Our Carrier is Pregnant- 37 Weeks

We made it to 37 Weeks!!! We have never been this pregnant before! Actually, I have never been this pregnant before, Jessica has, but this is our baby who she is carrying and we have never had a baby live this long! That sounds so bad and good all at once. 

Eeeeek! That's where I were at right now and it's getting real.

Jessica had her 37 week appt yesterday morning. I wasn't able to go with her because I drove back down to MN to see my family for a few days. Well jessica let me know after her appt that she has now dilated to 2cm and is 75% effaced. She said that is what she was at when she went into labor with her second baby. Also, today is 37 weeks and 4 days which is when she went into labor as well. So I am now back up in ND. I drove up last night afraid that Max would be born today. Because you know that if I didn't come back for another few days he would surely be born without me there. 

On Friday the 13th we did the hospital tour. I made it through it fine. I never really did one with Evelynn. I knew I needed a C-section, I knew where triage was, and I figured all that mattered is that she was fine. Well this time around things are a little different since I had no idea how things were going to work once Jessica went into labor and I knew nothing about this hospital. We saw one of the delivery rooms and the little bassinet that Max will get put in before he gets rolled off to our room for us to spend time with. We then saw a room similar to what we would have to be in with Max until he is able to leave. I was also told that after he is born that they want him to go skin to skin right away and since I am breastfeeding as well I should try and wear a lose fitting top so he can get as close to me as possible.

On Sunday the 15th Jessica and I did a mini photo shoot together. I had seen quite a few awesome ideas for pictures from other gestational carrier blogs and pinterest. I never got into doing any pregnancy photos beyond belly pics, but thought that this was something special that Jessica and I could together with Max to remember this time by. It was fun and I'll post pictures when I get them all from Jessica.

I forgot to mention that at Jessica's last appt the Ob Dr. took a look at Max for us and was able to show me that he has a full head of hair. I know out of all the things I should be concerned about having a full head of hair, like his brother and sister had shouldn't be it, but I love knowing that he will share that same trait as Liam and Evelynn when they were born.

I haven't wrote much about the law side of this but I need to vent about how things are going. We are really annoyed, actually quite pissed, at our lawyer. Max could come any day and the prebirth order still isn't finished. I asked my lawyer about getting it done months ago. In the state of ND you can do it as early as you want,  which is what I hoped would happen. I just wanted everything done in advance so I had less to worry about later, but here I am stressing the F out because my lawyer isn't doing his job. Even my ivf clinic called me wondering what is wrong with my lawyer that they are just now getting paperwork to do the affidavit. They asked why we didn't do this right after the transfer. Also, when jessica did the hospital tour by herself before I got there they told her to tell me to have it done before I left the state. I told my lawyer that and also mentioned to him that dereck had to go back to work and it'll be a lot easier for dereck to get his end of the paperwork done if we can do it while he's still in town. Well that was mid august. Nothing is done. From the start all he keeps saying is that we have time. I don't know what his deal is. I am paying him lots of money here, just get it done! It's not hurting anything having it done sooner. He just keeps bringing up the due date. Well I'm sorry buddy but I live in the land where babies can come long before their due date and sometimes they even die. Fuck! Plus, Jessica doesn't want Max put in her name anymore than we do. I can't even imagine the amount of paperwork we'd have to do to get things reserved if its not done by his birth. So stressed right now. This isn't what I needed. Ugh!

Operation Bring Milk Back for Max:

I have now been on the domperidone for 6 full weeks. Started week 7 on Monday. I've been keeping track of what I have pumped this past week and it looks like I am averaging about 8-9 ounces a day. I really wish I would've kept my log book of when I was pumping and donating last spring so I could see how things compared. Also, this is probably too much tmi but waking up to a soaked sports bra a few days ago made my day. Guess it's time to sleep with nursing pads.

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I wanted to write about this right away but now will do. Back on September 9th I got to meet up with a few more blm's who live in MN. I got to meet the Julie's. I had not met Julie or Julie until shortly before our meet up. Julie S. had been reading my blog and knew I was coming to MN shortly for Max's birth. She started emailing me and we found a day that could work to meet up. She then contacted the other Julie and invited her to come over as well. The meet up was great. Both of them had their rainbows Bode and Catherine along and we talked about Evelynn and how she should be here too. They asked about Jessica and Max and I learned a little about their stories of becoming a dreaded blm. Overall it made for a good afternoon and I hope to see them again at the next blm get together next spring with my rainbow Max.