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About Me

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Caledonia, Northern Illinois, United States
I am a Thirty-Something mother of four beautiful girls. My love for them, and the joy I've experienced during this crazy ride called motherhood, has inspired me to help make the dream of a family become a reality for couples through gestational surrogacy. I've proudly helped A&T, as their lives were forever changed when they welcomed a son in April 2010 and K&S were blessed as parents in Sept 2012 when we welcomed their twin boys. I completed my final surrogacy journey Nov 2015 when I helped a wonderful local couple J&W and Big Brother add their family with the birth of twin boys. I am so very fortunate to have wonderful relationships with each one of my surro-families and continue to share in their lives.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Week 25 (cont.) - The Planning Phase Has Begun

Not that K&S haven't been planning for this for years but we are now to a point where it's time to get some details worked out.  Since there was so much going on last week that was not appointment related thought I'd do a separate entry with those details and to share about the other plans being made.  Warning, this one's a bit long too.

On Friday we saw the high-risk OB for a fetal heart study.  This is an appointment (ultrasound) where the sonographer concentrates on just the heart and how it is functioning.  It's a "newer" thing that they are recommending for both multiples and IVF patients since these variables show a higher incident of abnormalities.  So, seeing as this is a multiples pregnancy via IVF we were scheduled for one.  Good news, the boys hearts look perfect.  They are only about the size of a quarter right now so they can't detect the smallest of abnormalities like a pin size hole between chambers but, overall everything looks just as it should.

The night before, while visiting with my IPs in their home, we were discussing names and they've pretty much narrowed it down but, hadn't decided who would be who.  I asked what kinda personality traits they associated with each name and the feelings the names evoked and recommended that we see if they showed any of these traits at the next days u/s.  So, after the u/s tech was done with all her measurements we played around a bit and got to know these two a little better.  Baby A seems to be the passive peaceful baby.  He was snuggled into the placenta and a little camera shy when trying to get pics of of sweet lil face.  Even in utero he's the less active baby, I don't feel him as much and movements on that side seem more subtle.  However, Baby B was a ball of energy.  He's active, moves around all the time and the movements are sometimes quite dramatic from him - lots of kicks and jabs.  He's shown us this on the u/s a few times too.  Last week he clocked himself in the nose and then at this appointment he was folded in half with a foot in his brothers face at all times.  The tech had a harder time getting measurements on him because he didn't want to stay still and unlike his shy brother was all about showing off his handsome face to the paparazzi.  They definitely have individual personalities and the name assignment was obvious.  I imagine now you want to know what their names are and who is who right?  Well sorry ... that's for their mama to announce. ;)  You'll have to wait that one out. :)

After the appointment we did a tour of the hospital.  We viewed the High Risk Moms wing, which we hope I don't spend anytime in, then L&D, the OR area and the recovery room, and the Mom/Baby unit. Funny story, IF isn't a big fan of hospitals.  As we are walking down the hall of L&D he commented something about not feeling well.  So K asks, "Do you have many dads pass out?" to which the nurse replies, "Yes, it happens occasionally."  Then I pat S on the back sympathetically and say, "But on the hospital tour!?!?"  We all had a good laugh at his expense.  Moving on, we also got a peek at their Level 3 NICU.  We hope these guys don't have any NICU time but it's something to be prepared for - even full-term singletons sometimes require NICU time, you just never know.  The hospital we will be delivering at has had a lot of experience with surrogacy situations and did a wonderful job handling everything when I delivered there my first journey so I don't have reservations going in this time around and anticipate everything to go smoothly.

Following the tour we headed to a coffee shop to meet with Amanda, the Doula I used for Giovanni's birth, to  introduce her to K&S and discuss using her for this delivery as well.  I'm so excited to have her as a support person for labor and delivery again.  Jason's already said he's not all that interested in being in the OR should we need a c-section so, K&S would be present on behalf of the babies and Amanda as my support person - she makes a better photographer than Jason anyways. ;)

Now that we've wrapped up a few of those things we can start working on the Birth Plan and will make an appointment with the social worker/coordinator at the hospital to go over all of our wishes and expectations.  The Pre-Birth Order is being finalized, K has started shopping and decorating the nursery, shower invitations are out ... WOW planning is in full swing now!  We have less than 100 days to go!!!

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