April G/L chatty preggo/parents thread

[2moms2b]

Patty-

We can take this "offline" if you want to a private conversation... but I would love it if you could share the information about your Texas adoption. (I guess you have said where the adoption would take place before, but my brain just substituted Florida, I guess.)

Kathy and I didn't do a lot of checking into it before Olivia was born and have called Lambda Legal since, but all we really got from them was a list of lawyers to use.

Dawn

[2moms2be]

We still have our house in Austin (hopefully not much longer). We used a WONDERFUL lawyer that ONLY does gay and lesbian adoptions(that is all she does). I would be happy to give you her name. She has clients all over TX. The other two couples that were there were from Dallas. If you live outside of Travis county she takes you to San Antonio, because there are many judges there that do it. In Dallas there are judges too, but the way the system is you cannot tell what judge will get the case.

PM me if you want more info.

[2moms2b]

I would love to have her name!

Do you mind revealing the total cost for the adoption?

Dawn

[LauraH]

Patty - What a great picture!

I've been to probate three times now for the adoption paperwork. The woman I have to deal with there is SUCH an idiot! I walked in and told her I was there for the paperwork for a second parent adoption.. So, she says "A step parent adoption." I said "No, it's called a second parent adoption. My partner and I have a Civil Union and she just gave birth." Blank stare. "So you want paperwork for step parent adoption?" Apparently she just couldn't get her head around it. She said they had no such thing. I had to tell her that they do, in fact, have the paperwork because it is CT law. Finally she found it and we went over how to fill it out.
I brought it back the next day with a few questions. She didn't remember me so we had to start from scratch. Seriously, if you had never encountered a same sex adoption before wouldn't you remember the lesbian from the day before?? This is not a big town.
Get this - she looks at what I had filled out and points to the "father" line, which was blank. "Where's the father?" She says. I said "There is no father" She says "What, is he dead?" I said no, she says "How can there be no father? (Clearly this woman is clueless!!) Then she was trying to get me to fill in the paperwork as if I had given birth and Carolyn was adopting
After all that, I filled out all of the forms with her walking me through it but I had to bring it home for Carolyn to sign one spot that she hadn't before. Carolyn stopped in to Probate on the way to work the other day and the stupid woman told her that I had filled it in ALL WRONG! I could freeking kill her except I feel like I have to be nice to her or she'll give us a hard time. AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
So, DP brought home a fresh set of paperwork for us to fill in, from scratch. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

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[2moms2be]

OMG Laura!!! How aggrivating!!!!

Dawn- We paid $4000 for the two of them and then paid $500 for the homestudy. Other then that it ws just travel expenses.

Ill pm you her info.

[swell22]

Hey Girls!

Sorry I have been mia for so long. I have been occasionally lurking around, but have just been so busy and tired (and sick) that I haven't felt like doing much. Finally, I am feeling better, but am now freaking out. My mom all of a sudden wants to have a shower for us (fine, no problems there), but the only time that she can do it before the baby is born is at the end of May! yikes! First, I feel like this is a little early (I am due mid September), but if that's the only time that works, then fine. I am just really overwhelmed with the stuff! Now, I am faced with having to do the registry in the next month. I just have no idea where to start. I have a few friends who are also pregnant right now, so I have been stalking their registries, but so much of the stuff I can't even really tell what it is online. I think we are going to go wander baby stores/sections this weekend, but I'm just overwhelmed by stuff!!!! My brother just moved out of what is going to be the baby's room and all his stuff isn't gone yet and we have so much stuff we have to do before we can even think about bringing home baby things. We have to clean that room out and move everything to its new home. ERGH! I just want to close my eyes and make everything *poof* appear. I never would have thought that the "fun" part of pregnancy is the part that is stressing me out the most!!!!!

[LauraH]

Suellen, we had a super early shower too. Caleb was born in Feb but the only time DP's family would all be together was October! We felt like we had no idea what to register for.
If you register at Babies R Us they have a guide of suggestions that is pretty helpful. Of course, they want you to buy everything so take it with a grain of salt, but it's a good guide. You can change the registry any time you want so there isn't really pressure to put everything on it right away. Besides, you'll most likely get gift cards or you can return stuff and get what you really need.
I was really stressed out about where everything was going to fit, too. You can just stick it in what will be the nursery until you sort it all out. That's what nesting is all about
Go baby shopping this weekend & have FUN!



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[robin7361]

hi everyone! i was lured over here by LauraH.

I'm pretty newly pg. had a scare yesterday when i saw BLOOD when i wiped. had an ultrasound and it all looks good, though. saw the flickering heartbeat! whee! i'm just taking it easy, but it seems to be gone for now. my only early symptoms are exhaustion and sore breasts. crossing my fingers that nausea doesn't kick in. they say if it will, it most likely already would have. but watch me be one of those late bloomers. heh.

anyway, hi all. looking forward to reading and posting here!

