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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.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Week 27 - Third Trimester Here We Come!!!!

We are coming up on the 3rd trimester!!!  By definition the third trimester starts at 28 weeks and ends with delivery ... did I just say DELIVERY?!?!  Is that really our next major milestone?  OMG!!!!  Ok, no panicking just yet ... let's take this a week at a time.  Seeing as this is a multiples pregnancy that is exactly what we'll be doing.  We've arrived safely in the third trimester and every week from here on out is an opportunity for these lil guys to put on weight and allow their lungs to mature.  Thirty-two is my next personal goal but, that just doesn't seem far enough away.  I hope they stay put till at least thirty-six and even that seems too soon but, I'm sure by then I'll be begging for signs of labor.

Today I went in and had the glucose screen done.  As the nurse came out with my oh so lovely cocktail and prior to giving the instructions she asked, "Have you done this before?".  Of course the answer is yes but as I sat there and thought about it, this was the 9th time I'd taken this test.  I've taken it routinely around 26-28wks in all six pregnancies but had to do the repeat 3hr screen the last two times (and passed).  I've also actually already taken the test at 16wks with this pregnancy, since it's multiples (and passed), so that's 9 times overall - 13 hours of my life.  LOL!  I'm hoping and praying the results are good but honestly seeing as I've just been over what's consider acceptable for the 1hr the last two pregnancies, I won't be surprised if I have to go in for the 3hr. Wish me luck!

After the lab work I headed over to MFM to meet K&S for our 28wk growth ultrasound.  To my surprise Baby A is transverse AND so is Baby B!  Stinkers!  They are now both lying across my abdomen stacked on top of one another.  They obviously still have plenty of room to "goof around" in there!  Heart rates were quite different from one another, one in the 130's the other in the 150's but still within normal range.  Perhaps Baby A was crashing from his sugar high after the glucose screen and settling in for a nap while Baby B was still feeling the effects. LOL  Baby A is is the smaller of the two coming in at the 40th percentile and Baby B the 50th percentile.  Both have gained a pound over the last 4 weeks and growth is right on target.  I have 5lbs of baby chill'n out in my belly now, the same size as a tiny full-term singleton but still only half as much as my first surroguy who was 10lbs at birth!  Sometimes I feel huge already but I know they have A LOT of growing to do yet.

A few weeks back while doing our 24 wk growth scan the doctor made note of some "fluid" on both babies kidneys.  The darkened areas on the u/s were measured and recorded as possible cysts.  We were told not to worry about it, it would just be something to monitor the next time around and that these types of things usually resolve themselves.  Thankfully today's u/s showed these areas to be fine.  However, as they continued the scan the Peri saw "bright bowel" on Baby A's images.  This is another thing they will want to watch closely and monitor.  It's not necessarily abnormal but also not considered normal at 28 weeks either.  The Peri said in an average 32 week old fetus the bowels begin to function and produce meconium so they'd expect to see this "brightness" but since we are at only 27/28wks they are approaching it cautiously and will have me back in two weeks to monitor the area.  We hope to see no change or that the, echogenic bowel as the doctor called it, has gone away.  What we don't want to see is dark areas of "gas" develop around the bowel as this would indicate an obstruction.  So for now, we wait and see but the Peri assured everyone, it was worth monitoring but not worth worrying about.  We parted ways today with all that on our minds, waiting things out is never fun but what can you do?  We are just praying it resolves itself like the kidney issue did.  The babies are both looking really good overall and we can't let negative thoughts get in the way.  There is so much to be excited about and thankful for at this point.

Before K&S headed home they handed off a book to me that I purchased them awhile back.  It's one of those recordable storybooks so I had them record themselves reading it to the babies and, my girls and I will be sure to "introduce" these lil guys to their parents voices and make it a part of our evening routine in the weeks to come.

I'll leave you with one cute image from today.  This would be Baby A sticking out his tongue. LOL

3 comments:

Venus of the Kitchen said...

Hope your next scan shows some happy results. :)

Michael said...

That picture is the BEST! And I'll keep my fingers crossed all goes well with the glucose and bowel issues. You're doing a great job taking care of the little ones!

Tiffany said...

What a cute picture! That will be one his parents can break out on his dates someday. :-)