19w1d: Lactation Nation is in state of emergency mode

I'm over here dying y'all! OK, not really but I am sick. And as y'all know I HATE being sick! Apparently I am not as smart as I think I am, because I decided to STOP taking my allergy meds. I read that they can diminish your milk supply and since I am trying to do WHATEVER I can to keep my supply up, I figured "Meh, I will stop it and see how it goes". Enter the heinous infection that is STREP! Oh but wait.. There's more. I will see the strep and RAISE you a sinus infection AND some now aching ears.. BOO... I am on antibiotics and even though my throat is still icky and on fire, I DO feel a bit better. BUT I can't keep the milk I have been pumping and I have been slacking big time on pumping, triple BOO.. The only thing that would break my temperature is Aleve and I am on too much cough cold and whatever else I can swallow to make the throat pain stop and that is not conducive to a good stash of breastmilk to save.. I have already dumped 15oz since yesterday.. The upside? Apparently stopping my allergy meds DOES increase my supply OR it's just a big fat coincidence, because this morning when I woke up, I was in pain and ole righty was a leaking all down my jammy shirt and pants! Got 3 oz from that side which is a first for one pumping! So not sure if I want to risk getting another sinus infection by not taking my allergy meds (I have to take them all year round) or if I want to just add more supplements to make up for it.. Who knows.. Right now I just want the fire to be put out in my throat! In baby news, Christy said Greyson decided he wants to be felt! He started moving up a storm Thursday morning, which just made our day! We had big smiles after getting that text. We ordered his furniture and it should be here in the next few days!! We got his wall border up and I still have to work on the letter project once I am feeling better. My rocker is in and now we just need the changing table and crib! Question for y'all: Did you have a rocker in your room (we got a bassinet for our room since the nursery is on the other side of the house) and one for the nursery? I only have one but put it in my room since that's where the sleeping and rocking will take place initially? Should I put it in the nursery instead? Just curious.. OK I am off to lay down since I feel like I went several rounds with someone that beat me up! Til next time!

18w6d: We Have A Name!

After much back and forth we finally have a name for our little boy! I worked on this plaque today and after much sanding, painting and hot glue gun burns, I introduce to you:

His name is going to be Greyson Kane :) 

I am working on another letter project for his nursery wall, not sure what I wanna do just yet though.. The planning is so much fun!

18w3d: I didn't think I could fall in love even MORE

The mail lady is my new best friend! Today she brought me all kinds of goodies!! We got the official signed by the judge paperwork for the pre-birth order (AWESOME!) Aaaaaand we got the package in the mail that Christy sent from the 3D ultrasound place!!! I COULD NOT wait to watch this video with John! Seeing him see his son moving for the FIRST time was amazing.. It brought tears to his eyes and of course mine.. It was one of the best days of this surrogacy experience! Seeing how much he loves his son already is breathtaking... I KNOW he is going to love him so much more once we meet him, if that's even possible.. 

The 3D place was SO awesome that they sent us extra pictures AND had almost 10 additional minutes of video for us! Very cool of them.. We might even have Christy go back when she is farther along so we can have some fat face video to compare to when he is born... Even the torrential rain couldn't spoil my day and that's saying something! We are 100% sure he is a boy, but we have the gender ultrasound coming up with the OB next month, so that's just another picture of our precious boy we can't wait see! He grows SO much from ultrasound to ultrasound! He looks perfect and we can't wait to hold him in our arms..


It's funny because once we got the video and watching it, I had like this "flood" of milk and had to go pump, so I am VERY encouraged that once he is here I will be able to supply what he needs or come close to it, it was a very powerful feeling!! I ending up pumping 2 oz (which is not the norm for a night pumping for me!) so I had a total of 8.5oz today and I am still on 2 cups of tea a day, plus my normal supplements and the domperidone.. I am hoping to get up to 15oz a day by next week! Will keep y'all posted on how things are going. I plan to up my tea to 3-4 cups a day and keep all supplements the same. OK off to bed, a big day of looking at baby stuff in stores tomorrow!
 

18w1d: Lactation Nation and Aching Cheeks

I have to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to ALL the ladies for their advice and support on my induced lactation efforts! Things have really picked up and my supply has increased nicely.. I added more fluid much to my already battered bladders objections, (side note: I should invest in depends undergarments I pee more than a newborn!) and I increased my dosage of domperidone AND my herbs, in addition to adding in the Mother's Milk Tea (tastes kinda like black licorice, which is something I HATE, but I drink it anyway) and I have to say, the tea is the difference. I can feeellll when it starts to work, lots of aches and fullness in the girls.. I have now gotten up to 8+ ounces a day! I can tell this is only going to increase. 

