Surrogate Pregnancy #2; Week 9

Wow, the last few weeks have gotten away from me when it comes to updating, so I have to apologize for that. I had my son's 3rd birthday and had family members up here for about a week, so I was constantly on the move. Week 8 was halfway over so I decided to start again with week 9 and then I forgot that yesterday was Thursday. This is the first pregnancy I haven't worked through, so I don't keep track of the days as well as I used to.

This week, baby is about the size of an olive. I'd probably find that more cute if I actually like olives.

Although small, he's starting to look more and more like a baby. He has arms, legs and even fingers and toes. 

Dr. Google says the uterus doesn't start to peek it's way out of the pelvis until week 10, but I'm pretty sure my super small bump is now baby, and not bloat.  Wanna know why? Funny story. I "show" early every pregnancy. By "show early" I mean that around the same time I get a + pregnancy test, I start to bloat up. If you don't know me, you probably just think I ate too much dinner. When I was pregnant with my son, I would go into my husbands work and lean over this counter thing to say hi to him. I first started realizing I had a bump (not a bloat) when I leaned and my stomach didn't squish, but more felt like someone had put a tennis ball between the counter and my belly.

With the second pregnancy, I noticed the same thing happening (and earlier-- because.. twins) and I knew I was on to something. So this time, I wanted to know, but as we've moved... I've no counter to lean against. Improv time, I just tried a wall in the house and wa-la. It works. And I feel the tiniest bit of non-squishy pressure. Yea.. I'm nuts. It's okay though, at least it won't pass on to the baby ;)

Pregnancy wise, nothing TOO exciting has happened in the last few weeks. No appointments, no ultrasounds. It's so weird to compare to the twin pregnancy because by this time I'd had 3 or 4 ultrasounds. I stop meds  in SIX days. Count 'em, six. My backside is exceedingly grateful. You know you've done a FEW shots when your three year old comes upstairs to remind you it's time for "your ouch mom". He even can point to which pills I take. I'm not sure whether to be scared or proud.  (Btw, they are not in his reach, but when I taken them down to TAKE them, he's usually watching. )

I've been *knock on wood* fairly lucky with morning sickness this go round. I've been queasy here and there, but only have been sick a few times. Baby does have an aversion to meat, but I hope that's a short term aversion because I'm missing it. I picked up some "preggie pop drops" at a local store and am happy to report they are just as amazing as they were with the twins. Pretty much guaranteed to stop my stomach from turning if I have one near by.

I picked up some maternity clothes from another surro for a bargain. I can't remember if I mentioned that or not. I ended up with 5 pairs of pants and 14 shirts?  In most surrogacy journeys you get an allowance for maternity clothes. I remember getting the one for the twins and blowing 3/4 of it in one shopping trip. I wasn't getting top of the line maternity either, but maternity clothes are SO expensive. This allowance is less as it's a single pregnancy (usually more money for multiples because you grow out of maternity clothes with them haha) so with the clothes from the surro I shouldn't have to spend as much. I'll probably break up my shopping as most of the clothes I got are more fall/winter and I'll need a few to tide me over the spring months as I'm due in late may.

I also scheduled our first OB appointment. It's on Nov. 10th. I'll be about eleven and a half weeks at that point, which seems so LATE, but whatever. I'm both excited and nervous. Excited to get things rolling, and nervous because I'm not sure how to express my urge to vbac (vaginal birth after Caesarean) . The doctor is supposedly vbac friendly, which is a plus, so everything should go smoothly. I don't think I'll breathe out until I get the yes from him though.

That pretty much catches everyone up to speed.  Next blog I'll be TEN weeks. Double digits.