It's not all smiles and fairies frolicking amongst the flowers!

Well here I am finally in my third trimester, 28 weeks 3 days along; just over 10 weeks until we meet Squirt! That dosn't sound very far off and it's not but for some reason I've now flipped the switch from "this pregnancy is zooming by" to "argh the days are dragging slowly by"....that's probably because I feel like I have to drag myself everywhere and I just feel so lazy and heavy now, it dosn't help that my iron levels have come back low too so dozing off on the couch at 7pm (nana-alert!) is becoming a norm! After that it's all over rover and I'm acting like an over-tired, cranky, fidgety, tantrum fuelled toddler that's in desperate need of some time out!

It's about this time when the hard effort of growing an entire human being really begins to feel like an effort! A lot of people think that because this surrogacy journey is a beautiful, selfless and an amazingly generous thing to do for someone it makes me full of happy hormones and a smile that sits on my face 24/7 but trust me people, behind closed doors there is alot of frustration sometimes (just like any other pregnant household) and yes there has been plenty of petty arguments over really stupid stuff. At the end of the day it is an emotionally charged situation and when you have four people expecting one baby between them sometimes head's do butt! Yes 95% of the time it is happy happy joy joy and things run along smoothly but for anyone that ever intends to enter this experience for themselves, they have got to be realistic that it does test all sorts of relationships, in a way it's a good thing but it does get tiring from time to time!
I am feeling an ever increasing need to morph into an octopus sometimes; just to keep everyone happy and content with appointment times, schedules, home-life (juggling a toddler and husband), trying to keep Squirts real mum and dad (Sara and Lance) as involved as possible and then I feel like I also need an extra arm for myself, I forget to focus on myself and yes sometimes I have very selfish moments when I expect everyone to focus on me and I think nothing else should matter but the needs of the pregnant lady (I'm just being honest! lol) but the reality is the world does not revolve around me and  I will just do my relaxing once Squirt is born because that's when I can try and focus more on just myself... after 39 weeks of growing a human for someone else I do deserve some "me time", after all I won't be the one waking up every 2-3 hours from that newborn cry that seems to feel like a jack hammer on the brain at 3am while you shove match sticks between your lids trying to fight off sleep deprivation hehehehe so getting that relaxation should hopefully be easier to accomplish....and then my toddler walks into the room LOL....

Yes it feels like all I've done is moan and groan with this blog post about how exhausted I am but we're all entitled to have a little venting session from time to time and this is mine....just a really public venting session (lol) but that's what I signed up for when I said I would share every aspect of this journey!

On a more happier note Squirt has managed to creep his Uncle Terry out which was a funny thing to witness! You can actually feel the outline of Squirts little feet up around my ribs when he brushes them past and pushes them out and Terry felt the perfect little heel push into the palm of his hand, he jumped back and said he would never ever want to feel a human inside of him and I swear I saw him shudder with creepiness lol

Anyways I'll leave you all with my latest belly pic and will catch up with you all next week, no hormonal moaning I promise!

28 weeks along, hello 3rd trimester!

dizzy in space and bored in the desert.

Over a weeks span I have managed to travel to infinity and beyond and back down to earth to cross the sahara desert, okay you're probably thinking what the hell is she talking about!?
Well I'll start off with my travel to space, this involved doing my GTT (glucose tolerance test), I ended up doing it bang on 27 weeks, I was absolutely dreading it, I did not have a good reaction with my first one done with Hunter's pregnancy so was not wanting to do this at all but I knew it had to be done. So it was an early rising for both me and Hunter which in turn made him a very grumpy boy; a great start to the day! and off we headed to the testing lab to get it over and done with, I chugged back the flat tasting lemonade which wasn't too nice as I don't like fizzy drinks and surprisingly they let me leave for the hour needed for the goodness to kick into my blood stream, I was quite surprised they let me leave as they knew of my poor response to the test but it was better to lie on the couch at home than to sit in a waiting room on a squeaky hard chair....I was lucky enough to have Terry stay with me incase I fainted and sure enough within 20 minutes I was floating off into space, the room started spinning stars and I let out a few harsh words about how much I hated the test...to cut a long story short I ended up being sick and dizzy the rest of the day and it was no easy feat also trying to juggle the needs and entertainment of a 16 month old toddler and endure the heat of our kiwi summer on the brink of my third trimester but I mustered up my strength and got on with it....