I am slowly increasing the amount of the tea that I drink. I am doing 2 cups a day currently, but the box recommends 3 to 5 cups daily. I only bought 2 boxes because I am a skeptic at heart, HA! So I have to go get some more boxes and then I can increase to 3 cups and finally up to 5 soon.. I have also noticed I am getting headaches pretty much EVERY DAY, so I think I might have to back my dose of domperidone back down to 80mg a day, I am hoping that alone is not the reason for the increased supply, but only time will tell.. My friend sent me a huge box of 70oz of breastmilk! We lost a few bottles to thawing but overall it was a success. We have since tweaked the shipping and we are confident we won't have any loss this next time! I am SO THANKFUL for this donated milk, my friend is a godsend (THANK YOU APRIL!) I am so thankful that she and Christy are going to send us milk to ensure that this little boy gets breastmilk for his first year!


Speaking of our sweet little boy.. I CANNOT STOP SMILING!! We have been on cloud 9 since finding out the gender. It all seems SO MUCH MORE REAL to us now! I guess knowing makes him more of a person, I hope that makes sense. He isn't just "the baby" but he has a name and we can connect to him more.. We are so totally in love with him already. I think the both of us have been floating around since we found out. We just smile so big at each other all the time, I am sure everyone else thinks we are idiots, LOL! We don't care though!


We are still trying to nail down a middle name and have kicked some around, we are definitely set on a first name though. Once we have his name set, I will share it with you guys! Funny thing is we NEVER had a girl name picked out.. We kicked a few around, but nothing seemed "just right" but we came to the boy name fairly easy, so that should have told John I was right about it being a boy, haha!! I am gonna be one spoiled Momma with 3 boys and a hubby! I told John my Queen status is safe...For now ;-)... Oh before I end this, I am going to talk to Christy about sharing a belly shot with you guys soon, but in the mean time I leave you with this:

                    My sweet boys profile pic! He has his daddy's nose! 

OK off to drool over more boy things I wanna buy!! I think I will start buying next month or early August, can't wait!! Enjoy your weekend!





 

17w6d: Gender Reveal we have....

A VERY shy little one! The ultrasound experience over the phone was AH-MAZING!! Even though the little one decided NOT to show us the good for almost the entire ultrasound!! It was so funny, they were trying like mad to get the legs to open, but umbilical cord was in the way, or the legs were tightly crossed OR the knees were bunched up to the face! Finally just before she was going to give up and move on, the legs parted and they got to see

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What was so awesome is that we found out right when it happened! I am THRILLED to be adding another boy to my gang!!! I don't think I am going to stop smiling today!!

 

17w4d: Officially OFFICIAL!

Today we had our pre-birth order hearing! It went very quickly and it was super smooth! I spent more time on hold waiting for our case to be called than I did actually talking to the judge! Since we were waiting on hold, the judge had Christy do her part first (Lawyer asked her a few simple questions), then when they patched us through, they asked me my set of questions, hubs his set and then Toby his set and tah dah, DONE! It took maybe 7 minutes! 

Afterwards the judge said the best words ever: I hereby validate this agreement AND order that the hospital and Dr be notified pursuant to this agreement. Then they told me they were hanging up, LOL. YAY!!!! I was sooo nervous! I was thinking we would get disconnected or worse that she would order a home study (in some cases they make you have one!) but she waived it and we are all set, now we just wait to find out the gender in TWO days and then wait to bring this little one home! Each milestone that passes makes it THAT MUCH MORE REAL! Just had to share that with y'all! Now we wait until Thursday!!


 

17w0d

I wanted to update on my lactation induction efforts. Inducing lactation is HARD WORK.. Much harder than I thought it would be.. I knew it would be a job to get going, but if I am being honest, I figured it would come easy to me, since I have breastfed twice before. PLUS, at the onset, it WAS coming easy to me.. But now?... Yeah, not so much.. I am having to pump constantly it seems like just to get 4-6oz PER DAY. I am not downplaying my success, I mean this is AWESOME considering I haven't had a baby in almost 17 years, BUT I expected more of myself, ya know?

I have decided to increase my domperidone to 120mg per day.. The maximum is 160mg per day and has been known to cause headaches, so I don't want to increase it that much, since I am already prone to headaches.. I gotta admit, I am getting discouraged.. I thought I had more milk stored than I actually have! :( Now I am not so sure my baby will be able to exclusively have breastmilk for the first year.. We are more than likely going to be supplementing.. At a rough count, I have 177oz of breastmilk frozen. That will probably last about a week! So either my supply needs to increase dramatically or between my friend and Christy, they are going to have to dump buckets of breastmilk our way! I have my days (like today) where I feel sorry for myself and feel like I am going to throw in the towel. But I know I won't.. I know I can breastfeed at least a few times during the day and then supplement with frozen milk, but I thought I would be able to breastfeed MORE than I am actually going to be in reality, unless my supply kicks in even more once baby is here.. So that's my pity party for the day.. 

