Breast pumping: Day 2

Only got a very teeny drop from each one during the pumping sessions.  I'm trying not to feel discouraged since everyone's body is different, and it's only Day 3 (this morning).  But I went back and re-read Tonya's first post about her inducing, and it made me feel even less successful.  Oh well, keep plugging away.  Just wanted to give an update.

Mini nursery update

Just some toys and books we've been collecting and/or gifted.  The "theme" of the nursery is very loosely based on this book "Maude & Claude Go Abroad."  Travel + forest animals + whales + ships.  Haha.  It should be interesting once it's done.  It will probably be more about our love of vintage, whimsical and classic children's iconography.  Either way, I'm getting sooooooo excited!

25 wks 6 days: Making progress!! Plus breast pumping.

Well, a lot has gone on this weekend so far...and it's not even over yet!  N and I went down to Pennsylvania to visit his family and drop off some of our things into storage.  Out went the kitchen table, kitchen chairs, and an upholstered chair from the "office."  Back to NY came a rug for the baby's room. It's a nice gray solid wall-to-wall wool carpet that's bound on all four edges.  (If you don't have a lot of money to spend on a rug, I highly recommend going to your local carpet store and picking up a remnant and having it bound.  It's not a lot of money and you can find some really nice carpet pieces.)  We also got a thick pad for underneath the carpet which will give the baby some additional cushion during tummy time.  I'm also a firm believer in rugs & carpets to help soundproof.  Since we live in an apartment on the top floor, I want to do as much as I can to help reduce the frustration my neighbors are going to experience during middle of the night crying sessions.  :-(

Yesterday we also went over to Babies R Us and met up with some very great friends of ours for a family shopping excursion.  (Fun way to see your friends when they have kids btw!) They needed to get their 11 month old some new clothes, and we wanted to get a car seat.  (Plus they were kind enough to give us their Rock-n-Play Sleeper which is going to be awesome for when we travel to pick up the baby!)  At any rate, Babies R Us is having a trade-in event right now where you can bring in any old gear (like the old car seat from 2007 my boss gave me) and get 25% off a new car seat or stroller, etc.  I felt a little bit bad about the whole trade-in with the one my boss gave me b/c she meant well...but it was missing it's base, and it was kind of grubby.  Plus it was on the cusp of having expired.  I like saving money, but I also want my baby to be safe and snug.  Anyways, we got the Chicco KeyFit 30 Magic Infant Car Seat.  We liked it best because the hood pulls over farther than any other, and it has a velcro-on all-weather "boot" for cold weather.  Since our little girl is going to be born just a few days shy of December, I figured all that would help keep out the cold more.  The one bad thing about the car seat is it's rather ugly and has brown ultrasuede trim.  Oh well...I can't complain too much b/c we got 25% off.

While we were there, N and I decided to register as well.  Going to a Babies R Us store in the suburbs is a totally different experience than going in NYC.  The one in the city is PACKED and it's overwhelming to say the least.  The ones in the Philly suburbs have nice salespeople who have never questioned my lack of a baby bump! I love that!!!  It got huge points from me.  Plus they have great specialists who knew all about the different products.  Anyways, N was really getting into registering...especially for things like bibs and accessories.  Haha.  I liked sharing that experience with him.  And it was much better to see things in person than when I registered at Amazon.  Although I have to say that Babies R Us has less selection than Amazon, so we'll end up keeping both.  Meanwhile, our moms are trying to figure out a baby shower.  My MIL thinks it's not proper etiquette for her to throw one, and a friend of mine has offered...but has since gone MIA.  So I dunno.  I'm not too worried, I'm sure they'll figure it out b/c my mom and his mom are dying to do it.  Looks like it will be around Oct 6th.

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And finally, I started pumping today at long last!  As a reminder, I've been on both Provera and Prometrium (alternately) and the Domperidone.  So far, I haven't taken any fenugreek or blessed thistle herbs.  Anyways, I started pumping and got a few teeeeeensy clear drops out of the lefty.  Nothing out of righty yet.  I'm super excited to even get a tiny bit of anything on the first try!  I couldn't believe it!   What I'm not excited about is having to pump 8 times per day for 20 minutes!!  OMG!  Especially at work.  I'm not sure how I'll get through that.  But where there's a will there's a way!!

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On the baby front, I spoke with B two days ago and everything is going great!  The baby has been moving quite a bit....all the time now.  B said it used to just be at night, but now it's all day.  She's also been craving peanut butter sandwiches nonstop (which is good I suppose b/c it's one of my favorite foods too!) and she's been getting heartburn a lot.  B thinks all the heartburn means that the baby is going to have a head full of hair.  I hope that's what it means.  It would be pretty awesome to have a baby with hair!  N and I both were complete baldies for awhile.  Apparently his family used to refer to him as Uncle Fester when he was a baby.  Hahaha!!

Anyways, that's it for now.  More later as I continue to pump!  Cross your fingers that I start getting a lot soon!  I think I'm going to start adding a Guinness each night to help build my milk supply.  Apparently it's supposed to help, and also since I don't get to drink any more (partially b/c of the breastfeeding but mainly b/c of the dehydration it causes from the domperidone), I'm excited to get a little something to help relax at the end of the day!

Awkward conversations, part 2

In the past several days I have had a number of awkward conversations each involving my "belly."  My belly (or lack thereof) is the cause of much consternation in my life these days. First off, the progesterone I've been taking to induce lactation has been causing me to gain weight.  To my dismay, very little of this weight is going to my breasts where I'd expect it to go.  Instead, it seems to be settling around my midsection.  Therefore, I've been doing situps each night to try and ward off the beast.  However, on the flip side, I clearly do not have a pregnant belly...and this keeps coming up in various unexpected conversations with strangers.  For the record, here is the non-pregnant belly in question.

