She is OURS

Did I REALLY last post when she was 5 months? SO much has happened in the last four months but mostly..Well she is OURS FINALLY legit and British :)


Here is my OFFICIAL British daughter and her Daddy

and our annual Xmas lunch with the besties.

Here is my xmas reindeer babe with her xmas mama.

We are also hopefully moving to a beautiful house with lots more room for us and the princess (fingers x) Bella's is still under the allergy people at GOSH (luckily we see him at the portland) and the poor mite is allergic to everything and so far weaning is "carrot".. About to decorate for the holidays and looking forward to seeing all the sides of the family!

5 months

Our AMAZING little princess at 5 months. Pinching ourselves daily! <3

Naming Day

Its been so long but we have been so busy it is probably a no brainer that Im not really blogging anymore! But to update y'all. We are blissfully happy with Bella, she is so beloved and beautiful and we now feel our family is complete and so is our happiness. I honestly couldn't want more from life (other than to have less health issues) Her reflux "seems" to be improving on her medication and her Allergy again "seems" to be under control...

She is swimming many times a week at Granny's pool, our country club and now Aquatots classes.

We had the most wonderful sunny meaningful naming day on friday, with just Godparents and spouses and a few family members, B was very spoilt and loved and we all had a great day by the beach with a big lunch and then Pimms and cream tea and croquet by the pool at the in laws. Everyone bought a flower and a wish for B and we then cast the flowers into the water. I have a box of letters for B for when she grows up to read too :) here are a few piccies...

Hello again and thankyou for your patience will be back soon!

Its been a while!!! I am amazed that people are STILL checking on this blog despite me hardly posting...I have been so busy with a poorly Bella and a poorly elderly dog...I don't want to be a debbie downer so I will keep the negatives short...B has terrible reflux the poor thing is like a turtle she simply CANT be on her back. Between the reflux and the allergy she has been to the hospital 2x and presently has oral thrush, and an ear infection...and is on soooo many meds... 16 (yes 16 syringes a day right now) HAVING SAID THAT....She is smiling away and cooing and squealing and I don't think it will be long until she laughs. She is growing and growing, She is still loving baths and swimming and cuddling. Last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm and she slept through it all I actually had to check she was breathing! She loves her various seats she has about the house her mamaroo rocker in particular. Fathers day tomorrow and we have some sweet surprises for Daddy, its nice to be able to celebrate it again after losing my daddy in 2006. She loves being outside and staring at the leaves...We had out first trip to the beach where we are doing her very intimate naming ceremony. Mummy realised she REALLY needs to either get a spray tan or a sunbed! Mummy also needs to stop posting pics on the interweb with scraggy hair and no makeup ha ha!! Oh well this IS me, I will dress up for going out etc but at home and mooching about? Well it is what it is..

trying my mamaroo out at grannys house....

Tongue tied!!!

B had a lip AND tongue tie lasered off yesterday by a paed dentist, apparently it can hugely affect her feeding and make reflux worse! Also it was the most severe type and the Dr who did it is not trigger happy with his laser so she must of really needed it. I was lucky to find it as it should hopefully help. Right now though B is hating me!!! She was very sleepy after her vaccinations, but only cried for the "stingy one" the nurse said she was very brave.  The last few days have been a nightmare of screaming due to vaccination fever, sore mouth and hating the allergy milk!!! Poor thing....Im hoping its all for the best in the long run, cruel to be kind and all that. Just want to enjoy my babe :( Mind you she smiled a big REAL smile for the first time the other day which was LUSH. She loves lying on my left boob and gazing at me and smiling, super cute. Bella has gone to Granny's and Im going to SLEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPP and eat a box of waitrose cupcakes and have a long bubble bath, after chiro as my back and neck is in spasm from literally wrestling Bella to force feed (poor thing but she HAD to drink as its been quite hot) I think Daddy and I will get a takeaway curry or stuffed pizza tonight and have a snuggly sofa night...ooohhh bliss! Bella I miss you but mummy is BROKEN.

Havent posted in a while!!! 8 weeks :)

Because we are so blinkin busy!!!! Poor B has dreadful reflux and we saw the consultant yesterday who also thinks she has a cows milk protein allergy, so we are on nutramigen added to the ranitidine then omeprazole and then neocate. She HATES the nutramigen, we are weaning off aptamil and onto this, I hope to remember the "reflux/allergy hell days" with a laugh in a few yrs!!!! Back to see him in 2 weeks.  Bella only drank 2 onz at bedtime which was not great but amazingly she slept till 7.15am!!!???!!! Cant use the perfect prep with this milk which is a bit of a bummer as love that machine!

today was my 35th bday :) Woke up by Daddy and B and got very spoilt then we took the doggies for a nice walk by the pond and then went for an amazing piggy lunch at my fave local. Then we bought icecream cones and chocolate sauce and clotted cream and icecream and ate that all afternoon, the whole tub ooops (aka 3 icecreams each!)

