The big announcment!!!!

Its been a busy week. I'm somewhere between 19 and 20 weeks. I had my ultrasound yesterday and an OB appt today.
I'll get to the news first...
Looks like I'm carrying a double dose of....
PINK!!

I had a great ultrasound yesterday. We were able to call the mom on skype so she could watch it. She's just so happy to see that both babies are healthy and growing nice and big. It was a big day for them. It was fun to see them moving all around yesterday. Boy are they busy little ones. Baby A measured 19w5d and baby B measured 20w2d. My original due date was March 19th and now its between the 17th and the 13th, based off the ultrasound. I'm going with March 16th (since its my birthday). He said it doesn't really matter anyway since they don't let twins go full term and they'll likely induce me around Feb 27th.
I'll get on with the pictures.

Here is a picture with both heads.

Here is the cute Baby A!! Love those lips!!
And little miss Baby B!!

I drew a picture of my belly and how the babies are lying. Don't judge my artistic abilities...there is a reason why I did make Art my career.
Baby A has its head down in the lower left side and legs going across my abdomin to the upper right side, and baby B is all snuggled breach in the lower right side. I have one low lying anterior placenta, and another higher posterior placenta. Which makes sense, as I feel a lot of movement in the upper part of my stomach and not a whole lot in the bottow, where its all babies.

My stomach at my OB appt today measured 26 weeks. I'm up another 2lbs. Dr is not concerned with my weight gain, or lack there of. Babies are doing great, despite my small weight gain. My BP was great. So everything is going well. He did tell me I can see the chiropractor for my back. As that will probably only get worse the bigger I get, if I don't try to get it taken care of.

This week the babies are the size of a mango. I think they are the size of a mango, crown to rump length. Its right around this time that they are fully stretching their legs out. And head to toe their about 10 inchs. I think thats about all for this week. I'll go back to see my Dr the week after Thanksgiving...maybe my weight will be up then.

Dr said unless I start having complications, he won't order another ultrasound until I'm about 32 weeks.

Have a good weekend and have a Happy Halloween.

18 weeks

Here we are in week 18. All is well here. Feeling good!! I'm having a little back pain and it is starting to get harder to stand up sometimes. That's only because this belly is growing so quickly and it no longer bends. But that's really all. I don't really have any cravings yet. I'm sleeping pretty good at night. No weight gain since last week. I'm a little nervous to go to the Dr next week, because I'm trying to eat a lot, but I'm not gaining anything. I'm officially in all maternity clothes. I tried on a regular shirt the other day...but it was a no go. Not to hot with a stretch marked belly hanging out the bottom :)

Here's the latest picture...The babies are the size of a sweet potato...and if I happened to grab a yam at the store, I apologize. I don't know the difference between the two. The babies are between 5 and 5.5in long and weigh about 5 ounces.

We go in next Thursday for the big ultrasound. Momma J and daddy H are so excited to finally know the genders of their babies. Fingers crossed that the babies cooperate. I'll be skyping with J&H during so they can be apart of it all.

The next thing that I'm pretty excited about is I got a couple super cute shirts made.

This is my Halloween shirt. I've worn it a couple times already and I've gotten a lot of fun comments on it.
And my Proud surro shirt. I haven't worn this one out yet, but I can't wait to. I can't wait to get some fun looks and comments on it. I had these shirts made for me by a local lady. I might get a couple more. Just gotta come up with something clever.

17 weeks

We've made it to 17 weeks. The babies this week are the size of an onion. They are about 5 in long and weigh about 5.9oz. The skeleton is changing from rubbery cartilage to bone. I'm feeling the babies move now. I've felt one baby for about a week and I started to feel the other baby a couple days ago. One sits high on the left side and the other one is mid way between my belly button and pubic bone on the right side.

