Redirecting Blog.......

Well since my surrojourney has ended I feel like I have nothing new and interesting to add to this blog. I do however still want to show off my kids and share info about our family life so please feel free to visit our old blog. It was left hanging for a long time while this blog was up and running but now I promise to try to keep it more up to date. (Just give me a bit of time to catch up on it!)

So, here it is. Come see us soon!

www.carsongavinmorgan.blogspot.com

Thanks again for following along on our journey.

Journey is officially compete!

Yesterday we shipped off the final supply of breast milk- another 200 ounces which brings this journey to an official end. The total donation amount was 1,250 ounces which isn't bad if I do say so myself. I was actually sad to see my milk go because it meant closure for me. I am finally enjoying cocktails again of course but now I feel like I am no longer doing a good deed. I know its time to get my life and body back in order so being done with pumping is a good thing, I just wish I could have done it for a little while longer to help out those poor preemies.


I am emotional today too because my baby is getting her big girl bed later this morning. I can't believe I will no longer have a crib in the nursery room of our house. It has been there for the past 7 years and hasn't moved since. We have had three beautiful babies share that crib and I have so many memories that its hard to see it go. (Well not actually go, because I am keeping it in the basement forever!!!!) But packing it up means not only are we are done with babies in our household, but that our "baby" is no longer a baby. :( Time goes by way to quickly in life the minute you become a parent. I wish I was home today to be able to see Morgan's face when the new bed arrives and to put her down for her nap myself for her first time sleeping in it. Darn work!


We are leaving for vacation next week to Florida and I am really looking forward to spending 9 days with my hubby and kids without responsibilities. I can't wait to see the kids so excited, happy and loving life. I feel like a kid counting down to Christmas! The anticipation is making me crazy!



I don't have any updates on Luke. I assume things are going fine and that he is most likely growing like a weed. It's hard to believe he will be 9 weeks old already tomorrow. Hopefully he is happy and healthy and letting his parents get at least some sleep. :)

Latest Updates

Well we are about 6.5 weeks post delivery and I am feeling great still. Of course I would be happier if I could just make these last 10 pounds disappear but other than that I am good. I have managed to narrow down the pumping schedule to just twice a day now- once in the morning and right before bed. It is kind of sad because I am only freezing about 8-10 ounces a day now compared to 50 ounces a day before but my goal now is to ween off pumping before my vacation in a few weeks. Last week we shipped another 500 ounces of milk so that brings my current donation total to 1050 ounces! YIPPEE!! I was thrilled to hit over the thousand mark! Way to go girls! :) And now I am sure I have another 200 ounces or so in the deep freezer so within the next couple of weeks I will send off my final shipment and be officially done with all pregnancy related activities. So sad!

Last week I had my 6 week post-partum check up. Everything went well except for the 75 minute wait at the Dr.'s office before being seen. That was crazy! But Dr. L finally appeared and he said I have healed fine and I am very healthy. (And Chubby!) Ok, he didn't say that but I am sure he was thinking it. He asked if I was ready to be pregnant again and I think I surprised him when I said "YES" right away. He said I was made to be pregnant and I do it so well! How nice. But then of course I broke the news to him that my hubby will divorce me if we have another baby so I guess I am officially done with being pregnant. I guess I will never say never at this point. You just don't know what life will bring.

Our summer has been good so far. The kids are enjoying being out of school and spending time outdoors as much as possible. We are getting very excited about our family vacation in a few weeks to Orlando, FL too. It will be so much fun to have no responsibilities for 9 days! Can't wait!

I haven't talked to R lately, just over emails but I know they are very busy with Luke and his big brother. She has told us what a great baby Luke is and how he is already sleeping 7 hours at night. Wow! We were never that lucky! Way to go Luke! What a good baby. Hopefully we will plan a visit with them sometime soon.

That's it for updates. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

More, and more and more MILK!!

Yesterday we shipped another cooler full of 300 ounces of "gold"/breastmilk to the Indiana Milk Bank and believe it or not, there are still 150 ounces in my deep freezer.


Here is what we shipped yesterday.





Al is going out of town next week again to California so I am going to have a skip a week of shipping the milk since I won't have his help picking up the dry ice. I hope my freezer can hold 2 weeks worth of milk! I need to start figuring out how to cut back soon though because I want to be done pumping before our family vacation in 6 weeks. It's way too much work to bring a pump on a trip! Not fun. So, I have only a few more weeks of power pumping and then my good deed is done. I am going to be sad about that. Plus, I am enjoying the 500 calories a day being burned just from sitting on my rump, pumping every day. That is definitely helping! I have 10 pounds left to go which unfortunately doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I can go back to the gym again in another week and a half so hopefully that will start helping more.

Here are the latest pictures of our angels for their annual birthday photos. Carson- 7 years, Gavin- 5 years, Morgan- 2 years.

Here is a picture of Luke from last week sleeping like an angel. What a cutie!

GOT MILK?

