It's a...

 

Yep, she sure is a girl! I knew it :) 

Skyped with S & B during the ultrasound and they were soooo excited!

Now that we know she is a girl, they can finally give her a name and buy her all kinds of goodies!

I bought them a little monkey with a recording of her heartbeat in it so when she is born, they will still have it with them <3

Week 15

Can I just start by saying that this weekly blog post is on time?! Tuesdays are the day that a new gestation week starts, and I have been slacking and posting on Wednesday or Thursdays. Oopsy! This week the baby is the size of an apple! I have been eating apples by the bunch lately so when I had one this morning, I held it up to my belly first to imagine that the bean inside me was that size :)

This week is going to get very exciting -- we are finding out the gender! As soon as S & B know, and have time to tell their family and friends, I will post a gender reveal for everyone! It will be fun to be able to identify this little bean since S & B have already told me the possible names. We will soon find out!
 

Week 14

Hello, second trimester! This week, little bean is now the size of a lemon. Pretty neat to think about, but my belly thinks I'm already carrying a melon. Some days I have a flatter looking stomach, and other days it looks 7 months pregnant. Excited for it to make it's official pop so I won't look "fluffy" anymore.

Taken from the video :)

Yesterday was our monthly Dr. appointment. Baby looked and sounded amazing! We could barely get a still picture because the baby was somersaulting and moving so much. I did get to take a video of the ultrasound for S & B. I also recorded the Dr. using the doppler to listen to the heartbeat. It was super sweet. Hopefully we can find out the gender this upcoming week! Everyone is doing great and excited for these months to fly by!

Week 13

The second trimester is literally around the corner. My progression picture this week is pretty true to myself. I'm not a huge fan of layering on makeup everyday, but I tend to do it anyways, thanks for that, society. However, when I'm pregnant, makeup is really the last thing that I want to worry about. I look like a goblin, but somehow I feel beautiful :) My little man (Ezra, 21 months) is not feeling well today so this mama has other things to do than worry about my face ;)

It's been a pretty eye opening week for me now that things are back to normal. Now that I am becoming noticeably pregnant, I am receiving congratulations, but sometimes stares. I am younger with two younger children, and now sporting a belly bump, so I knew that was coming. I know that comments and questions will only increase as my belly expands, but I'm learning how to respond to strangers. It's easy to just accept them from people that I meet in the grocery store, but how do I respond to those that I see on a regular basis? My daughter (Paisleigh, almost 5!) is in ballet and gymnastics where some of the moms have began to notice. I don't walk up to people and start the conversation with "Hi, I'm Kailey, and this is not my baby." Honestly, I try to avoid the "baby conversation." The ONLY reason I want to avoid it is the mixed reactions I know I will eventually come in contact with. I have received nothing but positive responses because I've surrounded myself with positive people who support my journey. Strangers that I encounter, however, I cannot foresee their reactions. There's a huge stigma that comes with surrogacy that the surrogates are low income, poverish, and uneducated women. This could not be further from the truth. At least through my agency, we are not. Very few of us are stay at home mothers. Although I am none of these stereotypes, I don't want to have to justify or defend my reasons for becoming a surrogate to a stranger during a two minute exchange with a being I may never see again. This is something I knew I would have to face once I become a surrogate, but now it's here, and I'm going to learn to deal. As the encounters come, I will post about them and let you know how I dealt with them so hopefully it will help future surrogates :) I have never been one to care what people think, and I sure as hell will not start now. I would just rather avoid the ignorance.

Week 12

Week 12 -- Almost the end of the first trimester! Yay!!! I'm feeling great and am enjoying every second of this pregnancy. It's definitely become easy and I honestly sometimes forget that I'm even pregnant. Baby is super active at night. I cannot wait for it to be visible on the outside so I can send a video to S & B. I know they are very anxious to see it. Two weeks until we can find out the gender! I have an adorable gender reveal planned for them that way they can reveal the gender from their own home in Paris. You will have to wait for that post ;)

Not much to update on this week but I know people get excited about bump pictures so here you go :)

Week 11

If I could sing this post, I would! This has been the best week so far. I feel amazing, I have my energy back, and to top it all off -- guess who gets to stop injections and meds?! This girl! Today I went to my last appointment with the IVF Dr and "graduated!" I could feel little bean wiggling and watch it on the ultrasound at the same time. It was super cute. My sweet Timothy has been administering my daily injections for NINETY SIX consecutive days and now we are all done! I seriously feel like I won the lottery today. All of the staff thanked my for being such a great patient and sent me on my way. As I said last week, I am now in the care of my primary OBGYN until the end. Only 29 more weeks left!

Now for an update on the little bean -- I am making my official guess right now -- GIRL. I am guessing this because 1) this pregnancy is identical to the pregnancy I had with my daughter. My pregnancy with my daughter vs. my son's is like night and day. With my daughter I felt great, had great skin, and didn't need to wear my glasses because my vision cleared up. With my son I had a pinched sciatic nerve, nausea for months, and my face broke out like I was 15 again. 2) The heart rate was 175bpm today. With my daughter it was always 170+, and with my son it was between 140-155. 3) I was having dreams it was a boy the first few weeks, and my dreams are always wrong haha 4) I'm craving everything terrible for me just like with my daughter.


I am so excited for S & B as they continue to share with family and friends that they are indeed expecting, and all is going well! Only 3 more weeks until we can opt to find out the sex of the baby, but I'm pretty sure I know what she is already ;)