   This is what 173oz looks like!

On another note, I wanted to say that things with Christy and I are going much better.. I know not everyone agrees with me about posting and commenting publicly, BUT I have never withheld information about my story and journey on this blog and I don't want to start now.. I think people need to know that it's NOT gonna be sunshine and roses everyday, BUT you work through it and you keep pushing forward because it's important. I hope this blog is helpful to someone else that is in my situation and in Christy's situation, being the surrogate and can find this useful.. OK, now on to the fun stuff! We find out the gender THURSDAY!!! This is going to be a busy week! Our pre-birth order hearing is TUESDAY (crazy it's already time for that!!!) and then TWO days later we find out if that bun is a hotdog or hamburger! Can't wait to start adding gender specific items to our registry. Yes... we started adding items to it and it is kinda fun! Of course it's not public so maybe that's why it's fun to me, HA! The thought of going public with a registry is almost as nerve-wracking as going public with the baby news! I know, I am weird y'all.. So that's about it over here in crazyland.. Oh and it's hot as sh!t#@ outside!! OMG, too hot to do anything. And it's raining everyday again..Awesome for my grass, not so much for me being able to do anything since my wipers JUST broke on my van.. (#$*&!!) hubby got the driver side to work until the part comes in for him to fix it.. Gotta love it.. LOL. Enjoy your weekend!!

 

16w2d

There is a lot I want to say right now, but I am still working through it all. The baby is fine, it's just the emotional aspect of surrogacy and trying to come to terms with everything that goes with it. Is there a honeymoon period with surrogacy, between the surro and her IPs? How do you feel included as an IP in the surrogacy if you live far away? Surros, what do you do to make your IPs feel included? This is what I am dealing with right now...

Gender Reveal Postponed

Just wanted to give a heads up to those that care and that are waiting to hear that the gender reveal will be postponed.. Christy had a death in her family (her g'pa) so she has to go out of town for the funeral and so we had to cancel the 3D u/s appointment. I am waiting for her to come back to town and let things settle down before I reschedule. I waited 8 years, I can certainly wait a little longer..

15w1d

Another week down! I can't believe we are zooming towards the halfway mark, at lightning speed it seems!! Our monthly OB appointment was yesterday and things are looking good! Baby's heart rate was between 145-152 and OB said that is perfect! Christy talked to the OB regarding induction and that went over really well. Since we live so far away and she knows we didn't want to miss the birth, they have her set for week 39 to be induced, the first day her OB is on call. I know some people will huff at us wanting her induced and her wanting to be induced, BUT honestly, I DON'T CARE! The truth is she has been induced with all of her own kids, because she is known for having big babies since her hubs is 6' tall.. Well folks, I got the TALLER brother, so yeah this was probably gonna happen anyway. AND, we really want to be there and having a set day will help us plan better, so we can drive there in plenty of time and not risk death trying to break the sound barrier to get there! Her OB was very much on board and now we just wait to hear from him, which day is his on call day that week. So at least I know that the due date is somewhere between Nov 16th and Nov 23rd. Of course this might change even more if the baby is measuring even bigger.. As of now, both ultrasounds the baby was measuring 3 days ahead, so time will tell. 

In other exciting news, we have NINE more days until we find out if this baby is a boy or a girl! I can honestly say I am thrilled either way! If for some reason baby doesn't cooperate, our gender scan appointment is July 11th so a month of waiting! Please pray to the baby cooperation Gods that this little one shows us the goods! :) Christy got a prescription for her migraines, since she has had one pretty much every day since being pregnant.. NO BUENO.. The OB seems to think it could be due to her lack of caffeine since she was a hard core coffee drinker before this pregnancy and she quit cold turkey once she had her first visit with the RE.. I am hoping her meds help her out, between headaches and morning sickness (yep, she still has that too, she's one of the unlucky gals that suffers the entire time with it!) she has had some pretty bad days. In the world of induced lactation, things are so-so.. I am about to add herbs in to my cocktail of pills I take and increase the amount of times per day I pump. I am getting about 3 to 5 ounces a day but I need to increase this dramatically in the coming months in order to breastfeed well. I am going In addition to storing milk here and getting colostrum and whatever Christy pumps for us, a dear friend of mine that had her baby early a few months ago, is going to send me her overage of frozen breastmilk! So I KNOW baby will be on breastmilk at least a year, which makes me incredibly happy!! 


And finally I will leave you with this:

Heart rate from yesterday morning! :)


Until next time!