12 weeks

I have seen fellow surrogates do a pregnancy update in a consistent format and thought it would be a good thing to have here. I hope to do one every other week, for now (and maybe next time, I will start including a bump pic;o).

How am I feeling physically? Well! No real major symptoms. I have had some very mild round ligament pain (from my uterus growing), heartburn (which responds well to Tums) and my lower abdomen feels fuller. My left eye has been twitching a bit, but it seems to be decreasing in frequency. The weird tongue thing I had with my daughter seems to be starting, but it isn't too bad, yet.

Doctor's Appointment: I had my first official pre-natal appointment with the OB/GYN (that other one was the intake appointment) this past Monday, October 29th. It was basically like a regular annual GYN appt- PAP, pelvic exam and breast exam with the addition of getting to listen to the baby's heartbeat on doppler. When it came to this part the NP told me not to worry if we couldn't hear it because GB is so tiny and moving around and they sometimes can't catch the heartbeat this early. Of course, having just stopped the meds less than a week prior, I really needed that reassurance. She ran that little thing around on my tummy for what seemed like forever (probably less than 60 seconds) and, finally, there it was:o) 169 bpm, which is on the high side, but indicates that GB was probably practicing his/her calisthenics:D It was awesome to see the NP for this appointment. I followed her to this office many years ago after a bad experience with another Dr. She did my first two appt. when I was preggers with DD and then she went out on medical leave with Breast Cancer for what was supposed to be 6 weeks and turned into over 7 months. She is doing great now and seemed super excited about the whole surrogacy aspect and asked me lots of questions about the process. Luckily, Dr. K is who I was randomly assigned to back then and we LOVE her, too. I am feeling a little torn. I could split my appts between the two, but I kind of like the consistency of always seeing the same person, so I will probably stick with Dr. K and use the NP as back up:o)

Weight Gain: negligible (5 oz between my 2 OB appointments)

Sleep: I am a tummy/side sleeper. So far, I can still sleep in my comfy position- on my tummy with one leg bent, so slightly off to the side. When I can no longer sleep on my tummy, it will take some time to adjust.

Mood: good, excited to see T&R go through this pregnancy

Movement: I haven't felt Gummy Bear move, yet, but I know from the u/s and doppler that s/he is a wiggly one, so I should probably enjoy these last couple of weeks;o)

Exciting Moment(s): The best parts of the last 2 weeks were stopping the meds and then hearing that heartbeat. Today, we had a Skype date with R&T and it was fun to see their excitement about the progress:o)

Milestones Achieved: Baby’s almost done developing his/her body’s important systems and parts, which means, it’s mostly about getting bigger and more mature from here on out.

Next Milestones/What I am looking forward to: After this coming week, we will officially be in the second trimester! I can't wait to get the daily reassurances of feeling GB move around in there. We have our Nuchal Translucency scan on November 14th. I copied the following from Wikipedia for those who are curious what that is (as I was) - "A nuchal scan is a sonographic prenatal screening scan (ultrasound) to help identify higher risks of chromosomal defects including Down's syndrome in a fetus, particularly for older women who have higher risks of such pregnancies. High thickness measurements are also associated with congenital heart defect. The scan is carried out at 11–13.6 weeks pregnancy and assesses the thickness of soft tissues of the nape of neck of the fetus. There are two distinct measurements -- the nuchal translucency, which is measured earlier in pregnancy at the end of the first trimester, and for which there is a lower threshold for increased diameter, and the nuchal fold, which is measured towards the end of the second trimester. Fetuses at risk of Down's Syndrome tend to have a higher amount of fluid around the neck." It can also detect other chromosomal abnormalities and is combined with the results from the blood test I had done this week. It is only a screening tool and, if anything came back positive, further testing would be needed to determine the validity of the positive. It would start with a more detailed ultrasound and ultimately, amniocentesis is the only thing that can tell us for sure (but, hopefully we won't need any of that:o))