More Baby Pictures! October 1, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Looking Forward to the Babies!, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds.9 comments
We had another OB appointment yesterday, and I think it’s fair to say Marika is doing a kick-ass job. The babies are growing well, they still have lots of amniotic fluid (which is a good thing), and Marika’s cervix is still pretty long (sorry, Marika), which means that the risk of pre-term labor is pretty low right now. The babies weigh 2.5 pounds each right now.
We got some really cool pictures of the babies’ faces using the 3D ultrasound. We got to see one of the babies yawning! And I think that baby has hair! Is it dark hair? Or can you tell on an ultrasound? You be the judge:
The same baby not yawning…
And here is the other baby - we’re pretty sure this is the same baby whose face we saw on the previous ultrasound, 4 weeks ago. He has his arm/hand near his face, and if he has hair, it’s definitely not as dark as the other baby:
(OK, so Mom says this baby looks like Jeff — and I agree — so for comparison, here’s a picture of my brother Jeff (sorry, Jeff, I stole this picture from your Facebook page, but seriously, did you ever think you’d hit the big time and make it onto a surrogacy blog… I didn’t think so!). Just imagine the baby with a little facial hair, a hat, and a pool cue)…
It’s really, really weird to imagine that THESE BABIES will be OUR BABIES soon! It’s one thing to imagine two hypothetical babies, but being able to picture these exact babies is a little strange… and awesome. 
Oh! I also got to feel a baby move yesterday (through Marika’s belly, of course)! Also, Ryan and I are getting the cribs this weekend. I think once the cribs are here and we start decorating the babies’ room, it’s really going to hit home that we’re going to have babies soon! It seems like it should have already hit home, but since I’m not pregnant, we don’t have a minute-by-minute reminder of the babies. Of course, we think about them a lot, but it’s not the same as me being pregnant. Now that we’re getting much closer to the birth, it finally is starting to sink in that our lives are about to change in a HUGE way.
A wonderful way, of course!
Sleeping Like a Baby September 24, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Pregnancy.2 comments
Whoever coined the phrase “sleeping like a baby” could not have had a newborn at home. If my kids are like anyone else’s, there was nothing peaceful about their sleep patterns as babies, at least not for the first couple of months. A typical night usually involved me being woken up every two to three hours by the baby to nurse, which actually included a series of additional activities beyond the feeding itself — changing diapers (and sometimes onesies/sleepers as well), burping, rocking, consoling, and in the first few weeks, trying to unsuccessfully explain to the baby that 3 am was not yet morning. I remember one of the most challenging parts of becoming a new mother was the disruption to my sleep schedule. In addition, I found it really frustrating that when I crawled into bed at night, I had no idea what lay ahead of me – I never knew how long a stretch of sleep I would get. It could be two hours before I was woken up; it could be four hours. Every once in a while I would get pleasantly surprised and get an actual chunk of real sleep. The downside to that would be that then, the next night I would be hoping for a similar night and would usually be rudely brought back to reality by the hungry wails of the baby. My best friend is going through this right now with her new baby (who is just over one month old – Happy One Month!) and I remember the frustration and fatigue that she is now feeling.
Although I am sure I am nowhere close to the exhaustion that my friend is probably feeling, I do think there is something similar about sleep patterns when pregnant and when you have a newborn at home. When I get into bed at the end of the night now, I still never know what kind of night I am going to get. That is my current struggle now in terms of being pregnant – lack of sleep, more specifically, lack of good quality sleep. I am waking up in the middle of the night for a few different reasons. Most of the time it’s to go to the bathroom. It’s also hard to find a comfortable position for any length of time. I alternate between my left and right sides, but sometimes I wake up simply because my side is getting sore from all the weight on it. My muscles ache and I wake up because of that, needing to roll over and switch sides. A good night means waking up just 2-3 times. A bad night means waking up 4 times or more. A really bad night means waking up every hour or two and then not being able to go back to sleep at all. (Flashback—remember trying to convince the newborn that 3 am is really not an acceptable wakeup time?!) For example, last week I went to bed at 10 pm two nights in a row. The first night I woke up at midnight, then again at 2:30 am and could not go back to sleep. I literally lay in bed, eyes closed, but unable to fall asleep, until 6:15 am when my kids got up. The next night, I was in bed at 10 pm again. I made a trip to the bathroom at midnight, then slept all the way until 5:45 am until nature called again. That was a real treat, almost six hours in a row! Last night was another rough one. I went to bed too late, at 11 pm (through my own fault, still trying to catch up on Riley’s 1st Year scrapbook!), then woke up at 3:30 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I dozed off sometime after 5:30 am but then my alarm rang at 6:15 am. Those long nights make for looong days. The good news I guess is that when the pregnancy ends and the babies are born, it won’t be me waking up to tend to them! I know Sarah and Ryan will do great with the babies, but I have to admit that I do feel relieved that I will not have two newborns at home to take care of! Who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us and will show us what “sleeping like a baby” was intended to mean…
Raising Children is Just Like Raising Pets… Right?? September 24, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Parenting.5 comments
Last night I told Ryan that I wanted to write a post about how “raising” our cats has prepared us for raising our children. He laughed at me and said, “The cats haven’t prepared us for anything.” Well, mostly because I like to prove Ryan wrong 
here are some lessons we’ve learned from our beloved kitties that will apply to our new role as parents:
Lesson #1: If your children need to be fed or changed, they will definitely let you know about it.
