Updates!

Wow, I didn't have the intention of neglecting this blog so much. Life sure moves quickly and we have had a busy year. But we have had a lot of fun too!

We have done some traveling this summer (already). The first trip we went on, and reason for this update lol, was Florida! Joe and I took the girls on a Disney Cruise! We all had so much fun, we definitely did not want to return home. When we planned the trip several months ago, I had messaged F&C to tell them they should come along with us. I didn't expect them to say they would, but what do I know! They love Florida! They didn't think V would really be big enough for the actual cruise, so they went and explored Florida while we were on the boat, and when we got off we got to hang with them in Orlando for the weekend. I was SO EXCITED!! We all had a great time. We went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack, then spent the day at our hotel pool swimming and enjoying the sun. Grabbed dinner at Rainforest. Then some shopping around Disney Springs. The next day we had to be at the airport to come home around 4pm, but we enjoyed the outlet mall (it was so huge) and then we said our goodbyes. **We so should have gotten a better photo of all of us. Oh well, next time!**

F&C thank you for being such great friends. I know that our journey is over,  but I am so glad that we have the friendship that grew between us for the past three years now. Victoria is beautiful and I'm thankful that I get to watch you all grow as a family.  We, of course, will be in touch and vacation again soon I am sure!

While we were hoping to do a sibling journey, Circle (the agency we used before) has a crappy section in their contract that states we must use them for a sibling journey. Well, not being pleased with experiences with Circle during our first journey, that was not an option for us. We tried to get out legally, but the only option they gave us was to pay them a large amount of money. Through many unprofessional emails back and forth with the agency owner, there was just never going to be a resolution, and there is no way I or F&C would use them again. We decided to pray for F&C's next match. Hoping that they find their next amazing surrogate soon.

Send us all prayers as we move forward. Thank you all!!

5 Months

Man life has been SO busy! We have been to Disneyland, Texas, and Louisiana - and moved out of our house. We are now living at my mom and dads until we can close on our old home and new home. We are anxiously awaiting getting our lives back to normal, in our own little space. Everything is going great though, we are so thankful that we have someone that doesn't mind us taking up a little space in their home too. Thanks mom and dad!

I am still pumping for preemies milk bank. I had a 3month goal and I have surpassed that and almost made it to 6 months. It has been an adventure that is for sure. I pumped in Disneyland, at waterparks, in the car. It is definitely time consuming, but we got it down. Not sure how long I will keep it up, but I don't see an end in sight right now.

Sweet little chick is 5 months old! And beautiful! Sent her a little package, a swimsuit, some bows, and beanboozled for her parents haha. Cant believe how fast this year is going by. I wish we could slow time down. Anyhow, just a quick update, everything is great. Looking forward to some relaxation soon.

Mother's Day/Father's Day

Just wanted to pop in here and celebrate a little! Our sweet friends celebrated two special days this year, Mother's Day and Father's Day! I was so happy to receive some photos of them all.  They have made one beautiful little girl that's for sure. And she has some pretty super parents <3

3 Months.

Sweet Victoria is three months! I have been meaning to update, but we have so much going on lately I fall asleep before I get to it! I just love seeing her grow. Her Mama and Papa are the best, and they are just the sweetest family. We of course miss them all tons, but love that we can keep in touch via chats, videos and photos! Thank you F&C <3 I appreciate it all more than you know! We are thankful for your friendship.

In this first photo, you see the little baby doll. Sarah and I were shopping at walmart before F&C returned home. We walked past this wall of dolls and she stopped to stare at them all. She then pulled one down and said "mama, I have to get this doll for baby Victoria." And I said "okay, why?" And she replied "well, this doll looks like me, blonde hair and blue eyes, and so I want her to have it so she can remember me!" I thought it was the cutest idea from my little 4 year old. So we bought the doll. You can imagine how excited she was when C sent us this photo of Victoria playing with it!

 Such a beautiful, strong little babe!

Love this family! Adorable on Easter.

Pumping.