Tomorrow its 8 week vaccinations joy..poor ickle person and on tuesday we are seeing a paediatric dentist as she may have a lip and posterior tongue tie which could drastically alter her horrendous feeding if she does have one/both.

cant believe she is 8 weeks time has FLOWN.

Here she is in her first sunny dress for Mummy's bday lunch <3

Already out of some clothes :(

B whilst not thriving with her relfux has clearly grown as she is now out of her very first clothes, Im going to collect the sweetest ones up to make into a memory teddy or quilt.. Its a bit sad she is out of those first things...Any friend of mine who has a girl is going to get so lucky I have hundreds of things she never wore as she was so much smaller than we were told and we left Chicago before she had time to wear all these lovely wintry things!!! Granny and I must go over what we DO have she fits in that is the right "season" ASAP...I must say im looking forward to her being in her 3-6mnths stuff she has some really cute little dresses from Goosie and lots of people to wear!!

Consultant referall

Poor B is having quite the time of it...And so are WE! The poor little babe has silent reflux and or a CMP intolerance. We are seeing a specialist gastro on sat 24 may and HOPING he can help. ALL of the things we have tried have not helped, we started ranitidine yesterday at a vvv low dose. When she cries it breaks your heart as she is such a sweet nature little soul... I love her SO much and this has made me realise I have never loved so much and will do ANYTHING to make her well. You simply can get nothing done with a reflux baby, my house is a mess, I look a mess, you forget when you last ate/washed...I just keep telling myself IT WILL get better...I have to look after myself and am trying to do that as much as I can, apparently having a reflux baby is like running a marathon daily! I have no time to catch up with family or friends any snatched moment is FOOD, SLEEP, WATER..If she is "cured" by the doctors I will be in HEAVEN!!!! AND we have the parental order process starting just for good measure (STRESS) I wish to just be a normal family, normal baby no courts , no hospitals would be nice, Sorry for the "downer" post...just feeling a bit overwhelmed.

6 weeks old and LOVED first swim

Bella is still suffering terribly with reflux and colic (the colic just in the evenings/pm) I know the colic she WILL 100% grow out of in the next few months but worried about the reflux..this also seems FAR worse in the evenings/night. Howver once she is settled by say 11pm she often sleeps until 5am which is a godsend!

She loves her bath so we took her today to the pool, and she loved that even more, no crying whatsoever :) We had some family snuggles too with Roo. Tyler was out in the garden.

Granny and Grandpa's

 cuddles with Grandpa

selfie with Granny

snoozing in the shade

First weekend at Granny's house

We took B to Granny and Grandpa's house this weekend and she has loved it! She will have SO much fun there in the pool and in the beautiful big garden, playing near the fields, the path is perfect to learning to ride a bike, we are so close to the beach there too :) The dogs are getting more and more used to her too, We will continue to do the introduction CAREFULLY and SLOWLY to be safe but (touch wood ) so far so good...The last 2 days she has been SO much calmer and happier and even though she is taking less food she is happier at thats whats best. The dr is being great and we will see him again this week and I know if needs we can always turn to the Paedatrician if it gets bad again.  We love our little punk so much, she is also now called baby burrito  as she looks a bit like a burrito in her swaddle! We had the NICEST 2 hr cuddle on saturday morning she was sleeping in bed with us all snuggled and soft!
We had our first "poo up the back through the clothes yesterday" I was laughing so much as well as being equally grossed out? Straight in the bath she went....And she LOVES the big girl bath at G and G's ..She could do her "zen state" and float up and down at the same time...Also at bedtime last night she did her infamous "fountain wee" where she wees AFTER nappy change and cream, but did it TWICE in a row and peed all over herself and us, even in her hair...oh the joy! I think we grossed out Auntie Helen pretty well...Cant beleive she turned 5 wks on friday, We have tried a skype with r but B was having a mini melt down and we will try again later this week but I have sent R lots updates and pics to keep her amused and up to speed with punkys growth, looking forward to a good catch up though.

back to the doctors

We have now been prescribed another medication for her milk to add, If that fails we will swap milk, if that fails we will add another medication, If that fails we will try a soy milk, if THAT fails she is off to Dr Douek in london...poor little mite....Im hoping that her issues are largely her being prem and that she will "grow out" of most of it. Thank God we have a great Gp though!!!! He has been an angel for me too. My baby is such a happy little soul and its not nice when she is in pain.