I feed the kitties at the same time every morning, but on the very rare occasion that I forget, they follow me around the house and meow and meow and meow. And as for needing to be changed, well… if I haven’t cleaned out the litter box to their satisfaction, we sometimes find a “protest poop” (that is what Ryan and I call it) next to the litter box on the floor. What that means is that they have found the litter box to be too disgusting to poop in, so they decided to poop “outside the box” (kind of like ”thinking outside the box” but not really). Neat!
Lesson #2: If there is something that you know you don’t ever want your children to do, don’t ever let them do it, not even once. Never never never.
When we first moved into our house, we knew we did not ever want the cats to go outside or in the garage. However, one day, when we were painting and we couldn’t get the cats out of our hair, we decided to put them in the garage to get them out of the way. Well, that was a year-and-a-half ago, and to this day, every time either of us walks NEAR the door to the garage, Mele stands there and meows and meows and shakes her tail in excitement at the thought that this time, we might let her back in the garage. You know, because we let her out there that one time, a year-and-a-half ago, so we’ll probably let her do it again, right? No. Who knew cats have such great memories?
Lesson #3: Sometimes you have to do things that your children hate, and that you hate doing, that are in their best interest.
Mele has really long fur and gets all of these disgusting mats. She hates being brushed, but it absolutely has to be done, so a couple of times a week, Ryan holds Mele down so she can’t run away, and I use the “mean brush” (as opposed to the soft “nice brush”) to get the tangles/mats out. While we’re doing this Mele yowls like we’ve dipped her in a pot of boiling water. She seriously makes it sound like we’re abusing her, and I’m just waiting for the day when one of our neighbors comes over to ask what we’re doing to our cat. But it can’t be that bad, because after the brushing, when Ryan lets her go, Mele runs straight to the kitchen to get her treat, which she knows she will get every time she’s brushed.
So. There you go. Three ways that raising children is like raising cats. We’re totally prepared for the babies now, right? Hee hee! Yeah right.
It’s Our Anniversary! September 21, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Family, Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else.9 comments
(OK, so it’s actually tomorrow - close enough!) Ryan and I just got back from a very lovely weekend in Marietta, OH, celebrating our first wedding anniversary. Marietta is a very pretty old town on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, with lots of beautiful Victorian-style homes, cute little antique shops, and very friendly people.
We spent the day yesterday walking around the town and exploring, checking out the shops and walking over the bridges. In the evening we went to a bar called the Marietta Brewing Company to have a couple drinks and rest for awhile (and get some football scores), before our anniversary dinner at the Levee Club (which was recommended by my gma and gpa). This morning, we had brunch at our hotel (a very cool old hotel called the Lafayette) before returning home. We had a really great time, and it was so nice to get out of town and just relax together!
Happy anniversary, Ryan! I love you!! xoxo
- Sarah and Ryan at dinner.
- Our hotel, the Lafayette.
- The Marietta Brewing Company.
- Sarah and Ryan in front of the Muskingum River.
A Comparison… September 17, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Pregnancy.2 comments
I had an OB appointment yesterday and I am happy to report that… there is nothing to report! There was no ultrasound but I did hear the heartbeats and the boys are both doing fine. I am measuring 38 weeks (so the size I am now is the size I was when I went into labor with Josie!) which the doctor said was perfectly fine. I asked her if it was too far ahead and she said that the ultrasound two weeks ago showed that both babies have good fluid surrounding them (a positive thing). Since they have good fluid, that means more bulk in my uterus and thus I will probably continue to measure even more than the typical 8 weeks ahead (for twins).