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I had always planned on donating milk to the preemies milk bank. And I have. It was a rough start, many tears were shed - because I had two bouts with DOUBLE mastitis. It was so terrible. It makes you feel like you are on your death bed. BUT, things have been going well every since and we are sitting at 12 weeks post delivery now. I have sent in 8 coolers so far. Each cooler can hold about 300oz of milk, so that is roughly 2400oz I have sent in! I'm definitely getting used to it, and I am getting to sleep through the night. 12am-7am is about how long I can go without pumping. I do aim to pump every three hours, but sometimes it gets stretched out depending on how busy we are. Since having the mastitis I was able to set a schedule since my supply had dropped so much, and now were all adjusted. Anyhow, it is going well (now) and I am thankful that I can help out those sweet little teeny tinys.

Here is a link to just one of the many preemies that milk donors have helped. Inspiring!
http://blog.prolacta.com/prolacta-baby-leah/

One Month Post Birth

Hey everyone! I have been meaning to check back in here, and just haven't. It has been a roller coaster since Victoria arrived, but things are settling down now.

Almost a week after the birth or so (I can't remember now) I started to feel ill. I had body aches, chills, fever - the nasty flu that is going around everywhere. That stuck around for a bit. Then I got the dreaded mastitis. Not once, but twice. So I was on antibiotics for about 20 days. If you don't remember, I am pumping for preemies milk bank. Anyhow, being on the antibiotic did ruin my amazing supply I had going, but things are looking up now.

January 20th F&C left home to France with their daughter. It was definitely bittersweet for us. For me. We went to breakfast at Le Peep, I was still feeling sick so I stayed as far away as I could to prevent spreading my germs. I really wanted to hold Victoria again, but I know it wasn't good for her. I'll just treasure the moments I did snuggle her up! We said our goodbyes in the parking lot, as we loaded up some stuff from their car to ours that they borrowed. I couldn't help but tear up, and they did too. It was such a beautiful journey and I am so thankful for the amazing friends we have made. Helping them create their family is a huge highlight in my life. C gave me a beautiful card of thanks, we hugged, cried, and went our separate ways.

Things seem to be going wonderful. They made it back home and got adjusted to the time change and caught up on some sleep. We talk when we can, it is so great to keep in touch. I do think it is one of every surrogates fears that once they family returns home they won't get to talk anymore. But we do, and I am grateful for the connection. Ive received photos of sweet Victoria and she is growing, and getting more and more beautiful everyday. She like dancing with her mama in the living room <3 Those are the photos I love! They bring pure joy to my heart, knowing their dreams are now a reality.

We miss them. It was fun hanging out and learning about them and the french culture. I now know they don't like ice in their drinks, don't really use straws, what a real espresso is, american portions are huge (no need for a "to go box" where they live) and the meaning of SACRE BLEU hahaha! <3 We had so much fun while they were here, and shared many laughs. One day soon we hope to make it out to France to visit! In the meantime, we are thankful for the internet to keep in touch.

BIRTHday!

Sorry for the delay, just been chilling out and recovering, you know! I know a lot of you are anxious for the birth story, so here we go!

After being sad that we were bumped at 11:00am we were stoked to find out a few hours later we were back on. We all arrived at the hospital at 3:15pm. Everyone very excited! We got checked in and were taken back to a room. Joe helped me into my hospital gown and I hopped into bed. It took a bit to get started, but they were getting everything organized and stuff. When they checked me I was still sitting about 1cm. No change in two weeks, once again, my body hates to dilate. But that is okay. It is what it is. We started with the foley cath, which is a balloon that sits up against my cervix to help dilatation. They then let me eat some dinner about 6pm. Once I finished dinner we were going to start pitocin. Just before 8pm I got hooked up to the pitocin and somewhere in there I got my epidural. Everything went SO smooth. I was feeling great, we were all laughing and having a great time. Our nurse Heather, was seriously so awesome. I was sad to see her leave us for the night - pure entertainment I tell ya!

