not moving enough in the last few weeks, he's making up for it now. Lots of rhythmical, repeditive shoves from the inside. Still most of them down low in my pelvis like he's aiming for my bladder, or up under my belly button. They seem to be the target spots. Either that, or those spots are where I have the most pressure receptors? My hubby fell asleep with his arm draped over my lower belly/hips the other night, and baby went CRAZY trying to kick him off! He definitely seems to be quite sensitive to external stimulus as he didn't really like the poking and probing of the ultrasound last week either.

I was actually thinking this morning how proud I am of my body in getting us this far. I think it's kind of easy to take the absolute miracle of pregnancy for granted, especially when you're just going through the normal day to day tasks of life and forgetting at times that there is a little passenger in there... but seriously - growing another human being is magic. Normally you can take some genetic credit for the strength/wriggliness/above average growth of your baby, but in this situation the baby is not related to me at all. So all I can take credit for is that my body has nurtured him, let him implant, sustained him, fed him and protected him. My kidneys filter out his waste, my blood supplies his placenta and the water I drink helps to keep him floating in his amniotic fluid... the human body is bloody amazing.



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Belly shot - 20 weeks


Well... I must say I don't look as big here as I feel! :P But there has definitely been some growth since the 16wk photo (below).

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Half Way


We had the 20wk scan yesterday.

We're half-way.

Wow. Where did 5 months go!?

Baby was SUPER wriggly. I always assumed that they told this to every parent getting a scan done. Kind of like an excuse for getting blurry images?! But everyone in the room could see what this cheeky little baby boy was doing. The poor sonographer would line up an image, and he'd just slip away. I'd feel a little flurry of activity on the far side of my uterus, and the image would be gone.

We did get to see everything important (including genitals to confirm that he is really a he!). And the measurements taken seem to show that he's going to be a big boy. He is measuring 1-2wks ahead for everything! His head is in the highest percentile... probably NOT what a woman facing the prospect of pushing him out of her vagina in another 5months wants to hear though!

But I am so glad he's healthy and thriving in there. I had been quite worried that I wasn't feeling his movements more consistently, but he has made up for that over the last few days. Last night it was like he was trying to tell me how annoyed he was about the ultrasound. He didn't stop dancing in there, even after I went to bed.

IM flew down to be there for the scan as well, which was really lovely. And I took my 4yr old daughter with me. She was enthusiastic for the first 10mins or so, but as the scan dragged on (nearly 1.5hrs later), she was over it.

I will take a belly shot tomorrow morning - you should see how much I've popped out in the last 4 weeks. It's so exciting to watch my body change to accomodate this little man. I'm doing my best to savour everything about this pregnancy...and to get what I wanted out of the experience :)

Friday, November 1, 2013

Sleep



My belly is big enough now to make sleeping directly on my stomach uncomfortable. Which has always been a mild annoyance to me when pregnant as I'm a belly-sleeper from way back! But with my first pregnancy, this was fine - I would just sleep a little longer in the morning to make up for any broken sleep.

My sleep is also interrupted at least three times during the night JUST to pee (and it's always like there was a waterfall in there waiting to come out! Seriously... how can I make so much pee in such a short period of time!!!). Again, with my first pregnancy this was actually kind of cool. It was like a constant reminder that I was finally PREGNANT! Plus, I could just sleep a little longer in the morning to make up for it...

However this week, my kids have joined the 'lets stop mum from getting any kind of reasonable sleep' campaign. Granted they've both had head colds complete with tracks runny green snot and coughs. But they can't wake and demand my attention at the same time. They need to take it in turns over a period of about 3-4hrs. Then, just as I've managed to get some actual sleep, the sun will come up and my 2.5yr old will decide that 5am is a brilliant time to start the day!

So there's no more 'extra morning sleep' now. Those few hours between bedtime and sunrise are so precious!!!




For those pregnant mum's out there with a handful of kids already in their care - I salute you! ;)