Cha..Cha..Cha..Changes

June 30, 2010 at 5:03 PM (Our Journey, Surrogate Education)
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Enzo’s Blog:

First things first, there has been some confusion on Bebe’s name.  Yes, Enzo is the real name of this growing baby boy and the only one on this blog that IS real.  Why not just use our real names?  The internet can be a crazy place people, point blank….

Enzo is 24 weeks gestation and will be 25 on Friday.  We had a prenatal appointment on Monday and everything is still looking great.  At the birthing center I weighed in at 151.6 pounds.  I started the pregnancy at 135.  I ended my last pregnancy 4 years ago at 155 pounds and I will obviously pass my highest weight ever with this pregnancy.  I am thinking (and hoping) that I will end in the lower 160’s.  My belly measured exactly 24 which is spot on at 24 weeks.  It is in the last 4 weeks or so of pregnancy that the measurement won’t match the week of gestation.  Enzo’s heartbeat sounded good and he even punched or kicked the Doppler during our listen.  Lucy and the midwife talked about Lucy’s progress with preparing to breastfeed Enzo when he is born which is truly fascinating to me.  One minute the midwife is giving advice and tips to Lucy for obtaining the best milk production possible and then the next minute she is giving me tips on how I can end my milk production as fast as possible.  I know it sounds silly but I am truly excited about drinking a glass of celebration wine the day he is actually born!  It is fantastic to me that I can deliver a baby and NOT have to take care of it OR feed it.  I also don’t have to experience the brutal after contractions when the baby nurses!  That was always the worst feeling for me, the sensation of a baby sucking my uterus straight up and out of my breast, sometimes making me throw up in the process.  If you haven’t had more than one kid, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about as it gets worse and worse with each pregnancy and that is when you feel this not so awesome phenomenon; worse than experiencing the “ring of fire” in my opinion.

After our prenatal appointment we went for an elective 3D ultrasound.  Oh my goodness, Enzo looks totally different! He is a little chunky monkey now compared to before.

 

                

16 Weeks

24 Weeks

Enzo loves his placenta and stuck to it like a snuggly blanket.  At one point he was literally rubbing his face and nose on it like he was in total admiration.  He did not want to leave his companion to come out for many good shots but here are a few more.  Sometimes it is hard to tell Enzo from the placenta but I’ll try to give you hints.

Enzo’s face is on the far right as you look at the picture, you see his chest extend down from his face, with his thigh and knee directly below the mass of the placenta .  You can see the embilical cord run up the length of his thigh from his belly and how it is attached to the placenta and how the cord is wrapping itself around the placenta.

Enzo’s face was visable right before this picture was taken.  He quickly drew his arm up and covered his eye with his hand.  He is pressing his face into the placenta.

Enzo’s brain is growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory “tree” as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.  This week marked the “age of viability” which means that should something happen prematurely and Enzo vacated my belly, he would have a fighting chance at survival.

My Time:

So, what is on the horizon?  Well, as of Friday, only 15 more weeks will remain to a full term pregnancy.  We will have the next prenatal appointment at the end of July in four weeks.  After that I will start to be seen biweekly, then weekly.  I will do the sugar glucose testing after the next appointment to test for gestational diabetes.  I will attend the “how to deliver a baby at a birthing center” class with The Husband.  Lucy will have her baby shower in August.  Professional pregnancy photos will be taken in September and baby Enzo will be born in the middle of October, October 10th if Lucy gets her wish.

Here is my newest, most favorite t-shirt from Lucy.  Don’t you just love it!

During the ultrasound as mentioned above we got some very good looks at the placenta and the tech made the comment that the area where the placenta was attached would be good to buffer any back labor pain should that happen during labor.  Back labor generally happens when a baby is in the posterior position during labor.  Posterior babies are head down like they are supposed to be but they are looking at the abdomen with the back of their heads facing the mother’s back and tailbone, thus generally causing extreme back pain.  Most times babies who are posterior facing will turn before the delivery and if they don’t they arrive “sunny-side up” looking directly at the sky.  Sunny-side up babies occur more often than not in a mother’s first delivery. 