At midnight the foley balloon came out and I was 4cm. Contractions were steady and I was still feeling great. F&C had gone down the hall to the waiting room, and we were all hoping to get a little sleep. I was in an out of sleep. Like I would sleep for 1 minute, then be awake, and then back out. But that is how it is when people are in and out, and the BP cuff is going off etc. My mom showed up around 2am. We talked a few, had a couple laughs, then I rested some more. Around 3:30 am I was checked again and I was 5cm and we broke my water. An hour later I was a 7.

Then things started to go not so well. We discovered she was facing up, which babies are "normally" face down in delivery. I got to 8cm around 7am. They had me turning from one side to the other - because the babes heart rate was not handling the contractions well. They turned down the pitocin and we kept hoping her decelerations would stop. I was told that if this kept up, there was a change we would go back for an emergency c-section. Let me tell you, this killed me! Not because I was scared of it, or anything like that, I wanted to do what was best for baby, but I just didn't want one. I had labored for hours, hoping for my 3rd vaginal birth and I didn't want that to change. Then came the questions, who will go back with me? I definitely wanted my husband to be with me, but I also wanted her parents to witness her arrival into this world. We were all in tears. It was hard to even think about and I just tried to push it out of my mind. I text a few friends/family and told them to pray. Another friend send out the request to my bible study group - we had a lot of prayer warriors on our side. I just rolled over, closed my eyes and tried to relax, because crying and being anxious wasn't helping the situation. Everyone was so great and trying to keep me calm and be sure I was okay. And I know F&C were nervous too. I didn't want to make it worse for them either.

By this time the awesome nurse Heather was back and I was happy for that too. Not that all of the nurses taking care of us weren't awesome, but we just really clicked with her. She kept reassuring me that things would be okay. Kim, my midwife was also on shift, so I had all my favorite people there, and I was really hoping she would be able to help me deliver this baby! It was decided we would try the "peanut ball." Basically it is a huge yoga ball shaped like a peanut that goes between my legs while I am laying on my side. Let me tell you how uncomfortable that was after a while, BUT it was working. We also put in some internal monitors so we could get more accurate readings of the babys heart rate. I laid there until we got to 9.5cm. My epidural had worn off on one side because of my positioning and all the sudden intense pain was shooting in my groin and to my back with every contraction. I had to get my leg off that ball. They agreed to take it off and I just needed to get to 10. Baby did good with the change of position and I was starting to feel better.

Soon after it was time to push! I couldn't believe we were there. F&C were positioned behind me and Joe, mom and Heather held my legs. Push, push, push, push. This baby gave me a workout! I usually do not push too long, but this took about 45 minutes. Pushing her down while being face up seemed to be part of the issue. But I got her down, and as she was crowning she kinda screwdrivered out and turned head down in the process. Baby Victoria was officially here at 10:27am (I think thats right) on January 8th (my favorite number haha).

Her Papa was able to cut her cord and they all went over to the warmer to take photos while she was being evaluated. She was perfect. Great apgar scores, and a healthy 7lbs1oz. Some blonde hair. And she's just absolutely beautiful. It was so awesome to look over and see their JOY!

I did have some second degree tearing, but recovery has been good. The first day is always rough, but after that I was feeling better and better every day. Some people have been asking/wondering how I am doing, if I am sad. And my answer is no. Not one bit. I am filled with so much happiness. This entire journey ended up exceeding my expectations. They have their beautiful, healthy baby - and we have extended our family to include these sweet people. I love them, and thank them for choosing US. I feel so lucky that we have been able to spend so much time with them and that snuggly baby girl while they are here. As the time for them to head home closes in - I am so happy for them to be able to get back to their life, and share their excitement with their families and friends. But also (yes I will say sad) I will be sad that it will be awhile before we see each other again. Thank heavens for Skype!

F&C, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this journey so special for me. I never thought it would be SO AMAZING. Thank you for letting me into your lives, and including us in so much while you have been here. It has been great, and one day we hope to visit France and meet your families as well. I know our families have enjoyed meeting you. I am looking forward to the many adventures you all take!! xoxo!

Much love,
Katy