The week, so far, has been long for me. The guys and the babies have been home for three days now. It's a bit odd to not have everyone just a short drive away. On Tuesday I found myself with a few spare hours to kill around my 6 week follow up appointment and my initial thought was to go visit the babies. Reality quickly took over as I realized they are no longer in their apartment or in the hospital.
At my last OB visit for this pregnancy, I'm pleased to say that my doctor has confirmed that I am healing quite nicely from the births. She talked with me a bit about future pregnancies and what they would look like. It sounds like any future pregnancies will require some form of progesterone weekly from the 16 week mark, a bit of early checking for dilation and/or effacement, and I'm probably looking at a c-section. She is recommending that I don't intentionally carry twins again and has given me the green light for another pregnancy. Yeah!
This does not mean I have contacted the agency already with a request of them to match me again. Obviously, my body is still trying to fully recover from the bedrest and surgery. I'd like to think that I'm bouncing back pretty well, overall. I've lost all of the baby weight. I'm working on toning and getting my energy back. I'm still tired at the end of the day and really enjoy any naps I can sneak in.
Shawn is supportive of me being a surrogate again. It was a good experience for our family and he knows how much it meant to me to be able to help make a family for another. Obviously, he wants to make sure I am healthy before we go again, but he has agreed with me that in time we will try again.
So, that's good news. Health is always good.
Tuesday afternoon I met the Attorney at the Capitol again. This time our agenda was to meet with a few Senators and Representatives and talk with them for a few minutes about the potential bills.
Here's what I've surmised about the political system in the U.S.: it's a pain in the keester. This week both the senate and house are in full session. In theory, all of the bills that made it through different committees should be making their way to the floors to be voted on. Should they pass those votes, then they go to the govenor. Right now, our bills aren't exactly headed to the floors. They are stalled as the authors and the lobbyists are trying to see if they can either a) tack our bill on to another bill and then the floors can just make a big vote on similar bills all packaged together, or b) send just the small bills to the floors and have them vote on those.
I'm kind of disappointed that there is a major potential to just send the small bills to the floors. To refresh your memory, the small bill is just the intent of parentage part. Any individual with the intent of parentage may appear in court, regardless of their genetic ties.
Don't get me wrong, I think this is an important thing to have pass. However, this still does nothing to help the surrogate during the court process. Other surrogates will have to appear in court and give up their parental rights when they aren't the parents in the first place. And it doesn't fix the egg and embryo part of the law, either.
Back to Tuesday. We met the lobbyist and talked about our game plan for the day. She gave us a list of individuals we should try to talk with and see where they are on the bills. She gave us a list of 4 senators and 3 representatives from both parties. I'm happy to report that the Attorney and I talked with each of the people she recommended and a couple more. All but one heartily said that yes, they will back this bill. One requested additional information to fully understand it, and the one who didn't say he could completely back it said that he'd be interested in reading about it if we would send him the information. It wasn't a no, but it wasn't a yes, either.
I really enjoyed myself on Tuesday. I don't think that everyone believed it when the attorney told them I had twins six weeks ago. I had a couple people glance at me with a look that said "yeah, right." Of course, I would then pull up a pic of the boys from last week and that seemed to help their disbelief. I was able to tell my story several times and we would explain why this bill ment so much to me. They could see for themselves that I'm not what they may have heard about a steriotypical surrogate.
I'm still praying this bill will pass all the way to the Govenor's desk. I'd love to see the WHOLE bill pass, but I'm realistic enough to know that probably isn't going to happen.
After a very busy Monday and Tuesday, Annalies and I mostly stayed home Wednesday. Which was great because I went back to work today! I was planning on going back next Monday, but when I picked up Annalies on Tuesday after I was done at the Capitol the director talked with me about filling in for a couple of staff people today and tomorrow. Ah, yes. She caught me in a moment of weakness when I was tired. Of course I said yes.
Today was busy. They had me in the Infant 2 room. These are babies who are being spoon fed baby foods and are somewhere between independent sitter and almost walking. They still need a lot of help, but definitely not as much as a newborn or those in Infant 1.
I'm able to do most of what I need to do to function in this classroom, but as I still have a weight restriction and anxiety when lifting from the floor, I mostly figured out various work arounds. Thankfully there was another adult in the room with me and the 7 babies, so she was able to pick them up from the floor for me. Once they were anywhere but the floor, I was good to go. I'm back again tomorrow in the same room, so we will see how day #2 goes!
Like I said, it's been a long week for me. I find myself catching little things that remind me of Brady and Cohen or Brad and Rodney. A few things have been: last night I stumbled across Rocco's Pizza about 2 miles away; Natalie was reading a story about "Nate's inner tube"; while at the Capitol I happen to notice one of the senators had his necktie knotted in a half Windsor knot; another baby wearing the red and white striped outfit. Like I said, they aren't big things, just little things I notice as I'm going along with my days.
I promise I'm not as sappy as I was a few days ago. I get that I still am dealing with hormones and emotions. It's just nice to run across small reminders that make me smile.
It is time for me to wrap this up. It's pumping time and then bed for this lady. I try to get in one pumping session before bed and then I have been sleeping about 5-6 hours before I need to get up again.
Oh, I should share a quick funny kid-ism. Natalie, my six year old, says that I pump from my "milk holders." Annalies, my almost three-year-old says that I use my pumpers to get the milk. (And yes, both of them have been told technical names for body parts, but both seem to have adopted their own slang!)
Good night, world. Take care of the small miracles.
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