2-for-1 Update

My darling middle child broke my laptop this past week and so it is being repaired, which means I am relying on my phone to access and update the blog - apologies therefore if it is shorter than I may like.

So, consultant appt last Friday went well and as expected. Most important news is that I don't need any blood thinning jabs, she would of liked to of at least put me on asprin but I'm allergic to it so that wasn't an option but apart from that it was just a standard, routine appointment. All fine with baby and I don't have to go back there until I am 32 weeks, for a scan and a chat with the consultant. That is the longest I have gone without seeing the hospital during a pregnancy, maybe that means they aren't too bothered about mine or baby's health this time around which is always a good thing!

I had my routine midwife appointment today and my IPs came down for that. It may seem a bit pointless to travel that distance for what was a 20 minute appointment but when you are distanced from your baby's progression like IPs are, these small moments and milestones are not to be missed. I love having my IPs involved in my pregnancies, the more I can do to involve them, the better!

All fine at this appointment today too, some ketones in my urine but I'm unwell with a chesty cold thing and so my appetite is not up to parr and also I did a huge amount of housework just before the appt and hadn't eaten so was just burning off more than I was consuming today - no big deal. I often have ketones in my urine in pregnancy though so no big deal there.

Apparently the Head of Midwifery at my delivery hospital wants to meet this pregnancy also. Despite having met her before last time and not anticipating any change in what they will offer me and IPs, I am happy to have the chance to meet with the team as it is important for my IPs to have their voice heard and hear first-hand what is available to them pre and post-delivery.

We don't see the midwife again until 28 weeks, when I will have bloods and my glucose tolerance test done but next up is our big anomoly scan on the 16th! Very excited for that of course.

Until then, just ticking off the weeks and enjoying cooking this baby for its very excited parents-to-be!

16 Weeks

I think it's time to start the 4 weekly bump pictures for this blog. Well when I say bump, I mean bump/bloat because I think there's a mixture of both going on currently. I've compared pics from my last pregnancy at this stage and I think I was a smidge smaller but not much and it's only been 8 months since I gave birth so there's going to be a bit of extra swelling and room for early stretching going on!

Feeling ok, tired and the low bp/low sugar/anaemia mix is kicking my behind still but I expect to feel sluggish and drained so it almost makes it bearable, in some weird twisted way.

I have my consultant appt at the hospital on Friday, just to discuss my blood clot risk more than anything and I expect not to be instructed to take the dreaded daily blood thinning jabs but I don't want to get too cocky, too soon because different consultants have different views on how to manage the risk so we'll quietly keep our fingers crossed for now.

Today I started college, I decided that if I can't go to university for another year (despite getting accepted) then I'll do something in the meantime to keep my brain ticking over and the course I'm taking seemed to fit in with my plans so I'm all enrolled and officially a student once again. I had a great day, my tutor is nice, my classmates friendly and they all seemed to think I'm some sort of angel for being a surrogate - one of my classmates said she had heard about surrogates but never met one and would be telling everyone she had now. It was sweet, she was so excited that she threatened to kiss me for being such an amazing woman. I just don't see it though, I truly don't see what I'm doing as anything super special. Yes unique perhaps and part of a select group of ladies that can do it but not an angel or anything even close. I took their compliments graciously of course and it's always nice to be recognised for what you've chosen to do but yes, I did feel a bit uncomfortable with all their gushing!

I'll be back Friday to update on the appt...

1:6197

That was the Nuchal result in the end, low risk so everything seems to be well on that score!

Nuchal Nerves

We ended up having our scan done by a lead consultant at the hospital, due to the twin thing but it threw me for a few minutes since I was expecting just to go to the ultrasound dept and have it done there. I do recall the ultrasound tech last pregnancy (which began as twins but losing one around 9 weeks) being unsure of what to do with regards to the blood test and scan or just the scan alone and having to seek advice from the consultant so I assume they simply just cut out that and have the experts do the whole thing instead.

It was a nice surprise to have the same consultant as when I had my first surrogate baby and he did remember me, which given how many ladies he sees, was good.

Scan went well, he did however seem to pull a lot of faces during it which panicked one of my IPs and made me a bit nervous. He said the scan looked fine and all in line with expectations but without the blood test, they can't say for sure and so I had that taken. We will either get a phone call in the next couple of days if it throws up high risk or a letter in the post within a week if it's not so we sit tight and keep everything crossed - which seems to be the pattern of this pregnancy so far!

Baby looked so much bigger than even 2 weeks ago and it was lovely to see it happy and snug in there. It was noted that my placenta was low, I know that that can be problematic but at this early stage there's no need to worry about it and we'll just see how it goes at my 20 week scan and take it from there if no change. He didn't say it was completely covering my cervix or even partially, just noted on the report that it was low.

The consultant surprised me by asking me after the scan if I was thinking 'of doing this again?' I stuttered that I wasn't sure, hadn't thought past this baby and that I would see and he gave me a small spiel about considering the risks, with having more than 5 babies and my increasing age. These were (are?) things I have thought about of course, which I told him - I thought about them when I was ttc my last surrogate baby infact, and I've certainly made no decisions one way or another and I appreciate he has to be the professional here and warn me but it felt a bit inappropriate at a scan appt, where we were anxious enough, to bring that up. Still, duly noted.

Sickness still bothering me daily but I continue to just get on with it and it isn't impacting much on my daily life so that's all good. My children went back to school (their new school, eek!) this week so that's given me some opportunity to slow down and rest during the day, especially as I am suffering again from insomnia which is driving me nuts.

We have our next midwife appt and consultant appt at the end of September so all will be pretty quiet between now and then, which I am certainly not complaining about!