surprise!

 Earlier this week I was thinking of what I would put on my to-do list for next week since I would be in quarantine and need to keep busy. Turns out, the to-do list will have to wait, because we had a baby this morning!

If you don't want the details, here's the short version. My water broke on it's own last night and I met Zack and Kelly at the hospital- three hours later, they were holding their sweet baby girl in their arms! We are all doing great!

Here's the longer version with the grosser details. I was putting my big kids to bed when I felt a weird...trickle? But I have never gone into labor on my own and did not think it was something I was even capable of doing to be honest. So I just kind of ignored it and went on with the night. Kameron and I watched an episode of a show we just started and I felt the trickle a few more times and thought wellllll maybe this is something to worry about? I told him I thought maybe my water was leaking and we were both like- what do we do? We've never had this problem before, ha! We started another episode of our show and kind of debated if I should call the nurse line at my OB office. I ended up calling and while I was on the phone, there was a definite gush and I could not stop laughing about it. The poor woman from the answering service was trying to take all my information so that the doctor could call me back and she had to ask me to repeat the same thing 3 times because I was laughing too hard! The doctor called back and said I should head to labor and delivery to be checked out. Naturally, I had packed a bag on Monday before my doctor appointment, just in case, but then unpacked it when I got home that day. Kameron helped me pack up some things and call Zack and Kelly to let them know we might be having a baby! Unfortunately since we don't have any local family, Kameron had to stay home with our sleeping babies and I drove myself to the hospital, wrapped in towels and listening to 90's hip hop the whole way.

When I got to the hospital, I went straight to triage where they swabbed me for amniotic fluid and administered a Covid test (100% do not recommend, ew). Zack and Kelly arrived and we went back and forth like-- how is this real?! Because it definitely did not seem real! We had a date scheduled for the baby to come and I think we were all kind of in disbelief that it was happening before that. The swab came back positive for fluid, confirming that my water had broken, and the Covid test came back negative, so I got to ditch my mask, and off we went! Zack and Kelly got to be with me in the operating room and see their beautiful baby girl be born. I cannot even express how amazing it was to see their expressions when the doctor held her up! They had both guessed that she would be a boy :) 

We are all healthy and recovering well! I am still pinching myself that this is real- I was not expecting this baby to come on her own! This has been such a wonderful journey and it's hard to believe that our goal has officially been met- Zack and Kelly have their baby in their arms! Since she is not mine to share, I won't post her photo, but know that she's as cute as they come (and here's me in my fancy gown, as a replacement, ha!).

13 weeks/2nd trimester

It's been real, first trimester, but I'm not sad to see ya go! As of today we are officially in the second trimester!

Last week we had another ultrasound (and my first appointment at my own OB, who I love so much that I wish we could be friends) and everything looked perfect! Zack and Kelly's baby measured right on track and actually looked like a baby this time instead of a little dot. It still blows my mind that the tiny speck sized embryo we transferred not very long ago looks like a whole baby on the screen already. Unfortunately, with the state of things in the world, the dr. office was not allowing visitors, so I had to FaceTime Kelly for the ultrasound. I felt so sad that they couldn't be there it's still weighing on my mind.

How strange that we are already 1/3 of the way through this- it felt like we were waiting, waiting waiting, and now we are somehow growing this baby?! Everything that has happened along the way seems like a distant memory- we went to Madison for the first time a year ago (at the end of this month) and it feels like it has been way longer! We were matched with Zack and Kelly 10 months ago and now they're starting to prepare for their baby. AH! Time flies.

I don't have much else to update on- I stopped progesterone shots a few weeks ago (wahoo!) and no longer have to take meds to help sustain the pregnancy, which is awesome. I have been feeling so much better since stopping! So far I have been craving Mexican food (could be a result of pregnancy, could just be me) and sweets (again, probably just me) pretty regularly but I have been eating things that I don't normally eat, like half a bag of Cheetos for lunch one day. Hoping this bump will pop soon so that I stop feeling like I ate too many burritos!

And here's B, enjoying some rain, because I don't have a relevant picture to share this time :)

a match!

I got the phone call that I've been waiting for today! A potential match!

I've been thinking about this a lot in the last week. I finished nursing Briggs and I knew that was the last big step before being matched, and I also know that since my application has been in for a while, they have had a lot of time to think about who we would match well with. Let's see how many times I can say match in this blog post.

Last week, I emailed LeeAnn, my wonderful contact at our agency, and let her know that I was done nursing. I hoped that she would email back right away like "great, now here's your match!" but unsurprisingly, she didn't. Earlier this week, I thought to myself wouldn't it be weird and cool to get a match on Briggs's birthday? And then I kind of forgot about it because we have a lot going on this weekend. 

This morning, I made myself a list of things to do before Kameron got home so that we could celebrate our new 1 year old without having to worry about things that needed to be done. I took the big kids in for a haircut, went to Target, went to the grocery store, came home and made lunch, blah blah blah. I started to unload the dishwasher and my phone rang and the caller ID said Hope (thank you, past self, for putting their number in your phone so that you'd answer when they called). I started shaking immediately. 

I chatted with Mary and LeeAnn, 2/3 of the powers that be at Hope (our agency). They let me know that they had an exciting potential match for us and shared some details and asked what I thought. I told them to go ahead and pass on our info to the IPs because they sound great! I don't want to share much more than that yet, since our match is not official, and likely,  the IPs have not even received our information. But once it is official (and assuming they are okay with it), I'll be back to share more! 

For now, the IPs will receive all of our information- what we are looking for in our IPs and relationship, our beliefs, a letter that I wrote to them when I applied, and some background info on our family. They will let the agency know if they'd like to move forward or not, and if they do, we will schedule a match meeting to meet in person!

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

One year ago today-  happy birthday baby Briggs!