Surrogacy update: 18 weeks and counting...
Hello all!!
I know that you all have been waiting for an update and I thank you for your patience. We are currently 18 weeks—almost halfway thru! The biggest update that we learned is that: IT’S A GIRL!! My IPs are really excited about it. They let me find out the gender and do a reveal, so I gave the pink and blue goody bags and confetti poppers! They were able to do the reveal over zoom with their friends and family and I am so excited I got to do that for them. I have been feeling very tired, but luckily the nausea has subsided.
I am still with the MFMs (Maternal Fetal Medicine) OBs at GW due to my blood pressure. At my last appointment I took my blood pressure cuff that they sent me (not that horrible wrist cuff) and compared it to their readings to make sure mine was reading was correctly. It was, so that was a relief. However, it was still reading high, but now we know that it only reads high at the doctor, as it is normal at home. They call this white coat syndrome. I find it weird since I work in hospitals and with doctors all the time! My doctor isn’t quite ready to call me “high risk” and she hasn’t put me on any medication, mostly because I have been doing everything to keep my blood pressure down and it’s not elevated all the time. I do acupressure, chiropractic care, I get in home prenatal massages and I drink tons of water and watch what I eat.
Another thing that we talked about is the new COVID-19 study on pregnant women. At first, doctors didn’t know the effects COVID-19 had on pregnant women, however, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a new study that shows that pregnant woman have a 70% higher risk of experiencing severe illness or death if they contract COVID-19!! This is very alarming and scary, but I remain following universal precautions and social distancing. This also includes not working in the hospitals. I will continue to teach classes and do virtual births when needed.