25 Weeks....

I’m sitting at the airport in Calgary waiting to catch a flight, of course way too early and thought this would be a good time to write a blog update. It’s been about two weeks since the last update and we have hit some milestones, personally and with the baby.

Our baby shower was thrown a couple weeks ago and about 60 people gathered for the occasion ready to celebrate, eat, and of course talk all things baby. It was the most amazing day with family and friends and both Daniel and I realized how grateful we both are for the love our friends and family have for us and that our dear friends Leah and Bryce for throwing such an amazing party. The baby shower went throughout the day, and then turned into a party that moved over to our house and went until the early hours of the morning the next day. Good times had by all, and we are still organizing boxes, baby clothes, toys and baby “stuff” that now seem to be throughout our house.

Another big accomplishment that we pretty much completed is the baby nursery. Final touches are being made and now what seemed to be a disorganized mess in one of our spare rooms has now turned out to be one of the most beautiful baby nursery’s I have ever seen. Daniel’s painting is amazing and the time we spent on this one room alone is unbelievable, but well worth it. We find ourselves now just sitting in the room, thinking of our baby. Wondering what he is going to be like, how he will like the room, and can now picture him running around his room pulling all the stuffed toys out of the bins and making a mess, a mess we wont mind at all. 5 months ago we were in Panama, going through a procedure to hopefully get pregnant, and now we are sitting in our babies room preparing for his arrival. Such a big change in a small amount of time, and we believe with perseverance all things are possible…

Yesterday we received ultra sound reports from Panama, everything is perfect. We are 25 weeks pregnant and out little guy is about 798 grams, which is well within all normal ranges for a baby his age. We also saw some picture of our surrogate’s baby bump, which is now a full on pregnancy stomach and not such a “bump” anymore. Everything is great, healthy baby and healthy surrogate; this is all we can ask for. The ultra sound pictures still don’t look like anything recognizable when you look at them, but with imagination we both see our little baby boy and all his characteristics we picture his hair, eyes, and can actually start imagining what his personality will be.  We are on the last stages of pregnancy soon, and will moving towards the third and final trimester, where does the time go?

One final thing I wanted to share with everyone is that we have named our little guy, the process with picking a name for him was quite easy for us, once we found out we were having a boy it was almost an instant decision between Daniel and I what we would name him, a name that means something personally to us and our family and with pride I can now tell everyone our baby’s name is Layton…




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22 Weeks.....

We are at the 22 week mark with our pregnancy, I can’t believe that time is flying by as fast as it is. We thought the weeks would drag along at a snail’s pace, but it is the total opposite for us, as the days are going by so fast we can’t seem to figure out where these last few months have gone….

Although the time is going by fast we are getting stuff done in preparation for our little one’s arrival. Daniel has finished painting the nursery (re-painting), and the crib we ordered was delivered last night. It will be exciting to finally start setting up the nursery and this is part of the process we have been looking forward to for some time and it feels everything is coming together finally.

Our friends have been gracious enough to throw us a baby shower next weekend, we are excited for the opportunity to see all of our friends and families and actually have a day set aside to celebrate the journey we have been on so far.  This has touched not Daniel and I but everyone close to us have had a part to play in the emotional roller-coaster of this surrogacy so far and getting together and celebrating is exactly what we all need right now!

What a difference a day makes.......

It’s been a few weeks since my last update and because things have been going along quite smoothly we really haven’t had any updates to share.  We have been getting the baby room in order and with over 70 hours worth of painting we are almost done! Or so we thought…

This week was our planned 20-week ultra sound, and these days are always mixed with excitement and anticipation. We know we are at the mercy of a hospital many thousands of miles away and the waiting is usually unbearable for us on these days.

We waited on Monday and to our disappointment they were not able to do the ultra sound since the doctor was called into an emergency and didn’t get out of the operating room until quite late. This was all right since we understand that there are emergencies that come up and they promised they would have our ultra sound completed first thing the next morning. The next morning came and went, and towards the end of the day we finally received word from the hospital. The email stated that all is well, and the baby was healthy along with the surrogate and perfectly normal for the 20-week mark. This was great news but the one final piece of information they shared with us is that they have confirmed through the ultra sound that we are now having a healthy baby BOY! The last ultra sounds was so early they had problems making out the baby parts and thought is looked like a girl…

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Yes we are both happy and thrilled that we are finally pregnant and so grateful everyday that this is happening to us, but the last ultrasound we were told we were having a girl and this is what we started planning for and it has thrown us for a bit of a loop.

Our lovely girls room that was so meticulously painted and planned out now has to be changed and updated for a little prince not the little princess we had originally thought. I know we will laugh at this one-day and although we have heard story after story about ultra sounds being wrong and don’t make too many plans until later in the pregnancy we couldn’t help ourselves.

The only thing we have during this pregnancy is out monthly email updates and our thoughts, feeling, and dreams, we have started imagining memories of our child and what they will be like and this is the hard thing to try and forget about or alter. We know in a couple days we will get excited again and start planning and dreaming of our little boy and the shock in our system will become a distance memory of a little bump in the road.

