Go Blue

... and I'm not talking about the Dodgers. It's a boy! We found out at the big ultrasound last Friday where the technician took a bazillion measurements and said he looked great and weighed approximately 7 to 8 ounces at this point. It was a completely emotional and surreal experience. With every day that passes, I think about our new reality. A boy!

It was a whirlwind weekend that began after Paul's class ended at 4:45 p.m. He wanted to miss the class altogether so we could leave earlier, but that wasn't an option. We hit the road immediately after he was done which was just in time for rush hour on Interstate 5. Good thing it was a Thursday because we weren't stuck in traffic for too long (LA traffic doesn't always suck... remember that!). Going up the 5 through CA is a stinky and boring trip. Stinky because of the beef ranches (hello, slaughterhouse) and boring (lots of farms and a few prisons - not much else). It took us 8 hours to get to Chico and checked into the hotel at 1 a.m. knowing the ultrasound appointment was for 8:45 a.m. - which meant getting up at 7:15 so we could both shower and get ready. Ugh! I know we'll get little to no sleep with the baby, but honestly, I'm good without "practice." Whoever thinks you need to practice sleep deprivation must be sleep deprived.

ANYWAY... we got to the scanning place, they took us back to the room, and they had a monitor for us to watch that was separate from the tech's screen. It was AMAZING! T and Paul pretty much knew what they were looking at. I could figure out the obvious parts (bent leg, thumbs up). The scale was just off though... first we'd be looking at the length of the spine from head to butt, then it'd be zoomed in on something. She measured lots of things and gave us the highlights... including gender (she'd asked us at the beginning if we wanted to know). She freezes a screen and asks "so what is it?" Paul and T say at the same time "it's a boy!" I'm still sitting there like "are we still looking at the leg or thumb or something?" I had a private ultrasound tutoring session afterwards with the still pictures the tech printed for us. Yes, now I can see... it's a boy!

The rest of the weekend went just as fast as it started. After the ultrasound on Friday, we went to T's house and played a couple games, met their oldest daughter (she'd been at her mom's the last time we were there), went out to dinner, then went back to the hotel so the kids could swim. Paul had to stay in the room and do homework... bummer. The next morning, we got up early to see a soccer game, check out some RV parks that I'll be staying at with Mom and Bill in February while we wait for the baby, and have a brunchy/lunch. We ended up leaving NorCal early afternoon and checking out another couple RV parks on the way south and then settled in for the 8 hour ride home. Oh wait... something memorable for Paul that I have to document here: we saw a Ghiradelli Chocolate OUTLET store and ice cream shop on the way up, so we had to stop there on the way back home. It's in the southern end of Modesto right on the 5. 'Twas chocolate heaven! We made it home by 11, got up the next morning to get the dogs from my Mom and Bill, came home so Paul could pack for a business trip, then took him to the airport. There was no 'down time' this past weekend... but who cares. We're having a healthy baby in February. And it's a boy.

The shot that proves it's a boy!

This pic is too cool - the spine! (head in lower right)

The leg, all bent and comfy!



Footprint :)



The Most Reassuring Sound

The heartbeat is the most reassuring sound ever. I heard it for the first time this past Monday over the phone at T's regular OB visit. It was strong and fast and I was amazed - even a bit overwhelmed by the emotion. Later that day, she returned home to find the doppler had been delivered to her house... so of course she had to try that out too. She heard that same wonderful, strong pounding and called me so I could hear again, too. Of course the peanut didn't cooperate and made finding the heartbeat tough, so I talked with T's middle daughter to pass some time while her mom focused on getting the heartbeat audible again. After a few unsuccessful minutes, T told her daughter to tell me that they would call me back... and this is how it came out on the phone: "Mom can't find a heartbeat so we'll call you back." I wasn't worried since I'd heard it earlier in the day, but those are words you don't ever want to hear under normal circumstances. I have to admit, it was pretty humorous in that situation!

Fast forward a few hours... Paul got home from work and I asked him if he wanted to hear the heartbeat. Of course he did so we called T. She got the thing all hooked up and he heard it for the first time (I, of course, at this point was an old pro since I'd heard it twice before). He was ecstatic! All the little pieces add up to make it more real each day, but add the thumping of a baby's heart to the picture and it became super real, super fast.

Again, last night, T used the doppler. She recorded and uploaded it to YouTube so we could hear it... and as of now, there have been 9 views and I'm pretty sure they're all from me playing and replaying it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu11uRPaKlo

Once I figure out how to save the file as an MP3, I'll post it here.