I will be 26 weeks on Friday. Lately I have been thinking about my first two pregnancies and how different they are to this one. Obviously there are so many emotional reasons that this pregnancy is different but even without taking that into consideration, there are still so many other differences.
At this time with my first pregnancy, I had just recently found out the gender.. My OB played it safe – she wanted to keep a good track record, so she wouldn’t do gender scans until the 24th week so she could be more sure! With this pregnancy, we have known that the babies are boys for almost 11 weeks now! At this point with Josie, I had had two ultrasounds—one at 10 weeks to confirm the pregnancy, and then the gender scan one at 24 weeks. This time, I have had at least 7 ultrasounds (and that’s not even counting the EBay ultrasounds!). At 25 ½ weeks with Riley, I had gained 19 pounds. I’m up 41 pounds now and still going strong…
We will have an appointment in another two weeks, where we will have another ultrasound.
Questions From a 4-Year-Old September 16, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Lots to Learn, Marika's Family, Surrogacy.7 comments
Josie has been asking lots of questions recently about the babies. It is so interesting to hear what goes on in the mind of a 4 (almost 5)-year-old…
Josie’s Questions:
“Where does the babies’ pee go?”
“How do they poop?”
“Where do the babies gas?” (Josie, for some reason, uses the word gas as a verb – as in, “Excuse me, I just gassed.”)
“Where do the babies snot?” (another word turned into a verb by her)
“How did the doctor put the babies inside of you?”
“When you’re a baby and you’re being made, how do you get your nipples made?”
8 + 3 = 35?? September 8, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Marika's Family, Pregnancy.1 comment so far
As Sarah previously posted, we had another OB appointment, at 23 weeks and 4 days. From here on out, I will have appointments every 2 weeks, with ultrasounds at every other one (so every 4 weeks). Unfortunately, since Ryan and Sarah have to travel about 1 ½ hours to attend and thus end up taking more time off of work, they will probably only be coming to the appointments at which we have ultrasounds. The good news is that since everything is looking good at this point, hopefully at most appointments there won’t be much to miss out on. And Ryan and Sarah will still get to be at the “important” visits where we get to see the babies via ultrasound.
At this last appointment, the doctor measured me and found that I was measuring 35 weeks. What?!?! According to my book, women carrying twins typically measure about 8 weeks ahead. For the sake of making me feel better, let’s round the 23 weeks 4 days (the day of the measurement) up to 24 weeks, okay? So 24 weeks + 8 weeks = 32 weeks. I can handle that. But then on top of that, I was measuring 3 weeks ahead of that as well! So 24 weeks + 8 weeks + 3 weeks = 35 weeks. WOW is all I can say. Dr. B. mentioned several times throughout the appointment that I must be feeling “full-term” and I have to agree that I am definitely beginning to feel that to a certain extent. Sometimes I look down at my stomach and wonder how it can stretch any further (yet I know it will!). The skin is already so taut; I can’t imagine it in 14 more weeks. I have gained almost 40 pounds now. I knew it was going to happen, but it is still hard for me to believe. I have exceeded what I gained with both of my other pregnancies (exactly 30 pounds each time before) and that was making it to 37 weeks and 39 weeks 3 days. In one of my books, there is a very detailed chart that shows you the optimal weight gain pattern for women pregnant with twins, based on body mass index, week by week. According to that chart, I am right on schedule with the weight gain. That makes me feel a little better, but I sometimes do feel self-conscious about all the weight I have put on, simply because I want to make sure I am doing exactly the right thing for the babies.
The babies have been moving around like crazy. Sarah tried to feel them at our appointment last week, but at that particular time, they weren’t moving very much. They seem to have a burst of energy at night (I remember that with my own two as well) and are really active then. At this point, most movements are strong enough that I know Ryan and Sarah will be able to feel them; it’s just a matter of them trying to feel at the right moments. At the end of last week, I also started feeling what I THINK are contractions (which is completely normal and okay, as long as they aren’t regular and no more than 5-6 per hour). I wish I could say confidently that I knew if they were or weren’t contractions, but I am not positive. With Josie and Riley, I never felt anything (not even Braxton-Hicks contractions) until I was actually in labor, and even for the first few hours I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling were contractions or not. But I believe I have felt one or two each evening, starting at the end of last week.