My next pit stop in my adventures was to the Sahara Desert, this was 3 days later at 27 weeks 3 days along,   I had my latest obstetrician appointment and was meeting one of the other obstetricians in the practice to get acquainted with him should it arise that my ob wouldn't be available during the birth....well lets just say I have more success of squeezing conversation and a smile out of my pet rock that lives in the backyard. I'm sure he's a remarkable doctor when it comes down to the birth side of babies but I couldn't help coming out of the appointment feeling like I had just dragged myself over a desert, his personality was so dry I instantly felt in desperate need of water and a chap stick! I can't wait to see my beloved Dereck again and crack some terrible jokes and not feel the need to act "normal" lol
But the positive points of the appointment is Squirt is doing well, he's measuring just over 28 weeks ahead, so levelling out to a week ahead in growth and is estimated to be about 2lb 14oz's which puts him in the 75th percentile for size, so far he's living up to the big Smith baby tradition! Yes, it is times like these that make me immensely pleased that this baby is coming out of the sun roof and not the exhaust pipe! He's also turned head down which I had a sneaking suspicion he had done a few days ago as I woke up with that "stretched out" feeling all over my belly and every now and then I have a foot getting cosy in my ribs!

I'm really loving this stage of pregnancy even if I am suffering in this incredible heat and humidity, It's so amazing being able to distinguish arms and legs, the brush of feet and hands across your front and that weird feeling when he rears his bum up and my belly becomes obviously lopsided!
You can be promised of a movement frenzy when you finish meals and this is what I usually have to look forward to after every meal, on this particular day Squirt decided to be a bit more kind with the strength of his kicks and punches but it's still cool looking at the movement!

So this afternoon had a bit of excitement added into it, we had a 4D scan and got some super cute facial shots, I'm absolutely convinced he looks like a mini Murray (Squirt's Grandad) and Sara is convinced Squirt looks like a mini Lance, well all in all he looks like a mini Smith! lol

Taking a glimpse into Squirt's world is always so special and here are some special photo's to share with you all....

1st photo - smiles!
2nd photo - eyes open!
3rd photo - Squirt's foot!
4th photo - cutie pie!

Waddling in the surf, sun and sand!

Is it really January 7th already!? okay that holiday only felt like two days long instead of two weeks! But what a blast it was!
So where did I go? well for the majority of the holiday we went down to Waihi Beach, which is a little beach town about two hours drive from Auckland, it's extremely beautiful ....and extremely hot! I ticked onto 26 weeks pregnant down there and I certainly felt it with each waddle I took in the sun, I went through an entire can of sunblock and was thankful I packed my maternity togs (which I changed into awkwardly in a sun shelter while Terry held a towel up in front, and I still managed to moon a few people much to Terry's amusement lol) but the surf was a nice respite from that heat and on one particular morning I spent a good hour splashing around in the water and waves, Squirt seemed to sense where he was and happily bounced around too, it really wouldn't surprise me if he was a natural water baby as his daddy was a rower for many years and spent countless hours in the water.

25 weeks pregnant, at Waihi Beach

We spent the week down there with my sister Sara, her hubby Lance and little Miss Holly and friends of ours Hayley and Nick and their son Jack who is only a week younger than my Hunter.

The holiday gang building a water pit for the kiddies

We shared a lot of laughs and it was great spending time with everyone and the kids loved it all too, I also will admit I had a few uncontrollable hormonal outbursts and a few grumpy moments so I must say thanks to everyone for enduring the pregnantzilla!!

We all became a bit addicted to the Flip n' Bear pancake den. OH.MY.GOODNESS! That was pure delight on a plate, I swear Squirt probably piled on about 5 pounds of pancake fat; me about 5kg of pancake fat and the rest of the holiday gang each grew a food baby out the front of them lol
My mouth is drooling at the thought of those pancakes, they will be sorely missed and yes I shed a little tear leaving that place!

.....So 26 weeks you say, yup that's right 26 weeks 3 days along now; can you believe there is only 12 and a bit more weeks before we meet this little dude! I'm increasingly becoming paranoid that Squirt may decide to make an earlier appearance, I'm looking forward to my pain-free "birth" after a horrific experience with Hunter's 23 hour labour and the drama's that followed it but knowing my luck I'll go into labour at 38 weeks or the day before my planned c-section, I'll have a good laugh about it, at first, then I'll swear about it once the pain kicks in ....maybe I might strike it lucky and have a couple of cramps and bam! baby pops out suddenly on the toilet ....yeah right; but dreams are free. But really Squirt, Aunty will really appreciate it if you didn't come earlier than planned!

It's been rather interesting comparing photo's of my pregnancy with Hunter and Squirt and how big I was week by week, I was quite smaller with Hunter at this stage, in fact I wasn't this size until I was 30+ weeks along with Hunter, so Squirt really will be a bigger baby as predicted or it's just my pre-used uterus being a big more "relaxed" lol

25w pregnant with Hunter and 30w pregnant with Hunter (the size i am now at 26w with Squirt)

In the next couple of days I have my GTT (glucose tolerance test) to get done, argh the most hated part of all things pregnancy related! As I've said in previous blog posts the last one I had while I was pregnant with Hunter didn't go down too well so I'm absolutely dreading the fainting spell I might have and feeling like I'm floating in space for the the rest of the day, wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it....I'm confident I'll tell a rather entertaining update about that next week!