Such was the case with my first daughter.  How unfair is it that the first time you experience the pain of labor you’re more likely to get dealt the blow of back labor on top of it?  Pretty sucky.  Needless to say, at that time I had no intentions of not having an epidural and had I not, I’m not sure if I’d have had any more children or even wanted to be a surrogate.  For everything there is a reason…

Still to this day, I can remember the pain of back labor.  The pain felt during labor is a referred pain, meaning the originating site is the uterus but the actual pain is felt in the abdomen, back, and/or upper thighs.  I remember the labor and delivery nurses wanting me to walk the halls and me wanting to rip their heads off at the suggestion because every time I had a contraction with my sunny-side up baby it felt like she was trying to be delivered through the path of my right thigh and out through my foot.  So each contraction it felt like my belly was being squeezed in a vice, my back was breaking, and fire was shooting down my leg.

My next two labors produced babies that were facing in the normal direction (face down) and thank God because for birth number two, I had the nurse who thought she knew all there was to know about everything and even though I wanted an epidural I was forced to go natural after she didn’t notify the on call anesthesiologist in enough time (that is also a small town hospital for you). Birth number three I hardly made it to the much bigger and better hospital and knew in the parking lot that it was too late for pain medication because I was already in transition. Because of those two labors I got over the fear of the pain and the more educated I became on the labor process the more bearable the pain became.

So to wrap up this very long story, it was pleasing to me to hear that my placenta would provide a good buffer if Enzo decides to go most of the labor facing up because it is a little scary to think of going through back labor in a birthing center setting without the option of drugs.  Either way, I will cope and deal as I have much more faith in myself now than I did back then but every little bit helps.

I end this blog post today on a Twi-high as I just saw Eclipse this morning and thought it was the best one yet.  I loved how they presented deviation from the books in this one but not much if you had read The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner prior to seeing Eclipse.  I read that Twilight fans will now have to wait until November 2011 to see the first of the two installments of Breaking Dawn to hit the big screen.  That is way too long friends, way too long. 

© Pocketbebe, 2010

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Belly Enticement

June 16, 2010 at 1:49 PM (Our Journey, Surrogate Education)
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Enzo’s Blog:

Enzo is currently 22 weeks gestation and will be 23 weeks on Friday.  He should be measuring around 11 inches long and weigh almost 1 pound.  He should look like a miniature newborn in appearance with his lips, eyelids, and eyebrows becoming more distinct. His eyes have formed, but his irises lack pigment still and his tooth buds are forming. Lanugo hair that covers his body is developing and the deep wrinkles on his skin will start to lessen as he puts on fat to fill them in.  His pancreas, which is essential for the production of some important hormones, is developing steadily inside his little baby tummy.  If we were able to gain a peak at Enzo this week he’d look something like this.

 Enzo is mostly active in the early morning and seems to do quite a bit of rolling, punching, and kicking during that time.  I think he sleeps most of the day as I am moving around nonstop.  In the evenings I will feel him here and there, a lot of times while I am eating dinner.  The other night I was sitting on the end of the couch where our dog, Maya, generally likes to sleep so I think in effort to get me to move she was practically sitting on my lap and had her head rested on the side of my belly.  Enzo started his kicking and punching moves right by her head and every now and again she’d raise her head and look at me like, “What the heck is going on?”  I eventually moved because I got hot but it was the first time I noticed that Enzo’s kicks could be felt externally and that if strong enough they were actually visible too.  It will be neat for the Ricardo’s the next time I see them to feel their baby boy moving around.