Let me set the first scene.  My MIL and I went to Baby Gap this weekend to use a 40% Friends & Family discount.  She was itching to buy baby clothes, and who am I to refuse, right?!  As we're in line to checkout, the conversation with the 50's something cashier ensues as such:

Cashier: "Would you like a gift receipt?"

Me:  "No thank you."  

What I should have said:  "Yes, thanks." (This would have stemmed all further questioning.)

Cashier: "Oh, are you having a baby?!?!"

Me: "Yes in December!"  (See where I went wrong there?)

Cashier: "You don't even look pregnant?!"  

Me: "Mmm...hmm..."

Cashier: "I look bigger than you do..."  *somewhat suspiciously* 

Me:  "Mmmm..."

Cashier:  "I just can't believe how little belly you have!"

Me:  "Mmmm...."

(This continues for an agonizing 10 minutes as my MIL signs up for a Gap credit card and the woman begins to pummel me for every detail including what we're naming the baby.  I keep giving her the "Mmm...hmmm..." treatment.  She doesn't really take the hint that I'd prefer not to chat more.) 

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Then today, N and I are at our second daycare interview.  This time there were two other couples there with us.  The daycare owner makes us all tell the group when we're due, whether it's a boy or girl, etc.  Everyone else was due in just a short time period (like next week/next month) and so I thought I'd be off the hook with eyes darting to my stomach.  But when I said we were due Dec 3rd the conversation went like this:

Her: "OMG, you don't hardly have a belly!"  *she eyeballs my stomach suspiciously*

Me:   Mm.....yeah.

Her:   "That's unusual." 

***time passes talking about the daycare, and as we're about to leave***

Her:  "Well, the next time I see you, you'd better have a bigger stomach!"  *eyeballs my stomach again*

Me:  "Umm...well my stomach is skinny b/c we're using a surrogate."  

Her:  *dubious awkward stare* 

(This was all the more uncomfortable because N and I really liked this daycare a lot.  And I didn't like to be put on the spot in front of strangers.  The other couples looked awkward at the exchange, and I just wanted to exit as quickly as possible.  N simply suggested that I start wearing a prosthetic belly.  Ha!)  

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Add this to the fact that I am now getting requests from LONG distant facebook acquaintances to post pictures of my belly on Facebook.  I am ignoring them instead.    

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Having a baby via surrogacy makes for lots of awkward conversations.  And unfortunately, I'm one of those people that gets uncomfortable easily, especially with a crowd or strangers.  It's not that I don't want to tell people, but I don't feel the need to get into the whole thing at a store, for instance....or make announcements to people I knew "way back when" on Facebook.  But the constant threat of baby belly keeps rearing it's head.  I never really thought about this aspect of the process.

I know I shouldn't complain, and honestly, as thrilled as I am about us having a baby on the way(!), I'll be glad when feeling uncomfortable around strangers is over.  Hopefully I won't be this awkward once I actually AM a mom.  :-\   I'm crossing my fingers!  

On a fun note, here are a handful of the outfits we got from Baby Gap this weekend.  Shopping for baby girls is fun b/c everything is so cute!!!

(Polka dots + Stripes!! OMG!  And that dress?!  Adorable!!)

(Can you tell I have a thing for polka dots and florals?!)

(Stripes again!!)

Anyway, words of wisdom or encouragement are appreciated.  Thankfully everyone has been super great about the whole thing.  I've had very little actual negative response to this process.   Just lots of dubious or awkward encounters.  Also on a side note, the people at Babies R Us, didn't ask any questions and were awesome.  Maybe it's because I was dealing with male sales representatives?

23 Weeks 4 days Belly Pic!

B sent us a belly pic this afternoon!  It's fuzzy b/c her 8 year old took it with her camera phone.  LOL!  But you can tell how big her tummy is!  So exciting!  Our little peanut isn't a peanut anymore.  Instead I should be calling her our butternut squash!  :-)

23 Week 3 day Update + Bernadette

I can't believe how far we've come on this journey!  It's starting to seem more real each day that our little peanut is on her way soon!  It's so exciting to think we're going to get to meet her in less than 4 months!  (Whew!  When I counted that out just now I was like, "Wait! I thought it was more than that.  It's super soon now!)  I haven't blogged in awhile, so this post is going to be a bit of a brain dump.

Not much is going on here other than the waiting game.  I've been faithfully taking my medicine to induce lactation and start pumping in about another 10 days.  I'll have to report back on that soon.  I also bought supplies to make a baby blanket for the nursery.  Some of the fabric of the quilt will be some vintage napkins that we used at our wedding reception.  I'm also mixing it with some fun new fabric.  I'm not a great seamstress though, so I'm hoping it turns out cute.

B tells me me that the baby has been moving around a lot, especially at night.  She's finally started to feel her kick.  No other news other than that.  

Lastly, a fellow intended mom and blogger Bernadette had twins in India.  One of the babies is still in the NICU after 100+ days....and they need to come home!  She's been there alone this entire time without her husband b/c he needed to stay home to work.  Now they're needing some financial assistance to get her and the babies home.  So for anyone who wants to donate, you can go HERE and learn about it.  Her brilliant, positive spirit are so wonderful...you'll know what I mean if you read her story on her blog rasta less traveled.