It’s been over 4 weeks since I posted last, and I am going to try to make an effort to post more regularly. I’ve been working long hours recently, getting ready for the new school year. By the time we put Josie and Riley into bed, I’ve been getting into bed for the night too (which doesn’t leave any extra time for emailing, chatting with friends, or blogging! Oh yeah and no time for cleaning my house, either. ) . We’ve had a really nice summer, with Scott being home more (and thus I got spoiled in terms of him being around to help out), but it has come to an end. I am glad fall is here (it is my favorite season), but it also means a huge increase in activity for everyone. Scott started his second year of med school last week, and with the new school year also comes swimming lessons, after-school meetings, open houses, etc. Our family also has lots of fall and winter traditions that we do every year. In September and October, we go apple picking with my parents and go to the pumpkin patch and Boo at the Zoo with our neighbors. Once the month of November arrives, the real whirlwind of activities hits. November brings my birthday and Josie’s birthday and of course, Thanksgiving. December means our anniversary, my annual holiday cookie exchange, visiting Santa at the zoo and seeing the Christmas lights there, going to see the Nutcracker ballet (Scott and I have seen it every year for the last thirteen years, so I really hope we can fit it in this year, with everything going on!), Scott’s birthday (on Christmas), and somewhere in there, the two babies will arrive! January finally slows down a bit, with just Riley’s birthday at the end of the month. Needless to say, adding “being pregnant with twins due on December 26” will bump up our activity level just a bit for the next months which I’m sure will be filled with excitement! Keep praying for their health, safety, and growth (and maybe throw in a prayer or two for the sanity of our family as well, if you don’t mind! )
Baby Face September 3, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Pregnancy, Ultrasounds.17 comments
Marika had an OB appointment today, with an ultrasound, and everything looks great! The babies are measuring similarly at 1 lb. 5 oz., and 1 lb. 6 oz., and they have good heartbeats and good movement and all the things we wanted to hear! Marika is feeling good and has this week off from work so that is great! She will start to cut back her hours from work in the next few weeks, in an effort to prevent pre-term labor. But at this point, the babies look good, she looks good, and we’re all feeling very optimistic about how this pregnancy is going!
At today’s ultrasound, we got a good 3-D picture of one of the babies’ faces. These 3-D pictures can be a little creepy, especially when you’re looking at someone else’s baby, so I understand completely if any of you out there find these images strange and weird. But I thought I’d share them anyway! At this point, I think this baby (Baby B) looks a lot like Ryan and a little bit like my brother, Jeff. I guess that means the baby looks a little like me, too. Or maybe you can’t tell from these pictures and we’re just projecting ourselves onto this baby - in any case, here he is!
Baby B: 23w4d
The Next Hurdle August 28, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Looking Forward to the Babies!, Pregnancy.3 comments
I haven’t had much to say lately. I’m just hoping and praying that our babies are OK and that they’ll keep growing as long as possible. The longer they’re able to keep growing, the healthier they’ll be once they’re born.
We’ve crossed many hurdles along this journey to get to this point. We created healthy embryos. We got a positive pregnancy test. And another. And another. We saw healthy embryos on the first ultrasound. Those embryos continued to thrive and grow normally. Marika’s pregnancy reached the second trimester, a very big hurdle in any pregnancy.
The next hurdle is viability. Viability means that if the babies were born, they would have a chance at survival. I’ve heard that 24 weeks is the week of viability; if the babies were born, they might not survive, but they might. There is a chance. If they did survive after being born that early, they would need extensive medical intervention in order to become strong and healthy. 28 weeks is another hurdle to cross. At 28 weeks, if the babies were born, there is not just a chance, but a good chance that they would survive.
While a delivery at 38.5 weeks is the ultimate goal, viability is the next hurdle, the next big step.
Day by day, week by week, we jump more and more hurdles, and get closer and closer to holding our two healthy babies in our arms. I can’t even imagine how that will feel, but I can’t wait to reach the finish line and find out.
Dear Mom August 20, 2008
Posted by andbabymakesfive in Family.4 comments
I miss you! I hope you and Greg are having a great time on your vacation! If you find my sunglasses in the ocean, will you bring them back for me? They are brown and plastic. Also, say hello to the roosters for me! You will find them at the outdoor cafes in downtown Z-town.
We’re taking good care of Gracie. She has only tried to scratch me once. Thank you for the brownies, Greg! They were great! That was a nice surprise.
When you’re gone I am always reminded even more of what a great mom you are. You make all the good things seem even better, and all the not-so-good things seem not as bad. I hope that someday I am half the mom you are.
See you two soon, and have a (couple) margarita(s) for me and Ryan!
Love,
Sarah