My Time:

Well, I’ve been back to the real world since returning home from vacation and The Husband is back to work (meaning long stretches of time where I am solely responsible for all or at least two of our children for many, many, many hours on end) and I yet again remember what a “catch 22” summer really is.  It is so nice to be free of the school drive, homework and projects that always seem to loom ahead of us each week, and all the pressures and stress that come with those activities, BUT, that small taste of freedom comes at the cost of losing any and all alone time that during the past school year I managed to pull off for twelve hours a week while the youngest went to preschool.  Summer comes with trying to do work for the business with my kids underfoot, camp drop-offs and camp pick-ups, lots of “I’m thirsty”, “I’m hungry”, “She’s touching me”, “I need a band-aid”, or “She hit (also interchangeable with bit) me’s”, that send me over the edge.  I am an introvert (a person who is energized by being alone and whose energy is drained by being continuously around other people) and my lovely amazing children that I love beyond words can suck that energy out of me faster than the Florida heat ever could.  I do get out with the ladies on Wednesday evenings and my mom helps by taking one or all of the kids so I can grocery shop or do bank runs alone but what I really miss during summer is the quiet time that I like to spend alone in my own head.  I know the introverts at heart out there are nodding their heads as they read this, it is how we recharge.  So, while I am enjoying the summer, at the same time I am also coping with the adjustment of a different schedule and falling behind in work in the process.

To go back to the new developments with Enzo’s gymnastics, I think we should discuss the “lure of the belly” and I don’t mean in the weird Aunt Bernie lifting your shirt up for a quick look-see or when arbitrary strangers sidle up for an unwelcome grope of the baby bulge kind of way.  I want to talk about the, “I can’t help but rub and touch my own belly, CONSTANTLY,” kind of way.  For me, even with my own pregnancies, it wasn’t so much a maternal protection/attachment instinct type of action more than it was other things.  Sometimes there are reasons, I will mention a few of them below in a second, but most of the times I just do it because it is there and I can.  Sort of like those “hair twirlers” out there, the ones who randomly grab a strand of their hair and twirl it for no apparent reason. It is like that, but without the knotted tangled mess when it is all said and done.  ***Real quick, I promise not to digress more than a second here, but speaking of hair…Did you know that your hair gets thicker and more full during pregnancy not because suddenly more hair follicles have developed on your head and you sprouted more hair but because as our body systems adjust their priorities to the growing baby it slows the shedding process down and we don’t lose our hair at its normal current rate?  Kind-of interesting, but still bizarre because NEW hair BEGINS to grow on other body parts during pregnancy and I swear growth accelerates in others.  At any rate, back to the subject at hand, a few reasons why I touch my own growing belly at such a high frequency.

  1. It is hot and maybe, just maybe if I touch it the skies will part and a miracle of God will cool it off.
  2. My skin is stretching and it itches like a __________________ (fill in the blank).
  3. I’m letting you off the hook by letting you know that I am pregnant so you can quit looking at me weird because you wonder if I am just getting fat.
  4. I’m opening an invitation to address your confusion because you think I’m pregnant but you remember when The Husband and I excitedly celebrated his vasectomy a few years back.  You can’t visibly see me sporting a vibrant letter “A” on my chest, so what gives?
  5. I know you know that I am doing a surrogacy and it is ok to talk to me about it.
  6. I just don’t know what else to do with my hands at the moment so why not rest them on this convenient little shelf.
  7. It feels like the baby has fashioned some sort of shiv in there and is trying to make a break for it. I’m just pressing her/him back into place until he/she has served the required time.
  8. Sometimes it hurts as the ligaments stretch and/or as baby practices its karate skills.
  9. At the end of the pregnancy the baby is heavy and feels like it could just fall right out the hatch at any moment.  It feels good to offer some support and it helps eliminate that gawd awful waddle we tend to do.
  10. Also at the end of a pregnancy, I touch my belly for depth perception.  It is hard to tell or remember just how big the thing is.  It is not cool or socially acceptable to ram your belly into someone out in public or burn it on a heated stove as you reach up into the microwave that sits above it.
  11. Pregnancy is an awesome experience and whether I carry a baby of my own or a baby for someone else, the belly reminds me of the magnitude of the miracle that we call LIFE.