I'm starting to get bad heartburn...its keeping me up at night. My Dr told me it would be safe to try anything over the counter. I've tried a couple things, with no such luck. I'm also having pretty bad back pain already. I wear the belly band which helps, but I'm getting a lot of pain higher up and the band supports my lower back.
I had a massage yesterday, provided for me by my wonderful agency. (just one of those surrogacy perks, I get a free monthly massage) It sure helped a lot, but I can already feel it getting sore again. My Dr tells me that, while pregnant the body releases a hormone called relaxin, which helps our pelvis to spread and open up to prepare for labor, but it can cause the hips and or ribs to go out. When I go back to the Dr in a few weeks I'm going to ask about seeing my chiropractor to see if that will help. I have a lot of months to go, and I won't be able to live with this for that long.

Enough complaining...I am feeling good otherwise. Still no significant weight gain. I'm up a total of 3lbs. (well technically, I'm still down 15lbs) I'm eating pretty good. I haven't had any real cravings yet. I didn't really get them with my own kids though. With Jackson I got one real craving once for licorice and with Rylee I got one once for watermelon jello. So I don't expect to get "cravings". Of course somethings sounds good to me at times, but that happens even when I'm not pregnant.

I gotta add that I'm really loving this nice October weather. I've been having a lot of fun doing Halloween crafts with my kids, I made them both new winter blankets last week. Were going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze with the kids next week. I can't wait for Halloween. I'm going to be taking the cutest little witch and ninja trick or treating. Crossing our fingers for nice weather.

That's all that's going on in my life now. Starting next Monday, I'll be volunteering every Monday morning in Jackson's classroom as the reading mom. I can't wait. I wanted to be able to do that last year, but work prevented that from happening.

See ya next week!!

16 weeks

I'll start off on updating on my appts from last Friday. I started with an ultrasound. It was uneventful. Babies are looking good. They are BIG. I was 15w4d at the ultrasound and baby A was measuring 17w0d and baby B was 16w6d. They definitely haven't been effected from all my weight loss. Guess that's where all my food is going to. We didn't get a very clear view of their genders. Babies weren't cooperating. I'll go in for the 20 u/s in just a few weeks and we'll hopefully get good clear views then. My good friend Becky was up visiting from CA and she came with me. (there is your shout out!!)

After the u/s we walked across the street to my OB. I had a good appt. I've gained about 2 lbs. I still have a little protein in my urine, but Dr said a lot less than 2 weeks ago, and he wasn't concerned. Good BP. My belly was measuring 22cm. No wonder I'm really starting to feel pregnant. So all in all, everything is going well.

I have turned the corner and I can say I'm really starting to feel great. I get nauseous sometimes in the evenings but its short lived. No throwing up in a couple weeks. I'm not gaining anything, but I know I'll start too soon.

Here is my latest shot of the ever growing belly. The babies this week are the size of an avocado. I've really started to feel movement in the last week too. I feel baby B. That baby is just below my belly button and slightly to the left. I haven't really felt the bottom baby, but I think its still pretty low.
Today I went with Jackson on a field trip and his teacher asked me when I'm due. Its the first time I've been asked that, so that is pretty exciting. I'm finally out of that awkward..."is she pregnant or is she fat" stage. I also bought myself a belly support band today. I'm excited to wear it. I'll start tomorrow. My belly hurts sometimes when I move wrong or when I stand up too quick. I think its just cuz its growing so fast.

I think thats all for now.

15 weeks

I don't have a lot to update on this week. Things are uneventful. I'm feeling better most of the time. I still tire easily. But I haven't thrown up in over a week!!!

So I had lost a total of 18lbs and after I went in last week for IV fluids I went up 2lbs, and now I dropped back down another pound. So I'm still down 17lbs. I eat, but I know these babies are sucking it all out of me. I read in my pregnancy book that with twins you should gain between 35-45lbs...I don't think I'll be making that mark. But I will keep these babies healthy. With my own kids I gained 14 & 16lbs. I do pregnancy well. My Dr has never worried about my weight gain.

