Your pregnancy: 30 weeks

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

We are officially 3/4 of the way through the pregnancy! Yay for another big milestone week!! We had a busy day yesterday, starting with meeting at the courthouse a little before 9:00 and having our PBO hearing. Everything went really well. It was very informal and the judge mainly listened while L&N's attorney asked us questions about the surrogacy and IVF, etc. It went quickly and was "painless". We then stopped for at the clerk's desk for certified copies and we each got one and that was that! We parted ways and I headed home and relaxed for a couple hours. On the way home, I stopped for some groceries, gas, stopped at the bank and the post office!

At home I napped a little, played some on the computer and worked on my recipe book and baked some banana muffins! I loved the recipe I tried out last week, but as I look through my giant book of recipes I realize just how many I haven't tried out yet, I will never in my lifetime be able to try even half of them! It's fun to try though. :)

A little after 3:00 I headed to meet L and her daughter "A" at the OB's office. They made us wait about an HOUR past our appointment time... ugh...!! They are so hit and miss! I felt bad for L - that is a long time to ask a 3 year old to sit and entertain herself in a waiting room, but "A" did great!

We finally got taken back, no protein in my urine, no weight gain (according to their scale) since my last appointment 3 weeks ago, and my BP is 100/50 which the midwife was very happy with. We listened to Baby "S" on the doppler and heard her beautiful strong heartbeat, such a great sound. "A" didn't seem to know quite what to think of that! :) The midwife measured my belly and I'm measuring 31 weeks now, so Miss "S" continues to grow beautifully! She said I'm carrying low and she's head down, both of which I have felt frequently - every now and then she head butts my cervix I think - so I can tell she's low, and just based on her movements she's felt head down which is fantastic! She just needs to stay that way! :)

We requested to have an ultrasound done at their office instead of at the Maternal Fetal Diagnostic Center which we had scheduled for October 14th. If we do it at the OB's office instead, "A" can come too and get to see her baby sister on the screen which will be neat!! It will be great to get measurements too, since we haven't had that since 20 weeks - she was measuring perfectly, a little ahead, then and everything has indicated she continues to grow and develop beautifully but I know it will be reassuring to see via ultrasound and get an idea of how big she's grown and about how much she weighs!

We're already throwing guesstimates for when she'll arrive! Right now I have a mid to late in the 38th week feeling for some reason. I think she'll be bigger than Fiona's 6lbs 12oz at 39w2d too.

Can't wait for the next month to fly by! "L" was saying its gone fast but now she's afraid its going to feel like time is just slowing down - I think the next month will go quickly too though and we'll be in October and planning for Halloween in no time!

I filled out the hospital pre-registration information yesterday and am sending that in today, and am going to get the paperwork I need from the OB's office to fill out my Leave Request and go ahead and contact my short term disability company to get that started as well. It's exciting to be handling some of these details already and know its really TIME to be thinking about all of this!! In about another 4-6 weeks I'll get my hospital bag packed up, though it takes a lot of pressure off knowing Kenneth will be here this time. I know he'll be a HUGE help in getting everything coordinated when it comes time to actually go to the hospital and all that entails.

We talked yesterday with the attorney about "L" and I setting up a meeting with the Hospital Administrator and asking some of our questions and making sure they are all aware of our situation and have the paperwork they need on file. "L" would like to find out if they can get their own room, since they're local and will have a lot of family wanting to stop by which is a great idea and I really hope the hospital will be able to accomodate and hopefully we can room near each other so I can stop in and see them while I'm there too! It would be nice to be able to get some uninterrupted sleep while there (aside from them coming in every few hours for vitals!!) and also have the privacy to share with my family when they're visiting as well. :)

I am excited to think about and plan for delivery and just hope everything continues to go as well as it has been as we edge closer to November!