Our Carrier is Pregnant- 32 Weeks/8 Months

What a way to start August out. I am so incredibly excited and sooooo nervous. Jessica informed me on August 1rst that we are now going to do the induction on September 30th. You know what that means? That means no matter what my little Max will be here by the end of next month. Hearing that made my day and made a great start to August. I always wondered how the due date ended up the way it did, being Oct. 11th, because our RE gave us what he said the due date should be, and it was different. Well I guess Jessica's Ob was going off of the date that he got from one of the u/s's. Well, he decided I guess that since he knows how anxious we are to meet Max that he would change the due date to the date of when we did our IVF stuff, which makes it October 6th. So that means that since we are going to induce at 39 weeks, Max will be here on September 30th at the latest! Woot woot! For the record though, I am still hoping he makes a break for it at 37 weeks. So very, very, very cautiously head over heels excited!

I had been waiting to buy my plane ticket for some reason or another, but when I heard this news I got on it right away. I will now be back a few days before we hit 36 weeks, versus right before 35 weeks. So much to do before I leave. The goal is to have the entire nursery done, the vehicle cleaned so we can get the car seat in for when we get back to AK with him, the house cleaned up, packed, and the big one of getting our Pre-Birth Order taken care of before I get on the plane. That last one is the big one since we need to ensure that if Jessica goes into Labor early that our names go on Max's birth paperwork, not hers. I spoke to our lawyer about this the other day and he says he is going to get the affidavit ready so we can get this taken care of asap.

A few days ago Jessica had her hospital tour. I will be doing one with her when I get into town as well. She said that we will for sure be getting our own room until Max is discharged from the hospital. I will also be getting setup with a lactation consultant to help me. We will also have to use the on call pediatrician since ours is here in Alaska. Dereck and I need to discuss vaccines, circumcision, etc. It's crazy to be at this point having to think about these sort of things again. All I know is it would be nice to actually have a delivery that goes as planned, since that has never happened with us.

Also if anyone has any suggestions please help me figure out what I need to bring back to MN/ND with me for Max. I have absolutely no idea what a newborn needs, especially once he leaves the hospital and we will be living out of a suitcase for at least a week. I own almost everything a baby needs so I hate to have to buy more stuff if I know I already have it. I know I need all my pumping stuff, cloth diapers and accessories, baby clothes and swaddles-how many should I bring and what sizes? (NB or 0-3 months?), and my k'tan. I think on the plane I'll carry him in the k'tan or do others think it would be easier to bring and use my ergo instead? I am most likely going to borrow a infant car seat from a friend in MN so that ours is already installed in our vehicle for when we get back home. What else do I need for a newborn to make it at least week living out of a suitcase, driving around, and flying?

I have briefly talked to Jessica about getting some maternity type photos done. Derecks sister in law is a photographer and said she would be willing to take some for us. This is something I have never done in any of my pregnancies but have seen some awesome intended parent/gestational carrier photos on other surrogacy blogs and pinterest. Anyone have any good ideas for pics of Jessica and I to take together? Jessica said she also has a coworker/friend that does some photography work that would be willing to take these pictures for us, some of Max's birth if her Ob Dr is okay with her in the delivery room with all of us, and then of course get some good newborn pictures of him and all of us after. Eeeek! It's so crazy that we are thinking about all of this already! It is getting so close. Only 3.5 weeks until I leave, 5 weeks until we reach 37 weeks, and 7 more until induction day! Let the crazy begin.

Jessica is still using the ear buds I sent her for Max so he can learn my voice. I also just mailed Jessica a box of freshly caught Alaskan silver salmon and halibut. I love that they like fish and knowing that my little guys is going to get all those awesome Omega 3's and the DHA from that salmon.

I talked to my blm friend Caroline the other week and she sent me an email back with this verse from this Green Day song, "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends

She looked up the meaning of the song and found this:

This is a song of wisdom and acceptance. "Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are" - the realization of the fact that everything we go through, all the pain and losses, all the hardships we meet along the way are meant to make us stronger and shape our personalities. In the video for this song we see a young couple that gets separated by the circumstances. This shows the director's view of the song: we should treasure our loved ones and never take them for granted, because they can be taken away from us any moment.

Pretty fitting, you think?

Operation Bring Milk Back for Max:

At the end of August I decided I was done trying to go the natural route and needed to look into the Domperidone again. Through the help of Jessica, she found a list of various compounding pharmacies throughout the country that would make it for us. I don't know how I never thought of looking out of state. It was so much cheaper at all of the lower 48 compounding pharmacies, versus the $400 a week here in Anchorage. The place I found that was the cheapest and would ship to Alaska was out of Wisconsin. It was approx. $30 a week-I think that's what it was. I swear we get ripped off here in Alaska. I told my Pediatrician and his wife, who I mentioned has been helping me with this, about these prices and they sent in a Rx right away. They are also paying for this medication for us. So if any of you out there were thinking it was dumb that we were going to pay $400, well now you know we weren't going to be the ones paying for it, just didn't feel that was anyone's business. I did however feel bad having them pay that much so that's why I looked into other options. They are doing this for us for 2 reasons: the first being that they insisted on wanting to help us and know this is all financially a lot and second because they just started their own lactation clinic in their office and have never worked with domperidone before. The nurse has done Reglan before because her and her husband, the Pediatrician, have adopted a couple of babies and she wanted to breastfeed them. So I am more less their guinea pig to find out all the ins and out of how this med works.

I started taking the Domperidone on August 5th. I started taking about 10mg 3 times a day for the first 3 days. Then I went up to 2 of the 10mg pills 3 times a day. I will be on this until I am finished taking it. By the second day I was feeling pretty flushed in the face and warm like I was coming down with something. No other symptoms that I noticed. By the second day I could also already tell a significant increase in my milk production. I still pump about 5-6 times a day and still having a pretty hard time getting up at night but am doing the best I can. I usually pump about 10-15 minutes each time and when I am finished I do a hand massage and try to work out as much milk as possible. Hopefully soon I will be able to get milk out with the pump but like that I am getting a fair amount out with the hand massages. It'd be nice if I could start getting enough to save, but making progress everyday. I love this med!

Also, I have a really good pump but my pediatricians wife gave me a hospital grade pump to use. I really love and appreciate how much they have tried to help me with this. I can't wait to have Max here so he can meet this amazing couple. Oh and if Max is born on September 30th he will even have the same birthday as the Pediatrician. Kind of cool.

That's all for now- off to pump again!