Mistakes happen, nothing is guaranteed, and until we have that little bundle in our arms we wont feel safe and relieved. This process, although is going relatively smoothly, has been nothing but stressful on the both of us. I don’t think anyone would really understand unless they have gone through it and I know it will make our family stronger and more appreciative everyday for the process we went through to have children.

We are over 20 weeks pregnant! That is the idea we are focusing on, half way mark and we are now on the last half of the pregnancy. We know it is not going to get any easier, more than likely it will get even more stressful with each week we are closer to the birth, but nothing comes easy in life and if you really want something the way we want this baby we will be able to handle anything that is thrown our way!!!!!!

Seventeen......

It’s now at the 17 week mark and things are starting to feel real, we know we’re pregnant, we know we are having a girl, and we know she is healthy! We know the birth will be here quicker than we know it!

Things are starting to take shape in the baby’s room; Daniel is painstakingly drawing out and painting two walls in the nursery, spending the amount of time and detail that I’m sure the artists took when painting the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel. It is going to be amazing once he is done.

Daniel’s family is already buying little baby girl outfits showing their excitement for their first grandchild, and all in all everyone is as happy as can be.

Our baby is developing quickly, her bones are developing, she can hold her head erect, and she is making facial movements. She is even starting to hear this week, which the only down side is that we are not there to speak to the surrogates tummy in hopes that our little girl can get accustomed to our voices. We are not complaining though, we know we are lucky to even be going through this process and although we are doing this at a distance we feel like two of the luckiest people in the world right now!

Two Dad's and a Little Girl....

09:21 am Saturday morning we finally received news from our latest ultra sound that took place yesterday and we are happy to announce that it looks like we are having a perfect little baby Girl!!! We are so excited for this news!!

The ultra sound was scheduled to take place yesterday mid morning and we received an update from Sindy stating that the ultra sound would be a little delayed since one of the doctors was called into an emergency delivery. To calm our anxiousness she sent us a few pictures of our surrogate’s baby bump which was a great surprise, since we really have had no contact at all with the surrogate and it was nice to see the person (or at least half of the person) that is carrying our little girl !

The rest of the day we waited by the email to get the ultra sound and soon the day became evening and the evening became morning…..We finally received the email early this morning and suddenly all was well with the world again. The excitement spread throughout our friends and family once the phone calls started happening and now everything seems so real. A baby girl!

It’s exciting to now think that we can finally paint the room and pick out some items knowing that they are for a girl. There will be pinks and purples in a house that is predominantly beige's and browns. A little color never hurt anyone anyhow……

Fifteen......

The past week has been an uneventful week for us, there haven’t been too many updates, except our surrogate has stopped feeling the effects of morning sickness, and has started to have the healthy pregnancy glow that people talk about. This of course was told to us by our doctor Sindy, although we are unable to see these small changes in person but continuing to learn about all updates through email.

The only other thing that happened this week was we had to make our first trimester payment to the hospital in Panama. We have mixed emotions about this since it is a huge amount of money that we have to part with, but it does mean that we are one step (or trimester) closer to having our baby home with us safe and sound….

We follow the progress of our baby day by day by means of a book we have been given by a friend, as well as an IPhone app that I downloaded onto my phone (Baby Pregnancy Tracker); this to us is the only form of visually seeing the advancement of our baby and what is happening on a daily basis. Today marks 15 weeks 2 days, our baby is making lots of movements now, also can move and bend its arms. Our baby is actually making hiccup sounds; they learn this even before they start to breath. Our little baby is growing quickly now, and it is the size of an apple! Imagine that, just not too long ago our baby was the size of a sesame seed.

Next week both Daniel and I will be on pins and needles, this will be the 16^th week ultra sound on Friday and our Doctors say they will probably be able to tell us the gender of our little one. This is where the fun and excitement starts; painting the nursery, picking out decorations, narrowing down our list of names, and finally knowing a lot more about what our baby will be and imagining our lives with our little son or daughter…..

Fourteen......

Week 14 already and we are already in March, soon it will be spring and the anxiousness of going down to Panama for the birth of our baby will be all we can think of!

This past week has been exciting for both Daniel and I, we are feeling more and more confident of being able to start getting things done in preparation for our new one!

We moved out all the furniture in our soon to be nursery and have started looking at colors and patterns we want to put on the walls, all of this of course will be decided on March 16^th when we learn the gender of the baby.

We also had our first shopping experience at the local Babies R Us store…fortunately we had the assistance of some good friends of ours that walked us through the pros and cons of several hundred baby items, and within three hours (yes three hours!) we were able to choose the most kick ass stroller that would make any new parent proud! So proud in fact that we have the stroller sitting up in our bonus room displayed next to our flat panel television like it was a work of art that should be admired at every opportunity.

Our baby is the size of a lemon this week, so small still but has grown so much in the last few weeks. With each week that passes the size will start growing at a faster pace, this is the most important part of the pregnancy. This week also our baby starts practicing to inhale and exhale. It can grasp, squint, frown, and grimace. Pretty soon will be moving and twitching on its own and this is when the surrogate should start feeling all of these movements. This is one part of our process that we will miss, and are envious of other parents that can experience the baby kicking and moving. For us it’s a sacrifice we knew that we would have to make in order to have a baby of our own, and once we hold it for the first time in our arms we won’t feel like we missed a thing!