This Friday I'll go in for an ultrasound and following it I'll see my OB. If I have anything exciting to update after I will.
For now I'll leave you with the latest pics. And this week the babies are about the size of a navel orange. They are about 4-41/2 inch's and weigh about 1 3/4oz. Oh and before I go I wanted to say...Last Sunday I had a fun evening with 4 of my best surrogate friends. I have made some amazing friends since starting this journey. We try to get together every month and catch up. And 2 days after our dinner Heather welcomed into this world the cutest baby girl, Samantha, and placed her into her mommy's arms. Rylee and I got to go to the hospital and visit and Rylee was instantly in love. Congrats Heather and momma P. Heather has carried and delivered 3 surrogate babe's. She is amazing and is someone I look up to.

14 Weeks

So I had my OB appt last Friday. Lets just say it wasn't the best appt I've had. I lost another 10 lbs, bringing my wt loss total to 18lbs. Not good I know, but its kinda what I do when I get pregnant. Also I was SOOOO dehydrated. I knew it had been getting bad. I had felt a few cramps (but they were up high so I wasn't too worried about them), I had this non-stop headache for 3 days and I had protein in my urine. The Dr told me to wait through the weekend and really push the fluids and see how I was on Monday.

Over the weekend it seemed like the more I drank, the more I threw up. So on Monday, off I went to the ER. The Dr in the ER told me not to wait so long next time. He said in deed I was pretty dried out. I got 2 bags of fluids and a dose of IV zofran and left feeling like a new person.

My weight has gone up 2 lbs since I got that fluid, but its held steady since.
I go back to my OB next Friday. He said he didn't want me to go a full month, in case I wasn't getting any better.
We did hear the heartbeats at the appt, they were 155 & 164. Almost what they were at the ultrasound. Also at that appt, by belly was measuring 18cm.

I also have another ultrasound next Friday, right before my appt, just to check again on the babies.

No pics this week. I'll update next week, I promise.

13 weeks

Second Trimester...Here I am!!!

We've all survived the first trimester!!! I'm looking forward to feeling better, getting more energy and gaining weight. (yes, gaining weight) I've lost 16 lbs so far. Obviously from the looks of this belly the babies aren't suffering. Maybe its all coming off my thigh's.

We had an ultrasound yesterday and got to see these adorable babies. They now look like little babies. They are fully formed and were quite active. They are growing nicely. Baby A is the lower baby, sitting right above my cervix and we used the internal probe to see that one. We got a lot clearer images of that baby.

Baby A is measuring 13w3d and had a heart rate of 155.

Baby B was a little harder to see. It was quite a bit higher up, almost to my belly button so we had to use the external wand to see this baby and it was kind of grainy.

Baby B is measuring 13w2d with a HR of 165.

Here is just a couple more cute pictures of the babies. I believe they are both baby B.

We were able to get a sneak peak at the sex of the babies. We know its still early and we can't be sure so for now I'm not going to share...yes the mom and dad do know. Let me just say every one is pleasantly surprised.

So as I said these babies are growing like crazy. My body is trying to adjust to the rapid changes. I get pain up under my ribs sometimes and I think its just from my organs all getting squished. Also I'm having some back pain. I might ask the Dr about going to the chiropractor when I go on Friday. I need to look into getting a belly band or something to help support this ever expanding belly. Sometimes when I'm laying down if I roll over too fast or when I'm sitting if I get up "wrong" it feels like I pulled something. I know its only gonna get worse the bigger I get. I'm excited to go to the Dr and get measured.

I'm stealing this food comparison idea from a girlfriend. The babies this week are the size of a peach. I tried to hold 2 peaches but that just looked awkward. And towards the end the food gets a lot bigger and with my belly I don't think I can juggle 2 watermelon's. Its fun to get an idea of how big the babies are this way.

And I'll leave it at that. I might update after my Dr's appt of Friday, if not, I'll do it with next week's post. Have a good week!!!