[bamamoms]

Hello ladies, this is so much easier on a laptop than my blackberry. I am so glad to see everyone is doing well and we have new people on the board. So, my boys are really, really on the move. My daughter was completely different than these two guys. Once she started crawling you could walk away and know that she would likely be close to the same spot when you came back. My boys go fast in opposite directions. One tried to escape out the cat door last week but thankfully his head would not fit. I can't get over the fact there are two. My DP and I look at each other at least daily and say how did we end up with two? No drugs, sperm in a rubbermaid cup, driven one way 15 minutes, inseminated with a medicine syringe, WOW! And now they move around and look at us. One looking like her one like me.COOL! anyway, I hope everyone is well (or at least getting through).

[Care75]

Patty- congrats on the adoption. Do you in Texas have to go back in 6 months to finalize? That's the way it works here.

Laura- OMG. I would be so pi$$ed! That lady is absolutely ridiculous!

Swell- An early shower isn't such a bad thing. We had ours at 34 weeks with twins, and it felt too late!! Our first trip to BRU I was soooo overwhelmed. We only registered for like 2 things! We ultimately went back when I felt more prepared. The great thing is that you can go online and make changes which we did A LOT! My other tip is don't register for any clothes besides the basics like onesies etc. You will get soooo many clothes!!

Bama- How great is that that you guys got your boys without having to go through all of the IVF, IUIs, etc.? I can't imagine when mine start to crawl. I'm thinking we'll just have to put a playyard all around our living room!

Robin- I also had bleeding early in my pregnancy. At 5 weeks 5 days I saw blood and thought it was over. Luckily it wasn't and we saw our twins on u/s at the next visit. Bleeding early is pretty common actually. Was it brown blood? If so, this is old blood and nothing to worry about at all. It's also a good sign that you saw the heartbeat! We had that incident and then a very small amount of bleeding at 14 weeks. However, every time I went to the bathroom the whole pregnancy, I always worried about wiping! Good luck! We're glad you're here. I had hardly any morning sickness either- just a bit of nausea if I was hungry so I just ate all the time my first trimester!

We're hanging in there. Harper's last diareha was on Monday morning and yesterday she had her first real poop. I was so proud that we called Mommy Susan at work to tell her!

[2moms2be]

Nope, we are done it is final! We got the papers to prove it... Im so happy Harper is doing better!!!


Robin- Im glad everything is ok.Seeing the heartbeat is a major milestone!

Bama- The cat door!!! OH GOD!! I have read that boys are movers and girls are talkers...Your experience seems to confirm that!

[joanna]

Congratulations Patty! That is so exciting. We still haven't done our second parent adoption, although we did do the consultation with an attorney. We had to wait on the tax return to pay the retainer and now we're kinda holding onto the money in case more expenses for Sandy's dad come up. I can't wait to get the new birth certificate though.

Robin- Glad you got to see the heartbeat. That's so reassuring.

Suellen- I think an early shower is kinda nice. I wished we could have had ours earlier. We had to wait to figure out what we would have to buy and it seemed so frenzied afterwards. I agree with Carrie, don't register for clothes. You'll probably get more than you know what to do with. Seems like that's what everyone wants to buy.

Laura- That woman sounds like a "peach". I would have to try really hard to not reach over and slap her.

[A Squared]

Robin, and I'm glad you decided to visit over here. Tell us more about the process you went through to get pregnant and how long it took.

Laura, I hope we can avoid that ridiculous woman. She sounds like an idiot.

I just found out that California Cryobank limits the number of families to about 10 when you use an open donor (as was our donor). There are a total of 6 families (including us) so far and apparently, the donor didn't donate for too long, so there should be a relatively small number of other families with kids by him. I am breathing a sigh of relief. The thought of 30 (or more?) other kids was a bit overwhelming. So far the other women who got pregnant by him are great and I've learned that our kids share a sensitive temperament. I've also learned a little bit of health info that might be useful to know. I'm really glad to be in contact with them.

Lachlan and Áine both learned how to kick a toy to get it to make a noise. It was SO CUTE to see them making the connection between their foot kicking the toy and the noise it made. I think that's what I love about parenthood the most so far--that, and the smiles.

[Care75]

A- I think it's great you are forging a good relationship with the twins bio siblings. Part of me really wishes that we could find out more.

We turned Jackson's bouncer on the kick option the other day and he freaked out!! He obviously didn't understand the relationship because he'd start kicking because he was upset and that pi$$ed him of more! I can't wait for them to make more connections. They are starting to play the faces game with me and imitate my faces. It is too cute. Jackson can also hold his head up for quite a while on his own. Harper not so much! She still has the jello neck!