Well that is what I have been up to lately. Three weeks ago today we were in labor and every 4 hours since then (on average) I have been a pumping maniac! I have pumped over 500 ounces of milk in 3 short weeks and am quite proud of my lactation abilities! :) We shipped our first cooler of frozen breast milk on Tuesday which had 250 ounces in it and the rest remains in our deep freezer. I am so happy to be able to provide that to all those preemies in need. Here you go babies! Be strong!

Ok, enough milk talk. I am feeling really good. I started walking and doing some Wii Fit this week in hopes to shed some pounds. Unfortunately, the bleeding is still here, but the pain is gone now so that's good. Sorry Al, three more weeks!

Yesterday I had a quick visit with Baby Luke and R and was amazed at how different he looks. He is starting to fill out more and has so much hair! It was hard to tell in the hospital because it was matted down and then of course he had the newborn hat on most of the time. He looks like an identical miniature version of his Daddy. Just amazing. He was sleeping most of the time while I was there but I got to hold him a little bit and he opened his eyes for me. It was really nice to see him and so surreal to think about him being in my tummy just 3 weeks ago. Wow- I am still in shock. I feel like this whole journey was an out of body experience. It's like I was watching from afar- and not actually going through it. Surreal is the only word that can describe it.

Our kids are doing great with it all. They haven't been sad at all about not bringing a baby home. They have known all along what was going to happen and they are totally fine with it. Morgan calls every baby she sees lately "Baby Luke". Carson told me this week that I am "finally getting skinny again" which was nice. They have all adjusted totally fine like nothing ever happened. I am sure they will be excited to see Luke again soon but for now, they are just busy enjoying their own lives (without a screaming newborn in the house!)

I have had more thoughts over the past couple weeks about pregnancy in general and how I miss it and also have thought about wanting another one of our own someday but I know that is just a fantasy. No way would Al go for that! I know we are done and I'm pretty sure I am done with surrogacy/ pregnancy but you never know.................. Now if only I can talk my sister in law and cousin in law into it so I can live through them this time!

A week ago today..........

It is hard to believe that last week at this time I was nervously awaiting the news of whether or not the induction was going to happen. I have been reliving the entire day in my mind over the past couple days and still can't believe it all happened. (Way too fast if you ask me!) Luke is a week old today. Today is a special day for him too because it's his Bris ceremony. We would have loved to be part of it, but our little guy Gavin has his preschool graduation today at exactly the same time so unfortunately, we can't be at the Bris. Good luck Luke!!! I am sure you will do great!!!

I am feeling really good. Still have not been sad at all about being apart from Luke. It is so hard to explain.......... yes, he came out of me, but was never part of me. He was theirs all along. And I am happy they have him to hold, care for and love. I do look at his pictures quite a bit but they do not bring sadness, only happiness because I helped give him life. He is truly such a cutie and I can't wait to see more pictures of him and watch him grow up. I do miss being pregnant.... (WAIT, DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD?) I know, I am NUTS! It was just a week ago that I was miserable but its amazing how quickly your mind forgets that. I guess I need to just focus on my next goal- losing weight! So far I have lost 15lbs which I guess is ok, but that means I still have 15 more to go which is not going to be easy- especially when I am not allowed back at the gym for 4- 6 weeks.

I have talked to R quite a bit since last week. Luke is doing really well and is back up to 8 lbs (just one ounce shy of his birth weight). She said he is a really good baby! His big brother doesn't really know what to think of him yet, but soon enough they will be best of friends.

Pumping is going great! It still hurts like hell for the first minute or so each time but hopefully that will go away within a week or so. But the good news is, I am up to about 85 ounces frozen already which isn't bad for one week! I have been setting the alarm to wake up 2 or 3 times a night to pump depending on the timing. My goal is to pump at 10pm each night and then only have to wake up at 2am and then pump in the morning when I get up at 6:30am but sometimes the timing of that doesn't work and I have to wake up an additional time. Luckily Al has been very helpful and has been getting up at night with me to take the milk downstairs to the fridge and bring up new bottles. That allows me to crawl back into bed that much quicker! I feel great every time I freeze another bottle. And I of course am enjoying the "bigger" benefits of breastfeeding. :) Al is enjoying that change too but too bad he can't do anything about it for 6 weeks. Poor guy!

I am not sure how much longer I will keep up this blog considering the big event has already happened and I know I am not that exciting for people to continue to follow just for the heck of it. We'll see what happens. Maybe I will continue it for a couple more months to continue to update everyone on how Luke is doing as well as myself.

Introducing........... Luke Andrew!

Sorry it has taken me a few days to update. I will try to recap the birth story here and share with you all as much as possible- although I am sure it will be difficult to put into words what an amazing experience we went through this weekend. I am still pretty much in a state of shock that this actually happened and that we helped bring a perfect little boy into the world. So here goes..........