© Pocketbebe, 2010

4 Comments

To The Left, To The Left

June 5, 2010 at 9:26 PM (Our Journey)
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I’m back from a much needed vacation and ready to write!  I would of written to you from the depths of the North Woods via the BlackBerry had I had the decency to actually remember my login and password to WordPress but, I didn’t.  I rely entirely too much on my computer to remember my passwords for me.  At any rate, while Lucy, Ricky, and Little Ricky explore Europe with their family, Enzo came with me and met up with our family in Northern Wisconsin.  We spent a week swimming, fishing, boating, and just relaxing in the sun or by the campfire.  My girls loved playing with their cousins nonstop and I enjoyed being referred to as Auntie.  We even grew accustomed to using an outhouse, though at night we could use the restrooms in the cabins and like an RV, only if it was of the liquid variety.  Even at 20+ weeks pregnant I still have a semi steel bladder and refused to come out from under the warm covers except in a dire emergency.  Is it any coincidence that Mr. Enzo is the most active in the early morning hours when he is lounging on top of a full house??

Photo from SIL, Sarah, of Lysol circa 1970 in Pooh Corner.   Sorry, I can’t help myself.  It is truly a sickness.  :)

Enzo is now 21 weeks gestation, OVER HALF BAKED!! Even considering the weeks of IVF meds that went into preparing to carry a baby this has been the fastest moving pregnancy I have ever had.  I don’t know if that has to do with the fact that I don’t have to think about the responsibility of a child post delivery or what, but it is going so super fast.  How ironic that for Lucy and Ricky this is probably a very LONG pregnancy and 40 weeks can’t arrive soon enough!

In July I have to take a class on how to have a baby at a birthing center verses delivering a baby at a hospital and it got me thinking about a few things.  First, I’m sure the class will be interesting and I will learn some cool MacGyver like tricks even though this will be my fourth time around the block. On the other hand, this is my FOURTH time around the block AND is there anything HARDER than having a natural (i.e. non-medicated birth) in a hospital setting?  The majority of hospital births heap more pain and suffering on the laboring mother than necessary, so it seems kinda funny to attend a class that will talk about how a more natural approach to childbirth doesn’t require you to be flat on your back, legs jacked up to your ears as you endure the most painful part of labor.  I like that if I wanted ramp myself up on my left side on a birthing ball, arms gripped to a set of purple monkey bars, while sipping coconut milk out of a straw, I could.  Now, all that might not be exactly feasible but you get my drift.  I have options… In the hospital, you don’t have options, other than what type of drugs you want to try.  Please continue to pray that the pregnancy keeps going well and that nothing pops up that would boot me out of birthing center care into OB/hospital setting care.  I’m going for the gold and a water birth people!

I’ve also pondered (beyond how fat my ass is getting) in the last week just how much pregnancy over the years has played a part in some of my habits.  Starting with my first pregnancy with my oldest daughter when I was twenty (12 years ago) a few things changed and have remained the same, especially in regards to how I sleep.

1)      It is only possible to sleep on my left side.

2)      Even the softest most comfortable pj’s seem restrictive.

3)      A pillow must always be placed between the knees to keep them from touching.

Well, I know I owe you a bit more than that for being MIA for so long but tis’ all I can do for now.  I must shift from an upright position in which my booty is half asleep to a reclined left side with a “crotch pillow” as my husband calls it between my knees to catch up on my TV shows I missed.   Tosh.O has a new season starting and tomorrow Kate Plus Eight starts; I’ve sure missed her sassy ways. It will be nice to see her back on the air again and not in that painfully trying to watch her smile and dance at the same time kind of way.

© Pocketbebe, 2010

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