We had a wonderful visit with my IPs last week- well, over a week ago. My girls started school last week so it was kind of a blur to me. They arrived on Thursday night and treated my girls and me to dinner at the Melting Pot. I have only been there once, for our anniversary, and my girls had never been. We had a wonderful time preparing our meals and I ate waaaayyyy too much. Mostly because my stomach is being squished by two little ones. The next day, we did get to go to the doctor and hear the heartbeats of the babies.
I also got to find out their names. I do not believe their names are a secret, but I also do not want to share them on social media simply because they are not my names to release. I only know their American names though. The Chinese names will be figured out by the family and based on some other variables which are fascinating to me, but I do not understand them enough to explain. Perhaps I will research further when I actually learn their Chinese names. Either way, the hospital tour also went very well. I have delivered at this hospital before, but they have renovated a lot, so it was nice to get the lay of the land. This will help everyone to know where we are going and what we are doing. The hospital is great for surrogate births because they do give the intended parents a room to take care of the babies in. This means that they get to stay in the hospital with their newborns until they are released as long as the floor is not full. My room will hopefully be nearby so I can cuddle a little bit with the babies before they go back home. The IPs did have to leave right away, so our adventures ended there. On Monday, I had the mother skype call in so she could watch the ultrasound and ask any questions she had. Our little twins are still the exact same size, at 13 oz. each (That is the day before 21 weeks, so they are actually a tad on the smaller side, but they are within healthy range.) It is so cute though, they are cuddled up in my lower belly. Both heads are side by side and all four little feet are right next to each other. There is more room in my uterus for baby girl to move upward, but she is staying right down there with her brother. Right now, both heads are on my lower right side and the feet are on my upper left, so both are lying sideways. The boy's head is lower than the rest of him, so if he doesn't do too many gymnastics moves, he is primed for birth when the time comes. He could move a lot by then, though, so I am still crossing my fingers. The sonographer did say they the two will always be in this bunk bed position with boy on bottom and girl on top, meaning we won't have any trouble with baby girl getting in the way. The more probably issues is that baby boy will come out just fine the intended way, and baby girl could go any which way from there. She'll probably move quite a bit in the process of her brother's birth. I am not going to stress about this yet, but it could mean I have to have one vaginally and the other may need to be c-section. I would rather do both the same way for healing purposes, of course. On the bright side, the hospital is already prepared for any eventuality because I will be delivering in the operating room either way. That way if we can do both vaginally, we are great, but if an emergency comes up, we will already be in place to handle it. I am slightly saddened that only 1 other person can be in the room in the event of a c-section. I will leave it up to the parents to decide which one of them it will be. The other up side is that in the OR there is a curtain that we can use to keep everything hidden from any eyes that do not need to see it. The parents will be able to see the babies as soon as they are all the way out and not before. Finally, my symptoms right now: Slight heartburn in reclines positions. Not bad. Sleeplessness. I believe insomnia describes it best, but it is not every night. Fatigue during the day or after too much activity. I am kind of low on energy at the moment. A Stretchy, full feeling in my belly. Lots and lots of baby movement. A longing for the smell of soap and clean things. OMG I went to the soap aisle at Kroger and just inhaled for like five minutes. I believe I may need some extra iron, but I talked to the doctor and he said to just wait until the scheduled blood draw at 28 weeks. (I am at 22 now) My numbers looked fine in the beginning, but I did have pregnancy induced anemia when I was pregnant with my middle daughter. I am just trying to throw in a few more meats for now. I think that is it for now. My next appointment will be an ultrasound on September 15th, so I may not have a whole lot to say until then unless my symptoms change.
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I am so so so happy to be able to announce that my IPs are getting their wish. Meet Baby A- 男 That means "boy/son" in simplified Chinese. According to Google. I just love the written Chinese language. It is absolutely beautiful. I wish I knew more about it. And Baby B makes their mixed set 姑娘 Which means girl/daughter. If google is right. Or it could be this... 女 I am so confused. I love that the symbol for girl is far more complicated than the symbol for boy. So here is where we stand right now: I am 19 weeks and 3 days pregnant with two beautifully developing babies. Symptoms include: >OMG TIRED- I need a nap every day at some point. Today my nap was from 4:30-6. >Cravings include ice chips, (which I am going to get some iron supplements to curtail) ridiculously sweet things, and peanut butter honey on toast. Thank goodness our honey is locally made by my father in law. I am trying very hard to maintain a healthy diet for these babies, and in the grande scheme of things I have been very healthy for most of this pregnancy. This week has kind of been a fail. I even ate ramen noodles for dinner last night because I was too tired to think of anything better. > My back is getting sore already, but I think that is more because I am less active. Doing things makes me tired, so I have been reading more, working on school work, and wasting a heck of a lot of time on my computer. It doesn't help that my girls have a crazy schedule this week so I am driving them places then coming home and waiting until it is time to pick them up. > Headaches are still a thing, but not as bad. I have a little one right now actually, but it is not the kind that makes me sit in a dark room. Good things include: >Movement!!! I feel Baby Boy moving quite a lot. Once he woke me up with a jab to my lower belly. He is lying sideways in my lower belly, so I feel him a lot more than Baby Girl, who is sitting up high and has a bit more room to wiggle in, I think. The cutest thing is that I think they are still staying fairly close together. I feel movement either in my lower belly on the right side, or in the middle near my belly button. Baby Girl is trying to cuddle, I guess. Other good things include the fact that nesting set in early and is making a great impact on my house. I do get tired if I clean too much at once, but I am keeping up on that. Better is that I have been getting my house painted- by a professional, of course. Now you all know I am not doing this for the money, but there is a fee involved. It is not a huge amount- it is enough to do some nice things for our family, such as fixing up our home a little. When we moved into this old home, it had been "whited out" by the bank. The shell of the house has character but no color. This is my entry way. I did not get a great before of my entry way, but you can see it is just stark white. I will post more updates as they happen. This has made a huge difference in the feel of our house. The only other thing that I have done so far is buy a few pieces of new furniture. We moved from a 1040 sq ft home to this 2300 sq ft house, so our great room was never furnished until now. I moved some of our old ikea furniture out here (because it is easy to recover ikea furniture in most colors), then I put the new comfy stuff in our living room. I'll share that later too. I found these sofa/loveseat sets at American Freight for less than $600. It is amazing how much you can do on a tight budget really.
In other news, the IPs are coming into town again this month. They were supposed to be coming for the 20 week anatomy ultrasound, but my OB office called and cancelled that appointment. I guess the sonographer is on vacation that day. I am pretty sad about that, but I am super excited that we are going to be taking a tour of the hospital that day. This means that the parents will get to see where their babies will be born and we can ask any questions we have while we are there. Most of my questions have to do with modesty options. I feel my IPs will want to be in the room as soon as the babies are born, and I need those babies to go directly into their parents' arms first thing. That means some precautions will need to be taken to save everyone from seeing things that should not be seen. :) My only other question has to do with their policy in the event of a c-section. Many times, the rule is only one other person can be in the room during a c-section. Some places might let two in. My problem is, again, I want those babies in their parents arms first thing. This means that I want both mom and dad in that room with me, but I feel I need my husband too. I have no idea if they'd ever allow three people in a c-section room. My priority is the parents though. I am hoping at least they will allow a switch out after the babies are born, such as the parents go with the babies then they will let my Stephen come be with me while I get sewn back together. So, yeah, we are crossing our fingers that we don't have to worry about that. If everything goes as planned, their limits in the birthing room are very flexible, as I have learned the three previous times I have given birth there. I think that is all I have to say for now. This is what you get when I wait over a week to write a post. |