On Friday, we arrived at the hospital at 11am for a scheduled induction. (Thank you Dr. L!!). By 12:30pm I was hooked up to an IV, had the monitors on and started a little bit of pitocin. I was already having contractions every 3-5 minutes when we got to the hospital and was 4cm dilated. R & S came to the hospital shortly after and we just hung out in the delivery room waiting for more to happen. At 2pm, I was up to 5cm dilated. I was not suffering at all yet but the nurse suggested I get the epidural right then because the sooner I did that, the sooner they would break my water which would speed everything up. So I went ahead and got the epidural at 2:15pm. It was not nearly as bad this time going in as it was with my daughter Morgan. This guy was good!! By 3pm, I was between 5-6cm dilated. Unfortunately, the dr. was not able to come and break my water until 4:40pm so things moved a little slower than expected. At 6:30pm, I was 7cm dilated, 90% effaced and the baby was at 0 station. The dr. said he will come back in an hour or so to check on me and I said "It is not going to take an hour- this part will go by fast!". I was right, because a half hour later, the contractions started seriously hurting in my back and I felt like I needed to push NOW!! By 7pm, I was complete and ready to go. I was so nervous at this point and suffering a bit with the contractions but I was so excited at the same time. The room was packed with medical staff- I think there were like 7 of them in the room. The Dr. said everyone wanted to be there because of our special circumstance with the surrogacy that they wanted to be part of the experience. Speaking of the medical team, I was absolutely spoiled with the best nurses possible! I still can not believe how wonderful they were and how well they took care of me and supported me. I really wasn't sure how the staff would treat me as a surrogate but they were AMAZING! Every single nurse told me what a gift I was giving and they actually said I was the talk of the floor! I joked at one point with the nurses that they were all just coming in the room to see if I had my teeth! (Surrogates have a bad reputation to be white trash!)

Back to the delivery.......... So we started pushing just after 7pm. At first (just like my own 3 kids) the baby was OP- face up. Dr. L helped turn him while I was pushing. Unfortunately at one point, the baby stopped turning and I was pushing his head out sideways- transverse. Then Dr. L gave me an episiotomy to make more room. When I finally pushed his head out, Dr. L had to unwrap the cord around his neck. Al was great as always coaching me and supporting me during the pushing. Then I had half of his body out and Dr. L stopped me from pushing because one of his arms was stuck. I actually felt his arm being pulled up and out of me. Very strange sensation for sure! Then, at 7:27pm, Luke Andrew was born! He was 20 3/4 inches and weighed 8lbs, 1 oz, which is almost a full pound bigger than our largest baby who was 7.2. Luke had a full head of dark hair and long fingers and toes! His daddy cut the cord right when he came out. I didn't really get a good look at Luke at that point due to all the commotion and also because the Dr. was still working on "fixing" me back up. Once Luke had all his tests done, his Mommy and Daddy got to hold him and then it was my turn. I couldn't believe how cute he was. And- couldn't believe how BIG! He looked absolutely perfect. No cone head at all! Seeing the look on R & S's faces and the tears in their eyes is something I will never forget. It was all worth it for that.

After the delivery, Luke and R & S stayed in my room with me for a couple hours talking about the experience of it all. Luke never made a peep the whole time. R & S brought champagne and gave me a beautiful silver bracelet from Tiffany's. WOW! That was so amazing of them. I love it and will cherish it forever!

By 10pm, Al and I were moved to a recovery room and we finally got to eat! I was starving!!!! I also ordered a glass of wine from the hospital but it tasted horrible so I only had a couple sips. Bummer! On Saturday morning, I spent some time in R & S's room visiting with them and Luke. Again, he never made a peep. What a little angel baby! Zara from Family Source came to visit us all too and she brought me flowers and a beautiful musical photo box. That was so sweet of her!
Al brought our kids to the hospital in the afternoon to see me and to meet Luke. It was so cute seeing their faces look at Luke through the nursery windows. I think they were very proud too! Grandma and Grandpa took the kids home so Al and I could have our celebration dinner at the hospital before checking out- 23 hours after delivery. I was ready to get home!

I talked to R on Sunday and they were able to bring Luke home in the morning on Mother's day. What a special gift on her very first Mother's Day. I felt blessed as well to already be home with my kids too. (Plus, it was my baby's 2nd birthday!) Happy Birthday Princess Morgan! It is hard to believe only 2 years ago, we were at the same hospital delivering Morgan and had no idea what was yet to come 2 years later.

I started pumping a few hours after delivery and have done so every 3-5 hours since. It is going well but of course if very painful right now. I know it will take a couple of weeks to get past that so it will be worth it in the end. So far, I think I have 4 bottles frozen which isn't bad. My milk hasn't officially come in yet, but I feel it coming!

I am feeling amazing emotionally. I have not cried at all. I never felt like Luke was mine so holding him just made me proud- not sad. I feel lucky to have done something so amazing in my life that I will always be proud of. I completed a family. How many people can say that? Thank you R & S for trusting me with your son for 9 short months. It went by so quickly and even in the end with being uncomfortable and with the pain of labor- I can say- IT WAS ALL WORTH IT! Your son is beautiful and is such a gift to us all! He will always hold a special place in our hearts.

See the video montage below with some pictures of the birth day!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com