Its Been Awhile

Sorry everyone who reads this blog!  I have been so so neglectful with our story, Andrea has given me looks and is saying I am putting this off too long.  Whoops!  You know when life gets crazy, this sort of thing gets put to the side and I so easily say "oh, I will get to that tomorrow"?  Yeah, my life in a nutshell lately.

Lets talk about this little bugger!  We now know 100% that we can start calling the baby a GIRL!!  We are so excited to meet her and to hold her.  We are 27 weeks along on Thursday and feeling pretty confident that she is in there for the long haul.  Andrea is having a perfect pregnancy, health wise anyway.  haha.  She isn't getting much sleep because this little muffin never stops moving or kicking her.  When we went for an ultrasound baby was doing back flips over and over and poor Andrea had to feel it on the inside.  It sure didn't seem too comfortable for her.  I was just sitting there watching this all go on and what a crazy feeling--this is my baby in her tummy.  Generally I have gotten quite used to our not so normal version of normal, but during ultrasounds it can feel totally surreal.   In the 3d ultrasounds you can really see the baby's face and she most definitely belongs to us, so we aren't stressing anymore that maybe the embryo was switched, or were they sure they put the right sperm with the right egg?  haha.  Still, it is odd that I don't get those painful kicks, or those sleepless nights and Andrea really knows this baby so well already, and yet it's my baby.  The one thing that has helped me feel so okay with it is that this must be how men feel during pregnancies, I am sure.  So I channel my inner Dave and accept that I will have this baby in my arms soon, but she is being really well looked after by her surrogate mom in the meantime.

The best thing is that during the 3D ultrasound you could tell how happy she is in there.  She was so snuggly, and then she would start smiling--it was adorable!  She was grabbing her umbilical cord and snuggling it like a blanket and then she would suck her thumb.  Many blankeys and soothers in her future I guess.  She looked so perfect and all I wanted to do was take her out and snuggle her--I had to be reminded that she is only a pound right now, so I better wait for the snuggles.

So here is our baby girl, now just to figure out a name for this muffin.  

Smiley girl

 Rubbing her eyes and gripping her umbilical cord

 Cute little hands

So for the last couple months Andrea has been having some intense braxton hicks with this baby, and last week they seemed especially strong.  She let me know that she was headed to the hospital to make sure she wasn't going in to labour and I got to do the fun waiting game here.  The doctors monitored her all day and said yes, they were braxton hicks but we needed to be prepared for a possibility of early labour with this one.  I am crossing all of my fingers and toes that we won't have to go through a scary early labour then life flight to Vancouver, and also a temporary move for me away from the rest of my family, but that is definitely in the back of our minds as a possibility.  I am not going to stress about it yet though, because that isn't helpful.  haha.  Andrea has also been suffering with severe acid reflux and sleepless nights in addition to the painful contractions...thanks for taking this one for the team, lady!!!  It can be quite the challenge for me to not feel guilty over it, because these symptoms are most definitely consistent with my babies.  I suffered through two pregnancies, but at least I was suffering for my own baby, not having someone else do it for me.  A big "but" is that Andrea hates when I feel guilty.  She always puts my mind at ease in that she's "got this" and in 90 days she will gladly pass little baby my way to suffer with for the rest of the 18 years to life. She makes me laugh.  

Here she is at 27 weeks,  Her snowpants are ADORABLE! 

So the rollercoaster continues, but baby girl is finally at a pretty viable stage and we will hope for the full term baby.  But, whenever she decides she needs to come, we will do whatever we need to do for this little miracle of ours.  

New name ideas:  Frankie Renee
                              Sloan Renee