I forgot to mention their weights the other day. Jackson was 8 lbs. 12 oz. and Harper was 8 lbs. 13 oz. We also made it 6 hours between feedings in the middle of the night two nights in a row! I actually had to throw away the breast milk we had sitting out for them because it had been too long!! Harper also made it for two 2 hour stretches in the crib with Jackson last night. I'm thinking of trying putting her in the carseat in the other crib. My friend with twins said it helped hers to feel secure and ultimately sleep through the night. Harper will nap well in the Boppy, but I definitely don't want her sleeping in it overnight when I'm not supervising. I think she likes the feeling of being close and secure like in the womb.

[WannaBMom74]

welcome Robin !

Care- congrats on making it 6 hours inbetween feedings Katie used to like to sleep in her carseat to and she likes to take naps on her boppy

Katie is actually doing good she usually will have a bottle at 9:30 -10:00 pm and then we put her in her crib and she sleeps till about 5:30- 6 am we have a little routine we put her in her crib give her a paci and turn on her little light and sound show that shows lights on the ceiling and plays nature sounds and she goes right to sleep I don't want to jinx it by saying it but she is really good about bed time . she is smiling and even does this real little short giggle thing once in awhile. also she used to hate tummy time I called it torture time but finally yesterday she was doing really well with it and we even got a smile out of her. she is so amazing to watch learn new things. she also finally is starting to pay attention to her toys swatting at them and she will hold them if i put it in her hand.

[ibcheryl]

Hi,
I do not know if you all remember me. I have been here on and off with multiple miscarriages and so many TTC attempts including I think 18 IUIs and IVF. We did embryo donor on 3/21 and are pregnant with triplets. We are shocked, needless to say......

[robin7361]

hi cheryl--i remember you from the ttc board. congrats on your trips!

alita (and all): my process to get here was fairly easy and we consider ourselves SO lucky. my wife and i (married in massachusetts in may, but living in PA) have known we wanted kids for a while and our plan was to start trying in may '08. we found ourselves ready a little sooner, though, so we went in search of an RE in december.

we found one who was recommended and he was TERRIBLE. he wanted to treat us as infertile even though there is no reason to have believed i was. i have never been pg, but have also never tried. i have regular periods, etc. he also told me to lose 40lbs and come back and see him in three months and then MAYBE he would inseminate me then. (bear in mind that i have just lost 120lbs in a year and a half.)

needless to say, we didn't see him again and found another, much more reasonable doctor. we love the practice, the staff, and everyone there. this doc wanted to do an hsg so we didn't waste money on specimens if there was a simple issue, so after i had my gallbladder out in january (unrelated to ttc) we did the hsg (clear.) we did our first insem in february. we timed it with an opk and blood/ultrasound. bfn.

we did our second iui in march, this time with an hcg trigger and got a bfp on 13dpiui! so far, so good (knock wood.) as i mentioned, i had a blood scare a few days ago, but it was short-lived and we saw the heartbeat the next day. i continue to have what feels like light mentrual cramps and occasional pulling/tugging cramps, which i hope are normal. i have the complete and utter exhaustion typical of early pregnancy, but no nausea so far.

so, that's our story. oh--also, just fyi, we used anonymous donor sperm (from cryobiology inc.) with previous reported pregnancies for our second try. our first donor did not have reported pregnancies. who knows. we only used one vial the second time (because they said the motility was high enough.)

[bamamoms]

Robin I too had a bleeding scare. I went in for an ultrasound and that is when they found baby b. They said it was late implantation coupled with a small polyp on my cervix. They burned the polyp and I had no spotting after that a,d delivered 2 healthy boys.

Care we were extremely lucky getting pregnant. It took my five years to get pregnant with my dd. We did 8 cycles with my dp's brother as donor. Oddly, I had a dream the week after we insemed and told dp. I shouldn't be surprised my sister has a set of spontaneous twin boys also. Needless to say god blessed us!

[LauraH]

Cheryl - TRIPS! Holy Moses! congratulations!

Robin - are you sure there was only one heartbeat? I ask because evey person I have seen post about bleeding in early pregnancy went in to find out she was having twins!! Also wanted to tell you that my DP was exhausted in early pregnancy (and a few other times along the way) but she never had the nausea. You could luck out too


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[A Squared]

Cheryl, Welcome back! I always wondered what happened to you since you seemed to just disappear. Congrats on the triplets! And HOLY COW! That must be exciting and intimidating! There are lots of us with twins around here so at least you can get some multiples advice.

Robyn, It's great to hear about someone who had an easy time conceiving. We don't hear those stories enough around here. I'm glad your second donor worked. Maybe it was his super sperm. I hope you stop bleeding b/c it must be scary to see blood.

We had family portraits taken yesterday. My DP had a photographer friend come by and take some pictures using a large format camera (negatives that are 4x5 inches) from the 1940's. I hope the pictures come out ok. It took about 5 minutes per picture just because it took so long to load the film and such. We then went to a friend's for dinner. It was the first time we brought the twins over and the first time we've been there since late December. It was nice to get out again and to feel like a moderately normal person.