Seeing Beyond February

I think I've relaxed a little bit when it comes to believing we have a child on the way. Less-than-perfect thoughts still float through my head now and then... "what if" kind of things... but all in all, I think my actions indicate an overall positive feeling. Indications like:

• I'm actively recruiting my mom and Bill's help going up to NorCal with their fifth wheel a couple weeks before the baby is due. That way, I'll have a place to live/work while being close by to help T and her family with anything they need. As a sidenote, they haven't said 'yes' but DID look at a couple of RV parks near T on their way back home from Alaska :)

• My nephew and I were hanging out this weekend and went to a department store and tried out all of the travel systems. He is a fairly understated kid and even he was into it! We tried to figure out which carriers were lightest/most comfortable (without looking at Consumer Reports to see if they're safe - how's that for living on the edge?!), which strollers could manuever best, and which colors were cutest. We also looked at a dozen or so cribs and talked about why some styles/colors would be better than others. Mind you, the nephew is 11 and into reading and computers... please understand my shock that he'd even entertain the idea of looking at baby stuff, much less be "into" it!

• Baby names! We have a winner for a girl's name (no reveal here - at least for now), but a list of disjointed boy's names that could be first/middle name combinations. Seems much harder for boys for some reason. I did find this really cool site that graphs baby names over the years. It's semi-interactive and I've played around with it for hours: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager. Check out your own name on this site - you'll see if it peaked and fizzled (like mine - peaked in 1930 and fizzled in the 80s) or if it's still going strong.

I am very excited for T's appt tomorrow. We're hoping I'll be able to be on the phone while she's at her OB appointment... I'm crossing my fingers!

More pics!

These are from the 12w5d nuchal scan:

Head shot

Body shot

Just perfect :)

Quick Size Update

So... I've posted some size comparisons along the way, mostly for me :)  We've gone from the size of a poppy seed at week 5 to the size of a plum in our current week 12. Next week, the baby will be the size of a peach. A PEACH!

I found a great site that will help me track how big the baby is each week: http://pregnant.thebump.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-tools/articles/how-big-is-baby.aspx

It's now at the top of my favorites!

Let the Countdown Begin

Originally we were going to wait until the 1/2 way point to tell anyone we're expecting, but that just seems completely pessimistic. In all of my reading of websites and blogs, nobody waits until 20 weeks to share the good news - even in the IVF and surrogacy worlds. So as we end the first trimester this week and start the second on Monday, we are preparing for THE announcement. This weekend we'll focus on our families and go from there.

I'm not actually sure what to expect from people since I'm fairly sure most aren't schooled in surrogacy. T says the first thing many people ask her is "how much money do you make being a surrogate?" Not that anyone has ever asked me what I make at my job, but it does remind me of a tactic to use when people ask personal questions that you don't want to answer:

Person: [none-of-your-business question asked]
Me: When was the last time you had a herpes test?
Person: What? Excuse me?
Me: Oh, my bad! I thought we were asking questions of one another that are none of our business!

[And, for the record, see how I've matured since responding to the "old mom" comments from my earlier post?]

I expect most people will be supportive and happy that we're starting our family together, period. I am, however, a bit curious as to what a few loose cannons will say; I do know a few people who struggle with kindness, compassion and common sense.

A Whirlwind Visit

Ohmygoodness the last 5 days are kind of a blur. T, her daughters (8 and 9) and their two dogs came to So Cal for a visit to escape the heat of Nor Cal.

We:

• Went to a paint-your-own ceramics place and painted a frog, kitty bank, little cup and pot
• Saw Despicable Me (all but hubby) on one day, Ramona and Beezus (girls and me) and Inception (Paul and T) another day
• Visited the Santa Barbara Zoo where we rode the train and fed some animals

Giraffes - T's favorite animal



The gorilla dogging me after I took a picture of him peeing.
I didn't realize his level of modesty until I saw him staring at me. 
Paul said I'm lucky he didn't throw poop on me. Ick! 

• Sampled the goods at Whodidily - complete cupcake yumminess in Montecito

• Relaxed, played in the ocean and made sandcastles at the beach in Ventura

We got there early and created our own cabana



Kid #1's castle, assisted by Paul



Kid #2's castle, assisted by Mom

• Did a tiny (as in super small pieces) 1000 piece puzzle
• Ate in, ate out, and ate ate ate
• Went maternity clothes shopping
• Played the Wii, constructed a mastermind marble maze, colored, and discovered the pirate ship and every other toy in the office closet

So as you can tell, there was not a lot of idle time but we all had a lot of fun. To make up for that, I took a "nap" today from 5:30 p.m. 'til 11 p.m. and now I'm gonna be up all night. I hate when I do that!