Look at the lovely pic Ta and Tess Tess gave us of B

YIPEEEEEEEE and BOO HOO!!!

SO B has silent reflux and we have had ten blissful days since she went on gaviscon, problem sorted happy normal newborn baby back....we thought...NOPE, squirming all over again and screaming....is it wind? is it the reflux ? is it colic as well? constipation? is it a allergy? should we use infacol, colief? change the milk? WHAT the FUDGE do we do??? This is Hellish. the poor babe is so unhappy with it...HOWEVER...Sleep wise the last 2 nights she has pretty much slept 11pm-4/5 !!! Although I dont actually sleep then as Im always listening out, daddy has had his ears cleared today as he is so deaf and I have to been listening for the both of us, but now hopefully he will have supersonic hearing too! Amazing....The dogs have been VERY good (touch wood) Tyler especially, Roo is a bit wary and jumpy so we are watching him like a hawk but he is being much better than we hoped. Mummy and Daddy cant wait to start aquatots with Bella. Im going to look into baby massage too.

My views on Americans!

SO BEFORE...I thought they were loud, arrogant (in general, Im making a very sweeping generalisation here) and had a HUGE sense of entitlement and it has always hugely irked me how they think they won world war two single handedly. Either grossly fat or stupidly thin.

However they again -in general  are VERY efficient, have miles better customer care than we do in the UK, The people in Chicago were amongst the warmest and friendliest bunch I have ever met, not for them the eyes downcast and silence in the lift (elevator) ALWAYS you were smiled at or greeted warmly. The 2 BEST hotels by FAR I have ever stayed in for genuine customer care are the Four Seasons Chicago and the Ritz Carlton Chicago. Yes sometimes It was annoying to be asked about our accents and told how "cute" it was but Americans (well Chicago dwellers) interact so much more than we do here in the UK, how we bustle about head down and ignore what our fellow man is doing.

But most of all their LAW on surrogacy. In the states WE are Bella's parents, done..dusted. As soon as we touched down in the UK? Nope....old antiquated law dictates a lengthy and stressful process of making her "ours for keeps" and British. I understand rules are rules and there are "bad" people who could slip through the net who have gone about things in the "wrong way" but we have not, We CHOSE to do it the RIGHT way even putting ourselves in debt instead of picking say India(which would have been a fraction of the cost) so we KNEW our surrogate was being treated right and protected and of course so were we. One just wants to get on with being a family but we have to jump through so many hoops, You would think the country that INVENTED I.V.F would be at the top of the game legally...Its frustrating to say the least. But hopefully as surrogacy is becoming more common we will pave the way to make it easier at least for others in the future. So for that alone, The American legal view on surrogacy I will try and not get annoyed the next time I am lying on a sun lounger and a bunch of Americans are talking very loudly at each other, and just be grateful America and Americans exist, because fact is regardless of the fact our R was from NZ and our IVF doctor was from South Africa, without America my beautiful little girl would not be here. And for THAT I will always be thankful.

My family come to visit and Bella is 4 weeks old :)

so my side of the family descended on mass today, what a LOVELY day full of Bella being "papped", cuddled, the cousins arguing over who held her the most, yummy wine and lovely lunch in the sun.

B got bought MORE gifts and had ALOT of lovings :)

Been a while

So we arrived home HURRAH, not so hurrah was poor B has been diagnosed with silent reflux which is quite common in preemies and those born with polyhydramnios mothers (or surrogate) can have babies with tummy issues, she was FINE in Chicago but also its normally developed at about now so....We had 4 HORRENDOUS nights of arching and screaming and the poor little mite was in terrible pain, We were beyond shattered with that and the jet lag but since being put on infant gaviscon she is back to the normal babe I know :) She is growing well and 7.11 now :) Now she is loving baths and going for walks in the sunshine...Silent reflux can go on for over a yr but hopefully we caught it early. We may have to faff about with meds and she may have to see the paediatrician but....She is getting constipated from the gaviscon so we are doing lots legs cycling and tummy massage etc...I cant wait to start baby massage and baby swimming...Feel a bit more human now we SEEM (touch wood ) to know whats wrong.  We have had some visitors too, Granny and Grandpa are smitten, So is Uncle Paul and Auntie Helen, and my sister and brother are coming at easter. We have also started having friends over too. B is on a bit of routine now which is helping alot too. Doggies get introduced this weekend and we are doing that VERY carefully so everyone is happy and settled.

LOVING bathtime now :)

Granny Alison

 Godmummy Emma

 Grannnnnnnnnnnny <3

 Grandpa

Seem

 Godaddy Will

uncle Paul

Auntie Helen

Sa and B